Just a month ago, Madeleine Albright took up her pen and published a column in the New York Times. His title : “Putin is making a historic mistake”. Russia had not yet launched its attack on Ukraine but the one who was the first American official to meet him in his role as president in 2000 warned the leader. “Rather than setting Russia on the path to glory, invading Ukraine would secure its infamy by leaving its country diplomatically isolated, economically weakened and strategically vulnerable to a stronger and more united Western alliance,” she wrote.
Cancer took her away on Wednesday at the age of 84, but the former Secretary of State, “Central figure in President Bill Clinton’s administration and face of American foreign policy in the decade between the end of the Cold War and the War on Terror” according to CNNhad time to see his predictions partly confirmed.
“A force whose hands changed the course of history”. The tribute is signed Joe Biden. The American president, like many others, on Wednesday saluted the memory of the ex-diplomat. He remembers “his fervent faith in America as the indispensable nation”. This vision of his land of welcome in «Moral guide» is the same as for “many immigrants from the second world war generation”comment on Washington Post.
Daughter of a diplomat, born Maria Jana Korbelova in Prague in 1937, the one who was called Madla, Madlan or Maldlenka before opting for Madeleine – result of her French studies, indicates Politico – left Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia with his family to join the United States in 1948, fleeing Nazism and then Communism. “Her experiences with authoritarian governments in her early years shaped her approach to the world and explains why she paid particular attention to Eastern Europe”see the Wall Street Journalindicating that being a polyglot (Czech, French, Polish and Russian) “strengthened its ability to build good relationships with its foreign counterparts”.
She became an American citizen in 1957 and married a wealthy heir two years later. The brilliant young woman – she learned Russian in the hospital when her twins were born premature, says the Post – subsequently obtained a doctorate from Columbia University. It is there that she meets Zbigniew Brzezinski, a refugee from Eastern Europe too, and future national security adviser to Jimmy Carter. She accompanies him to the White House.
A millionaire after her divorce in 1982, she participated in fundraisers for the Democratic Party, collaborated with the unsuccessful candidate for the White House Michael Dukakis and then met Bill Clinton. Impressed by this ambitious politician, Mrs. Albright wrote him a letter of recommendation which helped him to integrate a think tank in New York, notes the Post. After being elected president in 1992, she did the same and gave him the role of US ambassador to the United Nations.
Failure in the Israeli-Palestinian dossier
“Few leaders have been so perfectly suited to the times they served”, said Mr. Clinton after the announcement of his disappearance. She still failed in 1994 to avoid the genocide in Rwanda. “His biggest regret”she will say later.
Appointed Secretary of State after the re-election of Bill Clinton, “the enemy of tyrants”https://vps.time.news/esteri/22_marzo_23/morta-madeleine-albright-prima-donna-segretario-stato-usa-efdce028-aad7-11ec-89dc-0e9cfd23fb65.shtml”>as described in Corriere della Sera, “Helps shape Western foreign policy in the aftermath of the Cold War. She moves by trying to assert what she sees as the moral superiority of the United States, but also by involving other countries in what she defines as “vigorous multilateralism”..
A policy carried out “sometimes foil, sometimes sabre”add the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitungrecalling that she “made sure not to be underestimated”, conscious of being a pioneer in her role as chief diplomat. The anecdotes of his brooches intended to break the ice are numerous. For example, she had worn one in the shape of a golden snake in response to an insult from Saddam Hussein who had called her a snake. These pins, “weapons of its diplomatic arsenal” dixit Politicowere even the subject of an exhibition at the Smithsonian in 2010.
“Although she fully understood the horrors of the Second World War, she was not a dove”insists New York Poststating that she pushed Bill Clinton to intervene militarily in Kosovo in 1999. “The bombing of former Yugoslav states helped define the post-Soviet role of the Western alliance at a time when NATO’s future was in question. Albright was a proponent of NATO expansion, overseeing the addition of Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic.observes the BBC.
“She felt that she had failed to find a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian problem”points out however the Czech tabloid lightning. No settlement either of the situation in North Korea. And she was in office when al-Qaeda attacked US embassies in Tanzania and Kenya, killing 224 people. “The hardest day” of his mandate, she acknowledged.
Returning to civilian life, she wrote several books and taught at Georgetown. She was also very critical of Donald Trump, suggesting that he did not get very good grades in his classes.
“She was a feminist before she understood what it meant”remarks on his side The country for whom Madeleine Albright was “one of the most powerful female figures of the 20th century”. Time has made it a phenomenon with queues of young women at signing sessions or its participation in series like Gilmore Girls Where Parks and Recreation.
The Spanish daily also considers it the symbol of a certain America, “the idea that in this country, an 11-year-old girl who escaped the horror in Europe can reach the highest levels of power in the new world”. This is more or less the meaning of the story given by Barack Obama when paying homage to him. At a naturalization ceremony, an Ethiopian man approached Ms Albright to say: “Only in America can a refugee meet the Secretary of State”. She then replied: “Only in America can a refugee become Secretary of State”.