When Marie Jana Korbelová's family fled Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia, they looked to America as a beacon of freedom in a world gone wrong. That little girl grew up to be Madeleine Albright, the first woman named U.S. Secretary of State.
Today, she says that America’s record on human rights abuses, climate change, pre-emptive war and unilateralism have left the country’s international reputation in tatters. Polls show that people in most of the world believe that America provokes more conflicts than it prevents.
Albright’s new book, Memo to the President, advises the incoming president to make restoring America’s reputation and moral leadership number one on his list, and that will make our country safer and stronger. Secretary Albright joined Virginia in front of a live audience at The Music Hall in Portsmouth to make her case as part of the "Writers on a New England Stage" series.
Click here for the full, unedited audio of the event.
(Photo by Andrew Walsh)
