The incident took place ten weeks after the inauguration of George W. Bush as president and was his first foreign policy crisis. Both sides were criticized following the event; the Chinese for making a bluff which was called without any real concessions from the American side other than the "Letter of the two sorries," and the U.S. first for being insensitive immediately after the event and later for issuing the letter rather than taking a harder line.[39] The United States tried to take a conciliatory tone in order to try to avoid Chinese objections to U.S. foreign policy, which became more important after the September 11 attacks and the beginning of the War on Terror.[40]