WASHINGTON--As President Bill Clinton looked on, Madeleine Albright
was sworn in on Thursday as the first female US Secretary of State and warned
that America’s world leadership role could crumble if it becomes complacent.
At an Oval Office ceremony, Vice President Al Gore administered the
oath of office to the Czech-born Albright, 59, as her three daughters stood
beside her and Clinton watched over her shoulder.
Albright, unanimously confirmed last Wednesday by the Senate along
with William Cohen, who is to be sworn in as secretary of defence later, said
she would begin her service as the replacement for Warren Christopher “with
the wind at my back”.
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“America is strong, our principles are ascendant and our leadership is
accepted and welcomed in most parts of the world,” she said. “But if we are
complacent or timid or unwilling to look beyond our borders, our citizens will not
prosper and the framework of American leadership and the foundation of
American security we have built could crumble with 21” century speed.”
She said the United States must “formulate and finance a world-class diplomacy
to complement our world-class military” and “must not shy from the mantle of
leadership”.
Her comments come at a time when Clinton and top aides are
considering ways to increase foreign affairs spending by more than US$l billion
(Bt 25 billion) above this year’s level of $18.1 billion.
One senator who has been an obstacle to increasing such spending,
Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Jesse Helms, was at the ceremony and
spoke glowingly of Albright afterward.
“This lady has convinced me that she is willing to sit down and
negotiate,” the North Carolina Republican said. ‘You can do business with her.”
Clinton, who presided over the ceremony, said the Senate’s swift 99-O
confirmation of Albright “sends a strong signal of the Senate’s willingness to
work with us, to fashion a constructive and bipartisan foreign policy to advance
the national interests of Americans”.
Once sworn in, Albright began to settle in at the State Department in
earnest. She had lunch with Chief of Staff Elaine Shocas in the public cafeteria
there--something few, if any, of her predecessors have done.
Albright met senior advisers to plan her activities over the next few days
and set her first news conference. She also agreed to appearances on major
television networks, starting with CNN’s Larry King Show.
Officials have said she plans to make her first overseas trip in mid-February. She was discussing an around the world tour of major capitals in
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Europe and Asia. But one source said on Thursday that officials were
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considering possibly separate Europe and Asia trips.
Albright was US ambassador to the United Nations for four years when
Clinton nominated her to replace Christopher. She becomes the first woman to
serve as secretary of state and the highest-ranking woman ever in the US
government.
Clinton hailed her “courage, compassion and conviction,” making note of
her life as a Czech-born refugee who fted both Hitler and Stalin. “Arriving on our
shores as a refugee from tyranny and oppression, she worked her way up
through determination and character to attain our nation’s highest diplomatic
office. She knows from her life’s experience that freedom has its price, and
democracy its rewards.”
Albright’s position would normally make her fourth in the line of
succession to the presidency, behind the vice president, the House of
Representatives speaker and the president pro tern of the Senate. But since
she is foreign born she is constitutionally disqualified and Treasury Secretary
Robert Rubin becomes fourth in line.