I was drawn to the word, “hearts-and-minds diplomacy” in New York Time’s (June 8) article titled, “From China, With Pragmatism.” written by an American Fulbright lecturer living in Beijing:
At a recent lunch with United States Embassy officers and local
Chinese intellectuals, we had a complete cultural breakdown over red
envelopes. When one embassy officer working his best “hearts-and-minds
diplomacy” suggested that the Chinese switch the giving of hongbao to
after the successful operation, rather than before, the Chinese were
struck dumb with astonishment. Of course, you have to give the hongbao
beforehand because it motivates the doctor.
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/author/stephen-t-asma
I’ve been under the impression that ‘heart and mind’ can be used for personal emotions, like “I dedicated whole my heart and mind to her.”
But when I consulted “heart and mind” with online dictionaries, it came out mostly (if not always) in plural form as “the hearts and minds (of sb)” and was defined as;
The complete support of a group of people. example,
I thought the president could have done a better job of reaching the hearts and minds of the American people in his speech on television yesterday. – Free Dictionary.
And in Wikipedia;
- Winning hearts and minds, the idea of persuading enemies instead of defeating them by force
- Hearts and Minds (Vietnam), a strategy of the South Vietnamese and United States governments to defeat the Viet Cong insurgency during the Vietnam War.
Is the word “heart and mind” always used in plural form, and in predominantly in political or business context against a group of people (nation / enemies) like “Hearts-and-minds diplomacy / strategy/ operation” more than for the expression of personal emotion such as endearment and devotion to a person, or purpose?
Best Answer
Yes, singular heart and mind, and even winning (someone's) heart and mind can be employed in the natural sense of “emotional and intellectual postures/attitudes/adherence/dedication”. A glance at Google Books shows scores of such uses. Here, for example, are some book titles:
The same is true of plural hearts and minds:
It is only in the context of a strategy, whether political or military or economic, that hearts and minds is likely to bear an allusion to the policies adopted by the British, and subsequently the Americans, in Southeast Asia in the 50s and 60s.