He wouldnt take the call, so I publicly and...
He wouldnt take the call, so I publicly and repeatedly apologized

Over the next three days, protests escalated all over ChinaThey were especially intense around the American embassy in Beijing, where Ambassador Sasser found himself besiegedThe Chinese said they believed the attack was deliberate and declined to accept my apologiesWhen I finally talked with President Jiang on the fourteenth, I apologized again and told him I was sure he didnt believe I would knowingly attack his embassyJiang replied that he knew I wouldnt do that, but said he did believe that there were people in the Pentagon or the CIA who didnt favor my outreach to China and could have rigged the maps intentionally to cause a rift between usJiang had a hard time believing that a nation as technologically advanced as we were could make such a mistake

I had a hard time believing it, too, but thats what happenedEventually we got beyond it, but it was tough going for a whileI had just named Admiral Joe Prueher, who was retiring as commander in chief of our forces in the Pacific, to be the new UHe was very respected by the Chinese military, and I believed he would be able to help repair the relationship

By late May, NATO had approved a 48,000-troop peacekeeping force to go into Kosovo after the conflict was concluded, and we had begun quiet discussions about the possibility of sending in ground troops earlier if it became clear that the air campaign wasnt going to prevail before people were gucci fabric trapped in the mountains by winterSandy Berger was preparing a memo for me on options, and I was ready to send troops in if necessary, but I still believed the air war would succeedOn the twenty-seventh, Milosevic was indicted by the war crimes prosecutor in The Hague

There was a great deal of activity in the rest of the world in MayIn mid-month, Boris Yeltsin survived his own impeachment vote in the DumaOn the seventeenth, Prime Minister Netanyahu was defeated for reelection by the Labor Party leader, retired general Ehud Barak, the most decorated soldier in Israeli historyBarak was a brilliant Renaissance man: he had done graduate work in economic engineering systems at Stanford, was a concert-level classical pianist, and repaired clocks as a hobbyHe had been in politics only a few years, and his close-cropped hair, intense stare, and blunt, staccato speaking style were more reflective of his military past than of the more murky political waters he now had to navigateHis victory was a clear signal that Israelis saw in him what they had seen in his role model, Yitzhak Rabin: the possibility of peace with securityEqually important, Baraks large victory margin had given him the chance to have a governing coalition in the Knesset that would support the hard steps to peace, something Prime Minister Netanyahu had never had

The next day Jordans King Abdullah came to see me, full of hope for peace and determination to be a worthy successor to his fatherHe clearly sale chanel quilted handbag understood the challenges facing his nation and the peace processI was also struck by his understanding of economics and the contribution that more growth could make to peace and reconciliationAfter the meeting I was convinced that the king and his equally impressive wife, Queen Rania, would be positive forces in the region for a long time to come

On May 26, Bill Perry delivered a letter from me to Kim Jong Il, North Koreas leader, proposing a road map to the future in which America would provide a broad range of assistance to him if, but only if, he gave up his attempts to develop nuclear weapons and long-range missilesIn 1998, North Korea had taken the constructive step of ending its tests of such missiles, and I thought Perrys mission had a fair chance to succeed

Two days later, Hillary and I were at a DLC retreat at White Oak Plantation in northern Florida, which has the largest wild game preserve in the United StatesI got up at four in the morning to watch the inaugural ceremonies for Nigerias new president, former general Olusegun Obasanjo, on TVEver since gaining independence, Nigeria had been riddled by corruption, regional and religious strife, and deteriorating social conditionsDespite its large oil production, the country suffered periodic power outages and fuel shortagesObasanjo had taken power briefly in a military coup in the 1970s, then had kept his promise to step aside as soon as new elections could be heldLater, he had been imprisoned for his tiffany heart charm toggle necklace political views and, while incarcerated, had become a devout Christian and had written books about his faithIt was hard to imagine a bright future for sub-Saharan Africa without a more successful Nigeria, by far its most populous nationAfter listening to his compelling inaugural address, I hoped Obasanjo would be able to succeed where others had failed

On the home front, I started the month with an important clean-air announcementWe had already reduced toxic air pollution from chemical plants by 90 percent, and had set tough standards to reduce smog and soot that would prevent millions of cases of childhood asthmaOn May 1, I said that after extensive consultation with industry, environmental, and consumer groups, EPA administrator Carol Browner would promulgate a rule to require all passenger vehicles, including gas-guzzling SUVs, to meet the same pollution standards, and that we would cut the sulfur content of gasoline by 90 percent over five years

I announced a new crime initiative, releasing the funds to complete our efforts to put 100,000 police on the streets (more than half of them were already in service); expanding the COPS program to hire 50,000 more police officers in the highest-crime areas; and making it a federal crime to possess biological agents that could be turned into terrorist weapons without a legitimate, peaceful purpose for having them

The twelfth was a day I had hoped would never come; Bob Rubin was returning to private lifeI believed he had mens cartier watches roadster been the best and most important Treasury secretary since Alexander Hamilton in the early days of our RepublicBob had also been the first head of the National Economic CouncilIn both positions he had played a decisive role in our efforts to restore economic growth and spread its benefits to more Americans, to prevent and contain financial crisis abroad, and to modernize the international financial system to deal with a global economy in which more than one trillion dollars crossed national borders every dayHe had also been a rock of stability during the impeachment ordeal, not only speaking up at the meeting when I apologized to my cabinet, but also constantly reminding our people that they should be proud of what they were doing, and cautioning them not to be too judgmentalOne of our younger people said that Bob had told him that if he lived long enough, he would do something hed be ashamed of, too

When Bob came into the administration he was probably the wealthiest person on our teamAfter he supported the 1993 economic plan, with its tax increase for the highest-income Americans, I used to joke that Bob Rubin came to Washington to help me save the middle class, and when he leaves, hell be one of themNow that Bob was moving back into private life, I didnt think Id have to worry about that anymore

I named Bobs able deputy secretary, Larry Summers, to succeed himLarry had been in the thick of all the major economic questions of the last six years, and he was prada bag with metal handle ready