Hillary Had My Back

[MrWendel]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joe-wilson/hillary-had-my-back_b_9243038.html

By Joesph C. Wilson, Retired Ambassador



I first met Hillary Clinton in 1997 while I was the Senior Director for African Affairs at the National Security Council. The First Lady was best known at that time for leading the fight for health care reform, and her strong advocacy on behalf of minorities, children and women. Though new at the time to foreign policy, she had electrified the world in Beijing in 1995 when she declared at a United Nations conference: "Women's rights are human rights."

She was keenly interested in Africa, having recently returned from a visit there. Moved by that experience, she became a valued and persuasive partner in convincing President Bill Clinton to travel there the following year. It was an historic, substantive and precedent-setting trip: six countries over eleven days, the longest period of time the President spent outside the country during his tenure.

In South Africa, Nelson Mandela, a hero to both Bill and Hillary Clinton, took them to see his jail cell on Robben Island, where he had broken rocks for 27 years as a convicted terrorist. The symbolism of his transition from prisoner to beloved liberator, leader and statesman was lost on nobody. No wonder Hillary Clinton has called him her most inspirational international leader.

Our last stop, Dakar, Senegal, was dedicated to African-Americans and the contributions they have made to American society, culture and economic achievement. Standing at the infamous "Door of No Return" at the House of Slaves on Goree Island, we were all touched by the terrible circumstances that had brought Africans to American shores in chains centuries ago.

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