Monster or wise woman? Or both?

When I heard that Madeleine Albright had died, my first, and essentially only, thought was of this 60 Minutes exchange from 1996. For more than a decade before George W. Bush's war of choice on Iraq in 2003, Iraqis lived under punishing economic sanctions imposed after Gulf War I, President G.H.W. Bush's excellent adventure in oil country. These economic sanctions endured and were increased under Bill Clinton. The first woman Secretary of State, a Clinton appointee, Albright was quizzed about the policy:

Lesley Stahl on U.S. sanctions against Iraq: We have heard that a half million children have died. I mean, that’s more children than died in Hiroshima. And, you know, is the price worth it? 

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright: I think this is a very hard choice, but the price–we think the price is worth it.

No wonder I thought her a monster. 

Apparently she later tried to walk this back a bit, but such a retreat rarely takes. I was later intrigued that she only discovered her Jewish ancestry late in life; her refugee parents thought concealment might help her survive even in America. And I did note that she used whatever megaphone she had in old age to denounce Donald Trump's flirtations with fascism.

But this was not someone to look up to.

So when all sorts of commentators began writing laudatory appreciations of this woman, I made myself read some of them because I'm committed to trying to understand even if I abhor. 

David Von Drehle of the Washington Post recounted an Albright remark as revealing as her brutal dismissal of Iraqi lives.

Madeleine Korbel Albright was so thoroughly her father’s daughter that she said her formative experience as a foreign policy expert was an event that happened when she could barely walk. “My mind-set is Munich,” she once said, while “most of my generation’s is Vietnam.” By “Munich” she meant the 1938 capitulation of British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain to Hitler’s demand for parts of the former Bohemia. Hitler kept right on going, sending tanks to Prague and more tanks to Poland and launching another, even worse world war. 

To have a Vietnam mind-set — today we might substitute “Afghanistan” — is to say the United States should not be the world’s policeman because policemen make mistakes. To have a Munich mind-set — today we might substitute “Ukraine” — is to say the other applicants for the job of maintaining order are likely to be worse.

This I can understand. 

I'm unequivocally, by age and also by choice, a member of that Vietnam cohort. Seeing that futile and immoral war, I've never believed in my government's high-minded pronouncements when it unleashes our bloated military might. 

Those of us who retain that mindset, or acquired it watching our misbegotten mideastern misconduct, are challenged by Russia's assault on Ukraine.

It's not hard to admire Ukrainian grit in the face of vicious invasion. A thwarted Russian force does seem to be using criminal tactics against Ukrainian cities. President Zelensky offers a model of heroism we apparently have yearned for.

Erudite Partner and I have been forced to examine what we think we'd be doing if we were Ukrainians. We are a couple of old ladies -- but we're pretty good organizers of people and things. We would try to be useful to our country. Other nice people probably would be urging us to get out if we could. 

The very idea of a just struggle in Ukraine is foreign to a life shaped by resistance to American empire. But there we are. I am not ashamed to support the Ukrainians in their war.

But, as proud member of the Vietnam generation, I remain wary. May peace with whatever justice can be salvaged come soon.