The Nineties in America - Salem Press (2009)

parents died in concentration camps—information
that she claimed had been hidden from her.
Albright continued to advocate for the same type
of foreign policy and priorities that she had while at
the United Nations. She supported the Clinton ad-
ministration during the Kosovo conflict and sought
to keep peace between Bosnia and Herzegovina af-
terward. She represented the United States when
the United Kingdom transferred sovereignty of
Hong Kong over to China on July 1, 1997.
Albright was known during her tenure for her
outspoken support for human rights and strength-
ening U.S. ties to the United Nations and the North
Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), believing
that the world and the United States were much
better off when the United States cooperated with
other nations to confront the foreign policy issues of
the day.

Impact Madeleine Albright ended the 1990’s as
one of the most influential women in the world and
arguably one of the most influential figures of the

twentieth century. Very few women were fortunate

enough to rise to the levels that Albright did, and she

inspired women the world over to speak out and

have a say in their lives and their future.

Further Reading

Albright, Madeleine.Madam Secretar y: A Memoir. New

York: Miramax Books, 2003. Albright’s personal

account of her life from childhood to her tenure

as secretary of state.

Blood, Thomas.Madam Secretar y: A Biography of Mad-

eleine Albright. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1997.

Blood, Albright’s official biographer, describes

her life from her birth to her tenure as U.N. am-

bassador.

David Murphy

See also Africa and the United States; Cold War,

end of; Europe and North America; Foreign policy

of the United States; Israel and the United States;

Kosovo conflict; Middle East and North America;

Somalia conflict; United Nations.

 Allen, Woody

Identification American film director, author,

comedian, and actor

Born December 1, 1935; Brooklyn, New York

In the 1990’s, Allen consolidated his status as an indepen-

dent and critically acclaimed filmmaker by writing, direct-

ing, and frequently performing in motion pictures.

Born Allen Stewart Konigsberg, Woody Allen made

his initial reputation as a stand-up comedian and gag

writer, whose early films were slapstick comedies.

The persona he presented, that of the Jewish schle-

miel, would remain, even as his work matured. By

the 1990’s, he was well recognized in Europe as a

distinctive American intellectual, whose work ex-

pressed post-World War II existentialism and owed

much to the pensive writings of the French philoso-

pher Albert Camus and the Russian literary masters

Fyodor Dostoevski and Anton Chekhov.

In America, Allen’s films were more often critical

than commercial successes. As a New York-based art-

ist who largely snubbed Hollywood, he had never-

theless received three Academy Awards forAnnie

Hall(1977) and would continue to receive Academy

nominations and other prestigious awards for his

26
Allen, Woody The Nineties in America

Madeleine Albright at a U.N. news conference in 1996. (AP/

Wide World Photos)