[Samwell Tarly]

In 1859, American diplomat John E. Ward refused to kowtow to the Emperor of China. Ward told the angered Chinese that a free-born American man "bows only to God and woman."

Ward would be horrified to see the American president bow to a Saudi king.

[null and void]

I’m told the poopbah of the Barbary pirates had the door to his throne room made so low that everyone who entered had to bow.

President Jefferson’s emissaries backed in...

[PotatoHeadMick]

Fine sentiment but an American diplomat was unlikely to suffer any harm for his defiance, unlike the drunk soldier of the East Kent Regiment who upon being ordered to kowtow expressed his utter contempt for such a concept as could only be expressed in the language of a common British soldier. He was immediately executed on the spot.

http://www.executedtoday.com/2010/08/14/1860-john-moyse-the-private-of-the-buffs/