Albright Then, Albright Now

AFTER the Cold War, miracles abounded, large and small. One of those—smallish but interesting—was the rebirth of Madeleine K. Albright as . . . what? A hawk? A freedom fighter? John Foster Dulles in a skirt and floppy hat? Albright’s transformation has indeed been amazing. This is not the woman we knew for all those years, when, as a leading Democratic voice on foreign policy, she was assailing Ronald Reagan and his band—even George Bush and his— as reckless, warmongering, and dangerous. America is, to be sure, the land of self-reinvention; long may it be. Yet the secretary of state’s metamorphosis—the emergence of the New Albright, as striking as any New Nixon—has gone all but unnoticed.

The Kosovo war was widely considered Albright’s doing, as she had been the Clinton-administration official who pressed most insistently for it. It was also considered something of a personal project: Albright was born in Czechoslovakia and fled first the Nazis and later the Communists. Some of her relatives—the family was Jewish—were killed in the camps; others, luckier, were trapped in a Communist state. She herself was luckiest of all, brought to America, where her opportunities proved limitless. She naturally views Eastern Europe as her region and the Kosovo horror as her special responsibility. In May, Time magazine featured her on its cover, with the legend “Albright at War.” The photo showed her at her most bellicose: in a military jacket, complete with insignia, at an air base in Germany, barking into a cellular phone. Her face was the very picture of toughness and resolve. By comparison, Margaret Thatcher during the Falklands War was a whimpering doe.

About the Author

Jay Nordlinger

Jay Nordlinger was a senior editor of National Review and a book fellow at National Review Institute.

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AFTER the Cold War, miracles abounded, large and small. One of those—smallish but interesting—was the rebirth of Madeleine K. Albright as . . . what? A hawk? A freedom fighter? John Foster Dulles in a skirt and floppy hat? Albright’s transformation has indeed been amazing. This is not the woman we knew for all those years, when, as a leading Democratic voice on foreign policy, she was assailing Ronald Reagan and his band—even George Bush and his— as reckless, warmongering, and dangerous. America is, to be sure, the land of self-reinvention; long may it be. Yet the secretary of state’s metamorphosis—the emergence of the New Albright, as striking as any New Nixon—has gone all but unnoticed.

The Kosovo war was widely considered Albright’s doing, as she had been the Clinton-administration official who pressed most insistently for it. It was also considered something of a personal project: Albright was born in Czechoslovakia and fled first the Nazis and later the Communists. Some of her relatives—the family was Jewish—were killed in the camps; others, luckier, were trapped in a Communist state. She herself was luckiest of all, brought to America, where her opportunities proved limitless. She naturally views Eastern Europe as her region and the Kosovo horror as her special responsibility. In May, Time magazine featured her on its cover, with the legend “Albright at War.” The photo showed her at her most bellicose: in a military jacket, complete with insignia, at an air base in Germany, barking into a cellular phone. Her face was the very picture of toughness and resolve. By comparison, Margaret Thatcher during the Falklands War was a whimpering doe.