President Obama has made the Asia Pacific region a focus of his foreign policy, and Vietnam - a large, growing economy in the heart of Southeast Asia - is critical to those efforts.

I think one of the critiques of me is that I thought I knew it all. But I was learning from the enormous resources available within the U.S. government who have a very different view of the world than many of the people commenting on foreign policy from outside of the government.

When it comes to Israel's security, our military and intelligence cooperation, that's off limits. That's protected. That's sacrosanct.

Talking and diplomacy is often seen as a concession in America, in a way that it is not in other places.

I have always been willing to admit when I made a mistake. I made a mistake in my understanding of the composition of the Contras, not on my opposition to the Contra war.

Peace goes into the making of a poem as flour goes into the making of bread.

First, only a stable government can do good for the nation and deliver development. By stable government, I mean one with a full majority. Then, only a strong leader can resolve the problems of the people.

I don't want to over generalize, but I believe that women are typically drawn to leadership styles that focus on consensus building, effective listening and working in teams. That's certainly been my leadership style, and I think it's been very successful.