“Hard Choices” (1): Hillary goes to State
I’ve just started to read “Hard Choices”, the 600-page memoir of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s four years (2009-2013) as United States Secretary of State.
When she failed to win the Democratic primary race against Barack Obama, she famously declared: “Although we weren’t able to shatter that highest, hardest glass ceiling this time, thanks to you, it’s got about 18 million cracks in it” (a phrase ascribed to speechwriter Jim Kennedy),
When Obama won the presidential contest, she had no interest in becoming Vice-President and every intention of returning to the Senate. Then, when Obama invited her to become Secretary of State, she was “floored”, turned it down, and took two weeks to be persuaded.
She mentions two precedents, one historic, the other fictional: in 1860, Abraham Lincoln’s choice as Secretary of State of the man he beat for the Republican nomination and, in the final season of “The West Wing”, the Democratic President’s selection as Secretary of State of his defeated Republican opponent.
Obama kept his promise of access and she reckons she was at the White House more than 700 times during the four years in office. She ended up visiting 112 countries and travelling nearly one million miles with more than 2,000 hours (equivalent to 87 full days) in the air. She claims that, over the years, she had developed the ability to sleep almost anywhere at any time (me too).
She describes Secretary of State as being three roles – the country’s chief diplomat, the president’s principal adviser on foreign policy, and chief executive of a department of 70,000 personnel – and she characterises the nation’s foreign policy are comprised of the 3 Ds – defence, diplomacy and development.
After a couple of introductory chapters, “Hard Choices” does not follow a chronology but instead comprises a series of chapters on different countries and regions around the globe. Interestingly the world map at the front of the book is not centred on 0 degrees longitude or the USA but on the International Date Line in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.