The Education of an Idealist: A Memoir

by Samantha Power

Multiple NSC officials needed to approve my trips, and my early requests were almost always denied. When I asked to join a State Department delegation in a dialogue with the Burmese government, for example, I was told I couldn’t go because the presence of someone seen as close to President Obama might inflate expectations of a breakthrough. After a proposed trip to the UN offices in Geneva was deemed “nonessential” and declined on budgetary grounds, I offered to pay my own way. The NSC administrative official looked at me incredulously. “If you are representing the United States government,” she said, “the government must support the trip.” “Yes,” I said, cluelessly, “but you are saying the government won’t cover my trip, and I still want to go. It’s worth it for me to use my own money.”