I have always thought I witnessed Hillary Clinton, who is going to be our next secretary of state, in one of her finest moments. And it had to do with her talking very straight talk in a foreign setting. It was at the United Nations Conference on Women held in Beijing in 1995. I was an American delegate to the conference, perhaps one of the only, perhaps one of the only Republicans in the official delegation. At first I thought there were two Republicans attending, a nun and me. But after talking to the sister, I realized, nope, she wasn’t a Republican.

There was a lot of criticism at the time about American women going to the UN Conference, especially from the most ardent conservatives. In fact, I remember my old friend Arianna Huffington, at that time somewhere to the right of Newt Gingrich, was especially critical. But, hey, through the years the amazing Arianna has changed her politics more often than I have changed my hair color.

The right wasn’t alone in wagging a finger at the conference, for the left had plenty of criticism, as well. A Chinese human-rights activist and American citizen named Harry Wu had been arrested and it appeared that Hillary, although she was the leader of the delegation, would not attend if he were still in jail. In late August, a few weeks before the Conference, he was released.

The Conference was fascinating. But the Chinese hospitality to the women of the world was far less than cordial. When the Chinese government had agreed to host the Conference, it seemed it might be a rehearsal for the Olympics they so desperately wanted. But they lost that Olympics bid to Australia – Sydney, in fact. So they were none too happy playing host to thousands of women, many of who represented non-governmental organizations, including groups that wanted to free Tibet.

Officials only allowed the NGOs to congregate miles outside the city in a muddy field, far from the official Conference site. Although it was September, usually a dry month in Beijing, it rained and rained. It was so wet that the bus meant to take us out to where the NGOs were stashed kept breaking down in the mud.

Hillary came to the Conference to speak in a hall that was filled to capacity with women from every nation, including many veiled women from the Middle East. I think it was at the time she kept changing her hairstyle every couple of months. At that time, in China, her hair was shoulder-length and she was wearing a pink suit. Yes, it was long before her black New York pantsuit days.

Clinton’s speech was forceful and moving, capped by the ringing phrase like “human rights are women’s rights and women’s rights are human rights.” At the end, she was greeted by rapturous applause and everyone realized the importance of her making that declaration in China. I cannot deny that I — along with the rest of our delegation — was glad that it was our American First Lady who was so strong and forthright. Even conservative editorial pages in newspapers back home praised her speech.

Afterwards the delegation went to the American Embassy, congratulated Hillary and ate a lot of canapés. We were always hungry because the food at the hotel where we were staying was really bad. Did we have a Kumbaya moment? Absolutely. In fact, that’s what we sang on the bus all the way back to the hotel, feeling happy and proud — and full.