WASHINGTON (AFP) - Hillary Clinton has dismissed accusations of US decline in her forthcoming memoir, arguing in excerpts released on Tuesday that America remains the world's uniquely reliable problem-solver.
"Talk of America's decline has become commonplace, but my faith in our future has never been greater," wrote Clinton, widely seen as the Democratic frontrunner for the 2016 presidential race, in the author's note of her book "Hard Choices."
Publisher Simon & Schuster released the note on its website ahead of the memoir's June 10 release, and what is expected to be a high-profile book tour by Clinton in which she could frame the narrative of a potential second run for the White House.
She said she decided to chronicle her experiences as US Secretary of State to let people recognize that the United States "still has what it takes to lead."
The author's note contains clues about how a possible president Clinton would see America's role in a rapidly changing 21st Century.
"While there are few problems in today's world that the United States can solve alone, there are even fewer that can be solved without the United States," she wrote.
"Everything that I have done and seen has convinced me that America remains the 'indispensable nation,'" Clinton added.
"And it will be - so long as we stay true to our values and remember that, before we are Republicans or Democrats, liberals or conservatives, or any of the other labels that divide us as often as define us, we are Americans, all with a personal stake in our country."
The 66-year-old also addresses her 2008 presidential bid, in which she lost her party's nomination race to Barack Obama but became his first secretary of state in an "unexpected" partnership with her formal rival.
"I've served our country in one way or another for decades," wrote Clinton, who was first lady during husband Bill Clinton's eight years as president.
"Yet during my years as secretary of state, I learned even more about our exceptional strengths and what it will take for us to compete and thrive at home and abroad."
Clinton said she was proud of her accomplishments as secretary of state, when she visited 112 countries.
"My heart and head together sent me into public service," she wrote.
"Along the way, I've tried not to make the same mistake twice, to learn, to adapt, and to pray for the wisdom to make better choices in the future."
Republicans including potential White House rivals have seized on how she handled a major crisis in 2012, in which a terrorist attack by militants on the US mission in Benghazi, Libya left four Americans dead.
