This is fresh air. I'm Terry Gross. Today we remember Madeline Albright, who became the

first woman to serve as Secretary of State. She died of cancer Wednesday at the age of

84. She was appointed Secretary of State by President Clinton in 1997 in his second

term. In his first term she became the ambassador to the UN. Among the things she's remembered

for is advocating the expansion of NATO into the former Soviet block countries of Eastern

Europe. Some of the other issues and crises she contended with during the Clinton years

include the war in the Balkans, the genocide in Rwanda, the terrorist bombings of US embassies

in Africa, the suspension of weapons inspections in Iraq, Middle East peace talks on the start

of the second in Defada, and the impeachment trial of President Clinton. A little later,

we'll hear the interview I recorded with her in 2018 during the Trump presidency after

the publication of her book Fascism, in which she wrote about the growing threat of fascism

in Eastern Europe and sounded the alarm about the growing threat of authoritarianism in

the US. We'll start with our 2003 interview recorded after the publication of her memoir

Madame Secretary. She was born in Czechoslovakia where her father was a diplomat during World War

II, the family fled to England just before Germany invaded Czechoslovakia. After the

war they returned to their country only to flee again this time in 1948 as the communists

were taking over. We started the interview by talking about being the first woman to

serve a secretary of state. You write in your memoir I am often asked whether I was

condescended to by men as I traveled around the world to Arab countries and other places

with highly traditional cultures. I replied no because when I arrived somewhere it was

in a large plane with the US of A emblazoned on the side. Foreign officials respect that.

I had more problems with some of the men in my own government. What are some of the problems

...