Madeleine Albright, the first woman to serve as secretary of state for the United States, has died at the age of 84.
Madeleine Albright, the first woman to serve as secretary of state for the United States, has died at the age of 84.
Albright’s family said in a statement that Albright died Wednesday. She had been diagnosed with cancer.
“She was surrounded by family and friends,” her family announced on Twitter.
“We have lost a loving mother, grandmother, sister, aunt and friend.”
Born in Prague in what is now the Czech Republic, Albright emigrated to the U.S. as a child. She served as President Bill Clinton’s secretary of state, the 64th in the nation’s history, from 1997 until the end of Clinton’s second term.
Albright succeeded Warren Christopher as secretary of state, having previously served the Clinton administration as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
In one of her last public appearances, Albright was among those to eulogize the man who succeeded her as U.S. secretary of state, Colin Powell.
“His virtues were Homeric – honesty, loyalty, dignity and an unshakeable commitment to his calling and his word,” Albright said at a ceremony for Powell on Nov. 5 in Washington.
Years earlier, she once exclaimed to Powell, then the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff: “What’s the point of having this superb military you’re always talking about if we can’t use it?”
Powell recalled in a memoir that Albright’s comments almost made him have an “aneurysm.”
Called Russian invasion a ‘historic error’
More recently, she authored an opinion piece published in The New York Times last month, calling Russia’s decision to invade Ukraine a “historic error,” and recalling her first impression of Russian President Vladimir Putin after meeting him in 2000 as “so cold as to be almost reptilian.”
“Mr. Putin has charted his course by ditching democratic development for [Joseph] Stalin’s playbook,” Albright wrote.
She frequently appeared as a guest to offer commentary on world events, including CBC News.
“When I was in office, we had no better relationship than the one with Canada,” she told CBC’s Power & Politics in 2018.
“We are in every way close and I specifically loved working with the Canadian foreign minister at the time, Lloyd Axworthy.”
She also penned several books related to both her life and career as well as geopolitical developments, most recently with 2020’s Hell and Other Destinations: A 21st-Century Memoir.
Mixed record in Mideast diplomacy
Albright was an internationalist whose point of view was shaped in part by her background. Joseph Korbel, her father, was a diplomat, and her family fled then-Czechoslovakia in 1939 as the Nazis took over there.
As secretary of state, she 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.
Reaction from Linda Greenfield-Thomas, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations:
Secretary Albright was a mentor, colleague and friend over several decades. She was a trailblazer and luminary.
She was the first woman to serve as Secretary of State. And she left an indelible mark on the world and the @UN.
Our country and the UN are stronger for her service.
“My mindset is Munich,” she said frequently, referring to the German city where the Western allies abandoned her homeland to the Nazis.
She helped win Senate ratification of NATO’s expansion and a treaty imposing international restrictions on chemical weapons. She led a successful fight to keep Egyptian diplomat Boutros Boutros-Ghali from a second term as secretary-general of the United Nations. He accused her of deception and posing as a friend.
“I am an eternal optimist,” Albright said in 1998, amid an effort as secretary of state to promote peace in the Middle East, but she said getting Israel to pull back on the West Bank and the Palestinians to rout terrorists posed serious problems.
As America’s top diplomat, Albright made limited progress at first in trying to expand the 1993 Oslo Accords that established the principle of self-rule for the Palestinians on the West Bank and in Gaza. But in 1998, she played a leading role in formulating the Wye Accords that turned over control of about 40 per cent of the West Bank to the Palestinians.
She also spearheaded an ill-fated effort to negotiate a 2000 peace deal between Israel and Syria under Syria’s late President Hafez al-Assad.
President Barack Obama said she didn’t shrink in the face of the world’s strongmen, while awarding her the highest civilian honour in the U.S. in 2012, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
“When Saddam Hussein called her a ‘snake,’ she wore a serpent on her lapel the next time she visited Baghdad,” said Obama.
“When Slobodan Milosevic referred to her as a ‘goat,’ a new pin appeared in her collection.”
Childhood in the shadow of war
Albright’s family was Jewish and converted to Roman Catholicism when she was five. Three of her Jewish grandparents died in concentration camps.
Albright later said that she became aware of her Jewish background after she became secretary of state. After spending the war years in London, the family returned to Czechoslovakia after the Second World War but in 1948 fled again, this time to the United States, after the Communists rose to power.
They settled in Denver, where her father obtained an academic job. One of Josef Korbel’s students, Condoleezza Rice, would be the 66th U.S. secretary of state.
Albright graduated from Wellesley College in 1959. She worked as a journalist at a small Missouri newspaper and later studied international relations at Columbia University, where she earned a master’s degree in 1968 and a PhD in 1976.
Her first major job with a U.S. administration was within the National Security Council during Jimmy Carter’s presidency, and in 1984 she served as an advisor for vice-presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro, the first woman on a major U.S. presidential ticket.
Following her service in the Clinton administration, she headed a global strategy firm, Albright Stonebridge, and was chair of an investment advisory company that focused on emerging markets.
Albright married journalist Joseph Albright in 1959. They had three daughters and divorced in 1983.
Madeleine Albright, the first woman to serve as secretary of state for the United States, has died at the age of 84.Former secretary of state Madeleine Albright is shown speaking at a State Department event in Washington on Jan. 10, 2017. Albright was 84. (Sait Serkan Gurbuz/TheAssociated Press)Madeleine Albright, the first woman to serve as secretary of state for the United States, has died at the age of 84. Albright’s family said in a statement that Albright died Wednesday. She had been diagnosed with cancer. “She was surrounded by family and friends,” her family announced on Twitter. “We have lost a loving mother, grandmother, sister, aunt and friend.” Born in Prague in what is now the Czech Republic, Albright emigrated to the U.S. as a child. She served as President Bill Clinton’s secretary of state, the 64th in the nation’s history, from 1997 until the end of Clinton’s second term. Albright succeeded Warren Christopher as secretary of state, having previously served the Clinton administration as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. In one of her last public appearances, Albright was among those to eulogize the man who succeeded her as U.S. secretary of state, Colin Powell. “His virtues were Homeric – honesty, loyalty, dignity and an unshakeable commitment to his calling and his word,” Albright said at a ceremony for Powell on Nov. 5 in Washington. Albright is shown at a Washington event in 2014 with Colin Powell and Hillary Clinton, who each served terms as secretary of state after Albright. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) Years earlier, she once exclaimed to Powell, then the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff: “What’s the point of having this superb military you’re always talking about if we can’t use it?” Powell recalled in a memoir that Albright’s comments almost made him have an “aneurysm.” Called Russian invasion a ‘historic error’ More recently, she authored an opinion piece published in The New York Times last month, calling Russia’s decision to invade Ukraine a “historic error,” and recalling her first impression of Russian President Vladimir Putin after meeting him in 2000 as “so cold as to be almost reptilian.” “Mr. Putin has charted his course by ditching democratic development for [Joseph] Stalin’s playbook,” Albright wrote. Albright is shown on Sept. 29, 1994, in New York while serving as U.S. ambassador. Next to her is Russia’s ambassador and their current foreign minister nearly 30 years later, Sergei Lavrov. (Mark D. Phillips/AFP/Getty Images) She frequently appeared as a guest to offer commentary on world events, including CBC News. “When I was in office, we had no better relationship than the one with Canada,” she told CBC’s Power & Politics in 2018. “We are in every way close and I specifically loved working with the Canadian foreign minister at the time, Lloyd Axworthy.” She also penned several books related to both her life and career as well as geopolitical developments, most recently with 2020’s Hell and Other Destinations: A 21st-Century Memoir. Albright shares a laugh with then-foreign affairs minister Lloyd Axworthy in Ottawa in 1998. (Dave Chan/AFP/Getty Images) Mixed record in Mideast diplomacy Albright was an internationalist whose point of view was shaped in part by her background. Joseph Korbel, her father, was a diplomat, and her family fled then-Czechoslovakia in 1939 as the Nazis took over there. As secretary of state, she 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. Reaction from Linda Greenfield-Thomas, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations: Secretary Albright was a mentor, colleague and friend over several decades. She was a trailblazer and luminary.She was the first woman to serve as Secretary of State. And she left an indelible mark on the world and the @UN.Our country and the UN are stronger for her service.—@USAmbUN “My mindset is Munich,” she said frequently, referring to the German city where the Western allies abandoned her homeland to the Nazis. She helped win Senate ratification of NATO’s expansion and a treaty imposing international restrictions on chemical weapons. She led a successful fight to keep Egyptian diplomat Boutros Boutros-Ghali from a second term as secretary-general of the United Nations. He accused her of deception and posing as a friend. “I am an eternal optimist,” Albright said in 1998, amid an effort as secretary of state to promote peace in the Middle East, but she said getting Israel to pull back on the West Bank and the Palestinians to rout terrorists posed serious problems. Albright is seen on March 8, 2019 with former Polish president Lech Walesa in Warsaw, at an event commemorating Poland’s 20 years in NATO. (Czarek Sokolowski/The Associated Press) As America’s top diplomat, Albright made limited progress at first in trying to expand the 1993 Oslo Accords that established the principle of self-rule for the Palestinians on the West Bank and in Gaza. But in 1998, she played a leading role in formulating the Wye Accords that turned over control of about 40 per cent of the West Bank to the Palestinians. She also spearheaded an ill-fated effort to negotiate a 2000 peace deal between Israel and Syria under Syria’s late President Hafez al-Assad. President Barack Obama said she didn’t shrink in the face of the world’s strongmen, while awarding her the highest civilian honour in the U.S. in 2012, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. “When Saddam Hussein called her a ‘snake,’ she wore a serpent on her lapel the next time she visited Baghdad,” said Obama. “When Slobodan Milosevic referred to her as a ‘goat,’ a new pin appeared in her collection.” Childhood in the shadow of war Albright’s family was Jewish and converted to Roman Catholicism when she was five. Three of her Jewish grandparents died in concentration camps. Albright later said that she became aware of her Jewish background after she became secretary of state. After spending the war years in London, the family returned to Czechoslovakia after the Second World War but in 1948 fled again, this time to the United States, after the Communists rose to power. They settled in Denver, where her father obtained an academic job. One of Josef Korbel’s students, Condoleezza Rice, would be the 66th U.S. secretary of state. Albright graduated from Wellesley College in 1959. She worked as a journalist at a small Missouri newspaper and later studied international relations at Columbia University, where she earned a master’s degree in 1968 and a PhD in 1976. Her first major job with a U.S. administration was within the National Security Council during Jimmy Carter’s presidency, and in 1984 she served as an advisor for vice-presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro, the first woman on a major U.S. presidential ticket. Following her service in the Clinton administration, she headed a global strategy firm, Albright Stonebridge, and was chair of an investment advisory company that focused on emerging markets. Albright married journalist Joseph Albright in 1959. They had three daughters and divorced in 1983.