Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, who died this week at the age of 84, was a complicated figure in the global geopolitics of the late 20th century. History judges these efforts in different lights. Her support for NATO intervention in Kosovo saved many lives, and she championed an international response to climate change when this was still a quixotic quest. Albright was also instrumental in enacting Iraqi sanctions that the UN found led to the death of many children, later saying that “the price is worth it.” And she would correctly come to regret failing to intervene in the Rwandan genocide.
Here we focus on a defining personal characteristic: She was a refugee. She arrived in the United States when she was 11; her father, a diplomat for democratic Czechoslovakia, sought asylum here with his family when the Communists took over.
That someone who the United States welcomed for humanitarian reasons went on to become the nation’s top diplomat does not just speak well of Albright. It should serve as a reminder: Accepting people who flee war and other catastrophes is one of the ways the United States betters itself and shows its true face to the world.
As political leaders now speak out about honoring her legacy, we must remind them that the preeminent way to do so is observe her wish to see this country as a haven for the desperate, whether from Ukraine, Afghanistan, Central America or anywhere else.
