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During Michelle Obama’s weeklong visit to Africa, the first lady met with former South African President Nelson Mandela at his home. This was the second official trip Mrs. Obama has made without her husband, and she told one greeter that the president was "pouty" about missing out on the visit. The Obamas first met Mandela and his wife back in 2006 (Mandela has a framed photo of their first meeting in his office). Accompanied by her mother, daughters Malia and Sasha, and her nephew and niece, Michelle made it her mission to reach out to young people and focus on reducing the threat of AIDS. Mrs. Obama devoted much of the trip to community service, including visits to children’s schools and women’s centers.
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In April 2010, Michelle Obama made her first official solo trip to Mexico, a three-day visit that focused on raising awareness about childhood obesity in the country. She incorporated the principles of her “Let’s Move” campaign throughout the visit, and was intent on inspiring self-determination among the country’s youth population. On the day of her arrival, Mexico’s lower chamber of Congress voted to change health laws by ridding schools of junk-food sales and enforcing 30 minutes of daily exercise for students. Mrs. Obama’s visit included meeting with female leaders at the presidential residence and a dinner with President Felipe Calderon and his wife Margarita Zavala. Zavala also accompanied Mrs. Obama on a tour of Mexico City's famous National Museum of Anthropology.
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In the spring of 2002, First Lady Laura Bush made her first official overseas tour sans G.W., with stops in Paris, Budapest, and Prague. She brought along her daughter Jenna, then 20. While in Prague, she spoke on behalf of women’s rights in Afghanistan during a 13-minute address on Radio Free Europe that was broadcast to 28 countries. “I want you to know that the isolation the Taliban regime forced on you is not normal,” she said. “Before the Taliban, women were elected representatives in Afghanistan’s parliament and women were a vital part of Afghanistan’s life.” In Prague, she also participated in a roundtable discussion about the troubled country. The trip shaped Mrs. Bush’s identity as a first lady with a political agenda. “You know, when I married Laura, she was a public-school librarian,” said George W. Bush. “She wasn’t really interested in politics … But, thankfully, she agreed to marry me, and now the American people are beginning to see why,” he said, touting her presence on the world stage. “She is calm and steady,” he continued. “She’s got great values and a huge heart.”
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In 2005, Laura Bush followed up her radio speech in Prague with a solo visit to Afghanistan, where she visited a women’s teacher-training institute, lauding the courage of Afghan women and promising more U.S. aid to the war-torn country. A former teacher and librarian, Mrs. Bush expressed her concern about the lack of education that Afghan girls had received under Taliban rule, and reassured her audience at the training institute that the Taliban’s “tyranny has been replaced by a young democracy.” Mrs. Bush had allegedly wanted to visit ever since her husband entered office, but security concerns delayed the trip. “When I first interviewed with her in 2004, that was the first thing she said: ‘I want to go to Afghanistan,'” said Anita McBride, the first lady’s chief of staff from 2005 to 2009. “She’d been talking about going. She’d been meeting with Afghan women quietly at the White House.”
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Throughout her husband’s presidency, Laura Bush made several visits to Africa to combat HIV/AIDS and malaria. In 2005, she spoke to HIV-positive mothers at South Africa’s Khayelitsha Maternity Obstetrics Unit, thanking them for “stripping away the stigma” surrounding the disease and for helping raise awareness to ultimately prevent more babies from being born with AIDS. She championed the work done by Mothers’ Programmes, a private organization that was funded in part by President Bush’s five-year, $15 billion effort. She also spoke out against domestic violence and sexual abuse in the country, a key component of the AIDS epidemic.
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In the final months before the end of her husband’s term, Laura Bush continued advocating human rights abroad--this time with her elder daughter, Barbara. In August 2008, the first lady traveled to Burma as part of a larger effort to restore democracy to the region. The mother-daughter team visited a Burmese refugee camp, where Mrs. Bush urged other countries to make room for the refugees and encouraged the Burmese government to allow them to return to their old homes without the threat of violence. At the time, most Burmese refugees were allowed to settle in the United States. “The United States is a very welcoming country,” she told the women and children at the refugee camp. “We’re a country made up of immigrants from all across the world. It’s in our moral interest to welcome [Burmese refugees] to the United States.”
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In 1995, first lady Hillary Clinton visited China to deliver an address at the U.N. Fourth World Conference on Women. The trip was controversial, and the Clinton administration debated whether or nor it was responsible for her to rebuke China’s human-rights abuses on their home turf. But there was no stopping Mrs. Clinton: She went and ended up delivering a speech that is still remembered and referenced to this day. “If there is one message that echoes forth from this conference,” she said, “it is that human rights are women’s rights, and women’s rights are human rights once and for all.”
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During her 2008 presidential run, Hillary Clinton came under fire for referencing a “dangerous” trip to Bosnia as first lady in 1996 as proof of her experience in dealing with foreign policy. “I certainly do remember that trip to Bosnia,” she said in one infamous campaign speech. “There was a saying around the White House that if a place was too small, too poor, or too dangerous, the president couldn’t go, so send the first lady.” She then recounted arriving in the country, avoiding sniper fire on the tarmac, and running “with our heads down to get into the vehicles to get to our base.” She was accused of hyperbolizing the incident, and ultimately her campaign admitted she had “misspoke.” But to her credit, her presence in the country during that unstable, post-war period nonetheless made an impact. She toured refugee camps and participated in a roundtable discussion with Bosnian President Ejup Ganic and other American diplomats.
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Though it was not an official state visit, First Lady Nancy Reagan attended the 1981 wedding of Prince Charles and Diana Spencer without her husband’s company. She also visited Chequers, the official country residence of British prime ministers, where she was warmly welcomed by Margaret Thatcher.
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When a 7.9-magnitude earthquake struck Peru in 1970, First Lady Patricia Nixon read about the disaster and told her husband, “I just wish there was something I could do to help.” President Richard Nixon granted her wish and sent her to personally deliver aid and relief supplies to the country. Some 3,000 Peruvians greeted her at the airport, where she assured them that the U.S. would continue to provide aid as they struggled to recover from the quake’s damages. Peruvian first lady Consuelo Velasco flew with Mrs. Nixon into the Andes Mountains to help her deliver nine tons of relief supplies to more than 500,000 victims whose homes and had been demolished. Pat Nixon’s relief mission strengthened previously strained relations between the U.S. and Peru; President Juan Velasco had sided with pro-Soviet foreign policies, but after Mrs. Nixon’s visit, Velasco’s press secretary declared that he was “very touched by the gesture of President Nixon sending his wife. If he could have sent the whole U.S. Air Force, it would not have meant as much as sending his wife.” Mrs. Nixon was subsequently awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of the Sun by President Velasco, the country’s highest honor for civil and military merit.
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Eleanor Roosevelt was the first wife of a U.S. president to travel abroad on her own, as well as the first to cross the Pacific and Atlantic oceans by air. Having been elected honorary vice chair of the Red Cross during her first year as first lady (though she was later criticized for not receiving the proper training), she was invited by the queen of Britain to work with British women involved in the Red Cross in November 1942. While there, Roosevelt also met with American troops and reported back to the president about their conditions and needs. She made her second solo state visit to the South Pacific in 1943, where she strengthened relations with the Australian government and visited some 400,000 soldiers who had been deployed to the islands.
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In 1962, Mrs. Jacqueline Kennedy made her first high-profile trip overseas without President John F. Kennedy. With her younger sister and the U.S. Ambassador to India in tow, Mrs. Kennedy visited India and Pakistan for a “goodwill tour” that was meant to mimic an official state visit. India’s Prime Minister Jwaharlal Nehru greeted her at his home and introduced her to his daughter, Indira Gandhi, who became prime minister herself a mere four years later. She was tremendously well received by the people, who called her “Amriki Rani” or “Queen of America,” as well as by state leaders. In exchange for her “goodwill,” Pakistan’s President Ayub Khan gave her a horse, having learned that the first lady was particularly fond of riding. Mrs. Kennedy garnered much attention from the media for her fashion statements throughout the trip (she allegedly changed her clothes several times throughout the day), though her spokesperson insisted she didn’t “regard this trip as a fashion show.” There was no doubt that Mrs. Kennedy’s semi-official, semi-private visit helped strengthen relations between the East and the West.
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