Celebrated diplomat Madeleine Albright has been confirmed dead of cancer at the age of 84.
Madeleine Albright was born Marie Korbel in 1937 in what was then Czechoslovakia. The country has since split into two. Her father, a member of the Czechoslovakia Foreign Service, was forced to leave home with his family during the Nazi occupation.
Madeleine had fled the Nazis and came to the United States decades ago. In the intervening years, she had built herself into one of the most respected figures in diplomatic circles.
She had served as the United States ambassador to the United Nations between 1993 and 1997. The pinnacle of her career was when she was appointed secretary of state.
It was a particularly significant appointment not just for her but also for the United States because she’d be the first woman to hold the post. She had left office in 2001 but vowed that she wasn’t done then.
The announcement of her death has led to an outpouring of tributes and emotions from around the world. One of the notable figures that have addressed her death so far is the United States president Joe Biden.
In a statement, the POTUS had acknowledged the diplomat’s contributions to the world as we know it today, describing her as a “force for goodness, grace, and decency—and for freedom.”
