News Desk :
Madeleine Albright is being honored for her service to her country during a memorial service Wednesday at Washington National Cathedral.
The former U.S. secretary of state died in March from cancer. She was 84.
Presidents, statesmen and lawmakers from both sides of the aisle were selected to pay tribute to the first female to hold her office.
President Joe Biden said that Albright “never forgot where she came from or who she was” and that she was a “truly proud American.”
“Her name is still synonymous for America, a force for good,” Biden said.
Former President Bill Clinton said that he visited with Albright shortly before her death, telling him that “the only thing that really matters is what kind of world we leave for our grandchildren.”
He spoke about the influence Albright had on his daughter Chelsea and the friendship the secretary of state had with former first lady, senator and secretary of state Hillary Clinton.
Albright served as the first female secretary of state after being nominated by former President Bill Clinton on Dec. 5, 1996. She was confirmed by the Senate on Jan. 22, 1997, and sworn in the next day, according to her official State Department biography. She served as secretary of state for four years, leaving the position on Jan. 20, 2001.
During her tenure, Albright promoted the expansion of NATO into the former Soviet bloc nations.
Prior to being secretary of state, Albright served the Clinton administration as the ambassador to the United Nations.
Born Marie Jana Korbelova, the daughter of a Czechoslovakian diplomat, in Prague in 1937, Albright escaped her home country with her family 10 days after the Nazi invasion.
Her experience growing up in communist Yugoslavia and then fleeing to the US made her a lifelong opponent of totalitarianism and fascism.
Albright became a face of US foreign policy in the decade between the end of the Cold War and the war on terror triggered by the September 11, 2001, attacks — an era heralded by President George H.W. Bush as a “new world order.” The US, particularly in Iraq and the Balkans, built international coalitions and occasionally intervened militarily to roll back autocratic regimes. Albright — a self-identified “pragmatic idealist” who coined the term “assertive multilateralism” to describe the Clinton administration’s foreign policy — drew from her childhood experiences growing up in and fleeing Yugoslavia to shape her worldview.
Following her tenure as secretary of state, Albright served as chairwoman of the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs in Washington from 2001 to her death, and she taught at Georgetown University. Albright was also a prolific author, penning seven New York Times bestsellers.
At Wednesday’s service, former teaching assistants who worked in Albright’s classes at Georgetown are expected to serve as ushers.
