Forthright pioneer of US politics
Madeleine Albright Diplomat and politician BORN MAY 15, 1937 – DIED MARCH 23, 2022, AGED 84
WHEN Madeleine Albright was made the first female Secretary of State in US history in 1997, she became the highest-ranking woman in American government. A veteran diplomat who served as US ambassador to the United Nations from 1993 to 1997, under Bill Clinton’s presidency, Albright was known for straight-talking negotiations.
“This is not cojones, this is cowardice,” she famously said, quoting the Spanish for “testicles” uttered by a Cuban military pilot who shot down a civilian plane in 1996.
Born Maria Jana Korbelova in Prague, her Jewish family fled to Britain in 1939 to escape Nazi persecution. Her father Josef Korbel was a diplomat for the Czech government in Belgrade and continued his work in London.
She was raised a Catholic, unaware of her Jewish heritage or that three of her grandparents were among many relatives killed in the Holocaust.
The Washington Post revealed the truth to her shortly before she was sworn in as Secretary of State.
She called her father and mother Anna “the bravest people alive”, adding: “They dealt with the most difficult decision anyone could make. I am incredibly grateful to them, and beyond measure.”
Albright’s family returned to Czechoslovakia after the war but her father’s fears about the spread of communism led to their move to New York when she was 11.
Highly intelligent, she studied political science, and became a US citizen in 1957.
She met her husband, Joseph Albright, while an intern at the Denver Post. In 1962 they moved to Washington where she studied international relations. She got her first government job through a professor, Zbigniew Brzezinski, who became National Security Adviser.
When her marriage ended, she joined Georgetown University’s international relations department.
Albright then began working on Democratic campaigns in 1984 and Bill Clinton employed her after winning the presidency.
She encouraged women to speak up – but wasn’t afraid to criticise her own sex, saying: “There is a special place in hell for women who don’t help other women.”
Her biggest regret was US’s reluctance to intervene earlier during the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
Albright was awarded the presidential medal of freedom by Barack Obama in 2012.
She died of cancer and is survived by her three daughters.