Albright Breaks Glass Ceiling: First Female Secretary of State
Madeleine Albright was born Marie Jana Korbelova in Prague in 1937. Her family fled the Nazis, converted from Judaism to Catholicism, and emigrated to the United States after the communist takeover of Czechoslovakia. She did not learn of her Jewish heritage or that three of her grandparents had died in concentration camps until after her confirmation as Secretary of State in 1997. As the first woman to hold the position, Albright brought a personal understanding of totalitarianism to American foreign policy. She championed NATO expansion into Eastern Europe, pushed for intervention in Kosovo, and took a harder line against Saddam Hussein than her predecessor. Her famous declaration that 'the United States stands taller and therefore can see further' defined the assertive internationalism of the late Clinton era. She served until 2001 and died in 2022.
January 22, 1997
29 years ago
Key Figures & Places
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