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American Morning
Discussion With Madeleine Albright
Aired September 17, 2003 - 08:13 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: You could say that Madeleine Albright is a born diplomat. Her diplomatic family escaped fascism and communism in Prague before settling here in the U.S., Colorado, in fact, in 1949. Albright's made her own mark in public service, serving eight years in the Clinton administration, becoming the first female secretary of state.
Madeleine Albright has written about that life. And what a life it's been, from war torn Europe to the White House. It's called "Madam Secretary." It's on sale now.
And Madeleine Albright is with us.
Good morning to you, Madam Secretary.
MADELEINE ALBRIGHT, "MADAM SECRETARY: A MEMOIR," FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE: Great to see you, Bill.
Thank you, Bill.
HEMMER: Thank you.
I want to get to the book in a moment here. But I've got a list of things I really want to go through to get your thoughts and reflections. Wesley Clark, you worked closely with him in Kosovo. Would you vote for him for president?
ALBRIGHT: He's a great guy and I'm very glad he's going to join the candidates. He is really an outstanding American.
HEMMER: Would you vote for him?
ALBRIGHT: Well, if he's the Democratic nominee, I certainly will.
HEMMER: A fair answer there.
Syria, there are a lot of claims right now about chemical and biological production. We hear stories every day about foreign fighters crossing over into Iraq. What could the White House, what could this administration do to put pressure on Damascus to change its ways?
ALBRIGHT: Well, I think it's very for them to deliver a message to Damascus that if they want to be part of a solution in the Middle East that they have to be more cooperative. But Syria has always been a problem and I think that trying to make sure that the border is not porous and to try to get them to understand that the creation or possession of weapons of mass destruction is something that has to be ended.
HEMMER: What the...
ALBRIGHT: But we don't know.
HEMMER: Would Damascus listen to this claim?
ALBRIGHT: Well, I think that you need the help of other countries to make that happen. But I'm not sure that we know how much of this is true yet.
HEMMER: On the issue of Iraq, I know you're against the occupation right now. You were against the war itself. But knowing that the U.S. is in the situation it's in right now, how can the White House make this situation better?
ALBRIGHT: I think it's absolutely essential to be able to get support from the United Nations and to decide that it is possible for the Americans to have the military command in the post-war situation and feel that it is appropriate for the United Nations to be in charge of the political, economic and humanitarian aspects.
HEMMER: Osama bin Laden, I know your efforts, think those efforts should be concentrated right now in tracking down the al Qaeda leader. A lot of people look back and reflect on the Clinton years and ask the question why was he not taken out in the late 1990s.
How do you best respond to that?
ALBRIGHT: Well, we tried everything we could. President Clinton had an order to use lethal force to get him. We launched 75 cruise missiles against his camps in Afghanistan. We got him, got very close to him. But most people didn't understand the problems. We tried very hard to get him. We had a very strong set of rules about terrorism and now there are 8,000 American troops in Afghanistan and they still can't find him. So it's a hard job.
HEMMER: Back to the issue of Osama bin Laden. You knew he survived those attacks of 1998. Why not go after him again after that?
ALBRIGHT: Because we didn't have the intelligence available to find him. The thing that I always said is we consumed every bit of intelligence we had. We bombed when we could. We were not just going to bomb randomly and we tried very hard to get the intelligence community to provide the information. It was very, very hard to track him. And I think the perfect proof of that now, Bill, is, as I said, 8,000 American forces in Afghanistan, massive bombing preceded that and they still can't find him.
HEMMER: On the Middle East right now, Yasser Arafat, you write about this extensively in your book. This week you say he screwed up on the deal with Ehud Barak. If that's the case -- you've made similar comments in the past -- what explains right now why he's able to hang onto the level of popularity that he enjoys right now?
ALBRIGHT: Well, because I think what he likes, and I feel this, not that I'm a shrink in any way, but that basically he enjoys the status of victim. And what has happened by these statements, saying that he has to exiled or actually assassinated has created a sense of support for him. And the pictures of him in the last few days waving and throwing kisses while the crowds of young people are cheering him on have, in fact, revived his popularity. And I think that therefore that was the wrong way to go about it, to pretend that he was not a part of the story.
HEMMER: I think over the years you and I have probably talked two dozen times in interviews just like these, but I learned something about you last night that I did not know before, the impact your own divorce had on your life. And you write and you talk about the fact that you believe your life was on thin ice at the point and you wanted to keep staying busy.
Do you believe that is what, in a sense, drove you to become what you've become?
ALBRIGHT: Well, I think that clearly the kind of assumption of a lot of different duties and a desire to succeed made a big difference. It doesn't mean that a married woman cannot be secretary of state. But in my case, I felt that it was -- I had a chance now to be able to develop good credentials. I'd never said no to anything because I had the freedom to be able to participate in things. So I think that it was a key moment.
And I say in the book that if I had had a chance to persuade my husband to stay, I would have given everything up. On the other hand, I know that if I had been married, I wouldn't have been secretary.
So it's a very strange kind of anomaly.
HEMMER: One more personal note here. You're Jewish. You grew up thinking you were Catholic. You found this out about five or six years ago. Can you say that knowing what you know now about your past and your family's past, has not shaded or perhaps influenced your view of the Middle East conflict today?
ALBRIGHT: I can honestly say that it hasn't because I grew up believing fully that the state of Israel was a very special place, that we had a very special and important relationship with it and that it was also essential that there be peace in the Middle East. That is the kind of general thing that I grew up with. It certainly did not affect me in terms of any policy way and but what I have been affected by most is that I understand from my background, even before I knew about the Jewish parts of it, that you cannot let ethnic cleansing take place and that you have to stand up for your principles to fight evil.
HEMMER: Good luck to you.
ALBRIGHT: Thanks a lot, Bill.
HEMMER: And good to see you.
ALBRIGHT: Good to see you.
Appreciate it.
HEMMER: The book is called "Madam Secretary."
ALBRIGHT: Thank you very, very much.
HEMMER: And thanks for following our ping pong this morning. We did a lot in a very short period of time.
ALBRIGHT: Well, you're very efficient.
Thanks.
HEMMER: You are more efficient than I.
ALBRIGHT: Thanks.
HEMMER: Thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired September 17, 2003 - 08:13 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: You could say that Madeleine Albright is a born diplomat. Her diplomatic family escaped fascism and communism in Prague before settling here in the U.S., Colorado, in fact, in 1949. Albright's made her own mark in public service, serving eight years in the Clinton administration, becoming the first female secretary of state.
Madeleine Albright has written about that life. And what a life it's been, from war torn Europe to the White House. It's called "Madam Secretary." It's on sale now.
And Madeleine Albright is with us.
Good morning to you, Madam Secretary.
MADELEINE ALBRIGHT, "MADAM SECRETARY: A MEMOIR," FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE: Great to see you, Bill.
Thank you, Bill.
HEMMER: Thank you.
I want to get to the book in a moment here. But I've got a list of things I really want to go through to get your thoughts and reflections. Wesley Clark, you worked closely with him in Kosovo. Would you vote for him for president?
ALBRIGHT: He's a great guy and I'm very glad he's going to join the candidates. He is really an outstanding American.
HEMMER: Would you vote for him?
ALBRIGHT: Well, if he's the Democratic nominee, I certainly will.
HEMMER: A fair answer there.
Syria, there are a lot of claims right now about chemical and biological production. We hear stories every day about foreign fighters crossing over into Iraq. What could the White House, what could this administration do to put pressure on Damascus to change its ways?
ALBRIGHT: Well, I think it's very for them to deliver a message to Damascus that if they want to be part of a solution in the Middle East that they have to be more cooperative. But Syria has always been a problem and I think that trying to make sure that the border is not porous and to try to get them to understand that the creation or possession of weapons of mass destruction is something that has to be ended.
HEMMER: What the...
ALBRIGHT: But we don't know.
HEMMER: Would Damascus listen to this claim?
ALBRIGHT: Well, I think that you need the help of other countries to make that happen. But I'm not sure that we know how much of this is true yet.
HEMMER: On the issue of Iraq, I know you're against the occupation right now. You were against the war itself. But knowing that the U.S. is in the situation it's in right now, how can the White House make this situation better?
ALBRIGHT: I think it's absolutely essential to be able to get support from the United Nations and to decide that it is possible for the Americans to have the military command in the post-war situation and feel that it is appropriate for the United Nations to be in charge of the political, economic and humanitarian aspects.
HEMMER: Osama bin Laden, I know your efforts, think those efforts should be concentrated right now in tracking down the al Qaeda leader. A lot of people look back and reflect on the Clinton years and ask the question why was he not taken out in the late 1990s.
How do you best respond to that?
ALBRIGHT: Well, we tried everything we could. President Clinton had an order to use lethal force to get him. We launched 75 cruise missiles against his camps in Afghanistan. We got him, got very close to him. But most people didn't understand the problems. We tried very hard to get him. We had a very strong set of rules about terrorism and now there are 8,000 American troops in Afghanistan and they still can't find him. So it's a hard job.
HEMMER: Back to the issue of Osama bin Laden. You knew he survived those attacks of 1998. Why not go after him again after that?
ALBRIGHT: Because we didn't have the intelligence available to find him. The thing that I always said is we consumed every bit of intelligence we had. We bombed when we could. We were not just going to bomb randomly and we tried very hard to get the intelligence community to provide the information. It was very, very hard to track him. And I think the perfect proof of that now, Bill, is, as I said, 8,000 American forces in Afghanistan, massive bombing preceded that and they still can't find him.
HEMMER: On the Middle East right now, Yasser Arafat, you write about this extensively in your book. This week you say he screwed up on the deal with Ehud Barak. If that's the case -- you've made similar comments in the past -- what explains right now why he's able to hang onto the level of popularity that he enjoys right now?
ALBRIGHT: Well, because I think what he likes, and I feel this, not that I'm a shrink in any way, but that basically he enjoys the status of victim. And what has happened by these statements, saying that he has to exiled or actually assassinated has created a sense of support for him. And the pictures of him in the last few days waving and throwing kisses while the crowds of young people are cheering him on have, in fact, revived his popularity. And I think that therefore that was the wrong way to go about it, to pretend that he was not a part of the story.
HEMMER: I think over the years you and I have probably talked two dozen times in interviews just like these, but I learned something about you last night that I did not know before, the impact your own divorce had on your life. And you write and you talk about the fact that you believe your life was on thin ice at the point and you wanted to keep staying busy.
Do you believe that is what, in a sense, drove you to become what you've become?
ALBRIGHT: Well, I think that clearly the kind of assumption of a lot of different duties and a desire to succeed made a big difference. It doesn't mean that a married woman cannot be secretary of state. But in my case, I felt that it was -- I had a chance now to be able to develop good credentials. I'd never said no to anything because I had the freedom to be able to participate in things. So I think that it was a key moment.
And I say in the book that if I had had a chance to persuade my husband to stay, I would have given everything up. On the other hand, I know that if I had been married, I wouldn't have been secretary.
So it's a very strange kind of anomaly.
HEMMER: One more personal note here. You're Jewish. You grew up thinking you were Catholic. You found this out about five or six years ago. Can you say that knowing what you know now about your past and your family's past, has not shaded or perhaps influenced your view of the Middle East conflict today?
ALBRIGHT: I can honestly say that it hasn't because I grew up believing fully that the state of Israel was a very special place, that we had a very special and important relationship with it and that it was also essential that there be peace in the Middle East. That is the kind of general thing that I grew up with. It certainly did not affect me in terms of any policy way and but what I have been affected by most is that I understand from my background, even before I knew about the Jewish parts of it, that you cannot let ethnic cleansing take place and that you have to stand up for your principles to fight evil.
HEMMER: Good luck to you.
ALBRIGHT: Thanks a lot, Bill.
HEMMER: And good to see you.
ALBRIGHT: Good to see you.
Appreciate it.
HEMMER: The book is called "Madam Secretary."
ALBRIGHT: Thank you very, very much.
HEMMER: And thanks for following our ping pong this morning. We did a lot in a very short period of time.
ALBRIGHT: Well, you're very efficient.
Thanks.
HEMMER: You are more efficient than I.
ALBRIGHT: Thanks.
HEMMER: Thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
