Madam Secretary
Albright, Madeleine
BOOKS First in her class Madam Secretary A Memoir Alode/vine Albright Margaret O'Brien Steinfels M adeleine Albright's measure as secretary of state (1997–2001) could be taken by comparing...
...Mill...
...asylum, the family landed in Denver where the senior Korbel taught international relations at the University of Denver (in later years, Condoleezza Rice was one of his students...
...foreign policy...
...AIbri~Lht vcould hkely th,mk both ,nuIlium lur rcU iev in...
...Her father's posts in England and Yugoslavia gave the young Madeleine a taste for the diplomatic life, which she resumed with relish during the Clinton administration...
...eh he r ~_)v r'rrd 3 a Inlennher Ut [he pn_'ss oil...
...AV Inili huth hooks ,Ire useful in proviidin,L ,in ov cr-.Ill piciuri' of ,\lhri;dht and L .H turei;r;n icy in tic' 1~1r1L1c, them al;u dlcpl c the lournlliit c uc cuip,ltiuii ]l ha/'aril a muucc' ut >uprriufl tv . lit' rl ii ,cud repurtcri;trivc icVr in Firm ii hr'n freed I IOM the cop\ desk ticnic of deco rum ,nod st<nnd,mrrlu, can Ci,lnle <ncr u— in hook urine its snide uuru".lnet...
...and when that failed, assisted by General Wesley Clark, she supported war—diplomacy by other means, as she says, with Clausewitz...
...She was willing to compete with men...
...public on its responsibilities as "the indispensable nation...
...Embedded in this tutelage and deeply shaping the daughter's foreign-policy outlook were his own experiences—the Munich agreement that turned Czechoslovakia over to the Nazis and the Yalta accords that con-ceded Soviet domination of Eastern Europe...
...Perhaps some will also say that I helped teach a generation of older women to stand tall and young women not to be afraid to interrupt...
...Commonweal 26 February 13, 2004...
...t ut otters nitrrprrtiv e ,n;ides that could hlrri-Iv i cr- Lein incllidi d in his news stock's...
...It was important to her, a spokesman explained, "to create an awareness even at an early age of the connection of the United States to the larger world...
...embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998 gave her a full sense of terrorism's reach: she flew round-trip over two days to stand in mourning with her ambassadors, and was back in Washington in time to support the president's attack on terrorists' camps in Afghanistan...
...AVHint she set's ,its, turcetul purcult of a pulici , <un~c' dr cnhe aH bull\-nk_ LV'haltonic...
...FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT: WWW.AIDTOEASTERNEI'ROPE.ORG...
...On his watch, Bosnia festered and Rwanda blew up in a genocidal rage...
...In her four years as ambassador to the UN and four at the State Department, she exercised her native talent and hard-won knowledge on behalf of her adopted country...
...An ardent supporter of Czech independence, Korbel fled the Nazis in 1939 and the Communists in 1948...
...BOOKS First in her class Madam Secretary A Memoir Alode/vine Albright Margaret O'Brien Steinfels M adeleine Albright's measure as secretary of state (1997–2001) could be taken by comparing her to Warren Christopher, her predecessor, and Colin Powell, her successor...
...Margaret Thatcher and Indira Gandhi are (in)famous for their strong-arm governance...
...tact" th,it would ncv.crLctink, cli,tin,'ui- icd p,lper Iik.cthi l\,ihi I for u..horn Loth men rcpurlerl, hove Dice rein heir...
...She fostered peace agreements between the Palestinians and Israelis, first working with the right-wing Benjamin Netanyahu and then the left-wing Ehud Barak...
...Albright's memoir is packed with details of policymaking and politicking, one-liners and retorts along with all the autobiographical details that have made her a singular secretary of state...
...Read with Richard Holbrooke's To End a War (an account of the Dayton Accords) and Wes-ley Clark's Waging Modern War (about Kosovo), it establishes the Clinton ad-ministration's impressive and still unRENEWING THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE ROOTS OF FAITH BOTH fragile & STRONG YOUR CONTRIBUTIONS SUPPORT • Dissemination of the Word of God over large territories • Social justice for the needy and dispossessed • Education for the faithful • Training and formation for religious • Services for the homeless, the elderly, children, or families in need WAYS TO CONTRIBUTE • Give to the second collection in your parish designated for Aid to the Catholic Church in Central and Eastern Europe • Mail your contribution directly to: Office to Aid the Catholic Church in Central and Eastern Europe United States Conference of Catholic Bishops 3211 Fourth Street NE Washington, DC 20017-1194 COLLECTION DATE: February 25, 2004 (Ash Wednesday) THIS ADVERTISEMENT WAS PAID FOR BY FRIENDS TO AID THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE...
...Margaret O'Brien Steinfels is the editor of two volumes of American Catholics in the Public Square (Sheed & Ward...
...Pater Korbel was a Czechoslovak patriot and democrat, a diplomat in the foreign ministry under President Tomas Masaryk...
...lull ,ns no uuucc is ~i hero t.0 (ttit,ilt Ltd Senior public ~,tficf,ll could hr n hero tit the cepockcrs ov cr her...
...Commonweal 2 5 February 13, 2004 e rest of the story 1 T u journalistic accounts of \Ihrfghtis tenure ,cppe.nred belorr toll, oilerkith confirmation Wnd conlrciH to hr'r memoirs...
...public school...
...She also made peace along the way with Senator Jesse Helms (R.-N.C...
...Nor, barring a Wesley Clark or Hillary Clinton presidency, is Madeleine Al-bright likely to so ably serve her country again...
...I wasn't sure gender played any role," she comments, "but I did resent being treated as though I were one of his students...
...Granted U.S...
...Financially well off after Joe Albright left her in 1982, she worked first as a congressional aide to Muskie and later in the Carter White House at the National Security Council (NSC) with her former Columbia professor, Zbigniew Brzezinski...
...The failed health-care initiative of Hillary Rodham Clinton, an Albright friend, was ascribed by many to a fatal combination of arrogance and insecurity...
...ov cr ink h of the sine stowv cis .AIhri ghtis how couldthyv not~l with the addition of inh'rvicy and uhserv,it~on`, hole r\evA-ihu:';ses and trim thi-,sc v\ ho l.neAv' her ,uld some vv.ho disliked her...
...derappreciated record on foreign affairs...
...Not so Madeleine Al-bright, who was an effective advocate of the activist policy she reshaped to the challenges of the post-cold-war world...
...Under a charm assault from Albright, Helms From Prague to Colorado to Kosovo MIRAMAX BOOKS Commonweal 2 4 February 13, 2004 finally agreed to pay up on the UN's peace-keeping operations and to increase funds for the State Department...
...The book has a remarkable account of the American maneuvers that led to Boutros Boutros-Ghali's exit as UN secretary general after his first term, and the election of the far better qualified Kofi Annan...
...Diplomacy could be war by other means...
...Anthony Lake, head of the NSC in the Clinton ad-ministration, would drum his fingers on the table when she spoke...
...It was hard to promote a vigorous policy when the United States refused to pay its dues...
...The Cuban exile community in Florida loved her, and she them...
...Albright admits that she was her father's willing student...
...Colin Powell has become the accommodating instrument of the Bush administration's plunge into a war during which he has witnessed the violation of every cautionary principle he pressed on the Clinton administration as head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff...
...J.rmsru (Henri: f folt, 11-its}y i, broke the stein, of her levv ish origins and net- pi.nenfisi decision to hide or lol.i;rl that t~1 Lerr,llllil~ L,1lhullcb_ t brie nt :Al ri~r lii H ~,r,nntih;Ircui aril scv rill rcl,1-tives died ill Al,lii cdrnps...
...To understand me, you must under-stand my father...
...i ii llid'h energy and intcnic focus in her tclIiu, , i ipinncu Libels "control ire,nk...
...She actually believes in the American dream because she has lived it...
...A lbright was a born diplomat...
...Being first may be great, but it is not easy...
...Christopher was the passive instrument of the Clinton administration's first-term aversion to foreign affairs...
...Great advice, especially for those who are as knowledge-able and astute as she is, and would interrupt to such good effect...
...First women" have a mixed history...
...she and Clark worked in tandem—diplomat and soldier—to hold NATO together during the war in Kosovo...
...Ih)Lhs hclicves then she kncvvc this histor...
...In Kosovo, assisted by Richard Holbrooke, she pursued diplomacy with Slobodan Milosevic...
...Thomas W. Lippman, diplomatic correspondent for the Washington Post, reports in a recent book (see sidebar, page 26) that shortly after taking office, in a week when Albania was falling apart, the Middle East in turmoil, and the Russian foreign minister due in Washington, Albright took an hour to visit a D.C...
...There will never again be a "first" woman to the top post in the State Department...
...olllr Itin'g tli-n drl.Iil if th.It trip to iLrussent...
...she called on her UN Arab colleagues to speak with the media of her ability to work with them...
...Her energy and peripatetic style did not impede either her instinct for the appropriate gesture (the flight to Africa to support her ambassadors) or capacity for hard work (she was back in her office a few hours after her return...
...Madeleine Korbel Albright was a "first" from the beginning—first-born in Prague on May 15, 1937, of Joseph and Anna Korbel...
...idiot Ihonn,rr \.V...
...She had the good fortune to head the State Department in Bill Clinton's second term when foreign policy could no longer be set aside (and Colin Powell had retired...
...She began an initiative to normalize relations with Iran, and took North Korea seriously as a diplomatic player in Asia...
...During the Bosnia crisis, Albright famously asked Powell, "What are you saving this superb military for, Colin, if we can't use it...
...The freedom and opportunity offered her family and other displaced persons after World War II have been frequent themes in her speeches and reference points for her policies...
...She was both diplomat-in-chief and public educator, pursuing the national interest while tutoring the U.S...
...If she was by nature and nurture dis-posed to a keen interest in world affairs, Albright also made herself a knowledge-able advisor by pursuing (while a wife and mother of three) a PhD in international relations at Columbia (1976...
...What may have sounded like corny patriotism to native-born Americans was heart-felt gratitude in Albright...
...Sensitive to feminist issues, she displays few of the feminist tics...
...trriled ^s it liarur n moll...
...Her 1959 marriage to Joseph Albright, journalist and an heir to the Chicago Tribune fortune, brought her to Washington in 1968 and ultimately to the presidential campaigns of Edmund Muskie and Michael Dukakis...
...To understand him, you must understand that my parents grew up in what they thought was a golden place"—Czechoslovakia in the interwar years...
...Attacks on U.S...
...When Holbrooke was her chief competitor for secretary of state, rumors circulated that Islamic nations would not accept her...
...I ippnl,ln's ~r~r rl;l~lu ~7r7~ Ir 1AVii>fiv.ic v, 200ili milintcin, iLhl tools on her diplonrnlic vwork anti her trips ,11.'rnad, vv hl...
...Most notably she has a sense of humor: Albright is funny and irreverent about her weight, her hats (the Stetson was good for bad hair days), and her jewelry, and she is frank about the freedom she deployed as a woman to act outside the box...
...I ,Illp;ul e lr,c,senti, i)pllll~~ll~ pluhfer,ntr, tit1)s;ip rIct.tenr'rnlr...
...both hook...
...Michael huhb...
...foreign policy when a coherent view and forceful execution were sorely needed...
...In ci ioolncite, hor.ever, sir tiipfom,ltic.11lv1 Nl,cnks him tc)r extensive rrsi ire h...
...1, rh',t\(i Y...
...Her great strength lay in mastery of her chosen arena, and she was well schooled in the diplomatic dance...
...She also knew when she was being treated badly, though she refused to ascribe motives...
...Albright is right to say that Madame Secretary is not a history of the Clinton administration's foreign policy, but it will be indispensable to writing it...
...in uncarlhin,L the 1-cimili...
...These were not Albright's problems (of course, she was not head of government nor married to the man who was...
...a persistent critic of the United Nations who had made her tenure as UN ambassador problematic...
...It gives a vivid account of how she carried out U.S...
...I hope," she concludes, "people will say I did the best with what I was given...
...I tare he revealed it lu her tit Hr ~Life I termlinent on lcinunu \ ,t1 l lei In l lncf,r]%I - SeeAir ~Llr rrpt)rt h(,liip } i i ked h\ t)ohhi;i,, IRtr~rrn,ltion,lnd unensv vviilh hi;yerr.u-iil attitude (she Iclt she .v as heinH...
...Christopher and Powell, for all of their intelligence and integrity, are likely to be counted poor stewards of U.S...
Vol. 131 • February 2004 • No. 3
