With Curtsy and Smile, Albright Takes Over at State Department

WASHINGTON — Stepping away from the lectern so everyone in the State Department auditorium could see her clearly, Madeleine Albright curtsied and declared with a smile: “You may notice, I do not look like Secretary Christopher.”

Nor like any of her other 62 predecessors. Like Warren Christopher, they all were men.

In fact, she said with a smile, the toughest question she has faced since being appointed by President Clinton is how it felt to be both a woman and secretary of State.

“I have now thought of the answer,” Albright said.

“The answer is, ‘I’ve never been secretary of state. I have been a woman for nearly 60 years. So I am now going to see how you put the two together.’ ”

The standing-room audience of about 1,000 department workers laughed and applauded, obviously taken with a new boss who told them in a traditional get-acquainted forum: “Please talk to me if you see me in the hall.”

On the serious side, Albright said she was determined to combat ignorance about U.S. foreign policy and would devote “the full measure of my energy” to doing the job right.

She said ignorance had shortchanged the State Department in its congressional appropriations, and she was launching a “winter campaign” to recover needed funds and to rebuild morale within the foreign service.

“I don’t shilly-shally much,” Albright declared. “I am an advocate.”