Madeleine Jana Korbel Albright[1] (bornMarie Jana Körbelová, later Korbelová; May 15, 1937 – March 23, 2022)[2][3] was an American diplomat andpolitical scientist who served as the 64thUnited States secretary of state under PresidentBill Clinton from 1997 to 2001.[4] She was the first woman to hold the position.
After leaving the National Security Council, Albright joined the academic faculty ofGeorgetown University in 1982 and advised Democratic candidates regarding foreign policy. Following the1992 presidential election, Albright helped assemble PresidentBill Clinton's National Security Council. She was appointedUnited States ambassador to the United Nations from 1993 to 1997, a position she held until her elevation as secretary of state. Secretary Albright served in that capacity until President Clinton left office in 2001.
Albright was born Marie Jana Körbelová in 1937 in theSmíchov district ofPrague, Czechoslovakia.[12] Her parents wereJosef Korbel, aCzech diplomat, and Anna Korbel (née Spieglová).[13] At the time of Albright's birth, Czechoslovakia had been independent for less than 20 years, having gained independence fromAustria-Hungary afterWorld War I. Her father was a supporter ofTomáš Masaryk andEdvard Beneš.[14] Marie Jana had a younger sister Katherine[15] and a younger brother John (these versions of their names areAnglicized).[16]
The family moved to Britain in May 1939. Here her father worked for Beneš'sCzechoslovak government-in-exile. Her family first lived onKensington Park Road inNotting Hill, London—where they lived throughoutthe Blitz—but later moved toBeaconsfield, thenWalton-on-Thames, on the outskirts of London.[20] They kept alarge metal table in the house, which was intended to shelter the family from the recurring threat of German air raids.[21] While in England, Marie Jana was one of the children shown in a documentary film designed to promote sympathy for war refugees in London.[22]
After the defeat of theNazis in theEuropean theatre of World War II and the collapse ofNazi Germany and theProtectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, the Korbel family returned to Prague.[18] Korbel was appointed as press attaché at the Czechoslovak Embassy inYugoslavia, and the family moved to Belgrade—then part of Yugoslavia—which was governed by theCommunist Party. Korbel was concerned his daughter would be exposed toMarxism in a Yugoslav school, and so she was taught privately by a governess before being sent to the Prealpina Institut pour Jeunes Filles finishing school inChexbres, onLake Geneva in Switzerland.[23] She learned to speak French while in Switzerland and changed her name from Marie Jana to Madeleine.[24]
Korbel's family emigrated from the United Kingdom on theSSAmerica, departingSouthampton on November 5, 1948, and arriving atEllis Island inNew York Harbor on November 11, 1948.[26][27] The family initially settled inGreat Neck on theNorth Shore ofLong Island.[28] Korbel applied forpolitical asylum, arguing that as an opponent of Communism, he was under threat in Prague.[29] Korbel stated "I cannot, of course, return to theCommunist Czechoslovakia as I would be arrested for my faithful adherence to the ideals of democracy. I would be most obliged to you if you could kindly convey to his Excellency the Secretary of State that I beg of him to be granted the right to stay in the United States, the same right to be given to my wife and three children."[30]
The couple moved to Joseph's hometown of Chicago, Illinois, in January 1960. Joseph worked at theChicago Sun-Times as a journalist, and Albright worked as a picture editor forEncyclopædia Britannica.[38] The following year, Joseph Albright began work atNewsday in New York City, and the couple moved toGarden City on Long Island.[39] That year, she gave birth to twin daughters,Alice Patterson Albright and Anne Korbel Albright. The twins were born six weeks premature and required a long hospital stay. As a distraction, Albright began Russian language classes atHofstra University in theVillage of Hempstead nearby.[39]
Joseph's aunt Alicia Patterson died in 1963, and the Albrights returned to Long Island with the notion of Joseph taking over the family newspaper business.[41] Albright gave birth to another daughter, Katharine Medill Albright, in 1967. She continued her studies at Columbia University's Department of Public Law and Government.[42] (It was later renamed as the political science department, and is located within theSchool of International and Public Affairs.) She earned a certificate in Russian from theRussian Institute (now Harriman Institute),[43][44] anM.A. and a PhD, writing her master's thesis on theSoviet diplomatic corps and her doctoraldissertation on the role of journalists in thePrague Spring of 1968.[45] She also took a graduate course given byZbigniew Brzezinski, who later became her boss at theU.S. National Security Council.[46]
Albright returned to Washington, D.C., in 1968, and commuted to Columbia for her doctor of philosophy, which she earned in 1975.[47] She began fund-raising for her daughters' school, involvement which led to several positions on education boards.[48] She was eventually invited to organize a fund-raising dinner for the 1972 presidential campaign of U.S. SenatorEd Muskie of Maine.[49] This association with Muskie led to a position as his chief legislative assistant in 1976.[50] However, after the1976 U.S. presidential election ofJimmy Carter, Albright's former professor Brzezinski was namedNational Security Advisor, and recruited Albright from Muskie in 1978 to work in theWest Wing as the National Security Council's congressional liaison.[50] Following Carter's loss in 1980 toRonald Reagan, Albright moved on to theWoodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars at theSmithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., where she was given a grant for a research project.[51] She chose to write on the dissident journalists involved inPoland'sSolidarity movement, then in its infancy but gaining international attention.[51] She traveled to Poland for her research, interviewing dissidents inGdańsk,Warsaw, andKraków.[52] Upon her return to Washington, her husband announced his intention to divorce her so that he could pursue a relationship with another woman; the divorce was finalized in 1983.[53]
Albright joined the academic staff atGeorgetown University in Washington, D.C., in 1982, specializing in Eastern European studies.[54] She also directed the university's program on women in global politics.[55] She served as a majorDemocratic Party foreign policy advisor, briefing vice-presidential candidateGeraldine Ferraro in 1984 and presidential candidateMichael Dukakis in 1988 (both campaigns ended in defeat).[56] In 1992,Bill Clinton returned theWhite House to the Democratic Party, and Albright was employed to handle the transition to a new administration at the National Security Council.[57] In January 1993, Clinton nominated her to beU.S. ambassador to the United Nations, her first diplomatic posting.[58]
Albright was appointedambassador to the United Nations, aCabinet-level position, shortly after Clinton was inaugurated, presenting her credentials on February 9, 1993. During her tenure at the U.N., she led the opposition toU.N. secretary-general,Boutros Boutros-Ghali, whom she criticized as "disengaged" and "neglect[ful]" ofgenocide in Rwanda.[59] The relationship between Albright andBoutros Boutros-Ghali was marked by deep tension, political maneuvering, and ultimately, a dramatic and public clash that led to Boutros-Ghali's ouster as UN Secretary-General. Albright was the chief architect of the U.S. campaign to block Boutros-Ghali's bid for a second term, despite his overwhelming base of support. She was successful in blocking him.[60][61] Albright wrote: "My deepest regret from my years in public service is the failure of the United States and the international community to act sooner to halt these crimes."[62]
InShake Hands with the Devil,Roméo Dallaire writes that in 1994, in Albright's role as the U.S.Permanent Representative to the U.N., she avoided describing the killings in Rwanda as "genocide" until overwhelmed by the evidence for it;[63] this is now how she described these massacres in her memoirs.[64] She was instructed to support a reduction or withdrawal (something which never happened) of theU.N. Assistance Mission for Rwanda but was later given more flexibility.[64] Albright later remarked inPBS documentaryGhosts 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."[65]
Also in 1996, after Cuban military pilots shot down two small civilian aircraft flown by the Cuban-American exile groupBrothers to the Rescue over international waters, she announced at a UN Security Council meeting debating a resolution condemning Cuba: "Frankly, this is not cojones. This is cowardice."[66] The line endeared her to President Clinton, who said it was "probably the most effective one-liner in the whole administration's foreign policy".[66] When Albright appeared at a memorial service for the deceased in Miami on March 2, 1996, she was greeted with chants of "libertad".[67][68]
In 1996, Albright entered into a secret pact withRichard Clarke,Michael Sheehan, andJames Rubin to overthrow U.N. secretary-general Boutros Boutros-Ghali, who was running unopposed for a second term in the1996 selection. After 15 U.S. peacekeepers died in afailed raid in Somalia in 1993, Boutros-Ghali became a political scapegoat in the United States.[69] They dubbed the pact "Operation Orient Express" to reflect their hope that other nations would join the United States.[70] Although every other member of theUnited Nations Security Council voted for Boutros-Ghali, the United States refused to yield to international pressure to drop its lone veto. After four deadlocked meetings of the Security Council, Boutros-Ghali suspended his candidacy and became the only U.N. secretary-general ever to be denied a second term. The United States then fought a four-round veto duel with France, forcing it to back down and acceptKofi Annan as the next secretary-general. In his memoirs, Clarke said that "the entire operation had strengthened Albright's hand in the competition to be Secretary of State in the second Clinton administration".[70]
When Clinton began his second term in January 1997, following his re-election, he required a new Secretary of State, as incumbentWarren Christopher was retiring.[71] The top level of the Clinton administration was divided into two camps on selecting the new foreign policy. Outgoing Chief of StaffLeon Panetta favored Albright, but a separate faction went for different candidates such as SenatorSam Nunn of Georgia, SenatorGeorge J. Mitchell of Maine, and former Assistant Secretary of StateRichard Holbrooke.[72] Albright orchestrated a campaign on her own behalf that proved successful.[73] When Albright took office as the 64th U.S. Secretary of State on January 23, 1997, she became the first female U.S. Secretary of State and the highest-ranking woman in the history of the U.S. government at the time of her appointment.[74] Not being a natural-born citizen of the U.S., she was not eligible as aU.S. presidential successor.[75]
During her tenure, Albright considerably influenced American foreign policy inBosnia and Herzegovina and the Middle East. Following theDayton Agreement, in which a cease-fire in theBosnian War was reached, President Clinton committed to sending American troops to Bosnia to enforce the agreement, as strongly recommended by Albright.[76] According to Albright's memoirs, she once argued withColin Powell for the use of military force by asking, "What's the point of you savingthis superb military for, Colin, if we can't use it?"[77] Albright strongly advocated for U.S. economic sanctions againstSaddam Hussein's Iraq.[78]
According to several accounts,Prudence Bushnell,U.S. ambassador to Kenya, repeatedly asked Washington for additional security at the embassy inNairobi, including in a letter directly addressed to Albright in April 1998. Bushnell was ignored.[81] She later stated that when she spoke to Albright about the letter, Albright told her that it had not been shown to her.[82] InAgainst All Enemies, Richard Clarke writes about an exchange with Albright several months after theU.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."[83]
In 1998, at theNATO summit, Albright articulated what became 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".[84]
With NATO officers during NATO Ceremony of Accession of New Members, 1999
In February 1998, Albright partook in a town-hall style meeting atSt. John Arena inColumbus where she,William Cohen, andSandy Berger attempted to make the case for military action in Iraq. The crowd was disruptive, repeatedly drowning out the discussion with boos and anti-war chants. James Rubin downplayed the disruptions, claiming the crowd was supportive of a war policy.[85] Later that year, both Bill Clinton and Albright insisted that an attack onSaddam Hussein could be stopped only if Hussein reversed his decision to halt arms inspections.[86]
In an interview onThe Today Show, February 19, 1998, Albright said "If we have to use force, it is because we are America; we are the indispensable nation. We stand tall and we see further than other countries into the future...."[87]
Albright became one of the highest level Western diplomats ever to meetKim Jong-il, the then-leader of communistNorth Korea, during an official state visit to that country in 2000.[90]
On January 8, 2001, in one of her last acts as Secretary of State, Albright made a farewell call to Kofi Annan and said that the U.S. would continue to press Iraq to destroy all itsweapons of mass destruction as a condition of lifting economic sanctions, even after the end of the Clinton administration on January 20, 2001.[91]
Albright received the U.S. SenatorH. John Heinz III Award for Greatest Public Service by an Elected or Appointed Official, an award given out annually by theJefferson Awards Foundation, in 2001.[92]
Following Albright's term as Secretary of State, Czech presidentVáclav Havel spoke openly about the possibility of Albright succeeding him. Albright was reportedly flattered, but denied ever seriously considering the possibility of running for office in her country of origin.[93]
Albright accepted a position on the board of directors of theNew York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in 2003.[97] In 2005, she declined to run for re-election to the board in the aftermath of theRichard Grasso compensation scandal, in which Grasso, the chairman of the NYSE board of directors, had been granted $187.5 million in compensation, with little governance by the board on which Albright sat.[98] 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.[99] According toPolitiFact, Albright opposed the2003 invasion of Iraq, although after the U.S. was committed to the war, she said she would support the President.[100]
Albright guest starred on the television dramaGilmore Girls as herself on October 25, 2005.[105]She also made a guest appearance onParks and Recreation, in the eighth episode of the seventh season.[106] Albright also appeared in two episodes of the CBS seriesMadam Secretary to offer advice to the fictional Secretary of State. In a later episode, she was joined by former Secretaries of State,Colin Powell andHillary Clinton.
U.S. Secretary of StateJohn Kerry greets Albright, February 6, 2013
Albright endorsed and supportedHillary Clinton in her2008 presidential campaign.[110] Albright was a close friend of Clinton and served as an informal advisor on foreign policy matters.[111] On December 1, 2008, President-electBarack Obama nominated then-Senator Clinton for Albright's former post of Secretary of State.[112]
During this period, she also served as a business consultant and brand ambassador forHerbalife,[113][114] a globalmulti-level marketing (MLM) corporation that develops and sells dietary supplements. The company is alleged to be a fraudulentpyramid scheme.[115][116]
In September 2009, Albright opened an exhibition of her personal jewelry collection at theMuseum of Art and Design in New York City, which ran until January 2010.[117] In 2009, Albright also published the bookRead My Pins: Stories from a Diplomat's Jewel Box about her pins.[118]
In August 2012, when speaking at anObama campaign event inHighlands Ranch, Colorado, Albright was asked the question "How long will you blame thatprevious administration for all of your problems?", to which she replied "Forever".[119][120] In October 2012, Albright appeared in a video on the official Twitter feed for the Democratic Party, responding to then-GOP candidateMitt Romney's assertion that Russia was the "number-one geopolitical foe" of the United States. According to Albright, Romney's statement was proof that he had "little understanding of what was actually going on in the 21st Century [and] he is not up to date and that is a very dangerous aspect [of his candidacy]".[121]
After 2016, Albright served as chair of Albright Stonebridge Group, a consulting firm,[127] and chair of the advisory council forThe Hague Institute for Global Justice, which was founded in 2011 inThe Hague.[128] She also served as an Honorary Chair for theWorld Justice Project (WJP).[129] The WJP works to lead a global, multidisciplinary effort to strengthen therule of law for the development of communities of opportunity and equity.[130]
During the 1990s and 2000s, many surveys and studies concluded thatexcess deaths in Iraq—specifically among children under the age of 5—greatly increased after the implementation ofsanctions against Iraq following theIraqi invasion of Kuwait in August 1990.[133][134][135] Later surveys conducted during the U.S.-ledoccupation of Iraq (2003–2011) "all put the U5MR in Iraq during 1995–2000 in the vicinity of 40 per 1000," suggesting that "there was no major rise in child mortality in Iraq after 1990 and during the period of the sanctions."[136]
On May 12, 1996, then-ambassador Albright defended the sanctions on a60 Minutes segment in whichLesley Stahl asked her, "We have heard that half a million children have died. I mean, that's more children than died inHiroshima. And, you know, is the price worth it?" and Albright replied, "We think the price is worth it."[137][138] The segment won anEmmy Award.[139][140] Albright later criticized Stahl's segment as "amount[ing] to Iraqi propaganda", saying that her question was aloaded question.[141][142] She wrote, "I had fallen into a trap and said something I did not mean",[143] and that she regretted coming "across as cold-blooded and cruel".[137] She apologized for her remarks in a 2020 interview withThe New York Times, calling them "totally stupid".[144][138] Albright addressed the controversy in her 2020 memoir, acknowledging that her answer was "a mistake" and "that UN sanctions contributed to hardships in Iraq," but also noting that "the producers of60 Minutes were duped. Subsequent research has shown that Iraqi propagandists deceived international observers," citing a 2017 article inThe BMJ.[145]
FollowingThe Washington Post's profile of Albright byMichael Dobbs, an Austrian man named Philipp Harmer launched legal action against Albright, claiming her father had illegally taken possession of artwork that belonged to his great-grandfather, Karl Nebrich.[146] Nebrich, a German-speaking Prague industrialist, abandoned some of the possessions in his apartment when ethnic Germans were expelled from the country afterWorld War II under theBeneš decrees. His apartment, at 11 Hradčanská Street in Prague, was subsequently given to Korbel and his family. Harmer alleged that Korbel stole his great-grandfather's artwork. Counsel for Albright's family stated that Harmer's claim was unfounded.[146]
Allegations of hate speech against Serbs and war profiteering
In late October 2012, during a book signing in the Prague bookstore Palác Knih Luxor, Albright was visited by a group of activists from the Czech organization Přátelé Srbů na Kosovu (Friends ofSerbs in Kosovo). She was filmed saying, "Disgusting Serbs, get out!" to the Czech group, which had brought war photos to the signing, some of which showed Serbian victims of the NATO bombing campaign in Serbia in 1999. The protesters were expelled from the event when police arrived. Two videos of the incident were later posted by the group on their YouTube channel.[147][148] FilmmakerEmir Kusturica expressed thanks to Czech director Václav Dvořák for organizing and participating in the demonstration. Together with other protesters, Dvořák also reported Albright to the police, stating that she was spreadingethnic hatred and disrespect to the victims of the war.[149][150]
Albright's involvement in the bombing of Serbia was the main cause of the demonstration – a sensitive topic which became even more controversial when it was revealed that in 2012 her investment firm, Albright Capital Management, was preparing to bid in the proposedprivatization of Kosovo's state-owned telecom and postal company,Post and Telecom of Kosovo. In an article published by the New York City-based magazineBloomberg Businessweek, it was estimated that the deal could be as large as €600 million. Serbia opposed the sale, and intended to file a lawsuit to block it, alleging that the rights of former Serbian employees were not respected.[151] The bid never happened and was withdrawn by her investment fund.[152]
Albright supported Hillary Clinton during her2016 presidential campaign. While introducing Clinton at a campaign event in New Hampshire ahead ofthat state's primary, Albright said, "There's a special place in hell for women who don't help each other" (a phrase Albright had used on several previous occasions in other contexts).[153] The remark was seen as a rebuke of younger women who supported Clinton'sprimary rival, SenatorBernie Sanders, which many women found "startling and offensive".[154] In aNew York Timesop-ed published several days after the remark, Albright said: "I absolutely believe what I said, that women should help one another, but this was the wrong context and the wrong time to use that line. I did not mean to argue that women should support a particular candidate based solely on gender."[153]
In 2020, Albright was named byTime magazine among the world's 100 powerful women who defined the last century.[166]
Albright was selected for the inaugural 2021Forbes 50 Over 50; made up of entrepreneurs, leaders, scientists, and creators who are over the age of 50.[167]
Her parents had converted from Judaism to Catholicism in 1941, during her early childhood, after fleeing Czechoslovakia for England in 1939, to avoid anti-Jewish persecution before they immigrated to the U.S. They never discussed their Jewish ancestry with her later.[13] WhenThe Washington Post reported on Albright's Jewish ancestry shortly after she had become Secretary of State in 1997, Albright said that the report was a "major surprise".[171] Albright said that she did not learn until age 59[172] that both her parents were born and raised in Jewish families. As many as a dozen of her relatives in Czechoslovakia—including three of her grandparents—had been murdered inthe Holocaust.[18][19][173]
Albright mentioned her physical fitness and exercise regimen in several interviews. In 2006, she said she was capable ofleg pressing 400 pounds (180 kg).[176][177] Albright was listed as one of the fifty best-dressed over 50s byThe Guardian in March 2013.[178]
Albright died from cancer in Washington, D.C., on March 23, 2022, at the age of 84.[179][180][181] Many political figures paid tribute to her, including U.S. presidents Jimmy Carter,[182] Bill Clinton,George W. Bush, Barack Obama andJoe Biden, and former British prime ministerTony Blair.[138]
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^ Thomas Blood, Madame Secretary (1997) pp.199–215.
^Linda Fasulo, "Chapter 14, The Coup Against Boutros-Ghali". in Fasulo,An Insider's Guide to the UN (4th edition, Yale University Press, 2008, pp. 134-138.https://doi.org/10.12987/9780300133516-017
^"Honorary Chairs". World Justice Project.Archived from the original on November 21, 2016. RetrievedNovember 28, 2016.
^"What We Do". World Justice Project.Archived from the original on November 22, 2016. RetrievedNovember 28, 2016.
^Soros, Albright (November 30, 2009)."Rothschild in $350m Deal".Institutional Investor. Archived fromthe original on August 30, 2014. RetrievedMarch 26, 2014.
^MacQueen, Graeme; Nagy, Thomas; Santa Barbara, Joanna; Raichle, Claudia (2004). "'Iraq Water Treatment Vulnerabilities': a challenge to public health ethics".Medicine, Conflict and Survival.20 (2):109–119.doi:10.1080/1362369042000234708.ISSN1362-3699.PMID15260175.
^abAlbright, Madeleine (February 12, 2016)."My Undiplomatic Moment".The New York Times.Archived from the original on October 29, 2018. RetrievedOctober 29, 2018.
^Gross, Elana Lyn; Voytko, Lisette; McGrath, Maggie (June 2, 2021)."The New Golden Age".Forbes.Archived from the original on June 7, 2021. RetrievedJune 2, 2021.
^Dobbs, Michael (May 2, 1999)."Becoming Madeleine Albright".The Washington Post.Archived from the original on August 28, 2017. RetrievedAugust 14, 2008.
Bashevkin, Sylvia (2018).Women as Foreign Policy Leaders: National Security and Gender Politics in Superpower America (Oxford UP);excerpt; alsoonline review.
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