Last week, the heavens lost a bright star: Madeleine Korbel Albright passed away at age 84.
She was the 64th Secretary of State and the first woman to hold the position. She was a luminary joining Thomas Jefferson, Dean Acheson, John Foster Dulles, Henry Kissinger and Colin Powell who served as Secretary of State.
We have had the full gamut of successful and failed Secretaries of State. Alexander Haig named himself President when Reagan was shot. His career lasted about 60 minutes after that announcement. Rex Tillerson spoke candidly about his boss and lasted about 30 seconds after his comments reached the White House. Hillary Clinton illegally used her private e-mail and then hesitated to protect our embassy in Benghazi.
Albright was the daughter of Czech refugees who fled from both Nazi and Communist oppressors. She served as Ambassador to the United Nations and Secretary of State during the Clinton years. She had relatives who died in the concentration camps.
Raised a Catholic, she did not know she was Jewish until a reporter from the New York Times contacted her with the story. Her mentor was Zbigniew Brzezinski, a fellow refugee, whose daughter appears daily on the Morning Joe MSNBC TV show.
I met Madeleine Albright twice. The memories are vivid.
The first time was when she was involved with a private company that proposed to build a mega-yacht marina and hotel complex on an island near downtown Miami. The final step in a long and expensive process was approval by the Miami City Commission.
The Miami Mayor called for the vote. Commissioner “Loco Joe” Carollo asked to speak. He was a virulent anti-communist. He asked Albright what her husband did for a living. She responded that he represented foreign countries in the United States. He then asked if one of those countries was Bulgaria. Ever honest, she responded that he
did.
I knew at that moment that the deal was dead. No self-respecting Miami Commissioner would vote for anything that had a scintilla of Communist taint. The Mayor called for a recess and that was that.
I was in the audience and when she was leaving, I introduced myself and apologized for the way she was treated. Her grace was so apparent. She thanked me and left the building.
Years later, the president of my division of Lockheed Martin called. He had been invited to a fund raiser in Miami where Albright was the guest speaker. Lockheed’s international stature gave us a seat at the head table next to Albright.
Our president was unable to attend, so I become the surrogate. We spoke for quite a while. Her depth of knowledge, experience and openness immeasurably impressed me. Her passing brought me great sadness.
Madeleine Albright was a pillar of strength representing our country in a complex world. She combined life experience with education and empathy. That combination gained her respect in the cauldron of international diplomacy. She saw her adopted homeland as a moral beacon and an “indispensable nation” for resolving international conflicts.
Let us hope that our return to world leadership – by containing Russia’s aggression in Ukraine – makes her vision a reality.
Roger Carlton writes a bi-weekly column for The Graham Star. He can be reached via email, rcarlton57@hotmail.com.