The Secretary (57 page)

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.
(N
ICHOLAS
M
ERRILL
)

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.
(W
HITE
H
OUSE
)

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.

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.