When Madeleine Albright was named U.S. ambassador to the United Nations (U.N.) in 1993, she completed a circle of family involvement with the organization. Her father, Josef Korbel, had been a Czechoslovakian diplomat and became chairman of a special U.N. commission shortly after World War II. When he completed his work, he asked the U.S. government for political asylum (protection against political oppression) following a communist takeover of his country.

Born Maria Jana Korbel in 1937 in Prague, Czechoslovakia, Albright was rechristened Madeleine when her family settled in America. Describing her early life to the Los Angeles Times, she said she was "the little blond girl in the newsreels who would be handing flowers to arriving diplomats." After her family was granted political asylum in the United States, her father became a professor at the University of Denver.

Albright graduated with honors from Wellesley...