NPR: FactCheck.org: Clinton Exaggerated Foreign Policy Experience

FactCheck.org: Clinton Exaggerated Foreign Policy Experience

Hillary Clinton has made her foreign policy experience one of the main planks in her campaign to be the Democratic presidential nominee. But FactCheck.org report that her claims of extensive experience in foreign policy matters are not as extensive as she claims.

Officials from Bill Clinton's administration are largely divided as to the extent and effectiveness of Hillary Clinton's foreign policy role as first lady. For example, Richard Holbrooke, a former assistant secretary of state and ambassador to the U.N., claims that Clinton's "intense efforts" in Macedonia "contributed to saving many lives." On the other hand, Susan Rice, also an assistant secretary of state during the Clinton administration, argues that Clinton was never asked to do any "heavy lifting" and says that Clinton's role was more about "gentle prodding or constructive reinforcement." That Holbrooke and Rice would remember Clinton's role differently is unsurprising: Holbrooke is a foreign policy adviser to the Clinton campaign, while Rice has the same role with Obama's campaign.
Indeed, the New York Times recently reported that, as first lady, Clinton did not hold a security clearance nor did she sit in on meetings with the National Security Council. We examined some of the specific examples of Sen. Clinton's experience and found that most of them are weaker than advertised.

FactCheck.org looks at Clinton's claims about: her role in opening the Macedonia border in 1999; her role in the Northern Ireland peace process; her March 1996 visit to war-torn Bosnia with singer Sheryl Crow and comedian Sinbad; a conversation she had with her husband -- President Bill Clinton -- about the genocide in Rwanda; and a speech about women's rights in China --- and finds that while she was involved in these areas, the level of her involvement is exaggerated - more than a bit in some cases.

12:00 PM ET | 03-15-2008 | permalink

Comments

Clinton, not unlike her campaign counterparts, is interviewing for a job she desperately wants. Embelishments of skills and experience are to be expected. And unlike more discerning prospective employers, the constituency is computing soundbites and the distracting vebrado that is our political discourse, distractedly.--With a baby on their hip and a recession looming over their heads. Thankfully, there's the interrogative factcheck.org.

Sent by Trish | 7:49 PM ET | 03-16-2008

You would think Holbrooke's advisory experience in Vietnam might lend an ounce of consideration to his view of how the US pursues foreign policy, but he shares the collective failure in the Balkans that led to Srenbrenica, picking up the pieces afterwards, and retained a hawkish approach to Iraq.

I'll go with Susan Rice on this one.

Sent by Chester | 2:06 PM ET | 03-17-2008

Clinton's claimed accomplishments as First Lady are at least open to interpretation. Her claimed actions, though, are more simple and concrete -- and subject to straightforward truth test. In the embarassing case of the Bosnian sniper fire fable, she flunked that truth test (because she was sleep-deprived, we are told). On her official web site is an equally untrue Balkan story, though, that is written and has been sitting there for weeks. In describing her May 1999 trip to Macedonia, her site sets the scene with these words: "Despite concerns about security, she traveled to the international border on the edge of the war zone, and visited with refugees." Just like the Bosnia fable, this has a heroic ring to it, and also just like the Bosnia fable, it is not true. Clinton arrived in Skopje, Macedonia and traveled by motorcade to the Stenkovec and Brazda refugee camps just to the north of the city (barely past the suburbs), visited with refugees, and returned to Skopje for her scheduled meetings. No border visit. No staring across no man's land into Kosovo. She did not come within miles of the border, which is about a fifteen or twenty minute drive farther north, past a low range of mountains. In both of these stories, Clinton has been unable to simply tell the truth about her productive but fairly routine visits, and has tried to make them into sagas not just of diplomacy but of courage as well. Richard Holbrooke, who knows better, has played an unworthy role as back-up singer to this bogus tune, most likely in hopes of being Clinton's Secretary of State. Sad.

Sent by Dulles | 8:00 AM ET | 03-26-2008

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