On Madeleine Albright's passing
Madeleine Albright, US Secretary of State from 1997 to 2001, died on March 23 at the age of 84. Born Maria Körbelová in Prague in 1937, she escaped to London with her parents two years later. In 1945 the family moved to Belgrade, but fled the communists to the US in 1948, where Albright became involved with the Democratic Party in the 1970s. She was the first woman to hold the US's top diplomatic post.
She deserves the gratitude of Central Eastern Europe
Lidové noviny pays tribute to Czech-born Albright's contribution to the European security architecture:
“A person born outside America can become the country's top diplomat. ... Madeleine Albright, who was born Marie Korbelová, came from the Prague district of Smíchov and was one of these people. At the age of two she experienced the flight from Hitler, then the bombing of London, but later - as Madeleine Albright - she also experienced the possibilities offered by the US. ... She led President Clinton's diplomacy at a crucial time for relations with Europe. Back then, Washington was pushing for Nato enlargement to include post-communist countries, including the Czech Republic. From today's perspective, this was a decisive step for our security. No one can take away her achievements in this regard.”
A full-blooded interventionist
NRC Handelsblad portrays the former US Secretary of State as follows:
“A pioneer, but certainly no rebel. Albright was a diplomat through and through, a woman of compromise who always strove to keep the parties at the table. ... Albright was also a full-blooded interventionist. She nurtured an unshakeable belief in American exceptionalism. As a result, in the 1990s she had no doubts about the necessity of Nato's intervention in the bloody conflicts in Bosnia and later Kosovo. ... Even in her secretary of state years, Albright's position remained that of self-confident multilateralism, which - if necessary - could also turn into force in a coalition led by the US.”