Hard Choices

by Hillary Rodham Clinton

  29. I had the chance to meet Chen in December 2013, in Washington, D.C.

  30. With President Thein Sein of Burma in his ornate ceremonial office in Nay Pyi Taw in late 2011. I was the first U.S. Secretary of State to visit the formerly closed country in more than fifty years, in an attempt to nurture democratic progress.

  31. I marvel at my surroundings as I tour the exquisite Shwedagon Pagoda during my visit to Rangoon, Burma, in December 2011.

  32. The first time I met the Burmese Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi in December 2011, we were both wearing white. It seemed like an auspicious coincidence. I felt as if we had known each other for a lifetime, even though we had just met.

  33. On my return trip to the Shwedagon Pagoda with President Obama, I struck the enormous bell three times. We hoped to send a message to the people of Burma that America was interested in engaging with them as well as their government. (Notice my bare feet!)

  34. As President Obama looks on, Aung San Suu Kyi and I say farewell with an emotional hug in November 2012. Suu Kyi is an inspiration to her country and to me, and I cherish the friendship we’ve developed.

  35. On December 1, 2009, sitting across from President Obama and National Security Advisor Jim Jones, and next to Defense Secretary Bob Gates and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Mike Mullen aboard Marine One, the Presidential helicopter, on the way to West Point, where President Obama announced his decision to send additional troops to Afghanistan.

  36. General Stanley McChrystal, commander of Coalition forces in Afghanistan; Ambassador Richard Holbrooke; and U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry look on as I shake hands with a NATO soldier upon my arrival at the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, on November 18, 2009.

  37. Richard Holbrooke speaks at an April 2010 conference in Kabul with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and General David Petraeus.

  38. Eating with President Karzai at the Dumbarton Oaks estate in Washington, D.C., in May 2010. I worked hard to connect with Karzai. As with many world leaders, respect and personal courtesy went a long way.

  39. I meet with Afghan women activists at an international conference in Bonn, Germany, in December 2011. After the fall of the Taliban in 2001, I began supporting Afghan women as they sought new rights and opportunities.

  40. The day after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, I tour the devastation in Lower Manhattan with New York Governor George Pataki (left) and New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani (center). President Obama and I both felt that defeating al Qaeda was crucial to our national security, and that there should be a renewed effort to find Osama bin Laden and bring him to justice.

  41. Students protest my visit in Lahore, Pakistan, in October 2009. My staff warned me that I would be a “punching bag” in Pakistan because of the rising tide of anti-American sentiment, but I thought it was important to engage. “Punch away,” I said.

  42. I make final edits to a speech in Pakistan in October 2011. I told the Pakistanis that supporting Taliban insurgents was asking for trouble, like keeping poisonous snakes in your backyard and expecting them to bite only your neighbors. With, from left to right, Huma Abedin, Ambassador to Pakistan Cameron Munter, speechwriter Dan Schwerin, Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Marc Grossman (seated), spokeswoman Toria Nuland, and Philippe Reines.

  43. In one of the most iconic photos—and one of the most dramatic moments—of my four years, we watch the Osama bin Laden raid on May 1, 2011. Seated around the table (from left): Vice President Biden, President Obama, Brigadier General Marshall B. “Brad” Webb, Deputy National Security Advisor Denis McDonough, me, and Secretary Gates. Standing (from left): Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs; National Security Advisor Tom Donilon; Chief of Staff Bill Daley; National Security Advisor to the Vice President Tony Blinken; Audrey Tomason, Director for Counterterrorism; John Brennan, Assistant to the President for Homeland Security; and Director of National Intelligence Jim Clapper.

  44. May 1, 2011: The end of a very long day. The national security team listens as President Obama tells the nation that Osama bin Laden has been brought to justice. Joining me are, seated from left to right: James Clapper, Director of National Intelligence; National Security Advisor Tom Donilon; CIA Director Leon Panetta; Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; and Vice President Joe Biden.

  45. After President Obama announced that Osama bin Laden had been killed, crowds gathered outside the White House in celebration. We could hear the chants of “USA! USA!”

  46. Pictured here with me at the State Department in July 2009, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband was an invaluable partner and friend. On our first call he flattered me as “the right Hercules for this task.”

  47. Miliband’s successor as British Foreign Secretary, William Hague, and I talk during a United Nations Security Council meeting on peace and security in the Middle East in September 2012. The eloquent Hague would also become a close colleague and a good friend.

  48. I admire a painting while on a tour of Buckingham Palace in London, May 2011. Spending a night at the palace was like stepping into a fairy tale.

  49. Walking up the steps of the Élysée Palace in Paris in January 2010 to greet French President Nicolas Sarkozy, I stepped out of my shoe, leaving me barefoot in front of the press corps. He gracefully took my hand and helped me regain my footing. Later, I sent him a copy of the photograph inscribed, “I may not be Cinderella, but you’ll always be my Prince Charming.”

  50. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has a great sense of humor. During a lunch at the State Department in June 2011, Vice President Biden and I laugh as she presents me with a framed German newspaper. The front page featured a photo of the two of us standing side by side looking nearly identical, but with our heads cropped out. The paper challenged its readers to guess which is Merkel and which is me.

  51. I host my G-8 counterparts at Blair House in Washington in April 2012. From left to right: Koichiro Gemba of Japan, Guido Westerwelle of Germany, Sergey Lavrov of Russia, William Hague of the United Kingdom, Alain Juppé of France, John Baird of Canada, Giulio Terzi di Sant’Agata of Italy, and Catherine Ashton of the European Union.

  52. Meeting with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğgan at the Dolmabahce Palace in Istanbul, Turkey, in April 2012. Turkey was a growing power in the region, and I spent hours talking with Erdoğgan about everything from Iran to Libya to Syria.

  53. Standing with Turkish President Abdullah Gül (left), and Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu (right) overlooking Istanbul. I developed a productive and friendly working relationship with Davutoğglu that, though strained numerous times, never ruptured.

  54. With Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin at his dacha just outside Moscow in March 2010. Putin sees geopolitics as a zero-sum game in which, if someone is winning, then someone else has to be losing. President Obama and I discussed Putin’s threats and how to counter them.

  55. In June 2012, meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in St. Petersburg. We went from a high point of working on a reset in our relationship to a standoff over Syria. The reset led to a number of early successes, including imposing strong sanctions on Iran and North Korea, before relations cooled when Putin returned.

  56. Waiting in my car outside a hotel in Zurich, Switzerland, in October 2009, I work the phones with my Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs Phil Gordon to try to coax the Armenian Foreign Minister out of his room to sign an agreement with Turkey. The New York Times described my efforts as “down-to-the-wire, limousine diplomacy.”

  57. I wave to the crowds in Pristina, Kosovo, in front of a huge statue of Bill, who is revered for his role in ending the war there in the 1990s. Across the plaza was an adorable boutique with a familiar name: Hillary. The shopkeeper said they named the store after me “so that Bill wouldn’t be lonely in the square.”

  58. Celebrating with the newly inaugurated Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff on January 1, 2011. She has a str
ong intellect and true grit, two characteristics necessary for leadership in these challenging times.

  59. Dressed in a green jacket, I’m thrilled and surprised when a whale comes quite close to our small boat off the coast of Mexico in February 2012, with other G-20 Foreign Ministers. Next to me is our host, Mexican Foreign Secretary Patricia Espinosa.

  60. My time as Secretary wasn’t all business. While in Cartagena, Colombia, for the Summit of the Americas in April 2012, I joined staff for a birthday celebration for my Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs, Roberta Jacobson. Later a State Department spokesman was asked by the media to quantify precisely how much fun I had had and gave the official response: “A lot.”

  61. Greeting Chilean President Michelle Bachelet at the airport in Santiago after a major earthquake in early 2010.

  62. In Monrovia, Liberia, I consult with Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf during a visit in August 2009. The first woman to serve as President of an African country, Johnson Sirleaf is an impressive leader, and I admire her passion and perseverance.

  63. One of the most heartbreaking trips I took as Secretary was to a refugee camp in Goma in the Democratic Republic of Congo in August 2009. Here I tour the camp and talk to people who face deplorable conditions and an epidemic of sexual violence.

  64. Somalia’s transitional President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed surprised many in his conservative religious society by shaking my hand after our August 2009 meeting in Nairobi, Kenya. Helping his government beat back Al Shabaab terrorists was a top national security priority in Africa.

  65. It was a privilege to meet Bishop Elias Taban in Juba, South Sudan, in August 2012. Bishop Taban’s inspirational story touched me deeply, and I took a copy of his powerful op-ed to my meeting with South Sudanese President Salva Kiir earlier that day.

  66. Tanzanian Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda and I do some planting at a women’s cooperative in Mlandizi, Tanzania, in June 2011 as part of our Feed the Future initiative.

  67. I sing and applaud with Malawian women at the Lumbadzi Milk Bulking Group in Lilongwe, Malawi, in August 2012. Fighting hunger and extreme poverty was both the right and the smart thing to do.

  68. Finding out that there is a Hillary Clinton Shop in Karatu, Tanzania, puts a smile on my face.

  69. Visiting HIV/AIDS patients at a health clinic in Kampala, Uganda, in August 2012. I set an ambitious new goal of achieving an “AIDS-free generation.” HIV may be with us well into the future, but AIDS need not be.

  70. After Nelson Mandela’s December 2013 memorial service in South Africa, we sat telling stories and celebrating his life and legacy, joined by our friend Bono. Here Bono sits with me at the piano. Bill got a kick out of my attempt to hit a few keys.

  71. President Obama and I tour the Sultan Hassan Mosque in Cairo, Egypt, in June 2009. Later that day President Obama gave a speech at Cairo University and offered an ambitious and eloquent recalibration of America’s relationship with the Islamic world.

  72. Reconnecting with Nujood Ali, a young Yemeni girl who successfully fought for a divorce at age ten, during my January 2011 visit to Sanaa, Yemen. In our town hall meeting with young people and activists, I suggested that Nujood’s story should inspire Yemen to end child marriage once and for all.

  73. I walk with Special Envoy for Middle East Peace George Mitchell to President Obama’s remarks in the White House Rose Garden on September 1, 2010, as direct peace talks begin between the Israelis and Palestinians.

  74. That night President Obama hosted a working dinner in the Old Family Dining Room of the White House. From left to right (closest to camera): King Abdullah II of Jordan, President Obama, and President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt. From left to right (farthest from camera): me, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority, and Quartet Special Envoy Tony Blair.

  75. On September 2, 2010, I hosted the first of three rounds of direct talks between Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the State Department. Afterward, I joined them and Special Envoy George Mitchell for a chat in my office before leaving them alone to talk.

  76. As was so often the case, I am the only woman in the room in this January 2011 meeting of the Gulf Cooperation Council in Doha, Qatar. The next day, I would warn Arab leaders, “In too many places, in too many ways, the region’s foundations are sinking into the sand.” I am sitting between UAE Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed Al-Nahyan (left) and Qatari Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassim (right).

  77. Standing in the Situation Room with President Obama, National Security Advisor Tom Donilon, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, and Director of National Intelligence Jim Clapper (all seated), as we watch Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak try to answer the demands of protesters on February 1, 2011. His announcement was too little, too late.

  78. I shake hands with an Egyptian girl in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, the heart of the Arab Spring, on March 16, 2011.

  79. After Muammar Qaddafi fled Tripoli, I decided to visit Libya to offer America’s support to the new transitional government and urge them to restore security as soon as possible. Posing with a group of exuberant Libyan militia fighters after landing in Tripoli in October 2011.

  80. I swear in Chris Stevens as the new U.S. Ambassador to Libya in the State Department’s Treaty Room on May 14, 2012, as his father, Jan Stevens, looks on. Chris was a dedicated public servant who was committed to helping build a new Libya out of the wreckage of the Qaddafi regime.

  81. Protesters tear down the U.S. flag at our embassy in Cairo on September 11, 2012, after an offensive video about the Prophet Muhammad sparked anger across the Muslim world.

  82. President Obama signs a condolence book in front of the State Department’s memorial wall one day after the horrific attacks in Benghazi, Libya. The President visited the Department to comfort the grieving colleagues of Ambassador Chris Stevens and Sean Smith.

  83. With President Obama and Chaplain Colonel J. Wesley Smith at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, on September 14, 2012, as we prepare to receive and honor the remains of our colleagues killed in Benghazi.

  84. I appear before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in January 2013 to testify about the attack on our compound in Benghazi.

  85. With Sultan Qaboos of Oman in Muscat in October 2011. The Sultan helped us bring home three American hikers detained in Iran and open a secret diplomatic channel to discuss Iran’s nuclear program.

  86. Speaking at a UN Security Council meeting on the crisis in Syria in New York City in January 2012. Russia blocked UN actions to address the terrible violence in Syria even as the situation deteriorated. The death toll continues to rise, and millions have been forced from their homes.

  87. With President Obama in his hotel suite in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, we discuss whether I should fly to the Middle East to try to broker a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. Standing behind us (from left to right): my Director of Policy Planning Jake Sullivan, Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes, and National Security Advisor Tom Donilon.

  88. Negotiating with Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi in Cairo in November 2012, in an attempt to end the violence in Gaza. Morsi helped me negotiate a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas that holds to this day.

  89. President Obama and I crash a meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark, during the UN Climate Change Conference in December 2009. We interrupted Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, Brazilian President Lula da Silva, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, and South African President Jacob Zuma at the crowded table.

  90. Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre and I discuss the impacts of climate change aboard the Arctic Research Vessel Helmer Hanssen during a trip up a fjord off the coast of Tromsø, Norway, in June 2012.

  91. Touring an exhibition of old and new cookstoves alongside Dr. Kalpana Balakrishnan, a cookstove researcher, during a visit to Chennai, India, in July 2011. I championed the use of clean-burning cookstoves
around the world instead of more traditional, dirty stoves that burn wood or solid fuel and release toxic fumes that contribute to the deaths of millions of people every year, especially women and children.