Morning Politocadoes!
Former Secretary of State and Ambassador to the UN, Madeleine Albright has passed away from cancer at the age of 84. She was the first female Secretary of State in the history of the United States while serving under the Clinton administration. She would later be awarded with the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama.
Born in Prague, Czechoslovakia in 1937, Maria Jana Korbelova’s life was shaped entirely by the rise of Nazi Germany. By the age of one, the Munich Agreement was signed and her country would fall under the control of a fascist regime. Her father Josef had been a diplomatic atache and a supporter of Czech democrats like Edvard Benes. These connections would endanger his family as Germany occupied the country and force them into exile. Her family, who was Jewish, converted in 1941 to Catholicism in hopes of not being targeted. Albright would not be told of her Jewish heritage until 1997. Three of her grandparents would die in the Holocaust.
In Belgrade, her father worked for the Czech government-in-exile. The family would later flee to London, England, where they would endure the worst of the Blitz. After the end of World War II, the family returned to Prague. During this time she changed her name to Madeleine. Concerned for the rise of the Czech Communist Party, Josef had the family emigrate to the United States. His fear of Communism was aided his bid for political asylum for his family. The family moved to Denver, where he got a position at the University of Denver. He would later teach another future Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice.
Madeleine attended Wellesley College on a full scholarship, majoring in Political Science. On break one year while working as an intern at the Denver Post, she met her future husband, Joseph Albright. They married shortly after her graduation, she became a member of her husband’s Episcopalian church.
She continued her studies, ultimately earning a Master’s and a PhD from Columbia. She studied under Zbigniew Brzezinski (her future boss). During her work on her doctoral thesis, she organized fundraisers for her daughters’ school, which put her in contact with Democratic fundraisers, which led her to holding a fundraising dinner for the Presidential Campaign of US Senator from Maine, Ed Muskie. This association with Muskie led to a brief tenure as his Chief Legislative Assistant before Brzezinski poached her for President Jimmy Carter’s National Security Council.
All of this would lead to her being the Chief Foreign Policy Advisor for the Democratic Party, advising Vice Presidential Candidate Geraldine Ferraro and eventual Presidential Candidate Michael Dukakis. When Bill Clinton won the Presidency in 1992, she was tasked with the National Security Council transition and was subsequently nominated to be U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations.
It was at this time she was plunged into the most difficult circumstances. Her difficult relationship with UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros Ghali began with the Rwandan Genocide. While plenty of blame can be laid at the US for not wanting to see it for what it was, Albright also accused Galli of not doing enough and being disengaged from the conflict. She would feel guilt for the rest of her life for not doing enough when the time to act was upon them.
She showed a particular aptitude for politicking at the UN, becoming a part of a pact along with figures like Richard Clarke, to oust Boutros Boutros Ghali from his position as Secretary-General. Using the deaths of UN peacekeepers in Somalia as a pretext, the US delegation vetoed his bid for a second term on the Security Council, the sole veto on the Council. With the bid deadlocked, Ghali withdrew his candidacy. He is the only UN Secretary-General to not receive a second term. After several round of vetoes with France, the US delegation was successful in confirming Kofi Annan to the position.
Following this and Bill Clinton’s successful re-election, Albright was put forward as the new Secretary of State. She was successfully confirmed to the position. Albright would have extensive influence over policy in Boznia and Herzegovina. She oversaw the transfer of Hong Kong to China in 1997. She was also one of the highest level diplomats to have ever met with North Korean Dictator Kim Jong-Il (he would later give her a basketball as a gift).
Ominously, Albright would spend the latter years of the Clinton administration making calls for Iraq to destroy its weapons of mass destruction as a condition for lifting of economic sanctions. She would continue to push for this even after the end of the Clinton administration. While not *quite* the same as what would come about later, the shades of the future are dark indeed.
Albright was an incredibly accomplished woman, she was smart, clever, resilient and an excellent writer. Her life, like many others, has its controversies and failings but she remains an aspirational figure to many. Her passing is sad but it comes with the knowledge that it was a full life.
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