When a salute to a foriegn adversary is not appropriate---1936 Olympics
Using the logic of today's leaders in the United States, these athletes were being rude.
100,000 Hail Hitler; U.S. Athletes Avoid Nazi Salute to Him
<snip>Quite naturally, in this long march the interest was centered in the applause given respectively to each and the type of salute each nation gave the dais. The last item wasn't always easily determined because the Olympic and Nazi salutes are very similar, the former being with the right arm stretched out sidewise or nearly so from the shoulder, and the latter being with the arm stretched out in front.
Nevertheless, the crowd carefully noted each salute as indicating the degree of sympathy for the Nazi regime betokened by it. In turn also the mode of saluting had a manifest influence upon the volume of applause received.
In general the salutes stood about equally divided between the Olympic and Nazi, but "eyes right," was common to all. The Americans provided their own special salute by giving eyes right and placing their straw hats over their hearts. This salute also was adopted by China and the Philippines.<snip>
Link to Full NY Times Story
https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0801.html