To hear Senator Hillary Clinton tell it now, she had a lot more going on as first lady than she let on at the time.
On the presidential campaign trail, where she is locked in a tight race with fellow Democrat Senator Barack Obama, Clinton frequently makes the pitch that she is uniquely qualified to pass the "commander in chief" test in large part because of her foreign policy and national security experience in Bill Clinton's White House.
She takes credit for helping bring peace to Northern Ireland, negotiating open borders for refugees fleeing Kosovo, standing up to the Chinese government over women's rights and flying into Bosnia when it was too dangerous to send the president.
There is little doubt that Clinton was an exceptionally activist first lady. She was the first to set up shop in a West Wing office alongside other White House policymakers and immediately was in the thick of domestic policy deliberations, most notably her long and unsuccessful fight for healthcare reform.
She also took a keen interest in foreign policy, traveling to more than 80 countries, with her husband and alone, to promote US policy and the cause of women and children.
But Clinton is taking credit for accomplishing more than some of those who were active in foreign policy during the Clinton years recall.
Former Clinton administration officials, many of them now aligned with either Hillary Clinton or Obama, offer differing views on the extent of her influence -- and its relevance to the presidential race.
"Her experience speaks for itself," said former UN ambassador Richard Holbrooke, who is advising Clinton's campaign.
She was not the one making the final decisions on US policy, he said, but "no one in the world got a better idea of the countervailing pressures. The most important decision a president can make is to send Americans into harm's way. She knows what that entails."
A contrary view comes from Susan Rice, a former assistant secretary of state from the Clinton years and an Obama campaign adviser. She said Clinton's involvement with foreign policy as first lady was "laudable and important, but it is hardly the same thing as the kind of crisis management" that is required of a president.
"There is no crisis to be dealt with or managed when you are first lady," Rice said.
A look at some of Clinton's specific foreign policy claims:
Northern Ireland: "I helped to bring peace to Northern Ireland."
Clinton traveled to Northern Ireland five times as first lady and was a tireless advocate for the peace process. But she was not directly involved in negotiating the Good Friday peace accord.
She did encourage Irish women on both sides of the conflict to come together and get involved in a process that was dominated by men.
Former Democratic senator George Mitchell, who brokered the 1998 peace accord, said Clinton was "quite helpful."
"She became quite active in encouraging women in Northern Ireland to engage in the political process and in the peace process, and ultimately the role of women was important in moving the process forward," said Mitchell, who is neutral in the presidential race. "She was one of many people who participated in encouraging women to get involved, not the only one."
John Hume, the Catholic leader who shared the 1998 Nobel Peace Prize for his work on the peace accord, credits Clinton for playing a "pivotal role" in the peace process.
RSS