Out of office, Madeleine Albright inspired a generation of women looking for greater advancement. The former secretary of state has died
, who died on March 23rd, aged 84, wore her jewellery as a form of diplomatic telegram. She was the first woman to serve as America’s secretary of state, and her adornments stood out in the sea of dark suits. A brooch with balloons or flowers indicated optimism; crabs or turtles meant frustration. A favourite was a snake, a reference to Saddam Hussein, the villainous late dictator of Iraq who once called her an “unparalleled serpent”.
Mrs Albright preferred “the indispensable nation”, a term meant to encapsulate the idea that America’s participation in multilateralism was essential to make it work. But sometimes such language was also the rationale for threatening military action, as in 1998, when Saddam was engaged in a perpetual arm-wrestle with the UN over weapons inspections and sanctions. “If we have to use force, it is because we are America; we are the indispensable nation.
In the wars resulting from the breakup of the former Yugoslavia, she pushed a reluctant administration to respond more forcefully against Serb nationalists in Bosnia engaged in the shelling of Sarajevo and the ethnic cleansing of Muslims. In 1993 she clashed with the then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Colin Powell, who later recalled the encounter in his memoirs.
Out of office, Mrs Albright inspired a generation of women looking for greater advancement. She supported Hillary Clinton, who served as another “Madam Secretary” under Barack Obama, in her bid for the presidency. She urged female Democrats to support her rather than Bernie Sanders with words that would land her in some trouble: “There’s a special place in hell for women who don’t help each other.
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