Madeleine Albright

Madeleine Korbel Albright (born Marie Jana Korbelová 1937-05-15) is a Czech-born American politician. She served as United States Ambassador to the United Nations (1993-1997) and as the U.S. Secretary of State (1997-2001).

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• It is the threat of the use of force [against Iraq] and our line-up there that is going to put force behind the diplomacy. But if we have to use force, it is because we are America; we are the indispensable nation. We stand tall and we see further than other countries into the future, and we see the danger here to all of us.
  • Quoted on The Today Show, NBC (1998-02-19); transcript per "Transcript: Albright Interview on NBC-TV February 19," USIS Washington File (1998-02-19)

• I think this is a very hard choice, but the price — we think the price is worth it.
  • Spoken on 60 Minutes, CBS (1996-05-12) in reply to Lesley Stahl asking Albright, then the US Ambassador to the UN: "We have heard that half a million children have died. I mean, that's more children than died in Hiroshima. And, you know, is the price worth it?"(Madam Secretary, 2003, pp. 274-275), http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbIX1CP9qr4.
  • Albright wrote of Stahl's segment: "Little effort was made to explain Saddam's culpability, his misuse of Iraqi resources, or the fact that we were not embargoing medicine or food. I was exasperated that our TV was showing what amounted to Iraqi propaganda." (Madam Secretary, 2003, p. 274.)
  • In the same book, she wrote of her response: "I must have been crazy; I should have answered the question by reframing it and pointing out the inherent flaws in the premise behind it. Saddam Hussein could have prevented any child from suffering simply by meeting his obligations. Instead, I said the following: 'I think this is a very hard choice, but the price, we think, the price is worth it.' As soon as I had spoken, I wished for the power to freeze time and take back those words. My reply had been a terrible mistake, hasty, clumsy, and wrong. Nothing matters more than the lives of innocent people. I had fallen into a trap and said something that I simply did not mean. That is no one's fault but my own." (Madam Secretary, 2003, p. 275)

• I never should have made it, it was stupid.
  • When asked about her response to the 60 Minutes question; "Madelaine Albright, former US Secretary of State, gives her views on future of Iraq and the trial of Saddam Hussein," BBC, Radio 4 Today Programme (2005-10-19)

• I'm for democracy, but imposing democracy is an oxymoron. People have to choose democracy, and it has to come up from below.
  • Quoted in "Iraqi war 'US worst blunder," news24.com (2006-04-23)

• While not everything is the United States's fault, our lack of attention to many of issues in the Middle East — except for Iraq — has not helped the Lebanon-Israel situation.
  • Newsweek International interview (2006-07-24)

• I hope I'm wrong, but I am afraid that Iraq is going to turn out to be the greatest disaster in American foreign policy — worse than Vietnam, not in the number of deaths, but in terms of its unintended consequences and its reverberation throughout the region.
  • Newsweek International interview (2006-07-24)

• I can't think of an area where things have improved in the last five years. One of the things that troubles me is the certainty with which the Bush administration is convinced that God is on their side and that they are following a very specific plan.
  • Newsweek International interview (2006-07-24)

• There is a special place in hell for women who don't help other women.
  • Quoted in Mechelle Voepel, "Albright empowers all-decade team at luncheon," espn.go.com (2006-07-13)