While her father worked against Hitler in Czechoslovakia’s government-in-exile, six-year-old Madeleine went to school. A 1943 report card described her as a “ quick and lively” student who “ learns easily and remembers well.” Her grades were solid----except for one surprisingly low grade in geography.

Abright was baptized and raised a Roman Catholic. She insists she was unaware of her Jewish background until recently, when Washington Post reporter Michael Dobbs disclosed the truth of her heritage. Albright learned that her grandparents and several other relatives had perished in the Holocaust.

How could she not have known? “Perhaps, when the truth about her family began to appear,” wrote Philip Taubman in the New York Times, “Albright thought it too late and too painful to dismantle the world her parents had constructed and she had preserved for herself and her children.”

Now she has to expand NATO, walk the tight line of engagement with China and persuade American taxpayers that keeping the world safe does not come cheap. That’s a tall order, but Madeleine Albright has made an auspicious start.  

当玛德林直截了当地向强硬的俄罗斯外长普利马科夫申明利害时，克林顿总统的高参们几乎无法相信他们的耳朵。

在国务院会议厅里，正进行着激烈的协商。普利马科夫坚持莫斯科不能接受北约组织承担对波兰、匈牙利和捷克共和国的防御义务——正是这几个国家五十年前被强行纳入苏维埃帝国。

奥尔布赖特两眼盯住对方坚定地说，“无论总统还是我都不会让东欧国家的安全或利益有半点丧失。”

普利马科夫，这位前俄国情报组织的首脑，对这样简单而毫无外交斡旋余地的坚定话语无言以对。

国务卿玛德林·奥尔布赖特看上去像是个和蔼可亲，爱唠叨的家庭主妇，圆又明亮的眼睛如同满月。而作为助理和安全代表，她怀着超级推销员的热情足迹遍及全球。

她日理万机的工作是为了告诉美国人民冷战后对外政策的难题。正如同她在《读者文摘》里说的，我们面对的“不是直接的敌人，”而是诸如国际恐怖主义与核扩散这样的巨大问题。

奥尔布赖特与她的工作非常相称。当然历史上没有哪位美国国务卿有着类似于她的个人经历：一个逃出捷克斯洛伐克布拉格的家庭，先是由于阿道夫·希特勒，而后是由于约瑟夫·斯大林。那些可怕的事件使她与其他克林顿的国家安全官员迥然不同—— 他们中很多人是战后人口出生高峰期出生的，他们对世界的看法是在反对越南战争的反主流文化中形成的。奥尔布赖特的亲身经历教给了她自由的含义，国家安全的重要性，以及美国在恢复世界秩序中所担当的重要角色。liuxuepaper.com