‘She served with distinction’: World reacts to death of Madeleine Albright

Madeleine Albright was a woman who “lived out the American dream and helped others realize it,” former President George W. Bush said Wednesday after learning of the death of the first woman to serve as U.S. secretary of state.

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Leaders in the U.S. and worldwide weighed in on the passing of Albright, 84, who died from cancer, her family told The Associated Press.

She was nominated by former President Bill Clinton as the first female secretary of state on Dec. 5, 1996. She was confirmed by the Senate in a 99-0 vote on Jan. 22, 1997, and was sworn in the following day, according to her official State Department biography. Clinton also appointed Albright as ambassador to the U.N. in 1993, a position she held until she was appointed as secretary of state.

“Few leaders have been so perfectly suited for the times in which they served,” Clinton said in a statement, adding that in her role as secretary of state, “she was a passionate force for freedom, democracy and human rights.”

Bush, in a statement, said that Albright, who once criticized him for using the “shock of force” instead of diplomacy, “served with distinction as a foreign-born foreign minister who understood firsthand the importance of free societies for peace in our world.

>> Former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright dies at 84

“I respect her love of country and public service.”

Albin Kurti, the prime minister of Kosovo, called Albright a “remarkable woman with uncompromising moral.”

She was “a partner with all who pursued peace, freedom and democracy,” Kurti said of Albright, who was born in Czechoslovakia and moved to the U.S. in 1948 after a Communist coup. “We will miss you, Madam Secretary.”

Albright and her family also fled Czechoslovakia in 1939 after Nazi troops invaded the country, The New York Times reported.

“She knew how to live under a cloud of uncertainty,” Clinton told CNN.

In addition to her service in the State Department and the U.N., Albright served as a counselor to President Jimmy Carter and was a foreign policy adviser to three presidential candidates: former Sen. Walter Mondale of Minnesota in 1984, Gov. Michael Dukakis of Massachusetts in 1988 and Clinton in 1992, according to the newspaper.

Albright was also the foreign policy adviser to Geraldine Ferraro, the first woman to run for vice president, in 1984.

The Biden administration praised Albright through State Department spokesperson Ned Price, who said, “The impact she has had on this building is felt every single day in just about every single corridor.”

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