'Madeleine Korbel Albright' (born
May 15 1937) was the first woman to become
United States Secretary of State.
She was nominated by
President Bill Clinton on
December 5 1996 and was unanimously confirmed by the
United States Senate 99-0. She was sworn in on
January 23 1997.
Personal information
Madeleine Albright was born as 'Maria Jana Korbelová' in
Prague1,
Czechoslovakia (now the
Czech Republic), and raised as a
Roman Catholic by her parents, who had converted from
Judaism in order to escape persecution. She has a brother, John, who later became an economist. "Madeleine" was the French version of "Madlenka", a nickname given by her grandmother. Albright adopted the new name when she attended a Swiss boarding school. Albright is the daughter of a diplomat — her father, Josef, served in the Czech diplomatic service. Her brother said, "Madeleine had a special relationship with our father, partly because she followed so closely in his footsteps". Later in life, she joined the
Episcopal Church in the USA.
From 1936 to 1939 the Korbel Family lived in
Belgrade, and in
1939 the Korbel family fled to
London. Many of her
Jewish relatives in
Czechoslovakia were killed in the
Holocaust, including three of her grandparents.
[2]
She and her parents fled again when the Communists assumed power over Czechoslovakia, moving to the
United States of America in 1948. Once settled there, Josef became the founding dean of the Graduate School of International Studies at the
University of Denver. Korbel later taught future Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice.
[3] In ''Madam Secretary'', Albright wrote of how her mother told her that Rice was her father's favorite student. At Josef's funeral, Rice gave the family a planter shaped like a piano in the memory of Korbel.
Albright attended school in
Switzerland and in Denver at
Kent Denver School, and later majored in
political science on a
scholarship at
Wellesley College in
Massachusetts. She became a U.S. citizen in 1957. After Wellesley graduation in May 1959, she married Chicago newspaper journalist
Joseph Medill Patterson Albright, whom she had met working a summer job with the
Denver Post.
They had three daughters,
twins Anne and Alice, and Katie. When the twins were born six weeks prematurely, Albright took a course in Russian as a distraction. By the end of their hospital stay, she was fluent in the language. While raising her family, she earned a
Ph.D. in Public Law and Government from
Columbia University.
[4]
The couple divorced in 1982.
In 1996, Albright discovered that her grandparents had been murdered at
Auschwitz and
Terezin. Albright has stated that she did not know she had Jewish ancestors until she was an adult.
Albright is
multilingual, being fluent in
English,
French, and
Czech in addition to
Russian, with good speaking and reading abilities in
German,
Polish and
Serbian.
After her retirement, Albright published her memoir, ''Madam Secretary'' (2003) ISBN 0-7868-6843-0 and '' (2006) ISBN 0-06-089257-9.
According to
Loudoun County assessment records,
Real Estate Tax, Assessment & Parcel Database Secretary Albright owns a 125-acre property in Loudoun, with a mailing address in Washington, DC.
Academic and public career
Madeleine Albright graduated from Kent Denver high school in 1955. Awarded a B.A. from
Wellesley College with honors in
Political Science, she studied at the
School of Advanced International Studies at
Johns Hopkins University, received a Certificate from the Russian Institute at
Columbia University, and her Masters and Doctorate from Columbia University's Department of Public Law and Government. She was also awarded Honorary Doctors of Laws from the
University of Washington in 2002,
University of Winnipeg in 2005 and the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2007.
From
1976 to
1978, she served as Chief Legislative Assistant to U.S. Senator
Edmund Muskie. From 1978 to
1981, as both a staff member of the White House and the National Security Council, Albright was an important Carter Administration official responsible for the formulation of foreign policy legislation.
From
1981 to
1982, Secretary Albright was awarded a fellowship at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars at the
Smithsonian Institution following an international competition in which she wrote about the
role of the press in political changes in
Poland during the early
1980s.
From 1981 to 1982 she also served as a Senior Fellow in
Soviet and
Eastern European Affairs at the
Center for Strategic and International Studies, conducting research in developments and trends in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.
In 1981 she co-founded the
Center for National Policy. She also served as President of the organization.
In 1982, Albright was appointed Research Professor of International Affairs and Director of Women in Foreign Service Program at
Georgetown University's
School of Foreign Service. She taught undergraduate and graduate courses in international affairs, U.S.
foreign policy,
Russian foreign policy, and
Central and
Eastern European politics, and was responsible for developing and implementing programs designed to enhance women's professional opportunities in international affairs. She was voted "best teacher" four times. Before becoming Secretary of State, Albright served as
US Ambassador to the United Nations in President Clinton's Cabinet. Today, Secretary Albright is once again a professor at Georgetown.
United States Ambassador to the United Nations
Albright gained recognition as a foreign policy adviser to vice-presidential nominee
Geraldine Ferraro in
1984 and to presidential candidate
Michael Dukakis in
1988. Though both failed to be elected, she emerged as a key adviser to Democrats on foreign policy. Albright was appointed ambassador to the UN, her first diplomatic post, shortly after Clinton was inaugurated, presenting her credentials on
February 9 1993. During her tenure at the UN, she had a rocky relationship with the
United Nations Secretary-General,
Boutros Boutros-Ghali. She did not take action against the
genocide in
Rwanda. Albright later remarked in PBS documetary ''Ghosts of Rwanda'' that "it was a very, very difficult time, and the situation was unclear. You know, in retrospect, it all looks very clear. But when you were [there] at the time, it was unclear about what was happening in Rwanda."
[5]
She was also criticized for defending the sanctions of
Iraq under Saddam Hussein, which led to hundreds of thousands of civilian deaths. In 1996, she made highly controversial remarks in an interview with
Lesley Stahl on
CBS's ''
60 Minutes''. Asked by Stahl with regards to effect of sanctions against Iraq: "We have heard that half a million children have died. I mean, that's more children than died in
Hiroshima. And, you know, is the price worth it?". Albright replied: "I think this is a very hard choice, but the price — we think the price is worth it."
[6]
She expressed regret for this remark in her 2003 autobiography,
[7] and when asked about it in
2005 she said "I never should have made it, it was stupid," but she still supported the concept of tailored sanctions.
[8]
Both Bill Clinton and Madeleine Albright insisted that an attack on Hussein could only be stopped if Hussein reversed his decision to halt arms inspections. "Iraq has a simple choice. Reverse course or face the consequences," Albright said.
[9]
The lawyers of
Mohamed Rashed Daoud Al-Owhali, convicted in the 1998 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya, used Albright's ''60 Minutes'' comment in an attempt to save the terrorist from the death penalty.
[10]
Also in 1996, after Cuban pilots shot down two small civilian aircraft flown by the Cuban exile group
Brothers to the Rescue into Cuban territory, she announced, "This is not cojones. This is cowardice." The line reportedly endeared her to President Clinton.
Boutros Boutros-Ghali's spokesperson Sylvana Foa said of Albright, "She's no shrinking violet. She can be biting."
Secretary of State
When Madeleine Albright was confirmed as the 64th Secretary of State of the United States, she became the first female
Secretary of State and the highest-ranking woman in the history of the United States government. Being foreign-born, she was not eligible as
Presidential Successor and was excluded from nuclear contingency plans. As Secretary, Dr. Albright reinforced America’s alliances, advocated democracy and human rights, and promoted American trade and business, labor and environmental standards abroad.
During her tenure, Albright considerably influenced American policy in
Bosnia and the
Middle East. She incurred the wrath of a number of
Serbs in the former
Yugoslavia for her perceived personal anti-Serb position and her role in participating in the formulation of U.S. policy during the
Kosovo War and
Bosnian war as well as the rest of the
Balkans. According to Colin Powell's memoirs, Albright once argued for the use of military force by asking, "What’s the point of having this superb military you’re always talking about, if we can’t use it?"
As Secretary of State she represented the United States at the
Handover of Hong Kong on
1 July 1997. She boycotted the swearing-in ceremony of the China-appointed
Legislative Council, which replaced the elected one, along with the British contingents.
[11]
According to several accounts, the American ambassador to Kenya, Prudence Bushnell, repeatedly asked Washington for additional security at the embassy in Nairobi, including in an April 1998 letter directly to Albright. Bushnell was ignored.
[12] In "Against All Enemies," Richard Clarke writes about an exchange with Albright several months after the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were bombed in August 1998. "What do you think will happen if you lose another embassy?" Clarke asked. "The Republicans in Congress will go after you." "First of all, I didn't lose these two embassies," Albright shot back. "I inherited them in the shape they were."
In 1998, at the 50th anniversary
NATO summit, Albright articulated what would become known as the "three Ds" of NATO, "which is no diminution of NATO, no discrimination and no duplication -- because I think that
we don't need any of those three "Ds" to happen."
[13]
In
2000, Secretary Albright became one of the highest level Western diplomats to ever meet
Kim Jong-il, the communist leader of
North Korea, during an official state visit to that country.
[14]
In one of her last acts as Secretary of State, Albright on
January 8 2001, paid a farewell call on
Kofi Annan and said that the United States would continue to press Iraq to destroy all its weapons of mass destruction as a condition of lifting economic sanctions, even after the end of the Clinton administration on
January 20 2001.
[15]
Post-2001 career
Following Albright's term as U.S. Secretary of State, many speculated that she might pursue a career in
Czech politics. Czech President
Václav Havel talked openly about the possibility of Albright succeeding him after he retired in 2002. Albright was reportedly flattered by suggestions that she should run for office, but denied ever seriously considering it.
[16] She was the 2nd recipient of the ''Hanno R. Ellenbogen Citizenship Award'' presented by the
Prague Society for International Cooperation.
Albright and at least five other members of the Clinton administration currently serve on the Council on Foreign Relations board of directors. Kenneth M. Pollack, director for Gulf affairs at the National Security Council during the Clinton administration, in 2002 wrote "The Threatening Storm," which was published with, according to Pollack on page 426, the imprimatur of the Council on Foreign Relations. Pollack argued that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, containment was failing, and that Saddam Hussein should be removed from power through the use of force.
She is currently the Mortara Distinguished Professor of Diplomacy at the
Georgetown University Walsh School of Foreign Service in
Washington, D.C. On
October 25 2005, Albright guest starred on the TV drama ''
Gilmore Girls'' as herself.
In 2003, she accepted a position on the Board of Directors of the
New York Stock Exchange. In 2005, Albright declined to run for re-election to the Board in the aftermath of the Grasso compensation scandal, in which the Chairman of the NYSE Board of Directors,
Dick Grasso, had been granted $187.5-million dollars in compensation, with little governance by the board on which Albright sat. During the tenure of the interim chairman, John S. Reed, Albright served as chairwoman of the NYSE board's nominating and governance committee. Shortly after the appointment of the NYSE board's permanent chairman in 2005, Albright submitted her resignation.
[17]
On
January 5 2006, she participated in a meeting at the
White House of former Secretaries of Defense and State to discuss United States foreign policy with Bush administration officials. On
May 5 2006 she was again invited to the
White House to meet with former Secretaries and Bush administration officials to discuss
Iraq.
Albright currently serves as chairperson of
National Democratic Institute for International Affairs and as president of the
Truman Scholarship Foundation. She is also the co-chair of the
Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor. She is also currently Chair of the
Council of Women World Leaders ''Women's Ministerial Initiative''.
In an interview to ''
Newsweek International'' published in
July 24 2006, Albright gave her opinion in United States' current foreign policy. Albright said: "I hope I'm wrong, but I'm afraid that Iraq is going to turn out to be the greatest disaster in American foreign policy – worse than Vietnam."
[18]
In September
2006 she received the
MiE Award, with
Václav Havel, for furthering the cause of international understanding.
Albright has mentioned her physical fitness and exercise regimen in several interviews. She has said she is capable of
leg pressing 400 pounds.
[19][20]
She has endorsed Sen.
Hillary Clinton (D-NY) for the President of the United States and supports her
campaign for the White House. Albright has been a close personal friend of Sen. Clinton and serves as her top informal advisor on foreign policy matters.
On
May 13 2007, two days before her 70th birthday, Albright received an honorary doctor of laws degree from the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
[21]
Albright spoke at
Capella University in June 2007.
[22][23]
She has been mentioned as a possible candidate for the position of Chancellor at
Vanderbilt University.
[24]
References
1. Biography at The Washington Post
2. Allen Says He Embraces His Jewish Ancestry Michael D. Shear
3. For Albright and Rice, Josef Korbel Is Tie that Binds Guy Raz
4. Biography: Madeleine Korbel Albright
5. Interview Madeleine Albright
6. "We Think the Price Is Worth It"
7. "Albright's Blunder"
8. Madelaine Albright, former US Secretary of State, gives her views on future of Iraq and the trial of Saddam Hussein.
9. Hussein seeks 'just' solution to standoff
10. Bomber's defense focuses on U.S. policy on Iraq Phil Hirschkorn
11. http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9706/10/hong.kong.us/index.html
12. http://partners.nytimes.com/library/world/africa/010999africa-bomb.html
13. http://www.fas.org/man/nato/news/1998/98120904_tlt.html
14. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/kim/interviews/Albright.html
15. http://www.usembassy.it/file2001_01/alia/a1010801.htm
16. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/659215.stm
17. http://www.sptimes.com/2004/04/02/Business/Interim_NYSE_chairman.shtml
18. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13879417/site/newsweek/
19. U.S. News - Washington Whispers, May 5, 2006
20. NPR - Madeline Albright Reveals Exercise Regimen For "Kicking Ass"
21. UNC News Release - Five to receive honorary degrees at Carolina's Spring Commencement
22.
http://www.capellacommons.com/2007/06/07/distinguished-speaker-dr-madeline-albright/
23. [1]
24. http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070726/COLUMNIST0101/707260368/1092/NEWS01
External links
★
''Voices on Antisemitism'' Interview with Madeleine Albright from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum
★
Portrait of Madeleine Albright – Madeleine Albright interviewed by Ulysse Gosset on France 24 - The Talk of Paris Show
★
Official biography at State Department site
★
Biography at National Women's History Project
★
Sample chapter and audio interview about ''The Mighty and the Almighty'' (Official publisher web page)
★
Summary Biography from Global Leaders
★
1997 commencement speech, Mount Holyoke College
★
2003 commencement speech, Smith College
★
2007 commencement speech, Wellesley College
★
Listing at
Marquis Who's Who in the World
★
Chapter excerpts and audio interview about foreign policy (Official publisher web page)
★
Audio recording of Albright's talk, "The Mighty and the Almighty," as part of the University of Chicago
World Beyond the Headlines series.
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