Within hours, protesters in several Muslim countries attacked European embassies, Iran announced a boycott of Danish products, Nigerian lawmakers burned a Danish flag, more than a dozen Afghans were killed in rioting and a growing international diplomatic crisis gathered momentum.

He is remembered for personally negotiating the release of American soldiers captured by the Chinese in the Korean War, resolving the dispute between Lebanon and Jordan, interceding in the diplomatic crisis between Cambodia and Thailand and then in Laos, and his passionate involvement with the problems stemming from the new independence of various developing countries.

When word of the briefing hit newspapers, the State Department found itsself with a diplomatic crisis on its hands.