Afghanistan: In Memoir, Hillary Clinton Emphasizes Her Softer Side --- In Hillary Rodham Clinton’s first bid for president in 2008, her campaign seemed determined to make a powerful point: She was strong. She was tough. She was ready to lead. -- In her new book, even as she lays out her foreign policy vision, Mrs. Clinton shows a side of herself that campaign did not: human, motherly, jokey, self-deprecating. -- Mrs. Clinton’s latest memoir, “Hard Choices,” delivers a potent mix of feminine gusto and diplomatic capers. In doing so, she offers a sharp contrast to the argument that she needed to diminish her softer side. -- In retelling her four years as secretary of state, Mrs. Clinton weaves moments like planning the wedding of her daughter, Chelsea — she signed an email to the State Department staff “M.O.T.B.,” short for mother of the bride — while she was also negotiating with China. She attended the rooftop wedding of one of her daughter’s closest friends the night before the raid in Pakistan that led to the killing of Osama bin Laden. One of the guests asked her, “Secretary Clinton, do you think we’ll ever get bin Laden?” -- Mrs. Clinton writes in a straightforward and optimistic prose that drifts from policy discussions to upbeat generalities about the United States and public service: “Doing what’s hard will continue to make our country great.” -- She opens a chapter about American relations with Europe with a Girl Scouts song from elementary school. (“Make new friends, but keep the old.”) And she describes answering questions in South Korea about how she deals with “misogynistic leaders” and how would she “describe love.” Of that event, Mrs. Clinton writes, “It seemed that these women felt connected to me in a personal way.” -- They treated her, she said, “as though I was a friend or mentor, rather than a government official.” -- On the airplanes where she spent much of her time, Mrs. Clinton enjoyed local delicacies like Oaxacan cheese in Mexico, smoked salmon in Ireland and tropical fruit in Cambodia. She mentions her honeymoon twice, calls her husband her “best friend” and closes her story much as she begins it: Describing a peaceful walk with her husband near their home in Chappaqua, N.Y. “There have been too few quiet moments like this over the years,” she writes. “I want to savor them. The time for another hard choice will come soon.” --- Along with the humanizing moments of the book, which is scheduled for release on Tuesday but was obtained in advance by The New York Times, Mrs. Clinton makes clear her concept of America’s place in the world. At times, as in her dealings with Arab leaders while protests unfolded in their countries, Mrs. Clinton articulates that idea without “the usual diplomatic niceties.” --- One of Mrs. Clinton’s biggest challenges has been explaining the connection between diplomacy and national security and her work advancing the rights of women and girls. She devotes the book’s final chapters to that effort. -- Mrs. Clinton has a blitz of media appearances lined up to promote the book, including a nationwide tour that will start on Tuesday with a reading at the Barnes & Noble store in Union Square in New York. Members of Ready for Hillary, an outside group that supports a potential Clinton run for president in 2016, will trail along in a red, white and blue “Hillary Bus” in an effort to drum up grass-roots enthusiasm. -- Mrs. Clinton writes that she has not decided whether she will run for president: “The time for another hard choice will come soon.” -- But she does take time to briefly describe her hopes for Americans in choosing their next president. “Ultimately, what happens in 2016 should be about what kind of future Americans want for themselves and their children — and grandchildren,” Mrs. Clinton writes. And, she says, the questions are not “Do you want to be president?” or “Can you win?” but “What’s your vision for America?” and “Can you lead us there?”