First female US secretary of state dies

Madeleine Albright, a child refugee from Nazi- and then Soviet-dominated Eastern Europe who rose to become the first female secretary of state and a mentor to many current and former American statesmen and women, died on Wednesday of cancer, her family said. She was 84.

A lifelong Democrat who nonetheless worked to bring Republicans into her orbit, Albright was chosen in 1996 by President Bill Clinton to be America’s top diplomat, elevating her from US ambassador to the United Nations, where she had been only the second woman to hold that job. As secretary of state, Albright was the highestranking woman in the history of the US government. She was not in the line of succession to the presidency, however, because she was born in what was then Czechoslovakia. Still, she was universally admired for breaking a glass ceiling, even by her political detractors.

“We have lost a loving mother, grandmother, sister, aunt and friend,” her family said in a statement.

President Joe Biden ordered flags at the White House and other federal buildings and grounds to be flown at halfstaff until March 27.

Outpourings of condolences came quickly.

Biden said, “America had no more committed champion of democracy and human rights than secretary Albright, who knew personally and wrote powerfully of the perils of autocracy.”

“When I think of Madeleine,” Biden added, “I will always remember her fervent faith that ‘America is the indispensable nation’.”

Secretary of state Antony Blinken said Albright was “a brilliant diplomat, a visionary leader, a courageous trailblazer, a dedicated mentor, and a great and good person who loved the US deeply and devoted her life to serving it.”

Clinton called her “one of the finest secretaries of state, an outstanding UN ambassador, a brilliant professor, and an extraordinary human being.”

“And through it all,” Clinton added, “even until our last conversation just two weeks ago, she never lost her great sense of humour or her determination to go out with her boots on, supporting Ukraine in its fight to preserve freedom and democracy”.