She made history by becoming the first woman to hold the post of Secretary of State.

Madeleine Albright died Wednesday from cancer at the age of 84, her family announced in a statement, hailing "a tireless defender of democracy and human rights".

Below is a statement from the family of @Madeleine: pic.twitter.com/C7Xt0EN5c9

— Madeleine Albright (@madeleine) March 23, 2022

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US Foreign Ministry spokesman Ned Price called his death "devastating".

"She was a pioneer," he said.

“As the first female Secretary of State, she literally paved the way for much of our profession.

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Exile against Hitler

Madeleine Albright was born on May 15, 1937 in Prague into a Jewish family.

Daughter of a diplomat, she experienced exile in London after the occupation of Czechoslovakia by Hitler in 1938. Then her family emigrated to the United States in 1948, where brilliant studies enabled her to reach the highest steps of the power.

She first held the position of United States Ambassador to the UN (1993-1997), where she left her mark, notably during the American offensive in Kosovo.

Then Bill Clinton made her the head of diplomacy between 1997 and 2001.

“Reptilian” Putin

Madeleine Albright notably witnessed the political rise of Vladimir Putin, until his election to the presidency.

After meeting him in the year 2000, she wrote in one of her notebooks:

“Putin is small and pale, so cold he's almost reptilian.

He understood, she said, the reasons for the fall of the Berlin Wall but had not anticipated the collapse of the Soviet Union, concluding: "Putin is embarrassed by what has happened to his country, and he is determined to restore its greatness.

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Just a month ago, Madeleine Albright published her last editorial in the

New York Times

, on the eve of the Russian invasion, when the Russian president had just recognized the separatist territories in Donbass as "republics".

Seeing this as justification for an invasion, she wrote: “Putin is making a historic mistake.

Criticizing the “revisionism” of a Putin asserting that “Ukraine had been entirely created by Russia”, she felt that an invasion would not have the effects expected by the Russian president.

“Instead of paving the way for a return to Russia's greatness, invading Ukraine would cement Mr. Putin's infamy, leaving his country economically crippled, and strategically vulnerable to a more united Western alliance.

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