Let’s step back into a time when life was calmer, less chaotic in a sense. Walk back to a time when we weren’t bombarded with so much. Most might not remember Madeleine Albright. Yet world leaders noticed her and soon learned to ‘Read Her Pins’.
Madeleine Jana Korbel Albright was an American politician and diplomat who served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations (1993–97) and who was the 64th United States Secretary of State and the first woman to hold this post (1997–2001).
Albright was a “practical, down to earth person with strong ideas about right and wrong. She did not sit silently”; “she realized that if she only observed and listened, she wouldn’t get a chance to speak, which meant the voice of the United States wouldn’t be heard.” Jewelry soon became part of Madeleine’s arsenal as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
Albright became famous for wearing pins that expressed her thoughts on the diplomatic proceedings she attended. As U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., Madeleine criticized Saddam Hussein. His poet in residence responded by calling her “an unparalleled serpent.” While preparing to meet with Iraqi officials, Albright pondered what to wear. She decided to make a diplomatic statement by choosing to wear a snake pin. Her message was as old as the American Revolution – Don’t Tread on Me.
From that day forward, pins became part of her diplomatic signature and trademark. International leaders and reporters soon learned to pinpoint the pin she wore. The pins symbolized the mood Madeleine would employee during the talks. She saw it as an additional way of expressing what she was saying or a visual way to deliver a message. She was known for stating “Former President George H.W. Bush had been known for saying ‘Read my lips.’ She began urging colleagues and reporters to ‘Read my pins’.
Though she was fond of all the pieces in her collection (she said her favorite was a heart made by her youngest daughter), one of them nearly betrayed her. On the day of her swearing-in ceremony for Secretary of State, her newly acquired eagle pin nearly fell off while she took her oath because she failed to properly close the unusual clasp.
The Madeleine Albright Collection featured more than 200 pins. Most of the pins were costume jewelry and were reflective of whatever issue she was dealing with, what she was feeling like on a given day or where she was going. But mostly it was for fun and just a good way to start the day. On good days there were flowers and butterflies and balloons, and on bad days, all kinds of bugs and carnivorous animals.
There was the arrow pin that looked like a missile. When she was negotiating the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with the Russians, the Russian foreign minister asked, “Is that one of your missile interceptors you’re wearing?” And she responded, “Yes. We make them very small. Let’s negotiate.” After the U.S. found that the Russians had planted a listening device—a ‘bug’—into a conference room near Madeleine’s office in the State Department, she wore a huge bug the next time she saw the Russians. They got the message.
Albright often displayed a little bit of humor to get through complicated issues. The U.S. was in complicated talks with Syria and Israeli and the reporters wanted to know what was going on. Madeleine responded that, “sometimes talks, like mushrooms, do better in the dark for a little while.” After that whenever someone from the press asked what was going on, she would just say, “mushrooms, mushrooms.” Soon she found a mushroom pin and just pointed to the pin.
Albright believed “the right symbol at the correct time could add warmth or needed edge to a relationship.” A foreign dignitary was much happier to see the bright shining sun attached to Madeleine’s jacket, rather that the menacing wasp or bee, which was used to deliver a sharp message. She referred to Muhammad Ali boasting that he would “float like a butterfly, sting like a bee”. Madeleine’s message meant that “America would try to resolve every controversy peacefully, but if pushed into a corner we had both the will and a way to strike back.”
During negotiations with the Middle East Madeleine often wore a dove pin. However when displeased with the pace of negotiations she would substitute a turtle, a snail or when truly aggravated, a crab.
Madeleine experimented with different looks and ideas. She preferred the more dramatic side than the demure look of her pins. She often wore several pins simultaneously for an enhanced statement. She often wore an eagle brooch with an Uncle Sam’s hat. She found the best effect came when she wore the two together with the hat tilted at a rakish angle, seemingly atop the eagle’s head.
Albright loved to wear a ladybug pin when feeling good, “because who doesn’t love a ladybug?” Her second choice was one of her hot-air balloons which she interpreted to “mean high hopes not overheated rhetoric.” “Other pins were aimed at conjuring up the quality needed to make a negotiation succeed, such as a tranquil swan or a wise owl.”
During Albright’s tenure everyone in North Korea was expected to wear a pin bearing the image of the nation’s founder, Kim II-sung. Failure to wear the pin was evidence of independent political thought, which was strictly prohibited and severely punished. When meeting with Kim Jong-il, the country’s dictator at the time, Madeleine wore the boldest American flag pin she had. Koreans are taught from an early age that America is evil. Madeleine wanted to reconcile this reputation with photos of their exalted leader playing host to her.
Once in a while Madeleine thought she might have gone too far. When she went to Russia with President Bill Clinton for a summit, she wore a pin with the hear-no-evil, see-no-evil, speak-no evil monkeys, because the Russians never would talk about what was really going on during their conflict with Chechnya. President Vladimir Putin asked why she was wearing those monkeys. She replied, “because of your Chechnya policy.” He was not amused.
Madeleine collected pins, attracted to similarity and to diversity. She loved to find a piece that was different from any other but could be added to the categories she already had. She felt the pins/figures were laden with meaning. For example the lion has always been linked to power and the sun. The lion pin she wore to meet President Hafez al-Assad was meant to honor Assad, as his name meant ‘lion’ in Arabic. The dragon symbolized China, koala Australia, kiwi New Zealand, and the flamingo Bahamas just to name a few.
Madeleine felt that a pin’s “greatest value came not from intrinsic materials or brilliant designs but from the emotions we invest. The most cherished attributes are not those that dazzle the eye but those that recall to the mind the face and spirit of a loved one.” Madeleine felt that she could use pins to communicate a diplomatic message, but realized they didn’t shake the world. She felt that “shaking the world is precisely the opposite of what diplomats are placed on Earth to do.”
Come explore more of Madeleine’s pin collection. There are some beautiful pictures with much of this info that came from Read My Pins by Madeleine Albright.