The first female secretary of state in American history steps aside this weekend for the first African-American secretary of state. Like Colin Powell, whose Senate confirmation hearings began
Wednesday, Madeleine Albright's tenure started in a blaze of publicity focused on her personal story: a foreign-born refugee from both the Nazis and the
Communists, she'd been America's tart-tongued United Nations ambassador during Clinton I, where she'd forced the ouster of Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali. As secretary of state, her role in pushing for the Kosovo bombing campaign was so decisive that it became known as "Madeleine's War."
Her post–January 20 plans include turning down an offer from Prague to become president of the Czech Republic. Instead, she'll write a book about her time in office. In it, she'll probably be less diplomatic about the characters and controversies she's seen during her 30 years in Washington. In her comfortable "outer office" where she receives foreign diplomats on State's seventh-floor "Mahogany Row," she talked with a small group of reporters about her policies and her plans. Some excerpts:
On Iraq and Saddam Hussein: "One of the things Colin Powell has said is that he wants to tighten the sanctions. And I have said to him, 'Good luck!' I would have wished nothing more myself. But these are multilateral sanctions. We have been pushing and holding, and working with Security Council language, and commas and various things, in order to hold this alliance together. I think it will be very hard... I wish them luck. They left him, there he is."
On the Middle East Peace process and President Clinton's deep personal involvement: "When they started, most of my predecessors have said they
wouldn't get involved in the Middle East, and by virtue of its importance to us, each one has in one way or another become a part of it... When you
have a President that is as capable in absorbing all the details of this and giving it all the personal attention that President Clinton has, then
you need to use him. But every administration has a different style. What I think will not happen is, those people who say we're not going to be involved in the Middle East just won't hold true.... [Clinton called the Camp David Summit because] the Oslo process had run out, it was creating problems. There was increased frustration and growing tensions. We couldn't keep dragging it out. I got so sick of 'treading water' and 'narrowing gaps.'"
On Yasser Arafat: "This has been the hardest part, trying to sort out what Arafat wants. One would think from listening to him, as I have for hundreds of hours, that he really wants a Palestinian state that is viable, and provides a homeland and gives them stature and recognition....I have found the most difficult thing was trying to understand Arafat's motives in
this. This administration spent more time in learning and absorbing what have been called 'legitimate Palestinian needs' than any other. I have spent time here, I have spent time at my house, I have spent time at Ramallah, I have time at my farm, I have spent time at Camp David, and the White House, and the President, too. But he [Arafat] works at a different pace."
On Russian president Vladimir Putin: "Clearly, Putin is taking Russia in a different direction than Yeltsin did. I have been asked many times if I think Putin is a democrat. Not by birth. Or by early education or instinct. But I do think that in terms of how he thinks democratic methods
can help him get Russia into a more modern 20th- century economy, or get a more rational form of government, he will use them.... He's dedicated to
restoring some sense of Russian stature. What I am concerned about is that if there becomes a view of Russia as a zero-sum player again, that we will
help to recreate an enemy."
On the "Powell Doctrine" of confining foreign military interventions to situations of pressing U.S. national interest: "Americans cannot watch people's arms being chopped off in Sierra Leone or starving in Ethiopia without wanting to do something about it. There has to a choice between doing everything — that is, dealing with an ugly dictator who crossed an international boundary, six months to prepare,
the earth is flat, and somebody else pays for it — in terms of looking at different kinds of situations because of inter-ethnic fighting, border
disputes, and you can't have a choice of doing everything and doing nothing... [The new administration] is going to open the books here, and see what foreign policy is like today. And it's not your father's foreign policy. It's a very different world, and they are going to have to look at
it. And I bet you they will."
On Condoleezza Rice, who will become the first woman White House National Security Adviser: "I'm very glad that she's there. And I'm very
glad that people are not asking the question that was asked when I came in, 'Can a woman do it?' I think I've shown that women can stand up and be
tough and be humane and do American foreign policy."
