"Our intelligence was wrong," former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said of Kim Jong Il as she spoke to students in Bender Arena Wednesday night. "They told me he was crazy and a pervert. He's not crazy." This and other jabs at the world of diplomacy left students laughing in their seats during the final Kennedy Political Union event of the 2005-2006 academic year.
The event largely focused on Secretary Albright's commitment to public service as "a route to self-fulfillment, not self-denial." Exploring this idea more fully, she said she sees "nothing wrong with personal ambition."
Discussing her own quest for personal happiness through public service, Albright recalled her early life, in which she was groomed for marriage rather than a career. "I took my first professional job at the age of 39, in the office of Senator Edmund Muskie.
As she moved from Muskie's office to the Jimmy Carter White House, Albright learned that "it is nice to be a dreamer," like Carter, "but it matters more to be a doer."
It was during the question and answer period, as well as her interview with The Eagle, that Albright discussed foreign policy most directly. Discussing her order to vote against military intervention in Rwanda during the genocide there when she was U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Albright said she hated her instructions and wished the U.S. had tried harder. U.S. inaction in Rwanda, she said, "makes the current moment [with regards to genocide in Sudan] even more sad and paradoxical."
Discussing the War in Iraq with The Eagle, Albright said she "had probably said more nasty things about Hussein than anyone in the U.S. Government, including President Bush," and that, as such, she "knew the why of the war. What I didn't understand was the why now and the what next."
On the subject of future military action with Iran, Albright said she hoped the United States would not invade. She said the concept of using tactical nuclear weapons is "off the wall," and that it is unclear that it would solve any of the issues being raised.
When discussing the state of the State Department since her departure at the end of the Clinton administration, Albright said the things written about the relationships within the Clinton administration were "usually wrong." Because of this, Albright voiced her reluctance to go along with reports about Secretary Powell's limited voice and Secretary Rice's close step with President Bush. "There seems to be a recognition that the State Department must have a hand in rebuilding Iraq," Albright said, expressing cautious optimism that Condoleeza Rice would move the State Department back to a proactive role.
The most surprising point of the evening came at the close of the question and answer period, when Andrew Robinson, a freshman in the School of International Service, asked Albright to describe any faux pas she may have committed during her time as Secretary of State given the complexity of intercultural communication.
Albright spoke at length about the most humorous events of her tenure, from being told by the U.S. embassy in Mongolia that "she must drink the milk, but that if she does, she will die," to learning the "art of diplomatic kissing." On this latter point, she explained she could "never remember which cheek it was in Latin America; I would forget that they do both in France, three times in the Netherlands. And then there was [former Palestinian leader Yasser] Arafat. ... He'd go for the cheek, then the forehead, then the cheek again."
After the concluding anecdote - a retelling of a song and dance routine she performed at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations conference - Robinson told The Eagle that he felt he and Albright had "made a connection."
This seemed to be the general feeling of the audience, according to incoming KPU Director Taylor Robinson, a sophomore in the School of Public Affairs. "Albright really brought something new to campus," she said. "She really merged with students and truly brought us inside her life as Secretary of State"
