62 days til the election, reason #38/100 why we all should vote for Hillary
Yesterday, President Obama became the first sitting U.S. President to visit Laos, a country ravaged by American bombings during the Vietnam war. His visit harkens to a moment in history that we are not proud of as a country, but also highlights our much stronger relationship with the region today. This improvement in our ties with Southeast Asia is called "the pivot" and it is considered one of the major successes of this administration. President Obama did not achieve this on his own. This is, after all, a diary about Hillary Clinton. As Martin Indyk of the Brookings Institution wrote in Foreign Policy,
The “pivot” to East Asia will probably be Obama’s most lasting strategic achievement…but it is Clinton’s too. She laid the groundwork, built the relationships, and developed the complex architecture of the new strategy — and she turned up at that pivotal moment in Vietnam in July 2010 to declare the U.S. commitment to the region.
As chronicled by Correct the Record, Secretary Clinton's list of accomplishments in the region is impressive. She led the region in standing up to China's territorialism, worked multilaterally to isolate North Korea, and expanded security agreements with our allies.
Her diplomatic skill created lasting partnerships for the United States that will certainly be an asset to her presidency.
(For further reading, I highly recommend this article in 538.com, Did Hillary Clinton's Pivot to Asia Work?)