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Win McNamee / Getty Images
Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton jokes with U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta after she was presented the Department of Defense's highest award for public service at the Pentagon on Feb. 14, in Arlington, Va.
Related links:
- The making of Hillary Clinton: 15 moments that define her public life
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AP
Hillary Clinton's life has taken her from first lady to senator to secretary of state.
Panetta meets with China's Xi, eats lunch with cadets
Larry Downing / Pool via Reuters
U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta carries his lunch with cadets in the mess hall at the PLA Engineering Academy of Armored Forces in Beijing, Sept. 19.
Larry Downing / Pool via Reuters
U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta has lunch with cadets in the mess hall at the PLA Engineering Academy of Armored Forces on Sept. 19 in Beijing, China.
Larry Downing / Pool via Reuters
U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, left, sits with China's Vice President Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, Sept. 19.
Panetta met with Chinese leader-in-waiting Xi today, who just days ago reappeared after a puzzling two-week absence. Panetta told the press his “impression was that he was very healthy and very engaged." He also ate lunch with and spoke to cadets at the Armored Forces Engineering Academy where he reassured them about America's plans to put a second radar system in Japan. "Our rebalance to the Asia-Pacific region is not an attempt to contain China," he said. "It is an attempt to engage China and expand its role in the Pacific. It is about creating a new model in the relationship of two Pacific powers."
Panetta is on the second stop of a three nation tour to Japan, China and New Zealand.
Panetta visits Vietnam, exchanges soldiers effects
Jim Watson / Pool via AFP - Getty Images
U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta speaks to USNS Richard E. Byrd Chief Mate Fred Cullen while on a water taxi out to the ship docked at Vietnam's Cam Ranh Bay on June 3, 2012. Panetta arrived from Singapore on June 3 to visit a major base used by U.S. forces in the Vietnam War, as Washington seeks to deepen ties with its former enemy to counter a more assertive posture from China. Panetta was to visit the naval cargo ship currently at the port, the USNS Richard E. Byrd, which moves cargo for the naval fleet with a mostly civilian crew.
Kham / Reuters
U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta reviews the guard of honor during a welcoming ceremony at the Defence Ministry in Hanoi June 4, 2012. Panetta is in Hanoi on a three-day visit to Vietnam from June 3 to 5.
Jim Watson / Pool via Reuters
U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Vietnam's Defence Minister Phung Quang Thanh speaks at a joint news conference in Hanoi June 4, 2012.
Jim Watson / Pool via Reuters
Vietnam's Defence Minister Phung Quang Thanh looks at U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta at left during their joint news conference at the Defence Ministry in Hanoi June 4, 2012. Panetta returns the gaze at right.
Jim Watson / Pool via Reuters
Reuters reports: The Vietnamese government on Monday gave a boost to the search for missing U.S. servicemen from the Vietnam War, telling visiting U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta they would open three previously closed sites to permit excavation for remains.
The announcement came as U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Vietnam Defense Minister Phung Quang Thanh exchanged long-held artifacts collected during the war -- including letters written by a U.S. soldier who was killed that had been kept and used as propaganda, and a small maroon diary belonging to a Vietnamese soldier. A U.S. service member took the journal back to the U.S. Full story.
Photos at right: Top: A picture is seen next to the diary which belonged to Vietnamese soldier Vu Dinh Doan, which was originally taken from Doan's body by U.S. Marine Robert Frazure following Operation Indiana in 1966, on a table at the Defence Ministry in Hanoi June 4, 2012. U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta presented the diary to Vietnam's Defence Minister General Phung Quang Thanh during a news conference at the ministry.
Bottom: The personal letters of U.S. Army Sgt. Steve Flaherty, who was killed during the Vietnam war in 1969, are seen on a table at the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) in Hanoi June 4, 2012. Vietnam's Defence Minister General Phung Quang Thanh presented the letters to U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta during a news conference at the Defence Ministry. Panetta is in Hanoi on a three-day visit to Vietnam from June 3 to 5.
More about the letters by Sgt. Flaherty
Vietnam has given U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta the personal letters of a soldier who was killed in the Vietnam war in 1969. Msnbc.com's Dara Brown reports.
Panetta becomes first Pentagon chief to visit Libya
Pablo Martinez Monsivais / Pool via Reuters
U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, thrid from left, U.S. Ambassador to Libya Gene Cretz, second from left, and Gen. Carter Ham, Commander of U.S. Africa Command, left, bow their heads during the wreath laying ceremony at the grave site of 13 U.S. Navy sailors at the Protestant Cemetery in Tripoli, Libya, Dec. 17.
Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP
U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and Libyan Prime Minister Abd al-Rheem Al-Keeb greet one another during their joint news conference in Tripoli, Libya, Saturday, Dec., 17.
TRIPOLI - U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta arrived in Tripoli Saturday, taking advantage of the ouster of Moammar Gadhafi in an eight-month civil war to become the first Pentagon chief to set foot on Libyan soil.
But Panetta has indicated that the U.S. will give more time to gain control of the militias that overthrew Gadhafi before determining how to help the fledgling government.
"The last thing you want to do is to try to impose something on a country that has just gone through what the Libyans have gone through," said Panetta on Friday before landing in Tripoli.
"They've earned the right to try to determine their future. They've earned the right to try to work their way through the issues that they're going to have to confront," he said.
Read the full story here and see more images of Leon Panetta's travels on PhotoBlog.
Pablo Martinez Monsivais / Pool via Reuters
U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta arrives for a wreath-laying ceremony at the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in Ankara, Turkey, on Dec. 16, 2011.
Travels with Leon Panetta
It's been a busy week for the Secretary of Defense. Three days ago he was in Djibouti, in the Horn of Africa. He then moved on to Kabul where he presented Purple Hearts to members of the armed forces, and yesterday he took part in the ceremony in Baghdad marking the end of the U.S. military's mission in Iraq. Today he is in the Turkish capital, and he is also due to visit Libya on what The Associated Press described as his "holiday tour".
Photographer Pablo Martinez Monsivais has been with him every step of the way as part of the media pool covering the trip. Click on the links above to see more of Monsivais' excellent work.
Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP
Military personnel listen to US Sec. of Defense Leon Panetta, right, during his visit to Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti on Dec. 13, 2011.
As US shifts military focus, Sec. Leon Panetta visits troops in Djibouti
NBC News, msnbc.com staff and news services report:
As the U.S. winds down operations in Iraq and begins its methodical withdrawal from Afghanistan, the U.S. military has increasingly focused on Africa — particularly the north, where insurgents have found sanctuary.
The military base in the tiny port nation of Djibouti is the launchpad for U.S. drones used for intelligence, surveillance and, at times, strikes against insurgents in terror hotspots. The more than 3,000 U.S. service members assigned represent all U.S. military services, including 500 members of the National Guard, NBC News reported.
Read more: Hunt for terrorists shifts to 'dangerous' North Africa, Panetta says
With grim faces, Panetta and Mullen accuse Pakistan of 'exporting violence' to Afghanistan
Win McNamee / Getty Images
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Michael Mullen testify before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Thursday, Sept. 22, in Washington, D.C. Panetta and Mullen testified before the committee on U.S. strategy in Afghanistan and Iraq.
AP reports that Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Michael Mullen accused Pakistan of "exporting violence" to Afghanistan, putting in jeopardy the delicate U.S.-Pakistani partnership against terrorism and possibly a successful outcome to the war in Afghanistan. The two were testifying at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on U.S. strategy in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Maybe Mullen was feeling like he could be a little more honest since he's retiring next week. Or it could be the start of the administration taking a more critical approach to an ally.
Slideshow- Afghanistan: Nation at a crossroads
Update: The New York Times reports that Panetta and Mullen also said that the Pakistani spy agency, the I.S.I., had a direct role supporting the militants in the attack on the U.S. Embassy in Kabul last week. Full story.
Story: As tensions rise, Pakistan warns US: 'You will lose an ally'
NBC's Andrea Mitchell interviewed Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar, who is at the UN this week, about the allegations. Watch the video interview below.
The Obama administration has increased the rhetoric and pressure on Pakistan to act against terror groups in the country. Pakistani Prime Minister Hina Rabani Khar reacts to the request.