I've read a few political autobiographies because a former boss gifted them to her staff each year. She must have been a Republican because they were written by Colin Powell and Donald Rutherford. Despite being a Democrat, I found these books easy to read and enjoyable. But Madeleine Albright's Madam Secretary stands head and shoulders above both of these others in its deft balancing of the personal and the political and the often self-deprecating humor she brings to bear. Madeleine Albright was the first female Secretary of State, a remarkable achievement, made all the more impressive by the fact that she was born in Prague and immigrated to the United States as a young girl. Her father was an intellectual diplomat who sought asylum here because he was an ardent anti-communist. While he obtained a university job in Colorado Madeleine nevertheless did not grow up privileged or wealthy (though she did marry into wealth). She always worked very hard to get good grades and ended up getting a full scholarship to Vassar. The book covers her entire career, including her first jobs, but focuses on the last two, namely U.S. Representative to the United Nations and later Secretary of State under Clinton and the major issues in foreign policy during those years including events in Haiti, Rwanda, Somalia, Kosovo, Serbia, China, Russia, and the Middle East. She discusses her friendships and rivalries with other diplomats and heads of state and is honest about her failures as well as her successes. Her discovery, at age 60, that her parents were born Jewish and three of her grandparents perished in the Holocaust is really fascinating. She openly discusses her failed marriage to Joseph Albright and the warmth she feels for her children and grandchildren and friends and colleagues is palpable. You learn a lot about what happened in those years and why certain political decisions were made. And just as importantly, you grow to truly appreciate and feel a kinship with this modest, funny and brilliant woman who achieved so much for herself and the world and gave her best efforts to all she undertook. ( )

https://fromtheheartofeurope.eu/madam-secretary-by-madeleine-albright/

My closest encounter with Madeleine Albright was in Banja Luka in the summer of 1997, when she descended on the Bosnian Serb capital with the full force of the State Department to visit the local leader, President Biljana Plavšić. The US government took over the central Hotel Bosna for the day; I was among the crowds that watched as the official motorcade took the Secretary of State from the hotel to the President’s offices in the main government building, the Banski Dvor. But the Banski Dvor is literally across the road from the Hotel Bosna, the front doors being less than 100 metres apart; the American motorcade was literally longer than the distance it needed to travel. It was a strange sight.

Anyway, this is a fascinating if rather long first-person account of life on the way to the top, and then at the top, of American politics. Though born in Prague in 1937, her family fled to the USA after the Communist take-over in 1948 and she settled down to become a smart American in an immigrant family. Her father, formerly a zech diplomat, became a political science professor; she followed in his footsteps, but also managed to catch a superbly well-connected journalist husband, which can’t have done any harm as she rose in DC.

A side hobby of fund-raising got her the attention of Democratic veteran Ed Muskie, who hired her for his Senate team in 1976; Zbig Brzezinski then snagged for the the National Security Council in the Carter presidency. The Democrats were out of office for the next twelve years, though she was involved as a senior foreign policy adviser in the unsuccessful 1984 and 1988 campaigns. Finally, a victorious Bill Clinton appointed her as ambassador to the United Nations in 1993, and Secretary of State in 1997, shortly before my near brush with her in Bosnia. She was also closely involved with the National Democratic Institute, my employers in Bosnia, though she had stepped back from it while in office. The book was published in 2002, very soon after the end of the Clinton presidency.

The circumstantial detail of her life before Washington is all very interesting, but like most readers I was fascinated by the insider accounts of Washington (and New York) policy-making. The Rwanda genocide, the Bosnia and Kosovo wars, the escalation against Saddam Hussein (which was firmly bipartisan in Washington in those days), relations with China and Russia, and above all the ins and outs of the Middle East from the high point of the Oslo accords in 1993 to the failure at Camp David in 2000, are all lucidly described; I am more familiar with some of these than others, but had no difficulty in following the thread. She is pretty clear on her own motivation, which usually coincided with US policy – though not always; she happily confirms that she tended to be on the hawkish side regarding the use of force, particularly after Rwanda.

There is a particularly moving chapter where, newly appointed as secretary of state, she discovers that her parents were Jewish and that three of her grandparents, who she remembered from her own childhood, had been killed in the Holocaust (one grandfather had died in 1938). Her parents had brought her up as a Catholic and she had no idea of her personal connection. Having been delving into my own family history of late, I know the feeling of genealogical surprises, though I don’t think that anything quite like that is lying in wait for me.

Anyway, it’s a lengthy book, but I found it enlightening. ( )

Loved this memoir of Madeleine Albright's life. She really covers everything from her childhood in Prague and Europe, her teen years in Colorado, her marriage, her divorce, being a single parent, trying to find her footing as a woman in politics and academia, her time in the U.N., and her role as Secretary of State.

I got just a tiny bit bored during some of the minutia about the politics and world events toward the end of the book, but overall this was really good. At its best when she's describing her "real life" vs. her work life.

Original publication date: 2001
Author’s nationality: American, Czech born
Original language: English
Length: 736 pages
Rating: 4 stars
Format/where I acquired the book: kindle purchase
Why I read this: interested in the topic/life ( )

Madam Secretary by Madeleine Albright:

Lessons I Learned:

1. When going out to eat order the cheapest item on the menu so you can save money.
2. Remember that marriage lasts for a lifetime or not but maintain discretion always.
3. Treat everyone with dignity and respect even if you do not like their attitude/ideals.
4. Always know what you are speaking about before opening your mouth.
5. Do not be afraid to restart your life over again after a mishap. Its not so bad.
6. Always remember that the only disability in life is a bad attitude. Just don’t do it.
7. Positivity rocks. Negativity does not and it is a timer waster and a hindrance.
8. Learn to love your own company and being alone. There is no shame in that. Ever. ( )

An astonishing, engaging story, told in first person from her birth in Czechoslovakia through resignation of her post as Secretary of State under Clinton. I was lucky enough to see Albright when she came to Phoenix as part of the Speakers' Series, and I found her insightful, knowledgeable, and adept with the one-liner. ("I was required to wear a bulletproof raincoat ... so big, the material stuck out above my shoulders. I eyed the photographers warily, fearing the caption, 'Madeleine Albright, the Hunchbacked Dame.'") This book was written in collaboration with Bill Woodward (speechwriter), but I heard her voice loud and clear in these pages. I also learned a lot about the policies and our relationships with countries all over the globe and was in awe of her ability to understand the delicate political nuances, how aspects such as the need to "save face" with people back home or backstories going back fifty years shape negotiations. She's also acutely attuned to language. At times there would be a phrase spoken or reported in the newspapers, and I'd think nothing of it, whereas she or one of her advisors would say, "Aha! That changes things." I'd have to read the next paragraph or two to understand why. I appreciate her efforts at building coalitions, including among women at the U.N. and elsewhere. I have to confess I got a bit bogged down by the long section about the middle east, but the situation is so complicated, that was probably inevitable. I love that she includes cartoons that poke fun at herself and photographs that suggest her ability to connect with a wide variety of people. Her husband, who left her for a younger woman doesn't come off so well; and she expresses her disappointment with Clinton over the Lewinsky affair ("I was angry with the President for risking so much for less than nothing"). But she took the advice of Gabriel Garcia Marquez: "When you write your memoirs, remember: do not be angry." It's a long book, but definitely worth the 500 pages. This was a bookclub pick, and though it is my first book by Albright, I will read more. This book was published in 2003, and I will be interested to see how/if two additional decades alter her views or focus. ( )