Quotes from Ben Rhodes

We have enormous interests in the Asia Pacific. In addition to our economy, we need to secure our allies, protect our environment, promote peace and stability, ensure the free-flow of commerce, and stand up for human rights.

'Make America great again,' is not that different from Putin's nostalgia for the Soviet Union or tsarist Russia.

Billions of people around the globe had come to know Barack Obama, had heard his words, had watched his speeches, and, in some unknowable but irreducible way, had come to see the world as a place that could - in some incremental way - change.

All over the world, independent and strong civil society – NGOs, faith leaders, and other community advocates – help governments solve problems and better serve their people better by shining a light on the issues that matter most – like education standards, access to healthcare, the rule of law, and economic opportunity.

I had originally been looking at writing, including fiction.

What I do miss is foreign travel, because there really is no substitute for showing up somewhere and representing the United States.

For many Americans, 'Vietnam' is a word associated with war and the extraordinarily complex history between our countries. But since normalization began, the U.S. and Vietnam have steadily built bonds of partnership, demonstrating that we can recognize history without being imprisoned by it.

President Obama has made the Asia Pacific region a focus of his foreign policy, and Vietnam - a large, growing economy in the heart of Southeast Asia - is critical to those efforts.

We want a rules-based order in Asia-Pacific like we have had in the Atlantic.

I don't know anymore where I begin and Obama ends.

While the TPP - like any trade deal - is a subject of vigorous debate, its benefits are clear. The TPP will open markets and bring down barriers for American businesses in the world's largest emerging market, creating jobs at home.

I was a relatively anonymous guy, and for whatever reason, I became one of the villains for the Right.

Following one of the most violent conflicts in human history, the United States and Japan built a deep and abiding friendship - an alliance that has underwritten unprecedented economic growth and security in the Asia Pacific for half a century. It is an alliance based on mutual interests and shared values and the ties between our people.

The Benghazi attack was one of the more confusing, chaotic days that we had at work because you had these multiple violent protests taking place in the Middle East.