Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright speaks at a reception in 201
(Picture: AP)Bill Clinton has paid tribute to the “extraordinary” Madeleine Albright who has died of cancer aged 84 after making history as the first female U.S. secretary of state.
President Bill Clinton chose Albright as America’s top diplomat in 1996, and she served in that capacity for the last four years of his administration.
At the time, she was the highest-ranking woman in the history of US government. She was not in the line of succession for the presidency, however, because she was a native of Czechoslovakia.
He said: “Hillary and I are profoundly saddened by the passing of Madeleine Albright. She was one of the finest Secretaries of State, an outstanding UN Ambassador, a brilliant professor, and an extraordinary human being.”
Clinton added: “Few leaders have been so perfectly suited for the times in which they served.”
My statement on the passing of Madeleine Albright—one of the finest Secretaries of State, an outstanding UN Ambassador, a brilliant professor, and an extraordinary human being. pic.twitter.com/50QXFhzGit
— Bill Clinton (@BillClinton) March 23, 2022
Albright, who fled the Nazis as a child in her native Czechoslovakia during World War Two and described herself as “a grateful American”, was a tough-talking diplomat in an administration that hesitated to involve itself in the two biggest foreign policy crises of the 1990s - the genocides in Rwanda and Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Below is a statement from the family of @Madeleine: pic.twitter.com/C7Xt0EN5c9
— Madeleine Albright (@madeleine) March 23, 2022
Former president George W Bush said he was “heartbroken” by the news and said Albright had “lived out the American dream”.
Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said she was “a force for freedom”.
Saddened to hear the news of @Madeleine Albright’s death. She was a force for freedom, an outspoken champion of #NATO, an inspirational colleague and friend. My deepest condolences to her family & the American people. pic.twitter.com/3Q8deXsuc1
— Jens Stoltenberg (@jensstoltenberg) March 23, 2022
Among the tributes was one from her friend and former tennis player Billie Jean King who said she was “a trailblazing spirit”.
Madeleine Albright, the 1st woman to hold the position of U.S. Secretary of State, has died.
— Billie Jean King (@BillieJeanKing) March 23, 2022
I’ve had the honor of spending time with her over the years. She possessed a brilliant mind & a trailblazing spirit.
My deepest sympathies go out to her loved ones. #RememberHerName pic.twitter.com/PrlZqjULZQ
Albright’s experience as a refugee prompted her to push for the United States to be a superpower which used that clout.
She wanted a “muscular internationalism,” said James O’Brien, a senior adviser to Albright during the Bosnian war, and once upset a Pentagon chief by asking why the military maintained more than 1 million men and women under arms if they never used them.
Early in the Clinton administration, while she unsuccessfully advocated for a quicker, stronger response in Bosnia, Albright backed a United Nations war crimes tribunal that eventually put the architects of that war, including Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic and Bosnian Serb leaders, in jail, O’Brien said.
Once the Clinton years and the 1990s were over, Albright became an icon to a generation of young women looking for inspiration in their quest for opportunity and respect in the workplace.
Albright was fond of saying: “There’s a special place in hell for women who don’t help each other.”
Her sense of style and use of statement pieces of jewelry made her a marked contrast to her male predecessors in their suits.
She used her clothes and jewelry to send political messages with one favourite being a snake brooch, a reference to Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein calling her an “unparalleled serpent.”
She wrote a book about her jewelry, one of several bestsellers, explaining the pins were a diplomatic tool. Balloons or flower brooches would indicate she felt optimistic, while a crab or turtle would indicate frustration.
Albright was born Marie Jana Korbelova in Prague on May 15, 193 and her family fled to London in 1939 when Germany occupied Czechoslovakia.
She was raised a Catholic but her family were Jewish and scores of relatives including three grandparents died in the Holocaust.
After the war, the family returned to Czechoslovakia but moved to the United States as the country was taken over by communists.
