WI Multilingual POTUS?

POD 1960. Dubya might qualify, though I don't know how fluent he was in Spanish. French, Spanish or dare I say Arabic for said POTUS.
 
During the Cold War, one that spoke Russian might have been useful.
"Are you, or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?"
"NYET!"
 
Apparently the Tail-Gunner was planning to learn Russian in hopes of charming Stalin. Bush Sr. is the likeliest given his background, but still unlikely. The US doesn't have too many multilingual pols, whereas here you can't be elected leader of a federal party, let alone PM, without basic French. Of course entirely different situation.
 
It would help to be fluent in Spanish I imagine, with Mexico right there and the other Latin American countries.
 

Jasen777

Donor
Bush spoke Spanish, but not fluently. Bush Sr was fluent in French. Jimmy Carter apparently knew Spanish. Obama knows Indonesian.

Gore spoke Spanish, but poorly. Kerry, French and Vietnamese.
 
It would help to be fluent in Spanish I imagine, with Mexico right there and the other Latin American countries.


Ah! But English is the International Langauge of Commerce, which would probably be followed by Manderin, Japanese and... well European businessmen already know English.
 
Jackie K

Due to her finishing school education, Jackie Kennedy spoke French. It is said she spoke it fluently enough to charm General De Gaulle.
 
Are we asking for fluency, or just your basic high school courses taken? That's about the level of Carter's Spanish, and GWB's. GWB's accent is...cringeworthy.

I could well believe Obama's Indonesian is good, given that he lived there as a child and it's one of the easiest languages to learn. Basically it's Malay made as simplified as Esperanto.

Of the recent candidates, Richardson's the obvious choice. Having him as pres would give the US a boost in the region much like Obama's father being Muslim and his experience living in Indonesia has given the US a boost in Muslim majority countries.
 
I'm looking for fluency like Bush Sr, or Rene Levesque in English. Jackie was fluent in French and Italian IIRC, but she wasn't POTUS- unlike Hillary.
 
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