Madeleine Albright, known as America's first female secretary of state, was born in Czecslovakia in 1937.
After the Nazis occupied Czechslovakia in 1939, she fled to England along with her family (because her family was Jewish, as she later learned; she was told at first that it was for political reasons, as her father was a Czech diplomat). A little after World War II ended, she and her family immigrated to the United States in 1948.
Albright graduated from Wesley College in 1959, and after doing so, went to Washington D.C. to work for Senator Muskie and serve on the National Security Council. For the next couple of decades, she would teach at Georgetown about foreign affairs and participate in nonprofit organizations.
Finally, in 1993, Bill Clinton appointed her as ambassador to the United Nations, where Albright became known for being a good defender of American interests and she advocated for the US's increased role in the UN. In 1996, Clinton then nominated her to replace Warren Christopher as US Secretary of State, and her nomination was unanimously confirmed throughout the Senate.
In an active foreign policy, Albright pursued the use of military force to pressure Yugoslavia, Iraq, and other autocratic regimes. She famously met with Kim Jong II in North Korea in 2000, and became the highest ranking US officall to visit that country.
Sources:
http://secretary.state.gov/www/albright/albright.html
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/madeleine-albright-is-born
It's interesting that, even in such a partisan time (though it was five years before the Lewinsky scandal, Republican talk show hosts were finding a new and more aggressive footing,) there was unanimous support for her nomination in the Senate. What did she do as an ambassador to garner such uniform support?
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