“Don’t go wobbly” (“This is no time to go wobbly”)

U.S. President George H. W. Bush telephoned British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher on August 26. 1990 about the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait earlier that month and United Nations Security Council Resolution 665, allowing nations to embargo Iraq. Thatcher wrote in her autobiography The Downing Street Years (1993):
 
“In the evening of 26th August President Bush telephoned me from Kennebunkport. I told him how pleased I was with Security Council Resolution 665 which had been passed the day before, enabling us to enforce the embargo. We must use our powers to stop Iraqi shipping. This was no time to go wobbly.”
 
President Bush awarded Margaret Thatcher the Presidential Medal of Freedom in March 1991, recalling then that Thatcher had said to him almost a year earlier, “Remember, George: this is no time to go wobbly.” The saying “don’t go wobbly” or “this is no time to go wobbly” means that one should adhere to principles—standing firm and not giving in. The expression has been used frequently in politics.
 
   
Margaret Thatcher Foundation
1990 Aug 26 Su
Margaret Thatcher
Gulf War: Bush-Thatcher phone conversation (no time to go wobbly) [memoirs extract]
Document type: commentary
Document kind: Memoirs -
Source: Margaret Thatcher The Downing Street Years , pp.823-24-
Importance ranking: Major
Word count: 407 words
Themes: Defence (general), Foreign policy (Middle East), Foreign policy (USA), Energy
 
NO TIME TO GO WOBBLY
In the evening of 26th August President Bush telephoned me from Kennebunkport. I told him how pleased I was with Security Council Resolution 665 which had been passed the day before, enabling us to enforce the embargo. We must use our powers to stop Iraqi shipping. This was no time to go wobbly. Information we had gleaned from secret sources must be published to show up sanctions busting. The President agreed.
   
New York (NY) Times
CHRONICLE
By SUSAN HELLER ANDERSON
Published: March 08, 1991
PRESIDENT BUSH presented MARGARET THATCHER with the Presidential Medal of Freedom yesterday in the East Room of the White House. He recalled some advice the former British Prime Minister gave him during a telephone conversation early in the Persian Gulf crisis: “Remember, George: this is no time to go wobbly.”
 
Mrs. Thatcher smiled as the President repeated her words and shifted in her chair as Mr. Bush said he kept her counsel in mind through the months leading up to the liberation of Kuwait.
     
New York (NY) Times
Abroad at Home; Will Bush Take Real Action?
By ANTHONY LEWIS
Published: August 07, 1992
On Aug. 2, 1990, the morning after Iraq occupied Kuwait, President Bush told reporters: “We’re not discussing intervention. I’m not contemplating such action.”
 
Then he flew to Aspen, Colo. There he met Margaret Thatcher, the British Prime Minister. They talked for hours. That afternoon, at a joint press conference, Mr. Bush took a much tougher line
(...)
No one is likely to concentrate George Bush’s mind more wonderfully than Margaret Thatcher. He himself said last year that she had firmed him up during the gulf crisis, telling him at one point: “Remember, George, this is no time to go wobbly.”
 
OCLC WorldCat record
The Road to Baghdad - The allies are quaking. Could Bush “go wobbly”? Don’t bet on it.
Author: Bill Powell
Publisher: [New York, NY, etc., Time, etc.]
Edition/Format:   Article : English
Publication: Fortune. 147, no. 2, (2003): 72
Database: ArticleFirst
 
OCLC WorldCat record
No Time to Go Wobbly, Barack: The international system isn’t broken, and you can lead it
Author: M Hirsh
Edition/Format:   Article : English
Publication: WASHINGTON MONTHLY, 39, no. 4, (2007): 26-36
Database: British Library Serials
Other Databases: ArticleFirst
 
OCLC WorldCat record
Afghanistan - No time to go wobbly
Publisher: London : [Economist Newspaper Ltd., 1843-
Edition/Format:   Article : English
Publication: The economist. 389, no. 8602, (2008): 16
Database: ArticleFirst
Other Databases: British Library Serials
 
OCLC WorldCat record
This is no time to go wobbly
Author: Nathan Meehan D.
Edition/Format:   Article : English
Publication: World Oil, v229 n12 (2008 12 01): 31-32
 
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The Weekly Standard
Don’t Go Wobbly
DEC 10, 2012, VOL. 18, NO. 13 • BY FRED BARNES
Four years ago, President Obama followed the advice of Rahm Emanuel never to let a crisis go to waste.