Madeleine Albright, the first woman to serve as U.S. secretary of state, died Wednesday, her family said in a statement. She was 84.
Her family said she died surrounded by family and friends, and her cause of death was cancer.
"We have lost a loving mother, grandmother, sister, aunt and friend," the family statement said.
After serving as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Albright became secretary of state during former President Bill Clinton's second term.
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She supported the expansion of NATO, urged the alliance to intervene in the Balkans to halt genocide and ethnic cleansing, and was the highest ranking woman in the federal government at the time.
President Joe Biden issued a statement Wednesday saying that working with her while he was senator during the 1990s "was among the highlights of my career."
"As the world redefined itself in the wake of the Cold War, we were partners and friends working to welcome newly liberated democracies into NATO and confront the horrors of genocide in the Balkans," he said.
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"When I think of Madeleine, I will always remember her fervent faith that 'America is the indispensable nation.'"
In 2020, Albright told USA Today one of the tactics she used to assert her points in diplomatic meetings dominated by men.
"After too much of the small talk, I would say, 'I have come a long way, so I must be frank,' Then I really did make a point of what I needed to say," she said. "I don't think frankly that I was rougher, tougher or anything than any man. I just think people were surprised to hear that language from a woman."
Albright was a refugee from Czechoslovakia who came to the United States as an 11-year old. Her family, which is Jewish, escaped the Nazis by fleeing to Britain after German dictator Adolf Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia.
Albright said she entered public service "to repay the fact that I was a free person."
Albright often wore a variety of symbolic pins on her suit lapels while serving as secretary of state.
She said they were used as "gentle implements of statecraft, teaching tools and a different form of communication."
One example of that was in 2000 during a U.S.-Russia summit in Moscow. Albright said Russian President Vladimir Putin told Clinton that he checked to see what pin Albright was wearing in order to decipher its meaning.
Albright said Putin asked why she was wearing a three monkeys "Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil and See No Evil" pin. She replied it was because of Russia's heavy-handed approach in Chechnya that included serious human rights violations.
Albright said Putin was furious, but looking back she said she was glad she had worn the "evil" pins.
