by Kim Ghattas
On March 16, 2011, Clinton took a stroll in Cairo’s Tahrir Square. The square had been taken over by hundreds of thousands of protestors during the revolution. The Arab uprisings were spreading, two dictators had already been deposed, and one thousand miles to the west, Libya was next. (AP)
Life on the road with Clinton was gruelling, often with up to ten events and four countries in day. Philippe Reines, Clinton’s media gatekeeper, and Victoria Nuland, the department spokesperson (above), keep up with the world while on the road. The traveling journalists filed their stories wherever they could—here in a palace in Bahrain—often while waiting for Clinton to finish her meetings (below). The delegation traveled by motorcade, often in heavily armored vehicles, right up to Clinton’s plane on the tarmac. (KIM GHATTAS/NICOLE GAOUETTE)
Clinton took her diplomacy to remote places, such as this women’s cooperative farm in Tanzania, and made top government officials, including the country’s prime minister, Mizengo Pinda, travel with her. (AP)
The traveling press took occasional breaks from the drudgery to pose for pictures in front of the secretary’s plane. On almost every trip, Clinton gave interviews to the television reporters traveling with her—including the author. She often came to the back of her plane to brief journalists en route to the next stop. (KIM GHATTAS/ NICOLE GAOUETTE/ JOHN SULLIVAN)
The secretary’s plane was part of the bubble in which the delegation traveled for days. Here Clinton gets off her plane in Dar es Salaam with security officers standing guard. The Ravens watch over the plane twenty-four hours a day. (KIM GHATTAS)
Clinton and Turkey’s foreign minister Ahmet Davutoğlu built a close relationship, part of the Obama administration’s approach to managing the rise of other powers. This picture was taken during a diplomatic summit in Abu Dhabi in July 2011 to discuss the NATO military campaign in Libya and the country’s future. Some Arab papers said the two officials were celebrating the death of Libyans but the high five was actually in honor of Davutoğlu’s newly born grandchild. (AP)
Diplomatic action on Libya consumed much of the summer of 2011 and continued after the fall of Tripoli in August. On September 1, Clinton walks to a meeting at the Elysée Palace in Paris with Libya’s interim leaders Mustafa Abdul Jalil and Mahmoud Jibril to her right and Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Jeffrey Feltman (at far left). (AP)
Clinton travels to Tripoli in October 2011 on board a military plane; Jeffrey Feltman is sitting directly behind her. The shot was turned into an Internet meme that went viral. Clinton submitted her own meme, met the authors, and signed a picture for them “Hilz.” (KIM GHATTAS)
Clinton is welcomed on the tarmac of Tripoli International Airport by a motley crew of Libyan militiamen who had been part of the effort to topple Gaddafi and were all eager to have their picture taken with her. A rare moment of thanks to America in the Middle East and a moment of celebration before tragedy less than a year later. (KIM GHATTAS)
Clinton walks hand in hand with Khin Khin Win, wife of Burma’s president Thein Sein (ahead of Clinton wearing glasses), in the cavernous gilded palace in Nay Pyi Taw. Clinton was the first U.S. secretary of state to visit the isolated, repressive state since the 1950s. Obama said he had seen “flickers of progress” in Burma and sent Clinton to test the intentions of the country’s leaders in December 2011. (AP)
Clinton and Nobel Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi met for the first time in Rangoon and had dinner tête-à-tête on the patio of the U.S. mission there before a work meeting the following day with their aides, after which they embraced like long-lost sisters. (AP)
From Timor-Leste, Hillary watches her husband, former president Bill Clinton, give the keynote speech at the Democratic National Convention on September 5, 2012. Bill delivered an enthusiastic, unstinting endorsement of Obama and was the other star on the campaign trail. With Hillary’s own sky-high approval ratings, the restoration of the Clinton brand was complete. (NICHOLAS MERRILL)
President Obama signs the condolence book at the State Department on September 12, 2012, after radical militants in Benghazi attacked the U.S. consulate, killing Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans. The tragedy cast a shadow over Clinton’s last months as secretary of state and became a highly politicized issue in the run-up to the election. (WHITE HOUSE)
Clinton traveled a million miles to more than one hundred countries in four years. Like Obama, Clinton aged considerably during her tenure and the difference is noticeable when comparing this photo with her portrait from her first day in office. Clinton seemed to come into her own during her years at the State Department, though her aides argued it was the public’s perception of her that had changed. (AP)
NOTES
This book is based almost entirely on firsthand reporting on the road with Hillary Clinton, as well as on hours of interviews in Washington and abroad that I conducted on deep background. Except for a couple of stops, I was on all the trips described on these pages. When I recount private meetings and conversations, I am relying on interviews with people who witnessed these events themselves or learned of their details from participants. Passages in which I describe a person’s thoughts are based on interviews with either the person in question or people from his or her entourage with direct knowledge of that information. I did not source quotes from foreign officials that are in the public domain. All public statements by President Obama can be found on www.whitehouse.gov. The secretary of state’s public statements are posted on www.state.gov.
1. “An Interview with Hillary Clinton,” Economist, March 22, 2012, available at http://www.economist.com/blogs/lexington/2012/03/foreign-policy.
2. See Associated Press, February 20, 2009.
3. “Confidence in Obama Lifts U.S. Image Around the World,” Pew Research Center, July 23, 2009, available at http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1289/global-attitudes-survey-2009-obama-lifts-america-image.
4. Anne Marie Slaughter, “America’s Edge: Power in the Networked Century,” Foreign Affairs, January/February 2009, available at http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/63722/anne-marie-slaughter/americas-edge.
5. J. Bader, Obama and China’s Rise: An Insider’s Account of America’s Asia Strategy (Washington: Brookings Institution Press, 2012).
6. H. Kissinger, On China (New York: Penguin Press, 2011), p. 501.
7. P. Beinart, The Crisis of Zionism (New York: Times Books, 2012).
8. A. D. Miller, The Much Too Promised Land (New York: Bantam Books, 2008).
9. M. Albright, Madam Secretary (New York: Hyperion, 2003).
10. Beinart, The Crisis of Zionism.
11. O. B. Jones, “How Punjab Governor’s Killer Became a Hero,” BBC News, 2012, available at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16443556.
12. Beinart, The Crisis of Zionism.
13. J. Klein, “Q&A: Obama on His First Year in Office,” Time, January 21, 2010, available at http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1955072,00.html.
14. D. G. McCullough, Truman (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1992).
15. Ibid.
16. W. A. Eddy, FDR Meets Ibn Saud (New York: American Friends of the Middle East, 1954).
17. M. Hirsh, “Obama’s Bad Cop,” Daily Beast, April 22, 2010, available at http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2010/04/22/obama-s-bad-cop.html.
18. WikiLeaks cables.
19. M. Muasher, The Arab Center: The Promise of Moderation (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2008), p. 190.
20. Eddy, FDR Meets Ibn Saud.
21. Ibid.
22. I. Malsang, “Arab Women Happier than US Thinks, Saudi Students Tell Bush Aide,” AFP, September 29, 2005.
23. N. Kralev, “Hughes Asked to Correct Misperceptions in U.S.,” Washington Times, September 28, 2005.
24. “China Seen Overtaking U.S. as Global Superpower,” Pew Research Center, July 13, 2011, available at http://www.pewglobal.org/2011/07/13/china-seen-overtaking-us-as-global-superpower/.
25. Ibid.
&n
bsp; 26. Kissinger, On China.
27. S. Zhihua, trans. N. Silver, Mao, Stalin and the Korean War (New York: Routledge, 2012).
28. Korea Herald, July 22, 2010.
29. H. Kissinger, Years of Upheaval (New York: Little Brown, 1982).
30. O. A. Westad, The Global Cold War: Third World Interventions and the Making of Our Times (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005).
31. D. Leigh and L. Harding, WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assange’s War on Secrecy (New York: PublicAffairs, 2011).
32. Verbatim quote from French official.
33. M. Calabresi, “Hillary Clinton and the Limits of Power,” Time, October 27, 2011, available at http://swampland.time.com/2011/10/27/hillary-clinton-and-the-limits-of-power/.
34. Ibid.
35. Name has been changed for privacy.
36. Name has been changed for privacy.
37. Phrase inspired by W. R. Mead, “The Myth of America’s Decline,” Wall Street Journal, April 9, 2012.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
I have spent endless hours over the last few years pondering American power and America’s place in the world. I referred extensively to these books to inspire my own analysis, understand the past, learn the context of certain events, or explore the possibilities of the future.
Albright, M. K. (2003). Madame Secretary: A Memoir. New York: Miramax.
Attali, J. (2011). Demain, qui gouvernera le monde? Paris: Fayard.
Baker III, J. A. (1995). The Politics of Diplomacy: Revolution, War & Peace, 1989–1992. New York: Putnam Adult.
Beinart, P. (2010). The Icarus Syndrome: A History of American Hubris. New York: Harper.
Ben Jelloun, T. (2011). L’étincelle: Révoltes dans les pays arabes. Paris: Gallimard.
Bernstein, C. (2007). A Woman in Charge: The Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton. New York: Knopf.
Bremmer, I. (2012). Every Nation for Itself: Winners and Losers in a G-Zero World. New York: Penguin.
Bush, G. W. (2010). Decision Points. New York: Crown.
Chandrasekaran, R. (2012). Little America: The War Within the War for Afghanistan. New York: Knopf.
Clinton, H. R. (2003). Living History. New York: Simon and Schuster.
Kagan, R. (2012). The World America Made. New York: Knopf.
Kennedy, P. (1987). The Rise and Fall of Great Powers: Economic Change and Military Conflict from 1500 to 2000. New York: Random House.
Kessler, G. (2007). The Confidante: Condoleezza Rice and the Creation of the Bush Legacy. New York: St. Martin’s Press.
Kissinger, H. (1994). Diplomacy. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Kissinger, H. (2011). On China. New York: Penguin Press.
Kupchan, C. A. (2012). No One’s World: The West, the Rising Rest, and the Coming Global Turn. New York: Oxford University Press.
Mandelbaum, M. (2010). The Frugal Superpower: America’s Global Leadership in a Cash-Strapped Era. New York: PublicAffairs.
Mann, J. (2012). The Obamians: The Struggle Inside the White House to Redefine American Power. New York: Viking Books.
Nye, J. S. (2011). The Future of Power. New York: PublicAffairs.
Rachman, G. (2011). Zero-Sum Future: American Power in an Age of Anxiety. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Rice, C. (2011). No Higher Honor: A Memoir of My Years in Washington. New York: Crown.
Romney, M. (2010). No Apology: The Case for American Greatness. New York: St. Martin’s Press.
Sanger, D. E. (2012). Confront and Conceal: Obama’s Secret Wars and Surprising Use of American Power. New York: Crown.
Schaffer, T. C., and H. B. Schaffer. (2011). How Pakistan Negotiates with the United States: Riding the Roller Coaster. Washington, D.C.: The United States Institute of Peace.
Zakaria, F. (2008). The Post-American World. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This book is truly the product of a long journey that started well before I put pen to paper and there are many people to thank.
I am forever indebted to the BBC’s foreign news editor Jon Williams who has always believed in me and appointed me as State Department correspondent—I clearly could not have written this book from Beirut. BBC Washington Bureau chief Simon Wilson has supported my career at the BBC for over a decade and always encouraged me to reach higher. I am grateful to both for giving me the time and space to write this book. Thanks as well to Fran Unsworth for giving her backing to the project.
I am lucky to work for an organization like the BBC, which continues to invest in coverage of international news and the outstanding journalists who deliver it to audiences around the planet. I am grateful to all my BBC colleagues in all the countries I visited on my travels with Clinton. They welcomed me in their sometimes cramped offices and pulled off logistical miracles at short notice without ever complaining they were being big-footed. Specials thanks to Lyse Doucet, Orla Guerin, Aleem Maqbool, Jo Floto, Annie Phrommayon, Gidi Kleiman, Jon Leyne, Damian Grammaticas, Alan Quartly, Joe Phua, Ali Faisal Zadi, Bhas Solanki, Kevin Kim, Alan Quartly, Jimmy Michael, Rachel Thompson, and Ian Druce.
The BBC bureau in Washington cheered me on collectively. I am especially thankful to Paul Adams and Jonny Dymond for telling me to go home (and Jonny for reading my galleys as well), Adam Brookes for being my trusted soundboard for months on end, Christina Curtis for being so much more than an editor, and Ian and Lou Pannell for giving me sustenance on the last day with beer-butt chicken.
My colleagues from the State Department press corps are some of the smartest, kindest, and funniest journalists I have worked with. Thank you for making life on the road such an adventure. In particular, Glenn Kessler from the Washington Post told me everything I needed to know before applying for the job of State Department correspondent and has been a great friend and colleague during my time on the job. He read my draft and provided wise, detailed advice as only a master fact-checker can do. Helene Cooper cheered me on when the book was just a nascent idea and introduced me to my agent. Thanks as well to Joby Warrick, Mark Landler, Matthew Lee, Christophe Schmidt, Anne Gearan, Michel Ghandour, Samir Nader, and Sylvie Lanteaume.
Over the course of my career, I have worked for several great news organizations and have learned much from inspiring colleagues, including Roula Khalaf at the Financial Times, Lee Hockstader at the Washington Post, and Nicholas Blanford at the Daily Star who gave me my first break. I am also deeply grateful to David Ignatius for giving me the confidence to write my story and for understanding the world I come from.
When it came to the actual writing of the book I was lucky to find my inimitable agent Dorian Karchmar at William Morris Endeavor. She believed in this idea from the start and pushed me to dig deeper and deeper as I developed the concept of the book. She made me rewrite the proposal so many times that I was close to giving up, but during the arduous process I found my voice as an author and refined the thoughts that form the backbone of the book. Her energy is limitless and contagious.
The team at Holt embraced the project from the moment they read the first pages. My wonderful editor Serena Jones accompanied me on this journey and helped make the book better with tact and good humor. She made sure I reached the finish line while shielding me from the pressures of the publishing world. She never lost patience, even when I promised, repeatedly, that I was really almost there. Paul Golob improved the manuscript with his attention to detail. I could not have had a more dedicated team to promote the book than Maggie Richards, Melanie DeNardo, and Pat Eisemann. Thanks as well to Steve Rubin who told me only I could write this book. Designer David Shoemaker started with a few vague lines of guidance and created a striking cover that reflects the essence of the book and my journey better than I could have ever pictured. Jacquelyn Martin from the Associated Press was kind enough to work magic with her camera during a grueling trip and her photo makes the cover unique.
Although I was not counting on the cooperation of Hillary Clinton and her aides before I started this project, writing the book with
out their help would have been an even more arduous task. They never asked for the details of my project and they may disagree with my conclusions but I thank them for the access they provided. Philippe Reines and Caroline Adler gathered key information and answered endless questions in person and by e-mail. Victoria Nuland never tired of answering my relentless “But why?” Thanks to Nick Merrill and Ashley Yehl for their help on the road. Thanks as well to Huma Abedin and Cheryl Mills.
I wrote this book over the course of twelve very intense months during which I interviewed officials, former officials, junior officials, and their staff members, in Washington, Paris, Rome, Islamabad, Ankara, Tripoli, Cairo, and elsewhere, in person and over the phone. Several of them sat with me several times for hours on end, sharing their time, information, and insights. Several wished to remain anonymous but my writing and my analysis was enriched thanks to all of their generosity: P. J. Crowley, Jon Huntsman, Dennis Ross, Lissa Muscatine, Kurt Campbell, Karl Eikenberry, Jake Sullivan, Joe Macmanus, Jeffery Feltman, Brent Scowcroft, Eric Melby, Vali Nasr, Molly Montgomery, Fred Ketchem, Jeffrey Bader, Anne-Marie Slaughter, Lew Lukens, Edward Djerjian, Robert Wood, Husain Haqqani, Shehrbano Taseer, Aamna Taseer, Bernadette Meehan, Paul Narain, Ahmet Davutoˆglu, Mahmoud Jibril, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, Osman Sert, Franco Frattini, Jean David Levitte, Maurizio Capra, Giuseppe Manzo, and Mirjam Krijnen.