Living History by Unknown (best non fiction books of all time .txt) 📕

the triumphs and travails between then and now. Though we have raised you for this moment of departure and we are very proud of you, a part of us longs to hold you once more as we did when you could barely walk, to read to you just one more time, Good Night, Moon or Curious George or The Little Engine That Could.” When we returned from the ceremony, the entire White House staff had gathered in the East Room to congratulate Chelsea. Everyone got a piece of Roland Mesnier’s fabulous graduation cake that was, fittingly, shaped like an open book. These men and women had first met Chelsea as a child wearing braces and had watched and helped her blossom into a wonderful young woman.

VITAL VOICES

As summer approached, the administration was gearing up for three big jobs: negotiating a balanced budget with Congress, holding an economic summit in Denver, Colorado, and organizing a high-level meeting in Madrid on the controversial expansion of NATO.

One of the most important lessons I learned during my years as First Lady was how dependent the affairs of state and the policies of nations are on the personal relationships among leaders. Even ideologically opposed countries can reach agreements and forge alliances if their leaders know and trust one another. But this sort of diplomacy requires constant nurturing and informal dialogue among the principals, which is one reason why the President, Vice President and I took frequent trips overseas.

The G-7 summit, an annual meeting of the world’s major industrial nations―the United States, Great Britain, France, Germany, Japan, Italy and Canada―had increasingly become a political as well as an economic forum. Russia had been invited as a guest at previous G-7 summits, but by 1997, when the United States was scheduled to host the meeting in Denver, Boris Yeltsin was pushing for his country’s full inclusion. The Finance Ministers of several member states opposed the change on the ground that Russia was still economically weak, dependent on the G-7 and the international financial institutions for support and often resistant to reforms necessary for long-term prosperity. But Bill and his fellow leaders thought it was important to support Yeltsin and felt that it would send an important message to the Russian people about the positive benefits of cooperation with the United States, Europe and Japan. So Russia was invited, and the June gathering in Denver was hastily renamed the “Summit of Eight,” later to officially become the G-8.

Bill was determined to bring Yeltsin into the inner circle of world leaders. The strategy was to enhance Yeltsin’s status in Russia, since he was perceived to be his country’s best hope for democracy, and to entice the Russians into accepting the expansion of NATO in Eastern Europe. Madeleine Albright and Strobe Talbott, Deputy Secretary of State and Russia expert, were the main architects of this approach within the Administration.

Madeleine worked tirelessly to cajole and sometimes push Moscow into the Western orbit, which I’m told earned her the Russian nickname “Madame Steel.”

In the early days of Bill’s Presidency, I questioned the value of state visits in which the men sequestered themselves for meetings and the wives were treated to stagemanaged tours of cultural landmarks. Now I realized that forging good relationships with my fellow spouses provided convenient low-key communication among the heads of states. I also found many of my counterparts to be fascinating companions, and some became good friends.

In Denver, I invited the visiting First Ladies on a scenic train ride up to Winter Park ski resort for lunch with a mountaintop view of the Colorado Rockies. I was just getting to know Cherie Blair, wife of Britain’s newly elected Prime Minister, Tony Blair, but I already liked her enormously. I knew most of the other women from previous summits, and was excited to see Naina Yeltsin evolve in her role since we’d first met in Tokyo in 1993. She had been a civil engineer who had worked on water systems and then was thrust into the treacherous waters of Russian politics. From the beginning she was personable and articulate about children and their health care needs. In 1995, I had helped her secure a donation of nutritional formula Russia needed to treat children suffering from phenylketonuria (PKU), an inherited disease that affects the central nervous system.

Aline Chretien, whose husband, Jean, had been elected Prime Minister of Canada in 1993, was intelligent, sharply observant and elegant. I was impressed by her self-discipline and willingness to take on new challenges. During the eight years we saw each other, she studied and faithfully practiced piano. She also knew how to have fun. We had a great time skating together on the frozen canals around Ottawa in 1995. Kamiko Hashimoto of Japan, lively and curious, made a wonderful impression. Flavia Prodi of Italy, a serious and thoughtful academic, tried to explain Italian politics, which seemed to change constantly while Italian society and culture persisted no matter who was governing.

As the train rolled through the spectacular scenery, some folks came out along the track to wave, and a few held signs welcoming our visitors. Then, while I was standing outside on the platform of the last car, two young men appeared out of nowhere, bent over, dropped their pants, and mooned us. I was momentarily horrified, but then I had to laugh at such an irreverent and unforgettable addition to my carefully planned spousal itinerary.

Although the Denver meetings were serious and often tense, we tried to put everyone at ease at the evening social events. In deference to the once wild West, the main dinner party had a frontier theme, complete with rattlesnake and buffalo, a mini rodeo and a country and western band. Bill gave his guests cowboy boots as gifts. Prime Ministers Ryutaro Hashimoto of Japan and Jean Chretien of Canada happily donned their boots, pulling up their pant legs to show them off when they arrived for dinner.

Sharing meals is an important element of diplomacy and sometimes a tricky one. The