Audio By Carbonatix
Independent Journalism in Miami Needs You
We need to raise $10,000 by August 9 to support the reporting our community depends on. Reader support keeps us independent and is playing a larger role in funding local journalism and shaping what comes next. If you believe independent local journalism matters, make a contribution today.
For a purely Miami-centric take on former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, one need look no further than 1996, when a Cuban military gunner shot down the Cessna planes of Brothers to the Rescue. Admonishing both the bloody act and the celebratory response of the Cuban pilots, Albright said of the incident: “It was cowardice, not cojones.”
She also continued throughout her eight-year tenure to support funding for Radio and TV Martí, long seen as a $25 million feel-good act of futility for the anti-Castro contingents.
Surely the words and actions would have endeared the sagacious Ms. Albright to Miami’s Cuban stronghold. Such sentiment would stand in sharp contrast to that of the secretary’s peer, then-Attorney General Janet Reno, who ordered the return of Elian Gonzalez to the communist island. But then again, the two maverick women were integral parts of the Clinton administration, much despised among the conservative front of Miami Cuban politics.
On a more global level, Albright’s claim to fame was leading the American charge against Slobodan Milosevic, when the Serbian leader enforced his “ethnic cleansing” in Kosovo. Today she is said to particularly relish having taken the tyrannical despot down.
Add to that the discovery by reporters that her background is Jewish, three of her grandparents were killed in Nazi concentration camps, and the accusations by Albright detractors that she had been trying to hide her Jewish roots, and you have a pretty good book, eh?
Well, Albright has indeed published her memoirs, Madam Secretary, and will be in town to discuss her experiences both public and private as the first female Secretary of State. Expect a string of hard-hitting and humorous insights on some of the leading characters of the global community, including North Korea’s Kim Jong-Il, Yasser Arafat, Benjamin Netanyahu, and America’s sweethearts Hillary and Bill.
