Suzanne Smalley asked in a Newsweek article if it is possible that Hillary Clinton “really thought she risked her life disembarking from a plane in Bosnia and running for cover under sniper fire. Hillary has been telling the story of her visit to Bosnia in 1996 for many years, gradually adding embellishment and changing details. Perhaps she may have actually come to believe it.”

All those who have experienced war know that it is impossible to forget the difference between a quiet day and a day when bullets are flying around. 

During the war in Bosnia, my city, Gorazde, was under siege. Snipers fired from the surrounding hills at anything that was moving.

I was thirteen in 1992, but I can still vividly remember the feeling when snipers fired around me. 

I would freeze and shake in fear. My heart would beat incredibly fast and the adrenaline rush would be unbelievable. Terrified and confused, I would run for cover. Sometimes I would just drop on the ground and hope and pray to survive.

Bullets and bombs abruptly ended my childhood. I couldn’t play children’s games any more. I had to think about survival. Moments like these forced me to grow up overnight.  

I can still hear in my head the sound of bullets piercing through the air and (luckily in my case) hitting the walls around me.

This will stay clear in my mind forever, no matter how sleep-deprived or tired I get!  

Hillary Clinton wrote in her book, Living History, about her 1996 trip to Bosnia and said that there were reports of gunfire but does not mention hearing or seeing it on her way to Tuzla.

In December 2007, she spoke about her visit and said that they “landed in one of those corkscrew landings and ran out because they said there might be sniper fire.” 

On February 29, Hillary stated that the greeting ceremony “had to be moved inside because of sniper fire.”

On March 17, Clinton described the same trip yet again but this time said that she now remembered “landing under sniper fire. There was supposed to be some kind of a greeting ceremony at the airport, but instead we just ran with our heads down to get into the vehicles to get to our base.” 

Only after videos showed her walking calmly off the plane and meeting a little Bosnian girl in a small ceremony on the airstrip, Hillary said that she “misspoke” about snipers.

“So I made a mistake. That happens. It proves I’m human, which, you know, for some people, is a revelation,” Hillary said, blaming tiredness for her “misspeaking.” 

BBC writes that the word “misspoke” is a useful one in this context. It implies that “something which feels like a lie is really little more than a slip of the tongue.”