目录
Content
Chapter_1
Chapter_2
Chapter_3
Chapter_4
Chapter_5
Chapter_6
Chapter_7
Chapter_8
Chapter_9
Chapter_10
Chapter_11
Chapter_12
Chapter_13
Chapter_14
Chapter_15
Chapter_16
Chapter_17
Chapter_18
Chapter_19
Chapter_20
Chapter_21
Chapter_22
Chapter_23
Chapter_24
Chapter_25
Chapter_26
Chapter_27
Chapter_28
Chapter_29
Chapter_30
Chapter_31
Chapter_32
Chapter_33
Chapter_34
Chapter_35
Chapter_36
Chapter_37
Chapter_38
Chapter_39
Chapter_40
Chapter_41
Chapter_42
Chapter_43
Chapter_1
LIVING
HISTORY
___________________________
Hillary
Rodham
Clinton
Simon & Schuster
New York . London . Toronto . Sydney . Singapore
To my parents,
my husband,
my daughter
and all the good souls around the world
whose inspiration, prayers, support and love
blessed my heart and sustained me in
the years of living history.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
In 1959, I wrote my autobiography for an assignment in sixth grade. In twenty-nine
pages, most half-filled with earnest scrawl, I described my parents, brothers, pets, house,
hobbies, school, sports and plans for the future. Forty-two years later, I began writing another
memoir, this one about the eight years I spent in the White House living history
with Bill Clinton. I quickly realized that I couldn’t explain my life as First Lady without
going back to the beginning―how I became the woman I was that first day I walked into
the White House on January 20, 1993, to take on a new role and experiences that would
test and transform me in unexpected ways.
By the time I crossed the threshold of the White House, I had been shaped by my family
upbringing, education, religious faith and all that I had learned before―as the daughter
of a staunch conservative father and a more liberal mother, a student activist, an advocate
for children, a lawyer, Bill’s wife and Chelsea’s mom.
For each chapter, there were more ideas I wanted to discuss than space allowed; more
people to include than could be named; more places visited than could be described. If I
mentioned everybody who has impressed, inspired, taught, influenced and helped me
along the way, this book would be several volumes long. Although I’ve had to be selec
tive, I hope that I’ve conveyed the push and pull of events and relationships that affected
me and continue to shape and enrich my world today.
Since leaving the White House I have embarked on a new phase of my life as a U.S.
Senator from New York, a humbling and daunting responsibility. A complete account of
my move to New York, campaign for the Senate and the honor of working for the people
who elected me will have to be told another time, but I hope this memoir illustrates how
my success as a candidate for the Senate arose out of my White House experiences.
During my years as First Lady, I became a better student of how government can
serve people, how Congress really works, how people perceive politics and policy
through the filter of the media and how American values can be translated into economic
and social progress. I learned the importance of America’s engagement with the rest of
the world, and I developed relationships with foreign leaders and an understanding of
foreign cultures that come in handy today. I also learned how to keep focused while living
in the eye of many storms.
I was raised to love my God and my country, to help others, to protect and defend the
democratic ideals that have inspired and guided free people for more than zoo years.
These ideals were nurtured in me as far back as I can remember. Back in 1959, I wanted
to become a teacher or a nuclear physicist. Teachers were necessary to “train young citizens”
and without them you wouldn’t have “much of a country” America needed scientists
because the “Russians have about five scientists to our one.” Even then, I was fully a
product of my country and its times, absorbing my family’s lessons and America’s needs
as I considered my own future. My childhood in the 1950s and the politics of the 1960s
awakened my sense of obligation to my country and my commitment to service. College,
law school and then marriage took me into the political epicenter of the United States.
A political life, I’ve often said, is a continuing education in human nature, including
one’s own. My involvement on the ground floor of two presidential campaigns and my
duties as First Lady took me to every state in our union and to seventy-eight nations. In
each place, I met someone or saw something that caused me to open my mind and my
heart and deepen my understanding of the universal concerns that most of humanity
shares.
I always knew that America matters to the rest of the world; my travels taught me
how the rest of the world matters to America. Listening to what people in other countries
are saying and trying to under stand how they perceive their place in the world is essential
to a future of peace and security at home and abroad. With this in mind, I have included
voices we don’t hear often enough―voices of people in every corner of the globe
who want the same things we do: freedom from hunger, disease and fear, freedom to
have a say in their own destinies, no matter their DNA or station in life. I have devoted
considerable space in these pages to my foreign travels because I believe that the people
and places are important, and what I learned from them is part of who I am today.
The two Clinton terms covered not only a transforming period in my life but also in
America’s. My husband assumed the Presidency determined to reverse the nation’s economic
decline, budget deficits and the growing inequities that undermined opportunities
for future generations of Americans.
I supported his agenda and worked hard to translate his vision into actions that improved
people’s lives, strengthened our sense of community and furthered our democratic
values at home and around the world. Throughout Bill’s tenure, we encountered political
opposition, legal challenges and personal tragedies, and we made our fair share of mistakes.
But when he left office in January 2001, America was a stronger, better and more
just nation, ready to tackle the challenges of a new century.
Of course, the world we now inhabit is very different from the one described in this
book. As I write this in 2003, it seems impossible that my time in the White House ended
only two years ago. It feels more like another lifetime because of what happened on Sep
tember 11, 2001. The lost lives. The human grief. The smoldering crater. The twisted
metal. The shattered survivors. The victims’ families. The unspeakable tragedy of it all.
That September morning c