Enrique Dupuy de Lôme was a Spanish ambassador to the United States. His so-called “de Lôme Letter†is often credited with starting the Spanish-American War. In 1898, Enrique wrote a letter to a Spanish official in Cuba criticizing President William McKinley – calling him “weak†and a “low politician†and warning of an intervention on behalf of the Cuban insurgents. News of the letter leaked to the American press, it was published and the American people were furious. They cried out for intervention in Cuba against the Spaniards (just as the letter had warned), who they saw as treating the Cubans atrociously. Apparently, the letter was a self-fulfilling prophesy. Either that, or the Americans were just looking for an excuse to exercise their growing world power.
