Trollope ploy

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A Trollope ploy is a negotiation technique in which, after a demand is rejected, it is followed by a stronger demand. It is common in cases where one side has a clear advantage over the other.[1]

A supposedly historical example is from the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. The Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev sent a letter to the United States leader John F. Kennedy stating that all missiles would be removed from Cuba in return for an assurance that the United States would not invade Cuba. While the United States was preparing a response, the Soviets sent a second letter stating that the missiles would be removed from Cuba only if the United States removed its missiles from Turkey. Since the first offer was more advantageous to the United States, Kennedy was said to have sent his response to the first letter to Khrushchev, ignoring the second. This strategy, which presumably led to resolving the crisis, came to be called the “Trollope Ploy”—a reference to a plot device by nineteenth-century British novelist Anthony Trollope, in which a woman interprets a casual romantic gesture, such as squeezing her hand, as a marriage proposal.

In truth, John F. Kennedy did not use the "Trollope Ploy." He secretly removed the missiles from Turkey to avoid any undue confrontation.

As historian Sheldon Stern writes, "In fact, JFK’s eventual message to Khrushchev did not ignore the Saturday proposal on Turkey, but left the door open to settling broader international issues once the immediate danger in Cuba had been neutralized. JFK ultimately offered the Kremlin a calculated blend of Khrushchev’s October 26 and 27 proposals: the removal of the Soviet missiles from Cuba, an American non-invasion pledge (contingent on UN inspection), a willingness to talk later about NATO-related issues and a secret commitment to withdraw the Jupiters from Turkey. The Trollope Ploy is essentially a myth." [2]