Personal Narrative: My Favorite Mistake In America
My Favorite Mistake
Madeleine Albright on the time she stuck it to Putin.
Jul 25, 2011 1:00 AM EDT
Madeleine Albright., Cindy Marler / Hollandse Hoogte-Redux
When I was America’s biggest diplomat, I made a really bad mistake. This is how it happened.
In 1999, President Clinton, Defense Secretary William Cohen, and I were in a room together, celebrating the 50th anniversary of NATO. It was a completely accidental thing; we were just sitting and joking around, and we pretended to be the “See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil” monkeys. I then decided to go out and buy three monkey pins. A year later, President Clinton and I were going to Moscow for a summit. I was appalled at the brutality of Russian military actions in Chechnya. I thought they were evil. So I wore the three monkey pins to our meeting with President Vladimir Putin. …show more content…
We had sanctions on Iraq then, and I was instructed to keep saying terrible things about Saddam Hussein. In response, he published a poem in the newspaper comparing me to an unparalleled serpent. I had a snake pin, so I decided to wear it. When the press asked me why I was wearing the pin, I said, “Because Saddam Hussein compared me to an unparalleled serpent.” And I thought, “Well, this is fun,” and I went out and bought a bunch of costume jewelry that I thought would reflect what would happen on any given day. So, on good days I’d wear butterflies and flowers and balloons. On bad days I’d wear insects. There was a time, for instance, when I was in talks with the Russians that we discovered a listening device—a bug—in one of the conference rooms outside my office at the State Department. The next time I met with the Russians, I wore a huge bug
Madeleine Albright on the time she stuck it to Putin.
Jul 25, 2011 1:00 AM EDT
Madeleine Albright., Cindy Marler / Hollandse Hoogte-Redux
When I was America’s biggest diplomat, I made a really bad mistake. This is how it happened.
In 1999, President Clinton, Defense Secretary William Cohen, and I were in a room together, celebrating the 50th anniversary of NATO. It was a completely accidental thing; we were just sitting and joking around, and we pretended to be the “See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil” monkeys. I then decided to go out and buy three monkey pins. A year later, President Clinton and I were going to Moscow for a summit. I was appalled at the brutality of Russian military actions in Chechnya. I thought they were evil. So I wore the three monkey pins to our meeting with President Vladimir Putin. …show more content…
We had sanctions on Iraq then, and I was instructed to keep saying terrible things about Saddam Hussein. In response, he published a poem in the newspaper comparing me to an unparalleled serpent. I had a snake pin, so I decided to wear it. When the press asked me why I was wearing the pin, I said, “Because Saddam Hussein compared me to an unparalleled serpent.” And I thought, “Well, this is fun,” and I went out and bought a bunch of costume jewelry that I thought would reflect what would happen on any given day. So, on good days I’d wear butterflies and flowers and balloons. On bad days I’d wear insects. There was a time, for instance, when I was in talks with the Russians that we discovered a listening device—a bug—in one of the conference rooms outside my office at the State Department. The next time I met with the Russians, I wore a huge bug