Madeleine Albright

Born May 15, 1937

Prague, Czechoslovakia

Czech refugee from World War II who became the first female secretary of state

"The success of American foreign policy … will make the difference between a future characterized by peace, rising prosperity and law, and a more uncertain future in which our economy and security are always at risk, our peace of mind is always under assault and American leadership is increasingly in doubt."

M adeleine Albright was the daughter of Jewish parents in Czechoslovakia at a time when Germany controlled the country and hunted down Jews for eventual murder as undesirable people. Her family smuggled her out of the country to England. She made her way to the United States, where she eventually became U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and, later, the first woman secretary of state.

Early life in Czechoslovakia

Madeleine Albright was born Maria Jana Korbel on May 15, 1937, in Prague, Czechoslovakia. Her father, Josef Korbel (1909–1977), was a diplomat for the Czech government. When Germany seized control of Czechoslovakia in 1939, Josef and his wife Anna fled with their daughter to the safety of London to avoid arrest in Prague at a time when the German government was discriminating against Jewish citizens.

After the end of World War II (1939–45), the family returned to Czechoslovakia, but when communists took control of the government, the family again fled, this time to the United States. Josef had been working as chairman of a special United Nations commission. (The United Nations is an international organization, composed of most of the nations of the world, created to preserve world peace and security.) He took the opportunity to ask for political asylum, or permission to live in the United States for fear of being persecuted by the government. In 1948, at the age of eleven, Maria came with her family, which now included another son and daughter, to settle in Denver, Colorado, where Josef became a professor at the University of Denver. It was upon moving to the United States that her mother rechristened Maria as Madeleine.

Not until she was confirmed as secretary of state in 1997 did the full story of Madeleine Albright's background come to light. Michael Dobbs (1950–), a reporter researching an article for the Washington Post, learned in an interview with one of Albright's cousins in Czechoslovakia that the Korbel family had been Jewish. He also learned that three of Albright's grandparents, along with several other relatives, had died in concentration camps during the Holocaust. (The Holocaust was the period between 1933 and 1945 when Nazi Germany, led by dictator Adolf Hitler [1889–1945], systematically persecuted and murdered millions of Jews and other innocent people.)

Albright had been brought up as a Roman Catholic. She was told that her family members had died during the war and that her family had left Czechoslovakia because her parents were political activists. Albright later defended her parents' decision to change their children's religion, saying, "My parents did everything in their power to make a good life for their children. They were very protective of us…. What they gave us children was the gift of life, literally. Twice, once by giving us birth and the other by bringing us to America to escape what, clearly now, would have been a certain death. So I am not going to question their motives…. I have been proud of the heritage that I have known about and I will be equally proud of the heritage that I have just been given."

Journalism background

Albright attended Wellesley College in Massachusetts on a scholarship, majoring in political science and graduating with honors in 1959. At wellesley, she developed an interest in journalism and became editor of the school newspaper. Three days after graduating from Wellesley, she married Joseph Medill Patterson Albright (1937–), heir to a large newspaper fortune.

Her initial career plan was to be a journalist. After graduating, she began working at the Rolla Daily News in Rolla, Missouri, but soon moved to Chicago, Illinois, when her husband accepted a new job at the Chicago Sun-Times. She tried to get a job at another newspaper, but was discouraged by the editor, who addressed her as "honey" and said, "You may want to be a reporter, but you can't be on a competing paper and you can't be on the paper your husband works on, so why don't you find another career?"

Looking back on the incident, Albright later commented, "And I didn't fight it. I would fight it now, of course—but I think I'm better at what I do now than I would have been as a journalist."

Albright focused instead on raising her family. But this was interrupted by the premature birth of her twin daughters, Anne and Alice. Unexpectedly, Albright changed her focus. She independently studied Russian to occupy herself at the hospital until her daughters could come home. (She already knew French, Polish, and Czech.) When her husband got a new job as the city editor of Newsday, a newspaper published in the suburbs of New York City, the Albrights moved to Long Island, New York, and there Albright resumed her formal education. She earned a language certificate in Russian in 1968 and in that same year earned a master's degree in international affairs from Columbia University in New York City. She then began working on a doctorate degree in international relations at Columbia. When the family moved again, this time to Washington, D.C., Albright commuted to Columbia to finish her degree, which she earned in 1976.

Albright enters politics

It was at this time that Albright entered into Democratic politics, working as a coordinator and later as chief legislative assistant for the unsuccessful 1976 presidential campaign of Edmund Muskie (1914–1996), a U.S. senator from Maine. In 1978, Zbigniew Brzezinski (1928–), one of her professors at Columbia, chose Albright to work on his staff at the White House, where she stayed until President Jimmy Carter (1924–; served 1977–81) was defeated for reelection in 1980.

Albright spent from 1981 to 1982 on a Woodrow Wilson fellowship at the Smithsonian Institution Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, researching and writing Poland: The Role of the Press in Political Change. During this time, in 1982, her husband left her; the couple divorced the next year.

After completing her fellowship, Albright joined the faculty of Georgetown University as a professor of international affairs. She taught a variety of courses including international studies, U.S. and Soviet foreign policy, and the politics of central and eastern Europe. She served as the director of the Women in Foreign Service program at Georgetown's School of Foreign Service, and she helped to develop other programs to help women pursue opportunities in foreign service.

While at Georgetown, Albright continued her involvement in politics. She was an advisor to former vice president Walter Mondale (1928–) and U.S. representative Geraldine Ferraro (1935–) of New York in their unsuccessful 1984 campaign for the presidency and vice presidency. Four years later, she was an advisor to Massachusetts governor Michael Dukakis (1933–) in his 1988 campaign for president, which also failed.

After the 1988 election, Albright became president of the Center for National Policy, a Democratic nonprofit research organization that works to promote discussion and research of domestic and international issues.

Throughout her years at Georgetown University, Albright often hosted discussions on foreign policy in her home. There, many of the top minds in international affairs gathered to discuss foreign-policy issues. Albright herself had by this time become a prominent figure in international affairs.

In 1992, Albright worked on the presidential campaign of Arkansas governor Bill Clinton (1946–) as a senior foreign-policy advisor. After his election, he appointed her as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Albright became the second woman ever to represent the United States at the United Nations. At the time she was the only woman on the Security Council, which carries on much of the crucial work of the United Nations. Clinton also elevated her position to that of a member of his cabinet, the group of people who head government departments and report directly to the president. At the United Nations, Albright dealt

with several important issues, drawing both praise and criticism. Her decision to attend the Fourth World Conference on Women, held in Beijing, China, was criticized by some who had hoped she would boycott the conference as a way of sending a message to China about government violations of human rights. Albright defended her participation by saying U.S. relations with China should not center on just one issue. Albright supported resolutions to expand the effort of the United Nations to maintain peace in the east African country of Somalia. She worked to gain support for the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which eliminated most tariffs, or taxes, on trade among Canada, the United States, and Mexico.

While Albright was representing the United States at the United Nations, a civil war broke out in Yugoslavia, resulting in many civilian deaths. She urged President Clinton to take an active role in ending the conflict, as a means to promote democracy throughout the world.

First female secretary of state

In 1996, when Warren Christopher (1925–) resigned as secretary of state, President Clinton nominated Albright to replace him. She became the first woman to ever hold the position of secretary of state and the highest-ranking woman in the U.S. government. Albright took over the post in 1997 and immediately began traveling overseas, seeking to make her presence known in the international community. She soon came to be respected and admired by world leaders.

As secretary of state, Albright continued to deal with the issue of the war in Yugoslavia. Relations with China cooled over issues of trade and human rights. The United States also pushed to include more countries in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the organization established after World War II to prevent the Soviet Union from invading Western Europe. The Middle East continued to demand the attention and energy of Albright and the Clinton administration.

In 1997, Albright made her first official trip to the Middle East, hoping to assist Israelis and Palestinians negotiate a peace settlement to end their half-century-old struggle for control over land in Palestine. Sensing no progress in the discussions, Albright left, resolving not to return until the two sides were ready to agree to work toward an agreement. She came back to the Middle East in 2000, the last year of the Clinton presidency, to help Clinton reach a resolution, but this attempt also was unsuccessful.

Albright became the first U.S. secretary of state to visit Ho Chi Minh City, the capital of Vietnam, since communist forces took over South Vietnam in 1975. She also was the first secretary of state to visit North Korea. As at the United Nations, Albright, intent on promoting democratic governments, often advocated military involvement by the U.S. armed forces.

Albright left office in 2001 upon the completion of Clinton's term as president. She returned to the faculty of Georgetown University. In 2003, her memoir, Madam Secretary, was published.

—James L. Outman

For More Information

Books

Albright, Madeleine. Madam Secretary: A Memoir. New York: Miramax, 2003.

Blood, Thomas. Madam Secretary: A Biography of Madeleine Albright. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1997.

Dobbs, Michael. Madeleine Albright: A Twentieth-Century Odyssey. New York: Henry Holt and Co., 1999.

Lippman, Thomas W. Madeleine Albright and the New American Diplomacy. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2000.

Periodicals

"An American in North Korea." The Economist (October 28, 2000): p. 37.

Cooper, Matthew. "The Lady Is a Hawk." Newsweek (December 16, 1996):p. 24.

Gibbs, Nancy. "The Many Lives of Madeleine." Time (February 17, 1997):p. 52.

Weymouth, Lally. "As I Find Out More, I'm Very Proud." Newsweek (February 24, 1997): p. 30.

Web Sites

Albright, Madeleine. "Archive of Speeches, Proclamations and Other Statements, 1997–2000." U.S. State Department.http://usinfo.state.gov/usa/womenusa/archive.htm (accessed on March 4, 2004).

Albright, Madeleine. "Commencement Speech at Harvard University." The United States Agency for International Development.http://www.usaid.gov/multimedia/video/marshall/albright.html (accessed on March 4, 2004).