Madeleine Albright

Madeleine Albright was a force.Hers were the hands that turned the tide of history.As a young girl, she found a home in the United States—after her family.

As always, she shared her insight and wisdom widely, but she was especially dedicated to supporting the next generation of women leaders, including through the establishment of the Albright Institute for Global Affairs at Wellesley College. She took her talents first to the Senate as a staffer for Senator Edmund Muskie, followed by the National Security Council under President Carter. And then to the United Nations where she served as U. S. Ambassador, and ultimately, made history as our first woman Secretary of State, appointed by President Clinton. In the years after she left government, Secretary Albright never stepped away from that belief. A scholar, teacher, bestselling author, and later accomplished businesswoman, Secretary Albright continued to advise presidents and members of Congress with matchless skill and diplomatic acumen. And like so many before her—and after—she was proudly American. She spent the rest of her days defending freedom around the world and lifting up those who suffered under repression.

Albright, who arrived in the U.S. as an 11-year-old refugee, became the first woman to serve as secretary of state. She died on Wednesday at the age of 84.

"So I went up to him and I said, 'Can you believe that a refugee is secretary of state?' " "She turned to me as a counselor and said, 'Could you organize the State Department to talk about Islam?' " Sherman said. "It was an indication of her ability to be political." "But it had nothing to do with her getting the job." "She was happy to wield it in her own way." "Madeleine said to him, 'When your government names a woman to head the delegation, I will spend considerable time with her as well.' " Albright, at 4 feet 10 inches tall, stood out in her cherry suit and pearls in the all-male group. Albright had a long and storied career in foreign policy, serving as U. S. ambassador to the United Nations from 1993-97 before reaching the pinnacle of diplomacy: secretary of state. "This all started when ... Saddam Hussein called me a serpent," Albright told NPR in 2009. "As difficult as it might seem, I want every stage of my life to be more exciting than the last." It would never have happened, but I would have felt better about my own role in this." "She said, 'Where's Wonder Woman?' So they did a Wonder Woman comic book as well.

The former U.S. secretary of state recalled the first time she met Russian President Vladimir Putin back in 1999 during the Clinton administration.

"I think he is somebody that is very competent in his capabilities generally. "But Russia is alone. Albright spoke with NPR last June ahead of a meeting in Geneva between Russian and U.S. leaders. "But my impression in the second two meetings were that he very much liked the background of being in the Kremlin with all its history, that he was smart, that he was prepared and that he had a view about how things were going to go," Albright added. The former secretary of state recalled the first time she met Putin, in 1999, and emphasized that his agenda was clear from the beginning. When Madeleine Albright met Russian leader Vladimir Putin more than 20 years ago as the U.S. secretary of state, she said he was trying to ingratiate himself to then-President Bill Clinton — but Putin also "had a view of how things were going to go."

WASHINGTON — Madeleine Albright was the quintessential late 20th-century Jewish diplomat, haunted by the Holocaust and determined to use what tools her adopted ...

“The epitome of mensch in the best and broadest sense of the word.” That led to difficult questions: If Albright knew she was Jewish in 1993 or 1994, why did she not reveal it until 1997, when a newspaper was about to go public? “Maybe she was afraid that her stature would be diminished before her international colleagues if they knew of her Jewish roots. Maybe she felt her aspirations to become secretary of state would be jeopardized if her family history was confirmed.” Her optimism may have blinded her to how deeply embedded in Iran’s political culture was its resistance to compromise. Netanyahu planned a dramatic signal that he was ready to leave the talks. Albright, an early backer of Bill Clinton when he was a relatively unknown Arkansas governor, was his first U. N. ambassador, repayment in part for the money she helped raise for his campaign. She was behind Clinton’s decision to confront the Serbian military in 1999 as it bore down on Kosovo. Yugoslav strongman Slobodan Milosevic once told her, “Madam Secretary, you are not well informed.” Albright, whose father Josef Korbel, had served as a diplomat in Belgrade, countered, “Don’t tell me I’m uninformed — I lived here.” In 1998, at U. S.-mediated talks with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat at Wye River, Maryland, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was resisting concessions as Bill Clinton sought to advance the Oslo Accords Netanyahu had reviled. She lobbied for airstrikes against Serbian targets, once telling Colin Powell, then the chairman of the 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, famous for his Vietnam-era-founded reluctance for military intervention, said the question nearly caused him an “aneurysm.” “This is cowardice.” She called State Department bureaucrats, whom she never fully trusted, “The White Boys.” Albright was adept at outmaneuvering statesmen — always men — who thought they knew much better than she did.

Today, as Ukraine defends itself against military forces from Russia, Albright's journey is especially important.

And you have to do it in a strong voice." And you have to do it in a strong voice," she wrote in 2015. It was a doomed mission, but it also was a testament to the human spirit to stand up against oppression, even when it will likely mean your death. It wasn't to be. And to so many, Albright was a feminist icon. To others, Albright's decades of public service proved a model for a person choosing to serve their country.