Condoleezza
Rice or Condy as she is called, is known as one of the world’s most admired
women who played a critical role as the most confidante of President George W.
Bush from 2001 to 2009. Bush appointed her as the National Security Advisor in
his first term of presidency, and when Bush was re-elected for the second term,
he asked Condy to be the Secretary of State.
In United
States, if the President were to resign or die, the Secretary of State is
fourth in line of succession after the Vice President, the Speaker of the
House, and the President pro tempore of the Senate. Besides this critical
position, the US Secretary of State is in charge to shape and carry out the
President’s foreign policy for which she had to travel around the globe even to
the countries deem America is enemy.
The 9/11 terrorist
attack occurred just nine months after Condy took the position as National
Security Advisor and she proved that she was competent in managing crisis.
“There’re a lot
of work to do under enormous pressure afterward, and any missteps could have
dire consequences,” she wrote.
Condy was the first
woman to serve as national security advisor and the first female
African-American secretary of state.
This memoir is
not only telling her political experiences during eight years of services, but also
her soft feeling as a human being in any situations and countries she visited,
despite her reputation as a tough and strong lady.
In chapter 26 “A
Heartbreaking Place Called Darfur”, after she looked at the impact of civil war,
she wrote, “I left Darfur so incredibly sad, full of regret, and deeply
offended by what I had seen. How could the so-called international community
tolerate that kind of misery and barbarity?”
Another “weird”
story she shared was about her meeting with Moammar Qaddafi. The Libyan ruler
called her as his “African Princess”. The conversation in the meeting actually was
just a chit-chat and after that Qaddafi insisted Condy for dinner in his private
kitchen. “At the end of dinner, Qaddafi told me that he’d made a videotape for
me. Uh, oh. I thought, what is this going to be?” she wrote. Okay, this is
Qaddafi, she thought.
Surprisingly, in
that moment Qaddafi set a music of song called “Black Flower in the White House”
written by Libyan composer.
The Israel-Palestina,
India-Pakistan, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, North Korean, China, Russia, Latin
America are other stories worth to read.
“As secretary
of state I was always aware of the constraints of the world as it is and
resolved to practice the art of the possible. But I also tried not to lose
sight of the world as it could be, and insisted on a path toward the end. This
is the long-term work of diplomacy. History will judge how we did. I can live
with that, and I am grateful for the chance to have tried,” she closes the
memoir.
***
Serpong, 6 Jan
2024
Titus J.
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