Biden praises Madeleine Albright: ‘She changed the course of history’

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“With his kindness and grace, his humanity and his intellect, he changed the course of history,” Biden said during the funeral service at the Washington National Cathedral.

The president said, “She always had a knack for explaining to the American people why it mattered to them that people all over the world were struggling to breathe freely.”

The president said he learned of Albright’s death while traveling to Europe for an emergency meeting with NATO allies to discuss Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“It was not lost on me that Madeleine was a big part of the reason NATO remained strong and galvanized, as it is today,” Biden said.

The president said Albright remained a “nexus of the foreign policy community” in the decades after he left office.

Albright, Biden said, was “always, and I mean always, on top of the latest developments. Always speaking out for democracy, and always the first to sound the alarm on fascism.”

“Presidents and leaders around the world continued to seek his advice, including myself,” Biden said.

The president praised Albright’s diplomatic skills, saying part of the reason he believed she was so effective is that “she understood something I’ve always believed: that all politics, especially international politics, is personal.”

Biden described Albright as a champion for young women in national security, always making sure they had a seat at the table, and a mentor to “rising generations of foreign policy pundits.”

Albright, who died of cancer in March at the age of 84, is expected to be remembered by her friends and family, a number of current and former US government officials, US presidents, secretaries of state, foreign leaders and diplomats, as well as several Democrats. and Republican members of Congress. More than 1,400 people were expected to attend.
Albright was a central figure in former President Bill Clinton’s administration, first serving as his US ambassador to the United Nations before he chose her in his second term to be the first secretary of state. In office, she championed NATO expansion, pushed for the alliance to intervene in the Balkans to stop genocide and ethnic cleansing, sought to reduce the proliferation of nuclear weapons, and promoted human rights and democracy around the world. .

Albright’s funeral also featured tributes from former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Albright’s daughters, Anne Albright, Alice Albright and Katharine Albright, will also speak. Episcopal clergy officiated at the service. Musicians Chris Botti and Herbie Hancock will perform tributes.

Several current and former federal officials are included in the list of readers and advocates, including Wendy Sherman, US Assistant Secretary of State; Condoleezza Rice, former Secretary of State and former student of Albright’s father; and Susan Rice, who heads the White House Domestic Policy Council.

Several other Biden officials were also in attendance, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Secretary of Veterans Affairs Denis McDonough and US Climate Envoy John Kerry, a former Secretary of State.

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Also in attendance were former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama, former Vice President Al Gore, and former Defense Secretaries Ash Carter, Chuck Hagel and Bill Cohen.

Along with several honorary pallbearers, the pallbearers at Wednesday’s service will be made up of Albright’s diplomatic security service and protection details during her time as ambassador and secretary of state.

Born Marie Jana Korbelova, the daughter of a Czechoslovakian diplomat, in Prague in 1937, Albright fled her home country with her family 10 days after the Nazi invasion. Her experience of growing up in communist Yugoslavia and then fleeing to the US made her a lifelong opponent of totalitarianism and fascism.

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Albright became a face of US foreign policy in the decade between the end of the Cold War and the war on terror sparked by the attacks of September 11, 2001, an era heralded by President George HW Bush as a “new world order”. The United States, particularly in Iraq and the Balkans, built international coalitions and occasionally intervened militarily to push back autocratic regimes. Albright, a self-identified “pragmatic idealist” who coined the term “assertive multilateralism” to describe the Clinton administration’s foreign policy, drew on her childhood experiences growing up and fleeing Yugoslavia to shape the vision of her from her world.

Following her tenure as secretary of state, Albright served as president of the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs in Washington from 2001 until her death, and taught at Georgetown University. Albright was also a prolific author, penning seven New York Times bestsellers.

At Wednesday’s service, former teaching assistants who worked in Albright’s Georgetown classes are expected to serve as ushers.

CNN’s Devan Cole and Caroline Kelly contributed to this story.



Reference-www.cnn.com

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