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Condoleezza Rice

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Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
Order 66th Secretary of State
Term of Office January 26, 2005 -
Predecessor Colin Powell
Date of Birth November 14, 1954
Place of Birth Birmingham, Alabama
Profession University Professor
Political Party Republican

Condoleezza Rice, Ph.D. (sometimes referred to as Condi Rice) (born November 14 1954), is the current United States Secretary of State. She is the first African American woman, the second African American (after Colin Powell), and the second woman (after Madeleine Albright) to serve in that post.

Rice served as National Security Advisor to President George W. Bush during his first term. She is the second African American and the first female to have been appointed National Security Advisor.

In November 2004, Bush nominated Rice to succeed Colin Powell as Secretary of State. On January 26 2005, the U.S. Senate confirmed her nomination by a vote of 85-13, and she was sworn in later that day.

Childhood

Rice was born in Birmingham, Alabama, as an only child to Angelena Rice and the Reverend John Wesley Rice, Jr. Her father became a minister at Westminster Presbyterian Church and her mother was a music teacher. In an article for the New Yorker, Nicholas Lemann, dean of the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University, writes,[1] "Birmingham had one notably rich black family, the Gastons, who were in the insurance business. Occupying the next rung down was Alma Powell's family—her father and her uncle were the principals of two black high schools in town. Rice's father, John Wesley Rice, Jr., worked for Alma Powell's uncle as a high-school guidance counsellor, and was an ordained minister who preached on weekends; Rice's mother, Angelena, was a teacher." (Alma Powell is married to Colin Powell.) In 1967, the family moved to Denver when her father accepted an administrative position at the University of Denver. Her name is a variation on the Italian musical term "con dolcezza" which is a direction to play "with sweetness". [2]

She was born the same year as the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision. Rice was eight when her schoolmate Denise McNair was killed in the bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, whose congregation was primarily African-American, by white supremacists on September 15, 1963. Rice states her childhood during segregation taught her determination against adversity, and the need to be "twice as good" as non-minorities [3].

Education

After studying piano at an Aspen music camp, Rice enrolled and at 15, began attending classes at the University of Denver with the goal of becoming a concert pianist. Her plans changed when she attended a course on international politics taught by Josef Korbel, the father of former Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, that sparked her interest in the Soviet Union and international relations, leading her to call Korbel "one of the most central figures in my life" [4].

At 19, Rice earned her bachelor's degree in political science, cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, from the University of Denver in 1974. In 1975, she obtained her master's degree from the University of Notre Dame. The first time she worked at the State Department was in 1977, during the Carter administration, as an intern in the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. In 1981 she received her Ph.D. from the Graduate School of International Studies at the University of Denver. In addition to English, she speaks Russian, French, and Spanish.

Academic career

At Stanford University, Rice is a tenured Professor of Political Science, Senior Fellow of the Institute for International Studies, and a Fellow (by courtesy) of the Hoover Institution. From 1993 to July 1, 1999 she served as the Stanford Provost - serving as chief budget and academic officer of the university. In June 2003, Rice delivered the commencement address at Stanford.

File:Rice f.jpg
Condoleezza Rice speaks after being nominated to be Secretary of State by President George W. Bush (background).

Rice is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and has been awarded honorary doctorates from Morehouse College in 1991, the University of Alabama in 1994, the University of Notre Dame in 1995, the Mississippi College School of Law in 2003, the University of Louisville and Michigan State University in 2004.

Political career

From 1989 through March 1991 (the period of the fall of Berlin wall and the final days of the Soviet Union), she served in the George H. W. Bush Administration as Director, and then Senior Director, of Soviet and East European Affairs in the National Security Council, and a Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs. In this function, Condoleezza Rice was part of developing the strategy of President Bush and Secretary of State James Baker in favor of German reunification. She so impressed President Bush that he introduced her to Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev as the one who "tells me everything I know about the Soviet Union."[5]

In 1996, while an international affairs fellow of the Council on Foreign Relations, she served as Special Assistant to the Director of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In 1997, she served on the Federal Advisory Committee on Gender-Integrated Training in the Military.

Rice was a member of the board of directors for the Chevron Corporation (which named an oil tanker Condoleezza Rice after her, later renamed Altair Voyager due to controversy [6], [7]) and headed its committee on public policy until she resigned on January 15, 2001, to become National Security Advisor.

During George W. Bush's election campaign in 2000, Rice took a one-year leave of absence from university to work as George W. Bush's foreign policy advisor. On December 17, 2000, Rice was picked to serve as National Security Advisor and stepped down from her position at Stanford.

In her speech at Bush's 2005 inauguration ceremony on 20 January 2005, she identified six "outposts of tyranny" in which she said the United States had a duty to foster freedom. Those were Cuba, Zimbabwe, Burma and Belarus, as well as Iran and North Korea, two members of the "Axis of Evil".

In the George W. Bush Administration

In 2003, Rice was drawn into the debate over the affirmative action admissions policy at the University of Michigan. On January 18, 2003, the Washington Post claimed that she was involved in crafting President Bush's position against race-based preferences. On the same day, Rice released a statement that somewhat contradicted this, saying that she believes race can be a factor in university admissions policies [8].

File:RicePowellBushRumsfeld.jpg
Rice, Secretary of State Colin Powell, and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld listen to President George W. Bush speak.

Rice has also been one of the most outspoken supporters of the 2003 invasion of Iraq. After Iraq delivered its declaration of weapons of mass destruction to the United Nations on December 8, 2002, it was Rice who wrote and submitted an editorial to The New York Times entitled "Why We Know Iraq Is Lying."

In March 2004, Rice was involved in a controversy over her initial refusal to publicly testify under oath before the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (the 9/11 Commission). By way of explanation, the White House claimed executive privilege under constitutional separation of powers and cited past tradition in refusing requests for her public testimony. Debate on her role in counter-terrorism policy increased after testimony and a contemporary book by Richard Clarke, Against All Enemies. Under pressure, Bush agreed to allow her to publicly testify so long as it did not create a precedent of Presidential staff being required to appear before Congress when so requested. In the end, her appearance before the commission on April 8, 2004 was deemed acceptable in part because she was not appearing before Congress. She thus became the first sitting National Security Advisor to testify on matters of policy.

In August 2004, Forbes magazine named Rice the world's most powerful woman. [9]

Leading up to the 2004 U.S. Presidential election, Rice became the first National Security Advisor to campaign for the incumbent president. Rice used this occasion to express her belief that Saddam Hussein's government in Iraq contributed to circumstances that produced terrorism like the 9/11 Attacks on America. At a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania campaign rally she said: "While Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with the actual attacks on America, Saddam Hussein's Iraq was a part of the Middle East that was festering and unstable, [and] was part of the circumstances that created the problem on September 11."[10] Evidence does exist that suggests Hussein supported and endorsed terrorism, but others claim that a connection between Islamic extremism and Saddam's mostly secular Baath party is unfounded.

On November 16, 2004, Bush nominated Rice to be Secretary of State replacing Colin Powell, whose resignation was made public the day before. Bush named Rice's deputy, Stephen Hadley, to replace her as National Security Advisor. Bush announced January 7, 2005 nominated U.S. Trade Representative Robert B. Zoellick to be Rice's deputy at the Department of State. On January 19, 2005, the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations voted by 16-2 margin to approve the forwarding of Rice's nomination to the full Senate for approval. Senate Democrats John Kerry and Barbara Boxer voted against forwarding Rice's nomination. On January 26, 2005, the Senate confirmed the nomination by a vote of 85-13.

In January 2005, during President Bush's second inaugural ceremonies, Rice first used the term "outposts of tyranny", as a reference to countries felt to threaten world-peace and human rights. This term is a descendant of President Bush's phrase, axis of evil.

Business career

Rice has served on the board of directors for the Chevron Corporation, the Charles Schwab Corporation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the University of Notre Dame, the International Advisory Council of J.P. Morgan and the San Francisco Symphony Board of Governors. She was a Founding Board member of the Center for a New Generation, an educational support fund for schools in East Palo Alto and East Menlo Park and was Vice President of the Boys and Girls Club of the Peninsula. In addition, her past board service has encompassed such organizations as Transamerica Corporation, Hewlett Packard, the Carnegie Corporation, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the Rand Corporation, the National Council for Soviet and East European Studies, the Mid-Peninsula Urban Coalition and KQED, public broadcasting for San Francisco.

Future prospects

After the November 2004 election, a prominent Republican radio host advocated Rice's candidacy for President in the 2008 elections.

Americans for Dr. Rice is a 527 political action group, not approved by any candidate or party, dedicated to the candidacy, and election, of Dr Rice in the 2008 presidential race.

Trivia

Sources

Further reading

  • Rice, Condoleezza with Zelikow, Philip D. Germany Unified and Europe Transformed: A Study in Statecraft. Harvard University Press. hardcover (1995), 520 pages, ISBN 0-67435-3242; trade paperback, 1997, 520 pages, ISBN 0674353250.
  • Rice, Condoleezza & Dallin, Alexander (eds.) (1986). The Gorbachev Era. Stanford Alumni Association, trade paperback (1986), ISBN 0916318184; Garland Publishing, Incorporated, hardcover (1992), 376 pages, ISBN 0815305710.
  • Rice, Condoleezza (1984). Uncertain Allegiance: The Soviet Union and the Czechoslovak Army. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0691069212
  • Felix, Antonia (2002). Condi: The Condoleezza Rice Story. ISBN 1557045399
  • Ditchfield, Christin (2003). Condoleezza Rice: National Security Advisor (Great Life Stories) Franklin Watts ISBN 0531123073
  • Wade, Linda R. (2002). Condoleezza Rice: A Real-Life Reader Biography (Real-Life Reader Biography) Mitchell Lane Publishers ISBN 1584151455
  • Ryan, Bernard, Jr. (2003). Condoleeza Rice: National Security Advisor and Musician (Ferguson Career Biographies) Facts on File ISBN 0816054800
  • Wade, Mary Dodson (2003). Condoleezza Rice: Being The Best Millbrook Press Lerner Books ISBN 0761319271
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Preceded by National Security Advisor
2001–2005 		Succeeded by
Preceded by United States Secretary of State
2005– 		Succeeded by
Current incumbent
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