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Thursday 24 March 2022
Madeleine Albright, 1st female U.S. secretary of state, dies

Continued from Front Bank and in Gaza. But in
1998, she played a leading
“Because she knew role in formulating the Wye
firsthand that America’s Accords that turned over
policy decisions had the control of about 40% of the
power to make a differ- West Bank to the Palestin-
ence in people’s lives ians.
around the world, she saw She also spearheaded an
her jobs as both an obli- ill-fated effort to negoti-
gation and an opportu- ate a 2000 peace deal
nity,” Clinton wrote. “And between Israel and Syria
through it all, even until our under Syria’s late President
last conversation just two Hafez al-Assad. And, she
weeks ago, she never lost helped guide U.S. foreign
her great sense of humor policy during conflicts in
or her determination to go the Balkans and the Hutu-
out with her boots on, sup- Tutsi genocide in Rwanda.
porting Ukraine in its fight to As an outspoken Demo-
preserve freedom and de- crat in private life, Albright
mocracy.” often joked that she had
“Laura and I are heart- her “political instincts surgi-
broken by the news of cally removed” when she
Madeleine Albright’s became secretary of state.
death,” said former Presi- U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, center, gets briefing on the situation around the border True to that, she formed
dent George W. Bush. “She between two Koreas from American Sgt. Tim Ingoldsby, left, during her visit to guard post Ouelletle an unlikely friendship with
in the border village of the Panmunjom, north of Seoul, Feb. 22, 1997. Standing at right is U.S. Gen.
lived out the American Richard B. Myers. arch-conservative North
dream and helped others Associated Press Carolina Sen. Jesse Helms
realize it. ... She served with to increase funding for the
distinction as a foreign- the nation’s highest civilian eign Relations Committee Albright helped win Sen- State Department and U.S.
born foreign minister who honor, saying her life was asked her in January 2007 ate ratification of NATO’s diplomacy and oversaw a
understood firsthand the an inspiration to all Ameri- whether she approved of expansion and a treaty im- radical change in Washing-
importance of free socie- cans. Bush’s proposed “surge” in posing international restric- ton’s handling of Cold War-
ties for peace in our world.” Albright remained outspo- U.S. troops in bloodied Iraq, tions on chemical weap- era messaging.
President Joe Biden and ken through the years. Af- she responded: “I think we ons. She led a successful Born Marie Jana Korbel in
Secretary of State Antony ter leaving office, she criti- need a surge in diploma- fight to keep Egyptian dip- Prague on May 15, 1937,
Blinken had been informed cized President George W. cy. We are viewed in the lomat Boutros Boutros-Ghali she was the daughter of a
of Albright’s death as they Bush for using “the shock of Middle East as a colonial from a second term as sec- diplomat, Joseph Korbel.
were flying to Brussels for force” rather than alliances power and our motives are retary-general of the United The family was Jewish and
an emergency meeting to foster diplomacy and suspect.” Nations. He accused her of converted to Roman Ca-
of NATO leaders about said Bush had driven away Albright was an internation- deception and posing as a tholicism when she was 5.
Ukraine. Linda Thomas- moderate Arab leaders alist whose point of view friend. Three of her Jewish grand-
Greenfield, U.S. envoy to and created potential for was shaped in part by her And she once exclaimed parents died in concentra-
the United Nations, hon- a dangerous rift with Euro- background. Her family to Colin Powell, then the tion camps.
ored Albright as a “trail- pean allies. fled Czechoslovakia in 1939 chairman of the U.S. Joint Albright later said that she
blazer and a luminary” in However, as a refugee as the Nazis took over their Chiefs of Staff, who would became aware of her Jew-
remarks on the General from Czechoslovakia who country, and she spent the later succeed her as sec- ish background after she
Assembly floor shortly af- saw the horrors of both Nazi war years in London. After retary of state: “What’s the became secretary of state.
ter news of her death Germany and the Iron Cur- the war, as the Soviet Union point of having this superb The family returned to
emerged. tain, she was not a dove took over vast chunks of military you’re always talk- Czechoslovakia after World
“The impact that she has and played a leading role eastern Europe, her father, ing about if we can’t use War II but fled again, this
had on this building is felt in pressing for the Clinton a Czech diplomat, brought it?” Powell, who died last time to the United States, in
every single day and just administration to get mili- his family to the U.S. year, recalled in a memoir 1948, after the Communists
about every single cor- tarily involved in the con- As secretary of state, Al- that Albright’s comments rose to power.
ridor,” said State Depart- flict in Kosovo. bright played a key role in almost made him have an They settled in Denver,
ment spokesman Ned She also toed a hard line persuading Clinton to go “aneurysm.” where her father obtained
Price, who once co-taught on Cuba, famously saying to war against the Yugo- “I am an eternal optimist,” a job at the University of
a class with Albright at his at the United Nations that slav leader Slobodan Milo- Albright said in 1998, amid Denver. One of Josef Kor-
alma mater, Georgetown the Cuban shootdown of a sevic over his treatment of an effort as secretary of bel’s best students, a
University’s School of For- civilian plane was not “co- Kosovar Albanians in 1999. state to promote peace young woman named
eign Service, where Al- jones” but rather “coward- In her U.N. post, she advo- in the Middle East. But she Condoleezza Rice, would
bright was a professor for ice.” cated a tough U.S. foreign said getting Israel to pull later succeed his daughter
decades before and after She advised women “to policy, particularly in the back on the West Bank and as secretary of state, the
her time in government. act in a more confident case of Milosevic’s treat- the Palestinians to rout ter- first Black woman to hold
“She was a trailblazer as manner” and “to ask ques- ment of Bosnia and NATO’s rorists posed serious prob- that office.
the first female Secretary tions when they occur and intervention in Kosovo lems. Among current officials
of State and quite literally don’t wait to ask.” was eventually dubbed As America’s top diplo- who worked closely with Al-
opened doors for a large “It took me quite a long “Madeleine’s War.” mat, Albright made limited bright are Biden’s domestic
elements of our of our work- time to develop a voice, “My mindset is Munich,” she progress at first in trying to policy adviser and former
force,” he said. and now that I have it, I am said frequently, referring to expand the 1993 Oslo Ac- U.N. ambassador Susan
In 2012, President Barack not going to be silent,” she the German city where the cords that established the Rice, as well as Deputy Sec-
Obama awarded Albright told HuffPost Living in 2010. Western allies abandoned principle of self-rule for the retary of State Wendy Sher-
the Medal of Freedom, When the Senate For- her homeland to the Nazis. Palestinians on the West man and a host of others.q