Ex-US state secretary Albright dies at 84
Madeleine Albright, a child refugee from Naziand then Soviet-dominated Eastern Europe who rose to become the United States’ first female secretary of state and a mentor to many current and former American statesmen and women, died of cancer on Wednesday (Thursday in Manila), her family said. She was 84.
A lifelong Democrat who nonetheless worked to bring Republicans into her orbit, Albright was chosen in 1996 by then-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 highest-ranking 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.
US President Joe Biden ordered flags at the White House and other federal buildings and grounds to be flown at half-staff until March 27.
Outpourings of condolences came quickly.
“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,” Biden said.
Current 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,” he added, “even until our last conversation just two weeks ago, she never lost her great sense of humor or her determination to go out with her boots on, supporting Ukraine in its fight to preserve freedom and democracy.”
Former President George W. Bush, a Republican, said Albright “lived out the American dream and helped others realize it . ... She served with distinction as a foreign-born foreign minister who understood firsthand the importance of free societies for peace in our world.”
In 2012, then-president Barack Obama awarded Albright the Medal of Freedom, the US’ highest civilian honor, saying her life was an inspiration to all Americans.
Albright remained outspoken through the years. After leaving office, she criticized Bush for using “the shock of force” rather than alliances to foster diplomacy and said he had driven away moderate Arab leaders and created potential for a dangerous rift with European allies.
Albright was an internationalist whose point of view was shaped in part by her background. Her family fled Czechoslovakia in 1939 as the Nazis took over their country, and she spent the war years in London. After the war, as the Soviet Union took over vast chunks of Eastern Europe, her family migrated to the US.
As the US’ top diplomat, Albright played a key role in persuading Clinton to go to war against the Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic over his treatment of Kosovar Albanians in 1999. As UN ambassador, she advocated a tough US foreign policy, particularly in the case of Milosevic’s treatment of Bosnia and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s intervention in Kosovo, was eventually dubbed “Madeleine’s War.”
“My mindset is Munich,” she said frequently, referring to the German city where the Western allies abandoned her homeland to the Nazis.