Introduction To Condoleezza Rice

Condoleezza Rice,
United States Secretary of State  

Condoleezza Rice (born November 14, 1954) is the 66th and current United States Secretary of State, and the second in the administration of President George W. Bush. She replaced Colin Powell on January 26, 2005, after his resignation. Her deputy is Robert Zoellick.

Condoleezza Rice was previously Bush's National Security Advisor during his first term (2001–2005). Before joining the Bush administration, she was a Professor of Political Science at Stanford University where she served as Provost from 1993 to 1999.

Early life and education

Rice was born in Birmingham, Alabama, and is the only child of Angelena Rice and the Reverend John Wesley Rice (Jr.). Her father was a minister at Westminster Presbyterian Church, and her mother was a music teacher. The name "Condoleezza" is derived from the Italian music-related expression, "Con dolcezza", meaning "with sweetness".

In an article for the New Yorker, Nicholas Lemann, dean of the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University, writes, "Birmingham had one notably rich black family, the Gastons, who were in the insurance business. Occupying the next rung down was the family of Alma Powell, wife of former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and U.S. Secretary of State, Colin Powell; 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 counselor, and was an ordained minister who preached on weekends; Rice's mother, Angelena, was a teacher."[2] In 1967, the family moved to Denver when her father accepted an administrative position at the University of Denver.

Rice was eight when her schoolmate Denise McNair was killed in the bombing of the primarily African-American Sixteenth Street Baptist Church by white supremacists on September 15, 1963. Rice states that growing up during racial segregation taught her determination against adversity, and the need to be "twice as good" as non-minorities. Segregation also hardened her stance on the right to bear arms; Rice has said in interviews that if gun registration had been mandatory, her father's weapons would have been confiscated, leaving them defenseless against Ku Klux Klan nightriders.

After studying piano at the Aspen Music Festival and School, Rice enrolled at the University of Denver, where her father both served as an assistant dean and taught a class called "The Black Experience in America".

At age 15, Rice began classes with the goal of becoming a concert pianist. Her plans changed when she realized that she did not play well enough to support herself through music alone. She said that her playing was "pretty good but not great" and that she did not have enough time to devote to practice. Rice attended a course on international politics taught by Josef Korbel, the father of former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. This experience sparked her interest in the Soviet Union and international relations and made her call Korbel "one of the most central figures in my life."

In 1974, at age 19, Rice earned her B.A. in political science and Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Denver. In 1975, she obtained her Master's Degree in political science from the University of Notre Dame. She first worked in the State Department in 1977, during the Carter administration, as an intern in the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. In 1981, at the age of 26, she received her Ph.D. in Political Science from the Graduate School of International Studies at Denver. In addition to English, she speaks Russian, French, German and Spanish.

Academic career

At Stanford University, Rice was an Assistant Professor in Political Science (1981–1987), Associate Professor (1987-1993), and full Professor of Political Science (1993-July 2000), Senior Fellow of the Institute for International Studies, and a Senior Fellow (by courtesy) of the Hoover Institution. She was a specialist on the former Soviet Union and gave lectures on the subject for the Berkeley-Stanford joint program led by U.C. Berkeley Professor George Breslauer in the mid-1980s. She also was an avid reader of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, and once told a friend she leaned toward the latter in her world view. She was quietly cerebral, friendly but decorous, and popular among students. They often saw her exercising in the gym or serving breakfast to undergraduates at Midnight Breakfast, a Stanford tradition during final exams. From 1993 to 1999 she served as the Stanford Provost, the chief budget and academic officer of the university. Yet, she managed to maintain friendly contact with various student associations, such as the Venezuelan Student Organization. After departing to enter government service, she returned to Stanford in June 2002 to deliver the commencement address. In addition to being the first woman and the first African–American to be Provost of Stanford, she was also the youngest Provost in the university’s history.

Dr. 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.

She has written or collaborated on several books, including Germany Unified and Europe Transformed (1995), The Gorbachev Era (1986), and Uncertain Allegiance: The Soviet Union and the Czechoslovak Army (1984).


Business career

Rice has served on the board of directors for the Chevron Corporation, the Charles Schwab Corporation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Transamerica Corporation, Hewlett Packard, The Carnegie Corporation, The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, The Rand Corporation, and KQED, public broadcasting for San Francisco.

She was also on the Board of Trustees of the University of Notre Dame, the International Advisory Council of J.P. Morgan, and the San Francisco Symphony Board of Governors.

She also headed Chevron's committee on public policy until she resigned on January 15, 2001, to become National Security Advisor to President George W. Bush. Chevron honored Rice by naming an oil tanker Condoleezza Rice after her, but controversy led to its being renamed Altair Voyager.

Rice has also been active in community affairs. She was a founding board member of the Center for a New Generation, an educational support fund for schools in East Palo Alto, California, California and East Menlo Park, California, and was Vice President of the Boys and Girls Clubs of America of the San Francisco Bay Area.

In addition, her past board service has encompassed such organizations as the National Council for Soviet and East European Studies, and the Mid-Peninsula Urban Coalition.

Political career

Early phase

In 1986, while an international affairs fellow of the Council on Foreign Relations, Condoleezza served as Special Assistant to the Director of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

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 position, Rice helped develop Bush's and Secretary of State James Baker's policies in favor of German reunification. She so impressed Bush that he introduced her to Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev as the one who "tells me everything I know about the Soviet Union."

In 1989 she served as director for Soviet and East European Affairs at the National Security Council and reported directly to National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft. In 1990 she became George H. W. Bush's principal advisor on the Soviet Union. In 1997, she sat on the Federal Advisory Committee on Gender-Integrated Training in the Military.

During George W. Bush's election campaign in 2000, Rice took a one-year leave of absence from Stanford University to help work as his foreign policy advisor.

National Security Advisor (2001–2005)

On December 17, 2000, Condoleezza was picked to serve as National Security Advisor and stepped down from her position at Stanford. She was the first woman to occupy the post. In 2001, Rice was staff or board member of The Scowcroft Group according to a report entitled 2001 Morse Target.

Rice became 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 an editorial for The New York Times entitled Why We Know Iraq Is Lying.

In March 2004, Rice initially declined to publicly testify under oath before the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (the 9/11 Commission). The White House claimed executive privilege under constitutional separation of powers and cited past tradition in refusing requests for her public testimony. 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 United States 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 actually appearing before Congress. She thus became the first sitting National Security Advisor to testify on matters of policy.

Leading up to the 2004 U.S. Presidential election, Rice became the first National Security Advisor to campaign for an incumbent president. She 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."

In 2003, Rice was also drawn into the debate over the affirmative action admissions policy at the University of Michigan. On January 18, 2003, the Washington Post reported that she was involved in crafting Bush's position on race-based preferences. Rice has stated that she believes race "can be a factor" in university admissions policies.

Secretary of State (2005–present)

Condoleezza Rice speaks after being nominated to be Secretary of State by President George W. Bush (background)On November 16, 2004, Bush nominated Rice to be Secretary of State, replacing Powell, whose resignation was made public the day before. Bush named Rice's deputy, Stephen Hadley, to replace her as National Security Advisor. On January 7, 2005, Bush 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, with Democrats John Kerry and Barbara Boxer voting against Rice. During her hearing, Ms. Boxer questioned Rice on issues about her personal life, which was deemed, by some, as irrelevant. On January 26, 2005, the Senate confirmed her nomination by a vote of 85–13. The negative votes, the most cast against any nomination for Secretary of State since 1825, came from Senators who, according to Boxer, wanted "to hold Dr. Rice and the Bush Administration accountable for their failures in Iraq and in the war on terrorism." All negative votes came from either Democratic or independent senators. Their reasoning was that Rice had acted irresponsibly in equating Hussein's regime with Islamist terrorism and some could not accept her previous record.

Dr. Rice and President George W. Bush purportedly have a very close relationship. They met in the 1990's after Dr. Rice had served as former President George H. W. Bush's top Soviet and East European Affairs advisor. It has been argued that their contemporaneous loves of sports, physical fitness, and religion have made them close friends, politically and personally. Some analysts argue that Rice's relationship with Bush is the closest President/Secretary of State relationship since that of former President Richard Nixon and former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in the early 1970's.

On January 18, 2006, Rice announced plans for a substantial reorganization of the State Department. Goals include the relocation of hundreds of American diplomats, as well as strengthening requirements for language skills and knowledge of foreign cultures as a prerequisite for professional advancement. Dr. Rice has given this new initiative the name "Transformational Diplomacy".

On October 30, 2005, Rice attended a memorial service in Montgomery, Alabama, in Rice's home state, for Rosa Parks, an inspiration for the American Civil Rights Movement. Rice stated, that she and others who grew up in Alabama during the height of Parks' activism might not have realized her impact on their lives at the time, "but I can honestly say that without Mrs. Parks, I probably would not be standing here today as secretary of state."

Travels

As Secretary of State, Dr. Rice has visited nearly seventy countries and travelled several hundred thousand miles. Rice travelled more miles in her first year as Secretary than her predecessor, Colin Powell, did in his five-year career. She has also set the record for most miles flown by a Secretary of State on a single trip and most continuous miles in a single flight. By the end of 2005, Rice had travelled 240,261 miles, visited 49 countries, and spent over 500 hours in flight.

In February 2005, Rice began an extended tour of Europe and the Middle East for the first time in her official capacity of Secretary of State. She traveled to Germany, the United Kingdom, Poland, Turkey, Israel, the Palestinian Territories, Italy, France, Belgium, and Luxembourg.

Terrorism

In January 2005, during Bush's second inaugural ceremonies, Rice first used the term outposts of tyranny to refer to countries felt to threaten world peace and human rights. This term has been called a descendant of Bush's phrase "Axis of Evil" used to describe Iraq, Iran and North Korea. She identified six such "outposts" in which she said the United States has a duty to foster freedom: Cuba, Zimbabwe, Burma and Belarus, as well as Iran and North Korea.

On September 30, 2005, as a keynote speaker at Princeton University's Celebration of the 75th Anniversary of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Rice declared that the Iraq War is "set out to help the people of the Middle East transform their societies."

Russia

In April 2005, Rice went to Russia to meet President Vladimir Putin. On the plane trip over, she related comments critical of Putin to reporters. "Trends have not been positive on the democratic side," said Rice. "There have been some setbacks, but I do still think there is a considerable amount of individual freedom in Russia, which is important." In person she told Putin: "We see Russia as a partner in solving regional issues, like the Balkans or the Middle East."

Iran

On September 9, 2005, Rice declared the refusal of Iran to halt its nuclear program unacceptable and called on Russia, China and India to join in threatening United Nations sanctions as punishment.

Future prospects

Rice has risen to become one of the most powerful female (and African-American) politicians in US history. As a result, supporters have touted a future Vice Presidential or Presidential candidacy as a possibility.

Currently, dozens of websites and organizations exist, seeking to draft Dr. Rice and make her candidacy a reality. The most noteworthy of these groups, "Americans for Dr. Rice," is a 527 group, not approved by any candidate or party, dedicated to the candidacy, and election, of Rice in the 2008 presidential race.

Rice for her part has repeatedly said she has no desire or interest in becoming President. Interviewed on the subject by Tim Russert on March 14, 2005, Rice declared, "I will not run for president of the United States. How is that? I don't know how many ways to say 'no' in this town."

During an interview with Russian Echo Moscow Radio, Dr. Rice was asked about her intentions concerning running for President. When asked by a schoolgirl, "One day you will run for president?" she replied, "President, da, da," before she quickly answered with "nyet, nyet, nyet." When a Russian girl asked how she could become like her, she replied in English, "I don't want to talk about myself."

However, in May 2005, several of Rice's associates claimed that she would be willing to accept run for the presidency if she were drafted into the race. On October 16, 2005, on NBC's Meet the Press, Rice again denied she would run for President in 2008. While she says she is flattered that many people want her to run, she says it is not what she wants to do with her life. Rice told Fox News Sunday host, Chris Wallace: "I'm quite certain that there are going to be really fine candidates for president from our party, and I'm looking forward to seeing them and perhaps supporting them." Interviewed on BBC television's The Politics Show on October 23, she again stated her decision not to run, although she avoided stating that she would not run under any circumstances. Rice has never said that she would not accept the Republican nomination were it to be offered to her.

Certain high-profile political figures, including Laura Bush, White House Spokesman Scott McClellan, and world leaders such as Russian President Vladimir Putin and Australian Prime Minister John Howard have also voiced encouragement. Laura Bush has perhaps been the strongest proponent of Rice's candidacy. On CNN's The Situation Room on January 17, 2006, Mrs. Bush implicated Dr. Rice when asked if she thought the United States would soon have a female President, stating: "I'd love to see her run. She's terrific." Mrs. Bush then turned to advocacy during an interview on CNN's Larry King Live on March 24, 2006, in which she stated that Dr. Rice would make an "excellent president," and that she wished Americans could "talk her into running."

Rice has frequently been mentioned as a possible opponent of Hillary Clinton in the 2008 election, as is the subject of the book Condi vs. Hillary: The Next Great Presidential Race, by political strategist Dick Morris and his wife, Eileen McGann-Morris.

Even in spite of Dr. Rice's denials of any presidential aspirations, many recent polls show her as the number one or number two most desired Republican nominee, including prominent ones like Marist, NewsMax, Rasmussen, and Zogby. In fact, a recent Zogby America poll showed Dr. Rice defeating Democratic potentials Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, and Mark Warner. In February 2006, TheWhiteHouseProject.org named Condoleezza Rice one of its "8 for '08", a group of eight female politicians who could possibly run and/or be elected president in 2008.

Rice has publicly expressed aspirations to become the next commissioner of the National Football League and following the announcement of Paul Tagliabue's retirement, she was widely believed to be a serious contender for the post. If appointed to the office, she would have been both the first African American and the first female commissioner of any North American major sports league. However, Rice, a Cleveland Browns fan, declined to take the post, stating that she preferred to remain as Secretary of State.