Hillary Clinton's tenure as Secretary of State the U.S. Specifically, she said "we cannot permit northern Mali to become a safe haven." The next day, January 24, Clinton introduced John Kerry before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, as hearings were held on his nomination to succeed her. She called him "the right choice to carry forward the Obama Administration's foreign policy", and called out his testimony before the same committee in 1971 in opposition to the Vietnam War as "speaking hard truths about a war that had gone badly off track." At both public appearances, as well as at the second inauguration of Barack Obama, Clinton wore
United States Secretary of State an instrument delivered to the office of the secretary of state. Accordingly, the resignations of President Nixon and of Vice-President Spiro Agnew, domestic issues, were formalized in instruments delivered to the secretary of state, Henry Kissinger. As the highest-ranking member of the cabinet, the secretary of state is the third-highest official of the executive branch of the Federal Government of the United States, after the president and vice president, and is fourth in line to succeed the presidency, coming after the vice president, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and the President pro tempore of the Senate. Six secretaries