The Foreign Service Journal, July-August 2022

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | JULY-AUGUST 2022 55 Leading the way … By Julie Ruterbories I was blessed to first meet Madeleine Albright more than 35 years ago. In 1987 I was one of the fortunate students in Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service selected for her Senior Seminar. It was an extraordinary experience. We crossed paths just two years later, when I was working at the U.S. embassy in Moscow. I remember how excited I was to share with her the amazing expe- riences I was having living in the Soviet Union, and how grateful I was for all I had learned in her class. Then, in 1996, I began a tour in the Ops Center. One weekend we received a call to say that Ambassador Albright was on her way in to review a document. I was sitting in the first seat as you came into the old Watch. I was nervous, so in my head I prac- ticed saying, “Hello, Ambassador Albright.” She walked into the room, and before I knew it, I blurted out, “Hi, Professor Albright.” We both laughed. Many years later, as a diplomat in residence for the Southern Mid-Atlantic region, I recounted stories and experiences about a career in public service with the Department of State. One fun fact I was always sure to mention concerned diversity and representation. When I joined the State Department, every single Secretary of State had been a white male. During my career, I served with two women and two African American Secretaries. Madeleine Albright truly led the way. I am forever grateful for her leadership and example. Julie Ruterbories joined the U.S. Foreign Service in 1992 and retired in 2016, following her last assignment as consul general in Bogotá. She served in Bishkek, Baku, London and Skopje, and was the principal officer in Amsterdam. She now resides in Charlotte, North Carolina, and continues to support the Bureau of Consular Affairs as a reemployed annuitant. A Night with Albright By Kate Nanavatty Madeleine Albright’s motorcade was lost roaming the Msasani Peninsula in Dar es Salaam trying to find the right house. It was Nov. 29, 2006, and we stood—10 Foreign Service officers—in the living room of our deputy chief of mission’s house chatting a bit more anxiously than usual. Staff circulated the first round of cocktails; the DCM did one last check of name cards on the carefully set dinner table; and we determined the proper way to address her. When Madam Secretary did arrive, only because she instructed her driver to overtake the hopelessly lost motorcycle escort, she greeted us warmly and took a seat on the sofa. She wore a black suit dress with one of her trademark brooches—a large, gold flower. She got straight down to business: “Feel free to ask me anything. Now that I am not Secretary of State, I can try to answer you!” And she did. From Sudan to Iraq, to North Korea, she answered our questions thoroughly, offering us her insight, experience and her own questions about these quandaries. In Sudan, she admitted, there seemed to be no good options. “I am not sure what is protecting Sudan, but it seems there are a few countries—maybe Egypt and China—that prevent Al-Bashir from an international shaming for Darfur. There is a great deal of public concern about Darfur, and yet nothing is happening. The militia blames the government, and the government blames the militia: There are no good guys, unfortunately.” On Iraq, she underlined her disgust with SaddamHussein and confessed that even she believed there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq: “I thought there were WMD based on deduc- tion—we knew weapons had gone missing from the International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors.” But she insisted: “Still, I never believed Iraq to be a direct threat to the United States; and, there- fore, the war was one of choice and not necessity.” On North Korea, Albright shared her experience negotiat- ing and dining with North Korean President Kim Il-sung. She stressed that this man was not crazy and had a surprisingly high level of technical knowledge. She recalled presenting a package, which would include U.S. support to help North Korea build light water reactors for civilian nuclear technology. She offered the president a chance to review the package and perhaps respond after consultations with his advisers. But Kim Il-sung imme- diately began with a series of questions that demonstrated a sophisticated understanding of the technology. I was nervous, so in my head I practiced saying, “Hello, Ambassador Albright.”