Clinton's Blunt Instrument

By Kevin Fedarko

When the diplomatic equivalent of a bar fight threatened to break out last week in the United Nations Security Council, Bill Clinton's most outspoken foreign-policy official unblinkingly held her own. The ruckus was touched off by Saddam Hussein's chief emissary, Tariq Aziz, who accused the U.S. of ignoring Iraq's good behavior and maliciously refusing to lift an economic embargo against Baghdad. Since less than a fortnight earlier Baghdad had menaced Kuwait with more than 80,000 troops, Aziz's remark was disingenuous, if not absurd. The task of pointing this out fell to Madeleine Albright, the American ambassador to the U.N. "Words are cheap," she bluntly declared. "Actions are the coin of the realm."

That's the kind of flinty performance that makes Albright the steadiest and clearest voice on the Clinton foreign-affairs team. Her willingness to wield the big stick whenever the President needs to make a point, in contrast with the painful hedging often employed by Secretary of State Warren Christopher, has put her on the Washington gossip circle's short list of candidates for the Secretary's job if he is pushed into retirement after the midterm elections. "She is hot around here," says an Administration official. "A star," says another. "A crown jewel," chimes a third.

In the process of earning those plaudits, Albright has transformed the job of U.N. ambassador from passive messenger to power player. In addition to explaining U.S. foreign policy, she now helps plot its direction. In an Administration initially wary of foreign entanglements, it was she who led calls for American involvement to prevent an exodus of Rwandan refugees into Zaire. Before that, she argued for a heightened U.S. role in Bosnia.

The daughter of a Czech diplomat who thundered against totalitarianism, Albright is most effective when taking the offensive. Three weeks ago, she referred to another speech by Aziz as "one of the most ridiculous delivered at the U.N. by Iraq." And in July, she reduced the U.S. message to Haiti's illegal military government to these words: "You can depart voluntarily and soon, or you can depart involuntarily and soon." But behind each appearance of a freewheeling attack lies careful prep work. She assiduously maintains her Washington power base, shuttling from New York City as many as five times a week, and seldom lets fly a rhetorical cannonade without first getting an O.K. from the White House.

Some detractors, however, view her as an apparatchik dutifully carrying out Clinton's policy. Others carp at her penchant for television -- the President has personally ordered her to appear as often as possible -- suggesting it reflects a superficial approach to foreign-policy issues. ("Ambassador Halfbright" is whispered by several adversaries in U.N. corridors.) Hypersensitive U.N. diplomats also resent her absence from the U.N. party circuit, but she pleads too little time "to go schmoozing around the halls." "The people I work with appreciate the fact that I'm plugged into Washington," she says. "I'm in the inner circle. I'm involved in everything."

That proximity to the President makes her a formidable force for influencing the U.N.'s expanding role in the post-cold war era. "At this stage in world history," Albright says, "practically every foreign-policy issue has something to do with the U.N. It puts me in the wonderful position of being there at the takeoff, during flight and at the landing." Plus the chance to drop a few rhetorical bombs along the way.

With reporting by Bonnie Angelo/New York and Nina Burleigh/Washington