Condoleezza Rice

Born November 14, 1954

Birmingham, Alabama

U.S. national security advisor during the 2003 Iraq War

"We're going to find the truth about what Saddam Hussein did with weapons of mass destruction, how he built his programs, how he concealed them."

Condoleezza Rice in an interview for National Public Radio.

Doctor Condoleezza Rice is the first woman to hold the office of U.S. national security advisor. She was appointed by President George W. Bush (see entry) and took office in January 2001. Rice played a key role in helping Bush draft a new American foreign policy following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. She also became one of the Bush administration's leading advocates for using military force to remove Saddam Hussein (see entry) from power in Iraq.

Grows up in the racially charged South

Condoleezza (pronounced kahn-dah-LEE-za) Rice was born in Birmingham, Alabama, on November 14, 1954. Her father, the Reverend John W. Rice Jr., ran the Westminster Presbyterian Church, which had been founded by her grandfather. He also worked as a guidance counselor and football coach at the black high school in Birmingham where her mother, Angelena (Ray) Rice, was a teacher.

Rice's parents named her after an Italian musical term, con dolcezza, which means to perform "with sweetness." Known as Condi for short, Rice began taking piano lessons at age three. Although she once entertained hopes of becoming a concert pianist, she eventually decided that she was not good enough. "Mozart didn't have to practice," she told the New York Times. "I was going to have to practice and practice and practice and was never going to be extraordinary."

As her parents' only child, Rice was constantly pushed to achieve. "I grew up in a family in which my parents put me into every book club," she told the New York Times. "So I never developed the fine art of recreational reading." To this day, she never reads simply for pleasure, but only to learn. As a young girl, Rice was tutored in Spanish and French. She excelled in her studies and entered the eighth grade at the age of eleven. As a high-school student, she became a competitive ice skater, getting up at 4:30 am for lessons.

Although she grew up in a middle-class black neighborhood, Rice saw her share of racial prejudice and oppression. During her childhood, Birmingham was segregated, meaning that people were divided according to their race. White people and black people had to use separate public facilities, including schools, swimming pools, and drinking fountains. This system, which was widely practiced in the South, was unfair to blacks and kept them in an inferior place in society. It also created a great deal of racial tension, which sometimes erupted into violence.

When Rice was nine years old, for example, a bomb exploded at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, only four blocks from where she was attending Sunday school. The blast killed four black girls, including one of her friends from kindergarten. Rice recalled in an essay for Time magazine that the "men in the community, my father among them, would go to the head of [our street] at night and sit there armed" to defend against racially motivated attacks. John Rice once organized a group of neighbors armed with shotguns to find the person who had thrown a gas bomb through another neighbor's window.

As she grew older, Rice combined the education and culture emphasized by her parents with a toughness that came from growing up in the racially charged South. "Condi was raised first and foremost to be a lady," Secretary of StateColin Powell once told a reporter for the New York Times. "She was raised in a protected environment to be a person of great self-confidence in Birmingham, where there was no reason to have self-confidence because you were a tenth-class citizen and you were black."

Professor of political science and expert on the Soviet Union

At age fifteen, Rice simultaneously completed her senior year of high school and her freshman year at the University of Denver. She graduated from college in 1974, at age nineteen, with a bachelor's degree in political science. She went on to earn a master's degree in political science at the University of Notre Dame. Rice returned to the Graduate School of International Studies at the University of Denver to receive a doctorate in political science in 1981. A short time later she joined the faculty in political science at Stanford University in California.

While studying for her bachelor's degree, Rice met Doctor Joseph Korbel. Korbel, a professor and the father of future United Nations ambassador and U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright (see box) became Rice's mentor and introduced her to Russian history. Rice learned to speak Russian fluently, and by 1986 she was considered an expert on Soviet arms control.

In 1995 Rice attended a lecture given by retired U.S. Army General Brent Scowcroft. During the lecture she asked Scowcroft a tough question about a government commission that he was leading. Scowcroft was impressed by her boldness as well as her thoughtful analysis. He approached her afterward and said, "I don't think anybody's ever asked me that."

Becomes the first female national security advisor

In 1988 George H. W. Bush (see entry) was elected president of the United States, and Scowcroft became his national security advisor. A year later Scowcroft recruited Rice to serve on the National Security Council during one of the

Madeleine Albright, First Woman to Serve as U.S. Secretary of State

Madeleine Korbel Albright served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations (1993–97) and U.S. secretary of state (1997–2000) under President Bill Clinton. In these positions, she helped shape U.S. policy toward Iraq during the decade between the 1991 Persian Gulf War and the 2003 Iraq War.

Albright was born as Maria Jana Korbel on May 15, 1937, in Prague, Czechoslovakia. She was the daughter of Czech diplomat Josef Korbel and his wife, Anna. Her family was forced to flee Czechoslovakia when Germany invaded the country in 1938. They lived in England during World War II and later moved to the United States. They settled in Colorado, where her father became an influential professor at the University of Denver. Albright became a naturalized U.S. citizen and changed her first name to Madeleine.

Albright majored in political science at Wellesley College, graduating with honors in 1959. She then married Joseph Medill Patterson Albright. Albright initially tried to build a career as a journalist, but she quit after being the victim of sexual discrimination. During the 1960s she raised three daughters while also continuing her education. She spent more than ten years working on her doctorate in international relations at Columbia University.

After moving to Washington, D.C., in 1968, Albright became involved in Democratic politics and worked on several election campaigns. In 1977 one of her former professors, Zbigniew Brzezinski, became national security advisor to President Jimmy Carter. Brzezinski recruited Albright to serve as a liaison between his staff and Congress.

In 1982, after separating from her husband, Albright joined the faculty of Georgetown University as a professor of international affairs. In 1992 she served as the senior foreign policy advisor for Bill Clinton's presidential campaign. Once Clinton was elected, he named Albright as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations (UN). She became only the second woman ever to fill that role and the only woman on Clinton's fifteen-member National Security Council. During her term in the United Nations, Albright earned a reputation as an effective communicator and tough negotiator.

After Clinton was reelected in 1996, he selected Albright as U.S. secretary of state. She became the first woman ever to hold that position and the highest-ranking female in U.S. government history. During her term in office, Albright became one of the key figures in an ongoing dispute between the United States and Iraq. In 1990 Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had invaded the neighboring country of Kuwait. His actions led to the 1991 Persian Gulf War, in which a U.S.-led coalition forced the Iraqi army to withdraw from Kuwait. The UN agreement that ended the war required Iraq to destroy all of its biological, chemical, and nuclear weapons. But Hussein consistently failed to cooperate with the UN weapons inspectors sent to monitor Iraq's progress.

The United Nations used several different strategies to force Iraq to comply with the 1991 agreement, including economic sanctions. These trade restrictions prevented Iraq from selling oil in world markets or buying many types of goods from other countries. The sanctions were originally intended to prevent Hussein from rebuilding his army after the war. Over time, however, the sanctions created severe hardships among the Iraqi people.

In 1998 the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) reported that the sanctions had contributed to the deaths of five hundred thousand Iraqi children since the end of the war. Many members of the international community were appalled by such statistics and demanded that the United States lift the sanctions. But Albright and other officials in the Clinton administration insisted that the sanctions were a vital part of the United Nations' efforts to limit Hussein's power and prevent Iraq from posing a threat to world peace.

Albright became a staunch defender of the Clinton administration's policies toward Iraq. Her position created controversy following an appearance on the television news program "60 Minutes." Interviewer Lesley Stahl asked, "More than 500,000 Iraqi children are already dead as a direct result of the UN sanctions. Do you think the price is worth paying?" Albright replied, "It is a difficult question. But, yes, we think the price is worth it." Critics claimed that Albright was indifferent to the suffering of the Iraqi people. Her words provoked anger throughout the Middle East and increased feelings of sympathy for Iraq.

In late 1998 Iraq ended all cooperation with the UN weapons inspections. American and British military forces responded by launching a massive bombing campaign aimed at destroying sites that were suspected to hold Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. The bombing did not convince Hussein to cooperate. Nevertheless, the international community made little further effort to enforce the UN agreement that had ended the 1991 war. When Clinton left office in 2001, Albright returned to her teaching position at Georgetown.

Sources: Dobbs, Michael. Madeleine Albright: A Twentieth-Century Odyssey. New York: Holt, 1999; Lippman, Thomas W. Madeleine Albright and the New American Diplomacy. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2000; "Madeleine Albright." Contemporary Heroes and Heroines, 1998. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale Group, 2004; "Madeleine Korbel Albright." Encyclopedia of World Biography, 1998. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale Group, 2004.

most tumultuous times in world history. As director of Soviet and Eastern European Affairs and Special Assistant to the President on National Security Affairs, Rice helped forge U.S. foreign policy during the fall of communism in Eastern Europe. (Communism a system of government where the nation's leaders are selected by a single political party that controls all aspects of society. Private ownership of property is eliminated and government directs all economic production. The goods produced and accumulated wealth are, in theory, shared relatively equally by all. All religious practices are banned). During this period, the Soviet Union dissolved into a number of smaller republics and East and West Germany were reunified under a single government.

After two exhausting years in Washington, Rice left politics and returned to Stanford. In 1993 she was appointed the university's first black provost, or chief academic and budget officer. Two years later Rice went to Texas to visit former President Bush. She met his son George W. Bush, who was then in his first year as governor of Texas. The two discovered that they shared an avid enthusiasm for sports and physical fitness.

In 1998 Rice visited the Bush family home in Kennebunkport, Maine. She renewed her friendship with George W. Bush, who was then considering running for president. "Between tennis games and going out on the boat and sitting out on the back porch we would have conversations about what foreign policy challenges would face the next president," Rice recalled in the New York Times. Over the next two years, Rice acted as the Texas governor's foreign policy tutor.

During Bush's presidential campaign for the 2000 elections, Rice served as the candidate's foreign policy advisor. Bush won the presidency and took office in January 2001. One of his first acts was to appoint Rice as his national security advisor. This appointment made Rice the first woman in U.S. history to hold the office of national security advisor. The national security advisor is the leader of the National Security Council (NSC), which works to draft and articulate American foreign policy. Among the fifteen other members of the NSC were President George Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney (see entry), Secretary of State Colin Powell (see entry), and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld (see entry).

American foreign policy changes after September 11

During his campaign, Bush said little about foreign policy. His few statements on the matter suggested that he wanted to avoid becoming entangled in the affairs of other countries. For example, he claimed that America was "over-committed around the world" and "throwing its weight around." He called for a new emphasis on domestic issues and less assistance for new, struggling governments.

But Bush's position changed dramatically following the terrorist attacks against the United States that took place on September 11, 2001. It was on this day that members of a radical Islamic terrorist group called Al Qaeda hijacked four commercial airplanes and crashed them into the World Trade Center towers in New York City, the Pentagon building near Washington, D.C., and a field in Pennsylvania, killing nearly three thousand people. A short time later, Bush met with Rice and his other top advisors at Camp David, Maryland. They outlined a series of phases in a global war against terrorism. The first phase involved a military attack against the people directly responsible for the September 11 attacks, Muslim cleric (religious leader) Osama bin Laden and his Al Qaeda terrorist organization, and their protectors in Afghanistan. In the second phase, Bush planned to extend the war on terrorism to include any group or nation that possessed the ability and desire to harm the United States. Rice was one of the administration's strongest voices in favor expanding the war on terrorism to include "rogue nations."

Bush first described the new foreign policy in his State of the Union address in January 2002. In this speech, he suggested that the Cold War strategy of deterrence, maintaining a strong military in order to discourage other countries from attacking, was not effective against terrorists. He argued that the only way to defeat these new enemies was to strike first, or preemptively, to eliminate their capacity to attack American interests before they had a chance to use it. He specifically mentioned several nations that he viewed as threats to the United States, including Iraq.

Over the next several months, Rice emerged as one of the leading supporters of Bush's new foreign policy. She made a series of public statements in favor of expanding the war on terrorism to include countries that supported terrorists or could provide them with weapons of mass destruction. In one such speech, Rice claimed that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had ties to the Al Qaeda terrorist organization. "Saddam's regime and Al Qaeda have been orbiting each other quite a lot," she stated. "There have been contacts for quite a while. There are a number of serious Al Qaeda people who have found refuge in Iraq.... We have picked up evidence of [the Iraqis] training Al Qaeda operatives in chemical-weapons activities."

Throughout the fall of 2002, Bush pressured the United Nations (UN) to authorize the use of military force to remove Hussein from power in Iraq. Rice continued to speak out in defense of this strategy. "Saddam has used weapons of mass destruction," she told the New Yorker, referring to the Iraqi leader's use of poison gas against the Kurds of northern Iraq in 1988, "and continues to acquire them at an incredibly rapid pace." She also expressed concern that Hussein might be close to acquiring nuclear weapons.

Releases National Security Strategy

In September 2002 Rice's office released a document called the National Security Strategy, which articulated America's new foreign policy. It explained in greater depth the nation's reasons for wanting to invade Iraq and overthrow Hussein. The National Security Strategy asserted America's right to "dissuade [discourage] potential adversaries from pursuing a military buildup in hopes of surpassing, or equaling, the power of the United States." It also proclaimed that the United States "will not hesitate to act alone, if necessary, to exercise our right of self-defense by acting preemptively" with military force.

The right to "act preemptively" meant that the United States could attack another country without having been attacked first, as long as it perceived that nation as a threat. "It is simply not possible to ignore and isolate other powerful states that do not share [American] values," Rice explained. The National Security Strategy specifically addressed the issue of "rogue nations" like Iraq. They "reject basic human values and hate the United States and everything for which it stands," Rice told the New Yorker.

In the months leading up to the 2003 Iraq War, the Bush administration's new foreign policy came under criticism both within the United States and internationally. Opponents questioned the wisdom of the policy as well as its legality under international law. But Rice and other administration officials continued to defend their views and prepare for a military invasion of Iraq.

Despite a lack of UN support, the United States attacked Iraq on March 19, 2003 (March 20 in Iraq). The offensive, called Operation Iraqi Freedom, succeeded in removing Hussein from power after only a few weeks of fighting. On May 1 Bush announced the end of major combat operations in Iraq. U.S. troops remained in the country to provide security, aid in reconstruction efforts, and help the Iraqi people form a new democratic government.

Postwar problems raise doubts about policies

Over the next several months, however, the situation in Iraq raised some doubts about the Bush administration's strategy. Coalition troops struggled to maintain security in the face of Iraqi resistance and a series of terrorist attacks. A massive search failed to uncover any weapons of mass destruction or evidence linking Hussein to Al Qaeda. Critics suggested that the Bush administration should have waited to gather more reliable intelligence (information collected through spying activities) before starting a war.

Rice and other members of the Bush administration continued to claim that weapons of mass destruction would eventually be found in Iraq. But in their public statements, they also began backing away from weapons and terrorism as the main reasons for going to war. Instead, Rice and other administration officials emphasized that the war had freed the Iraqi people from a brutal dictator. "We're going to find the truth about what Saddam Hussein did with weapons of mass destruction, how he built his programs, how he concealed them," she told Tavis Smiley in an interview for National Public Radio. Rice continued:

We didn't make this stuff up. There was intelligence. There were [foreign] intelligence services. There were UN inspectors.... But we can also say that, in addition to the threat from weapons of mass destruction, this was one of the most brutal dictators of modern times, somebody who had attacked his neighbors in the past. And the Middle East, as a region, is far better off for his removal. That, in itself, is a very important contribution.

Despite the postwar problems in Iraq, Rice continued to defend Bush's foreign policy decisions. "The people of the Middle East share the desire for freedom," she said in an October 2003 speech. "We have an opportunity—and an obligation—to help them turn this desire into reality. And we must work with others to create a world where terror is shunned and hope is the provenance of every living human. That is the strategic challenge—and moral mission—of our time."

Where to Learn More

"Condoleezza Rice." Biography Resource Center Online. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale Group, 2001.

"Exceeding Expectations, Rice Returns to White House in Top Job." CNN.com, December 17, 2000.

LeMann, Nicholas. "Without a Doubt." New Yorker, October 14, 2002.

Sciolino, Elaine. "Woman in the News; Compulsion to Achieve." New York Times, December 18, 2000.

Smiley, Tavis. "Interview: Condoleezza Rice." NPR, June 13, 2003. Available online at http://www.npr.org/features/feature.php?wfId=1297605 (accessed on April 1, 2004).

Zakaris, Fareed. "Bush, Rice, and the 9-11 Shift." Newsweek, December 16, 2002.