I want to maximize every platform i have two goround the world and talk about why the surveillance policies are so dangerous and why government secrecy is dangerous urging people to protect their own privacy and talk about why thats so urgent. It was announced today that Sony Pictures purchase the book to make a film about it. Im thrilled about that as well. [applause] when i was growing up i was accessed with the film all the president s men. It reached me about the duties of journalism and i think the book and film will reach people in all sorts of ways that wouldnt otherwise engage people. It would be great if we could spend five months pouring out my heart and soul 10 hours a day into a book without being paid. Like pretty much every journalist in person from noam chomsky to everyone else you need to get paid for your work like everybody else. I dont make apologies for that as well. My duty to my sources to bring the message he wanted to bring to the world as effectively as i can. Writing stories and writing books and doing films are ways for me to do that and thats what i intend to do. [applause] this will be the final question. I was hoping to ask a few rounds fired yes or no questions. Rapidfire yes or no questions. Go ahead and put some together and i will address them as best as i can. I dont expect you to answer it because you talked about some of the upcoming revelations and not wanting to scoop yourself, we expect to see surveillance of occupy wall street and upcoming stories . The reason i dont want to talk about it is because i dont isnt because i dont want to scoop my cell. These are hard documents to get all that and understand the meaning of and to understand how you can communicate them to the world. That means working with smart editors and smart journalist and going for a long process. There have been occasions early on when i made claims about documents that i thought i understood fully. That turned out not to be the way described them. Thats really the reason i dont talk about them. One of the things that happens when people realize the vastness of information theyre given. There was almost this expectation that we have the whole holy grail to solve all injustices like all the files of the u. S. U. S. Government and our possessions every person you cared about any kind of injustice would email me and see me on the street and say i demand to release documents about injustice with the assumption of course we have them. If every single and let me say this, every single document in any archive that reveals abusive or improper surveillance or surveillance that is done for political ends or surveillance thats done in a way thats different from how the u. S. Government has been claiming it was done will be published whether its published by me or somebody else thats a promise i make you. [applause] [inaudible] i think its been a good healthy competition that fuels each of us. No i am not talking to marc gellman but i hope and expect he will continue to do the reporting hes doing. Thank you all very much. Really appreciate it. [applause] thank you to glenn greenwald. Thank you for joining us and thank you for your thoughtful questions. We will have a book signing. If your number on your ticket is between one and 75 please join us in line. Additional books are for sale in line. [inaudible conversations] in her new book hard choices Hillary Clinton writes about her time as secretary of state in the au bon administration. She recently visited a washington d. C. Bookstore to promote the book. This is an hour. Our guest of honors known primarily for her political roles as first lady, u. S. Senator senator from new york and the 67th secretary of state but she has also just published her fifth book and has several previous bestsellers to her name so added to the list of credits after Hillary Rodham clinton should certainly be accomplished author. Hard choices her memoir about her for four years as secretary of state recounts how she came to accept the cabinet position offered by your former political rival and then led the effort to strengthen our nations standing around the world. The book also reveals some of the less wang qishan less battlehardened sign up for the public. Humorous, selfdeprecating, paternal and maybe even grandes maternal almost. Although hillary credits a small team of people for helping with the book she carved out months from her calendar to write and rewrite it herself and the result is a work that is undeniably in her voice. It also clearly leaves room for future chapters in one more memoir someday. [applause] this evenings event is particularly special, particularly special for me because i not only get to introduce the main speaker but also my wife who will be up here in conversation with hillary. The two of them go back together to their early days of the Clinton Administration and lissa has served with hillary in various roles as white house and state department speechwriter, Communications Director to the first lady, Campaign Adviser and collaborator in hillarys white house memoir, living history. These days when hillary and lissa talk i think they spend most of their time discussing the latest great novel, mystery or biography that they are reading. Ladies and gentlemen please join me in welcoming Hillary Rodham clinton and lissa muscatine. [applause] thank you. [applause] thank you so much. [applause] well, that was very nice. Its great to have you. Thank you so much. Thanks to you and brad for running such a great bookstore, politics and prose. [applause] speaking of books, you have had it out for four days now. Thats right. You probably lost count because it was one of those cases like when you were secretary. You start your books when you are traveling and doing these interviews and keeping a frenetic pace that i have to ask you because from the first time i read this book and have read it several times now i was struck by a lightheartedness. Its a serious book. It deals with obviously very serious issues but there is a lighter side that comes through. So im wondering as i have watched you in these first four days and you have had some tough interviews, seems like you are having a really good time. Lissa i am having a good time and i think thats in part due to the enthusiasm that i have experienced as i have traveled around in these last couple of days. Its a great feeling to have written a book about four years that were consequential in my view and we can talk about that more, but which for me where both a personal journey and a very heavy responsibility rate and what i try to do in the book was to write it so that i could give you the readers a bit of a peek behind the curtain because the headline certainly tell some of the story but not all of the story. Its more difficult to even get information about the socalled trendlines. I want to combine both and the hardest part for me about writing this book was that it was believe it or not three times longer when i first finished it. I wanted to put every fun story, every bizarre mail, whatever i could remember and wanted to share. The publisher did say you have to cut twothirds of this book. I worked hard to keep the combination seriousness because obviously theres a lot of that but also the human side. Not just me but what i saw and learned as i travel around the world. You have never been shy about your opinions but is seems you have been pretty free to speak your mind these days. I think thats true from some of the reactions ive had in the last few days. I say in the book that maybe its just the wonderful wealth of experience that i have now had. Maybe its because i am totally done with being really careful about what to say because somebody might think this instead of that. It just gets too exhausting and frustrating. It just seems a whole lot easier to just put it out there and hope people get used to it. Whether you agree with it or not to know exactly where im coming from and what they think and what i feel. I really believe thats missing in both our government dialogue and of course many of you probably are somehow associated in some way with our government and certainly in our political dialogue. There are so many big issues and i talk about some of them both internationally and nationally and i dont think we gained by either shouting matches or fingerpointing or biting ones tongue. Think we need to have a very open straightforward conversation and maybe im trying to model that, i dont know but thats how it feels to me. It feels a little bit liberating to me to be honest with you. Its great to watch i have to say. There are occasions when i think people gulp a little, including myself to be fair. I really want to share the experiences that ive had. I came to this job as i write in the book in quite an unusual w way. I was incredibly surprised when the president asked me to serve and slightly less surprised when i finally agreed to it. Then it was just from the very first moment a mad dash because we inherited a pretty serious agenda of problems and challenges. The perspective that i have gained i think has encouraged me even more to speak my mind and contribute what i can to whatever debates. Lets talk about the process of writing the book before we get to the substance of it because i remember from the last book you have a day job. You were in the senate and this is the honest to goodness truth. I was working with you on that book. He did a lot of work on the book between midnight and 3 00 a. M. And i remember having routine meetings at your dining room table at 3 00 a. M. This one you carved out to really focus on it. I think its interesting, you had a great teamwork working for you but you are not somebody who has taken a draft a chapter and just said oh great this looks good. Lets put it between the cover and publish it right now. You have always lived over your writing. You write and you rewrite and you still write in longhand on a legal pad. Anybody who has ever been a somebody who is writing a book knows its likes someone going through labor. On the scale of pain and joy what was the process of writing this book for you . I should preface what i say by making clear that lissa has been my partner and some of the most important writing and speaking that i have done going back to the white house years when she was a speechwriter at the white house and as i point out in the chapter called Unfinished Business about womens rights and a lgbt writes and other human rights, lissa was my partner in the womens speech in beijing. Fastforward she was also my partner in the living history autobiography. What she is describing is absolutely true. It was incredibly stressful because i did have this day job that i loved. I had said and signed a contract so i was obligated to produce a book so i would come home and lissa despite her many responsibilities including her wonderful family would be around that dining room table with me as we struggled over the chapters in living history. This was different in that i left the state department. I had for the first time in many years much more freedom and control over my own schedule. I have a thirdfloor attic study in the Old Farmhouse that we lived in a new york and i would go up there early in the morning and i would make as many detours as i possibly could. There was always time for something else. There was time to walk the dog. There was time to go down and get more water. You have to be really well hydrated when you try to write. I came up with a million reasons and then of course i read you really should not sit for more than an hour. [laughter] that became my favorite excuse. It was a great experience despite how difficult it was. It was difficult because there was a mass of material that we were trying to condense. It was also hard to relive some of what happened and also to make sense in retrospect about what had occurred. I had a great team of researchers and advisers and people who would take my scribbling handwriting and translated and come back with suggestions. It was a terrific process and outweigh. Even though i had more free time to do it i found it equally intense because once you start writing a book and you put yourself into and in my case i have an idea that there might be some people who would read every word looking for something i said that might not be entirely 1000 true or accurate so it was painful. I had a great backup with the researchers who helped me. I enjoyed it but if i were to put it on a scale sundays were off the charts wonderful and some days were not even on the charts terrible because it was hard to write. Then of course i wanted to make sure that it was a fair reflection of what i experienced and what i learned and i had to do some point let it go on hold my breath and im pleased with the way it came out. The reviews have been really good. Much to my amazement. Its a hard book to write. It took four years of your life and it does involve public policy. There are a lot of constraints. When i finally got the near complete manuscript i did impose upon lissa because shes a great reader as well as a great writer and i did hold my breath that we can. She has never minced words. She will come and say i dont think this works where thats not what you mean to say over this really could be restructured. Kind of gently but clearly critical. She came back and she had some very good suggestions but she also had some very positive reinforcing reactions. I have to say that helped me breathe a little better. I was not sleeping much toward the end because i was so worried that somehow i may have totally messed the point of what i was trying to communicate. Its an odd combination of personal particularly in the beginning when i talk about the creation of this team of rivals with the president and pretty wonky and dense. There were some chapters that i felt compelled to include like a chapter about the economic challenges we face abroad and how that affects us here, and what it means to be competing here if youre an American Business or worker. I know that some eyes in the editing process and the publishers have world a little bit like really . I really need to talk about that because one of my primary jobs when it became secretary who given where we were economically was to try to help work with the president and secretary of treasury to restore confidence in our economy as well as in our political and foreignpolicy agenda. He was a complicated book. You were nice to have let me read it toward the end and to be honest i loved it from the first read and obviously any manuscript can be improved on. It may have seemed there were denser portions but we all have to read it. Its fascinating and its entertaining. Its a terrific book and as i said earlier they came through and away as an earlier time in your life and career and i think you said you feel more liberated now and i think that comes through. We should talk about the substance and you said a minute ago that when you assume the secretaryship you and president obama came in to problems. Clearly there was a perception not only in this country but around the world that our role and influence was diminishing. Our economy was sputtering at best. Some of our key alliances were frayed. Iran was making no bones about its interest in acquiring building a nuclear weapon. China was on the rise and then you have ongoing challenges of Climate Change and poverty and human rights. Im wondering if being secretary of state is in somewhat of an exercise in triaged . Thats an interesting way to put it lissa because i think its a multilevel job all at the same time. There are the crises that require immediate attention and yes the intensive care unit. You have to put everybody together both physically or virtually. You have to be building those alliances and attending to those partnerships in the midst of a crisis to deal with the crisis. But then there are the emergencies but not as serious as the ones in intensive care area. If you continue with this metaphor you have a bigger emergency room with all kinds of injuries. People who are they are representing countries, representing individuals nonstate actors and the like all of whom need to be tended to. They are expecting United States to show up and to make a move however we define that. Then of course there are the longerterm chronic problems. I saw my role primarily to do all i could to help restore American Leadership and that meant several things to me. It certainly meant that i had to figure out how to deal with the emergencies and not attend to what were a broad array of complaints about our country from the prior eight years. It was not just iraq. It was not just the war on terror and the abuses that came to light. It was not just the economic collapse although thats a trifecta that was waiting on our doorstep. It was the feeling that somehow america had violated our own values, the rules that we had helped to construct and pushed for compliance and how countries were supposed to be behaving, whether it was conventions that we had signed against torture or it was antiballistic missile treaties or whatever might be. And that there was a sense of absence in some parts of the world. That was the message that came through to me when i began making a series of phonecalls to leaders and those whom i called in asia were very clear that they believed america had abandoned our traditional role as a specific power and wondered whether the Obama Administration would reassert our presence in asia. In europe we were struggling with the negative reactions to iraq, the war on terror and the economic collapse but also the attitude toward europe, old europe versus new europe and a sense that somehow america no longer value this critical relationship across the atlantic. There was so much bubbling below the surface. We came into office as one war in gaza was ending and a new government in israel being formed. We had a very serious set of decisions facing the president and the National Security council. What to do about afghanistan since it appeared that the taliban had regained momentum and efforts to try to create some stability that would give a Stronger Base for the afghans themselves to defend themselves govern themselves was eroded. It was a long list. Triaged is a good description and it required several things simultaneously as well in responding to that analysis. One that required my presence and when the president asked me to serve as secretary of state, he said im going to have to focus the vast majority of my time and attention on the economic crisis because this dataset as bad as it is to get a lot worse. He said we have to demonstrate that america is no longer going to be leaving with their military. Of course we will maintain the strength of our military that we need to demonstrate more clearly our values and that we can form partnerships and mobilize a common action. That is why im asking you because i know it can get on that airplane and start traveling the world. It was a bit of a division of labor if you will which i totally understood and eventually agreed to carry. It was quite striking to me. I made that decision which i explain in the book to somewhat break tradition, two to go in to asia in february 2009. Half of that trip was just showing up, demonstrating that yes we have a treaty alliances, we have interest political strategic economic. We are no longer going to be absent and then we worked to put it in a very public way to send an unequivocal message that the United States would be part of asias future where so much of the consequential decisionmaking for the world will be made. I quickly turned around and went back to europe in march because i wanted to reassert our relationship. I quote this old brownie girl scout song, and make new friends but keep the old ones, one is silver and the other is gold. Some of you may remember that. I wanted it to be a statement of our commitment to our european partners. There was so much going on there as well because right before president Obama Took Office gazprom for russian gas utility cut off gas again. They had done it before in 2006 and it became clear to me that the europeans were going to have to take a hard look at how dependent they wanted to be on a Single Source for their energy. Sounds familiar and from that first meeting we began talking about what could be done to find alternatives. So it was a multitasking of the highest order to try to be present, reach out, come up with new ideas and make clear that americas presence and leadership was going to be front and center once again and we would be listening, not just talking. We would be looking to work multilaterally, not just unilaterally and we would use the 3ds of our Foreign Policy not just the facts but also diplomacy and development to promote our values and pursue righteous and protect our security. Reading the book one of the quotes you often used and i think i said this to you at one point and that is politics as the strong and slow boring of hard boards. The book, the daytoday experience is not just what is the most visible, the sexiest, the most interesting even issue. There is a lot of cultivation. You mentioned the asia trip. He raised important groundwork in indonesia that later paid off in burma with democratic reforms. The book. Im glad you said that because i wanted that to come through. One of the virtues that i think we americans need to cultivate his patients. And that is true probably in our lives, but it is particularly true in our diplomacy because so much of what the matters in the world is based on building relationships and looking for areas where you can bush some level of trust. And one of the examples in the how we were able to navigate through a very difficult crisis over a blind dissident in china, and not endanger the substance of the framework for the relationship we reside been building with china. When i came in the senate i knew we had had extensive talks with china about currency, trade, and those had been carried out by the treasury department. But there were so many Strategic Issues that maybe we would deal with in a oneof way but a we could see the chinese were much more comfortable talking about all of the concerns around the economy than they were on political or Strategic Issues. So one of the first things i did was to propose within the administration that we combine the exec and create thing extraic dialogue that would embody all of the various individual discussion we had consecutive chinese counterparts. Tim geithner agreed. The white house signed off. I presented it to the chinese when i was there that first trip. They responded to it, and that meant we put together teams from our government and theirs, to talk about everything from sanitary hygiene standards for food and produce or safety of toys, to environmental, clean energy, joint projects, to student exchanges. We put it all out there to build a much more comprehend receive connection between our two governments comprehensive connection between our two government is homes would not last for just one president but be part of building a framework into the future. And we had intense meetings throughout the year, then we would have an annual strategic and economic dialogue, rotating between washington and beijing. I spent a lot of time with my counterpart. And the foreign minister, and we had a lot of indepartment discussion. So fast forward to the night that im home here in washington, and the phone rings, and im told that the blind dissident has escaped from house arrest and is trying to make it to the u. S. Embassy in beijing for safety and refuge and also to be given medical emergency medical treatment for the foot he injured. And the question was, would i direct our Embassy Staff to go out, meet him, pick him up and bring him in. Now, by any weighing of values and interests, you can see why i called this book holiday hard choices. We had this comprehensive relationship, making progress in a number of areas. Others were stalled but we had developed very candid discussions which in and of itself was a step forward. And i was supposed to be leaving in a few day us for the annual meeting in beijing. And that had been the cornerstone of our efforts to develop a more strategicdeeper understanding with china, yet we had this man, this human rights activist, who thought to himself, im being unjustly imprisoned in my house. I need to escape, and where would i go . The one place in the world where he thought the values of freedom and human rights would be embodied, namely the embassy of the United States of america. And so there wases a weighing, and i had to do it in a very short period of time, and i concluded that we would go out and pick him up and take him to the embassy, at the end of the darks i believe our strongest position, our best argument for who we are as a americans, and what we stand for, are the values that we have stood on and exemplified and struggle to fulfill from the very beginning. It was a consequential choice. There were some who disagreed with it, who were unhappy i had made it. But i felt comfortable throughout the difficult period of negotiations that ensued because i thought at the end of the day it was the right decision to make. Well, we were able to negotiate with the chinese over the outcome with respect to mr. Chen and his family. We also went ahead with the strategic and economic dialogue, and we were able to balance. But we would not in my view, have been able to do that, had we not invested the time and the patience in developing those relationships, and it is something that i have constantly reminding my colleagues in government, or elsewhere, we often as americans show up with an agenda. Heres what we want to do, then that, and then lets get this done and then were out of there. That still is not the way most people in the world behave. They want to take your measure. They want to have a meal. Maybe a cup of tea. Talk about other things. I remember going into a meeting with the king of saudi arabia, king abdullah, and we were in a huge meeting room, and i spent about 15 minutes talking with him and talking with the foreign minister, prince al faisal, about camels. And i describe it in the book because id driven up from the airport with the foreign minister, and we reside seen all these camels that were out in the desert as we drove by to the camp of the king, and the foreign minister was telling me how much he disliked camels. And i was saying, my goodness, thats like an australian not liking kangaroos. So hard to imagine. But we were having a bit of a banter and a back and forth, and when we got to the meeting and it was this large formal setting i turned to the king and said, your majesty, the foreign minister says he doesnt like camels. The king says, what is wrong with him . And we start having this conversation. So when we got to the real meat of it, over lunch, where just the king and i could hear one another and he had a huge Television Set in the middle of this square table that was blaring away so nobody could hear what we were saying except each other. We then could get down to business because we actually interacted as two people, not two officials in a hurry. And i try to make the point over and over in the book that we just have to invest more time and that takes patience and it takes people willing to do that, to build those relationships, but i dont think we can achieve our goals without that. By the way, the chen story is one of the extort of cloak and dagger life imat the same times art stories in the book. Its amazing. This cant possibly really have happened the way it did. I want to say, you have improved dramatically in your pronunciation of foreign names. [laughter] i was impressed you used both names of the chinese leaders, not just the easy, one syllable ones. Well, lissa traveled with me offer as first laid where and the beginning of my time in the state department as the head of my speech writers at the state department, and it is true, i have absolutely no ear for language and its a great regret. I took latin when i was in high school. I think it helped me with my vocabulary, at least i hope it did because it took four years of effort. And then i took french when i went to wellsley, and at the end we had a twoyear language requirement and i was enjoying it. I love the literature part. I kind of got it down that for writing critiques of french literature, could say things like, love is hate is love and the professor would say i went to see my french professor and said im thinking about this course or that course, she said, madam, your talents lie elsewhere. I dont want to spend a lot of time on this because there are so many other things to talk about, but given its been kind of a messy few days in iraq i wonder if we can get your Quick Reaction to that. Well,let me just back up and start where we were when president Obama Took Office. President bush established a timetable for american withdrawal in 2011, as i recall. Unless the iraqis agreed to what is called status of forces agreement that gives the necessary protections to american soldiers. There was a great deal of work done to try to figure out with the iraqis what, if any, followon American Force would be necessary and accepted. They needed intelligence. They needed trainers. They needed the kind of leadership skills inculcated in the reconstituted iraqi army after it had been dissolved in the bush administration. Well, it came down to the fact that maliki would not present a status of forces agreement to his parliament, and that made the decision inevitable. There was not going to be an agreement for american troops to stay, even to perform limited noncombat functions. The underlying problem, though, here, is not one of military preparedness and security, although we have seen neither is present in the current conflict in iraq. The problem is the conception of leadership and governance that maliki brought to the job of prime ministership. He would not commit to an inclusive government. He would not share power except with a very, very small circle. We was often quick to attack even investigate, a charge with crimes those who politically disagreed with him and as a result the inclusive governing stuck tour that reached out to the various elements, particularly the sunnis, in iraq, to try to overcome very deeply felt historic differences, but necessary changes if there were to be stability in iraq never happened. And the results of that failure at the governance level, combined with the extraordinary success of islamists, extremist groups in syria, and in particular the one now known as isis, the Islamic State of iraq and syria, has made this latest crisis especially dangerous. You dont have a government that can inspire loyalty, even among its army. And certainly not among its disparate group, and you have welltrained, very savvy fighters, coming out of syria, coming out of iraq, often aided and abetted, perhaps, were learning, by former officers in the disbanded Saddam Hussein iraqi army. And its a recipe for a horrendous conflict. The request that maliki is making to the president to provide support, i know, are being carefully considered, but i think its also imperative that maliki be presented with a set of conditions if you are even to discuss seriously any kind of military support for the fight against the ijihadists. And thats a difficult and delicate task for our government. We dont want to fight their fights because you would be fighting for a dysfunctional, up representative. Authoritarian government, and theres no reason on earth i know of we would ever sacrifice a single American Life for that. It is [applause] it is a, however, serious potential crisis with broad regional and even global consequences. The capture of the turkish diplomat, the threats to all the embassy in baghdad, most particularly ours, the discipline of the peshmerga, the kurdish forces, as they both protect kurdish areas but also advance to take over some of the cities, particularly kirkuk, they have auld believed should be theirs. What role will iran play . If iran sends in troops to assist maliki the way they have sent in both force advisers and hezbollah troops to support assad, then, boy, we are looking at a potential war in the middle east that is going to cross borders and potentially threaten the larger region and beyond. The latest figures ive seep is there are more than a thousand fighters on behalf of extremist groups in syria coming from just europe. And with open borders, no visa restrictions, somebody who grew up in france or germany or britain or the netherlands or wherever, will be able to come home and be able to travel. So, this has implications far beyond what, if anything, we think we can and should do to try to stave off a total collapse of the maliki government. I would just add one other note. If you look at where we are in the region, the conflict in syria, which right now is stale stalemate but assad is controlling large parts of the country, but there are many hundreds of thousands of refugees in jordan, lebanon, turkey, iraq. And you have the tensions that are pervasive through the region being really set on fire in iraq right now, it could draw in other countries because of attacks or because of the decision on the part of other governments that they have to defend either the sunnis or defend the shia or go after the kurds. Lots of competing interests, and its my chapter about syria is called a wicked problem. And now its wickeder because of the spillover into iraq. Host on a lighter note, when i used to come back from trips overseas with you, would often have stories for my kids that involved funny, crazy, weird things that happened, some of which you didnt know about. In fact my kids often say, mom, you need to write a book at all the things that happened that mrs. Clinton never knew. And i said that would sort of defeat the purpose. I adopt know if you ever knew about the purse that was left behind and various complications and logistics were done to retrieve it from i dont know where. A suitcase ended up in a river. I dont know how many drafts of speeches we lost. I think there were some important one that somehow had to be recovered at the last minute. But this clearly continued. Guest yes. Host during your tenure as secretary of state and you write about the comedy. There were a lot of dark days, obviously, benghazi the most obvious, but a lot of funny things happened and im sure in retrospect they seem even fun er, comedic moments. Of course there had to be a hair story, a theyre story in bulgaria, a shoe coming off at an unopportunity moment in france. Theres a, you need to flock, moment when president obama pulled you aside at a meeting and points another you have food in your teeth, and then one of my favorites is a funny thing and i wonder if youll mention this. A funny thing that happened when youre at the end of the trip, on the plane, and everybody can finally relax, and your staff turns on a movie. Tell us about that. In. Guest well, first thing i would say is the choice of movie was often really low grade. And i think thats because by the end of those trips, which were very long, moving from time zone to time zone, everybody was exhausted. Nobody wanted to think. Everybody just slumped back in their chairs and voted for the most mindless entertainment that was available on our plane. But the movie about the spy called breach and theres a scene in which the actor playing the character what was his i cant remember, robert something anyway, he says, we dont need anymore women in pants like Hillary Clinton. And [laughter] i love that story. And just the whole plane just like burst into laughter. But this is right because there were all these things going on while im wading through briefing books that are three feet high or on the phone arguing with some foreign minister im about to see about something, or consoling shrub who has someone who has had a terrible incident anywhere country. So i dont know half of the things that were going on, but we had a lot of misadventures. Now, one, which is kind of consequential. Ended up being fine. [laughter] but we go on these trips we had a great press corps in the state department, experienced journalist, stationed overseas, and it was pleasure working for them because they were always asking very substantive questions how does this compare with what secretary powell did or what about madeline albright. They knew the whole landscape. But they would want to let down their hair so to speak, so were in lima, peru, trying to im trying to work i had to go to the meeting of the organization of american states, and i was trying finalize the conditions that are going to be imposed by the u. N. Security council on iran, and we had come in with our twopart strategy and engagement and pressure, and knew it wasnt enough just for the United States too be putting the pressure on. We needed to get the international community. That meant convincing russia, which i think we succeeded in doing when the president and i and then National Security adviser jim jones, told medvedev and lavrov in a small meeting that the iranians had built an underground facility and the russians didnt know it, and i think that surprised them and made them much more amenable to going along with the Security Council. The chinese, who needed oil and gas from everywhere, did not want to see that supply cut off so they took loot more convincing, and we were working and working, and the Chinese Ambassador, very able diplomat, the ambassador of the United States, was covering the meeting in lima, and we were trying i was trying to get a meeting with him to see if i could get him to sign off on the final language because he had been authorized to convey that book to beijing, and he had meetings, and finally we were worried we wouldnt get the meeting. So the press was having a space go sour peace go sour happy hour, and apparently they make your very happy. Especially these that were made in lima. And i we were looking for the ambassador to try to find a time. And i went down to the bar in the hotel and were trading stories, and chatting each other up, and im having a peace go sour, and pretty soon things are looking really positive, and optimistic. [laughter] then all of a sudden one of the Foreign Service officers comes up and says, the Chinese Ambassador is here. I said, where . Right there. Oh, mr. Ambassador, please come in, and i take him to a back table and we pull out our papers and mark landler, the excellent now a White House Reporter for the times, covering the state department, he sees me sitting with this chinese man and were looking at papers. He comes over bearing two peace go source, and heres one for you, madam secretary, and one for you, ambassador. But you had to be flexible and agile. With whatever was happening. Host great story. I want to take a question from the audience. And this is from drew anderson. She his is a hard ball did you really at graph all autograph all these books . [applause] guest you know what . I really did. [applause] guest i really did. And between the time that i finished the book and it went in and was going to printing i had about a threeweek period and i they sent me nearly 21,000 pages, and so i started signing Hillary Rodham clinton, i thought host bad idea sunny thought this will take know laker day, and i talked to people and they said, personalize it, just say hillary. So i sat any break fast room, turned on the old movie channels because it was relaxing, and just sat there and signed. So, the ones youre getting have all been personally signed by me. [applause] you mentioned beijing. Host beijing, 1995, 20th 20th anniversary want to tell a quick story and ask you about this. You am didnt go because the chinese had arrested a narl naturalized citizen, saying he was an american. But we went and worked really hard on the speech, and i think i told you this once. An amazing thing happened to me permanently. I walked couple your cabin, the last we had gone from washington to hawaii, met up with you and the president in hawaii and then flew from guam to beijing and we were on the last draft of the speech that had been very closely held, and i took it up to you in the cabin, and you knew the speech inside out and we were finalizing it, and ill never forget this. Very corny, but a seminole experience for me. I gave you the speech, and you didnt really say anything for a moment and then you said, i just want to push the envelope as far as i can on human rights and womens rights. And [applause] host you went on to say i was so struck by that. And this is the corny part. I was so proud to be an american and so proud to have a first lady who would go into what was kind of a diplomatic minefield and make this assertion. And you went ton say after that, that womens issues, womens rights are the Unfinished Business of the world and im just wondering where you think things stand now. Guest that speech which we worked so hard on and madeline al bright was with us, and she provided great feedback as we were going through the drafts. Was so important to me personally because i thought the United States needed to lead on womens rights, and this was the opportunity to do so at this international conference, and it was very important to set forth an agenda which out of the conference, despite all of the difficulties, 189 countries agreed on what was called the platform for action, the full participation of women and girls. And i used that both as first lady, then as senator, and certainly as secretary of state, to refer to and to engage with leaders and groups, civil society, all over the world, to say, your nation signed up for this, how far have you come . Then when i left the state department, i went to work with my husband and my daughter at the clinton foundation, and there were a lot of the important programs that my husband had established and the chelsea was instrumental in, and i wanted to add three more, and one of them was what we called the noceilings, full participation project. What were doing in partnership with the gates foundation, and many other partners, the u. N. , is gathering all the data that we can find. I was just at the world bank two weeks ago with important announcements that the bank was making with president jim kim, and tried to put it all together in one place where we can measure the progress we have made but also make clear the gaps that still remain. And it has been already an very meaningful experience for me, because we still have lots of countries with laws that bar women from many professions. We still have countries where they dont even record all the girls births because its not that important. We have made progress under the millennium goals about primary education and then drop off with secondary and higher education. Were doing a better job of combating Maternal Mortality but still have hundreds of thousands of women die every year and on and on. So what we want to be is a centerpiece for a robust discussion in the next year as we approach the 20th 20th anniversary in 2015, about what we have achieved, what has worked in other countries and how much more we have to do. And there is a divide. There are countries where laws still need to be changed. Laws on the books need to be implemented. Cultural and religious barriers to womens participation need to be questioned from within. On and on. And in the developed world, we also want to look at the disparities that still exist between the opportunities for women and girls versus men and boys. And a lot of those are what we could call internal barriers, and my friend, cheryl sandberg, in her book, writes about the research of two resumes exactly the same, one is labeled by henry brown, one is by heidi brown, and people are much more favorable toured hundredry and raising questions about heidi. Same information. Same profile. These deep cultural psychological internal barriers that people have about women and girls and that women and girls have about themselves. Thats a more difficult area to explore and to measure, but were even going to try to do that becauses you look at political participation in our country, it is certainly nowhere near half. We dont have half of the corporations or Corporate Officers held by women, on and on. So i think its going to be a real food for thought for both countries where theres so much work to be done, to just end the oppression and the abuse and the dehumanizing of women and other countries like our own where we have made so much progress but still have so much more we can do. Host no question. You just flipping back, you talked about maliki and what a frustrating leader he was, and you have been to 112 countries, traveled almost a municipal miles as senator, not to mention as senator and first lady, and probably the only foreign leader you didnt meet with has been kim jongun. Speaking of bad pronunciation. So the question i want to ask just going to put it out there and then go to another question because were almost out of time when you look into Vladimir Putins eyes, do you see the soul of a man who cares deeply about his country or the soul of a kgb agent . Just asking. [laughter] host you can give us the quick answer. Guest fascinating. He and i have exchanged a few verbal volleys going back the last several years. His most recent was to call me weak, but then quickly adding, weakness is probably not so bad in a woman. Me, too. So [laughter] when i wrote about him, what i tried to do is demonstrate, obviously, that he is a very tough person, who embodies a lot of hard choices. But the real sadness and i say that deliberately is that his view of russias greatness is rooted in the past, not the future. Think about how well educated and how successful so many russian immigrants are in europe and the United States and elsewhere. One of the cofounders of google. Think of what could be happening in russia today if you had leadership that wasnt trying to extent a sphere of influence, dominate central asia, intimidate central and eastern europe, prevent countries like ukraine from making their own decisions, impose a view of russian greatness that is rooted in the past, instead of working to create a modern economy, diversify beyond oil and gas, create more opportunities for people, but that is not his goal. His goal is to, as much as possible, recreate the past. And that to me is yet another chapter in the missed opportunities that we have seen time and again suffered by the russian people. I have a couple of stories in my chapter about him. I do talk about why we really did push to get the socalled reset done while medvedev was president , and we were successful in getting those Security Council sanctions on iran and getting a new start treaty to limit Nuclear Weapons between us and restart inspections and transport important materiale and troops into afghanistan across russia. But when putin made the announcement he would be president again, an odd sort of president ial campaign, if you stop to think about it, theyre both standing there i think they both had on black leather jackets and for medvedev, who really did try to expand russias horizon and went to silicon valley, saw what was possible and putin says, i will be president. He will be prime minister. And then they had parliamentary elections before the president ial election and they were filled with irregularities and i criticized the elections but wasnt my opinion that countedded a much as the tens of thousands of russians who filled the streets. And putin attack met for having caused the protests. And when i next saw him, i said, mr. President thats correct not the way it works. But he is a determined, relentless, pursuer of his vision of a russia from the past, and it is, as i said, unfortunate. And the United States and the west have to make very clear that whatever his vision is, it cannot upset the stability and order that was established in europe first after the second world war, then after the collapse of the soviet union, and its going to again take patience but firmness to send that message unequivocally to him. So, its a complicated situation and one that we have to watch very closely. Host there are a lot of stories bat lot of leaders and some you connected with. Its one of the most fun parts of the book to learn what these people are like as real people and not just as figureheads of their countries. Were actually, i hate to say it, just about out of time so were going to have one last question and im going to take it as an audience question but i want to just sort of ask a little setup to it. And that is that you acquired a new title during the four years as secretary, which was mother of the bride. Guest true. Host you are about to acquire another new title, grandmother. [applause] host you had you suffered through some difficult losses, including especially of your mother, who many of us got to know. She lived with you here in washington at the end of her life. She was adored by your staff. I was struck at her memorial that you held at the number of chelseas friends who spoke about her, your staff who spoke about her, and everybody she ever came in contact with. And now youre going to be a grandmother to your daughter and chelsea was so close to your mother, her grandmother. So you have a lot to weigh looking ahead. Which gets to the last question and it comes from tyler smith, via twitter, who says, what do you want your legacy to be . Guest for the state department or my life. Host he says what do you want your legacy to be. So you can i guess part of one way to think about it might be, as you look ahead, youre going to be a grandmother and now know better than most people the world that this child will be born into. And you have to think about your life and caring for your own grandchild, and you probably are giving a little thought to care for our collective aunt. So how do you balance all of that . [applause] guest i dont think about a legacy. I think about my life. Because ive had quite an unpredictable life. And i thought a lot about that when i was writing the book. I could never, when i was growing up in park around, parkridge, illinois, have imagined what i have had the great pleasure of experiencing, the challenges and difficulties along with the extraordinary experiences and opportunities, and i think that really is at the core of what i care most about. Both for my own family, my future grandchild, but also four our country. I want young people particularly to feel as though the future may not be totally clear to you, but it looks like its full of promise for you. That you have the opportunity, because you are acquiring an education, because youre willing to work hard, to be given your definition of the american dream. And that is how i was raised. My mother, who did live with us during the last ten years of her life, was the product of a very abusive, neglectful home, but all along her much more difficult life, her childhood, she would encounter people who showed kindness and who were part of a Broader Community than just the family that so let her down. And so she learned how to use her education, even though she only graduated from high school, she was incredibly intelligent and kept taking college course, almost into her 80s. She was supported by the community and really nurtured by her belief in what this country meant, and she instilled that in me and everyone that she touched. But that meant that you had to take your responsibility and had to have a good work ethic but you were part of a community, it wasnt just either be an individual or a member of a community, it was be an individual in the community, and then the Larger Community of our country. So what i hope is that my grandchild, when he or she comes into the world this fall, will have that same view of what america means and why america matters. I had such a perspective from outside to those four years. I saw us, once again, using our innovation and our energy and our resilience to come back from a terrible economic crisis that is still not fully resolved. But i also saw so much disagreement and argument about what we were doing and what we stood for and what were the right decisions. And one particular moment i write about in the book happened to me when i was in hong kong in july of 2011. It was
vimarsana.com © 2020. All Rights Reserved.