Condoleezza Rice

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Condoleezza Rice

Condoleezza Rice, Ph.D. (informally Condi Rice) (born November 14, 1954), became United States National Security Advisor to President George W. Bush on January 22, 2001. She is the second African American (after Colin Powell) and the first female National Security Advisor.

In November 2004, she was nominated by President Bush to replace Colin Powell as United States Secretary of State. If confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Rice will be the second African American (after Colin Powell) and second female (after Madeleine Albright) Secretary of State.

Contents

6 In the Bush administration

Childhood

Rice was born in Birmingham, Alabama, as an only child to Angelena Rice and Reverend John Wesley Rice, Jr. Her father became a minister at Westminster Presbyterian Church and her mother was a music teacher. Both her parents were university professors. In 1967, the family moved to Denver when her father accepted the position of Vice Chancellor at the Univesity of Denver. Her name is a variation on the Italian musical term "con dolcezza" which is a direction to play "with sweetness." [1]

She was born the same year as the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision. Rice was eight when her schoolmate Denise McNair was killed in the bombing of the Black Sixteenth Street Baptist Church by white supremacists on September 15, 1963. Rice states her childhood during segregation taught her determination against adversity, and the need to be "twice as good" as non-minorities [2].

Education

After studying piano at an Aspen music camp, Rice enrolled and at 15, began attending classes at the University of Denver with the goal of becoming a concert pianist. Her plans changed when she attended a course on international politics taught by Josef Korbel, the father of former Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, that sparked her interest in the Soviet Union and international relations, leading her to call Korbel "one of the most central figures in my life" [3].

At 19, Rice earned her bachelor's degree in political science, cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, from the University of Denver in 1974. In 1975, she obtained her master's degree from the University of Notre Dame, and in 1981 she received her Ph.D. from the Graduate School of International Studies at the University of Denver. In addition to English, she speaks Russian, French, and Spanish.

Academic career

At Stanford University, Rice is a tenured Professor of Political Science, Senior Fellow of the Institute for International Studies, and a Fellow (by courtesy) of the Hoover Institution. From 1993 to 1999 she served as the Stanford Provost. Rice held the position of provost before stepping down on July 1, 1999. In June 2003, Rice delivered the commencement address at Stanford.

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.

Political career

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 function, Condoleezza Rice was part of developing the strategy of President Bush and Secretary of State James Baker in favor of German reunification. She so impressed President Bush that he introduced her to Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev as the one who "tells me everything I know about the Soviet Union."[4]

In 1996, while an international affairs fellow of the Council on Foreign Relations, she served as Special Assistant to the Director of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In 1997, she served on the Federal Advisory Committee on Gender-Integrated Training in the Military.

Rice was a member of the board of directors for the Chevron Corporation (which named an oil tanker Condoleezza Rice after her, later renamed Altair Voyager due to controversy [5], [6]) and headed its committee on public policy until she resigned on January 15, 2001, to become National Security Advisor.

During George W. Bush's election campaign in 2000, Rice took a one-year leave of absence from university to work as George W. Bush's foreign policy advisor. On December 17, 2000, Rice was picked to serve as National Security Advisor and stepped down from her position at Stanford.

Business career

Rice has served on the board of directors for the Chevron Corporation, the Charles Schwab Corporation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the University of Notre Dame, the International Advisory Council of J.P. Morgan and the San Francisco Symphony Board of Governors. She was a Founding Board member of the Center for a New Generation, an educational support fund for schools in East Palo Alto and East Menlo Park and was Vice President of the Boys and Girls Club of the Peninsula. In addition, her past board service has encompassed such organizations as Transamerica Corporation, Hewlett Packard, the Carnegie Corporation, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, The Rand Corporation, the National Council for Soviet and East European Studies, the Mid-Peninsula Urban Coalition and KQED, public broadcasting for San Francisco.

In the Bush administration

Since her appointment as National Security Advisor, Rice has become a controversial figure. Some say she has polarized the African-American community, with some praising her role as the first black National Security Advisor and others calling her a "race traitor" because of the perception that she differs with others in the black community on African-American issues [7]. In 2003, Rice was drawn into the debate over the affirmative action admissions policy at the University of Michigan. On January 18, 2003, the Washington Post claimed that she was involved in crafting President Bush's position against race-based preferences. On the same day, Rice released a statement that somewhat contradicted this, saying that she believes race can be a factor in university admissions policies [8].

Rice, Secretary of State Colin Powell, and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld listen to President George W. Bush speak.

Rice has also been 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 and submitted an editorial to the New York Times entitled "Why We Know Iraq Is Lying."

In March 2004, Rice was involved in a controversy over her initial refusal to publicly testify under oath before the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (the 9/11 Commission). By way of explanation, the White House claimed executive privilege under constitutional separation of powers and cited past tradition in refusing requests for her public testimony. Debate on her role in counter-terrorism policy increased after testimony and a contemporary book by Richard Clarke, Against All Enemies. 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 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 appearing before Congress. She thus became the first sitting National Security Advisor to testify on matters of policy.

In August 2004, Forbes magazine named Rice the world's most powerful woman. [9]

Leading up to the 2004 U.S. Presidential election, Rice became the first National Security Advisor to campaign for the incumbent president. Rice used this occasion to express her belief that Saddam Hussein's government in Iraq reflected the conditions that produced 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."[10] While a majority of people in the U.S. believe that such a link exists between the events, others claim that a connection between Islamic extremists and the mostly secular Baathist Saddam Hussein is unfounded.

On November 16, 2004, Bush nominated Rice to be Secretary of State replacing Colin Powell, whose resignation was made public the day before. Bush named Rice's deputy, Stephen Hadley, to replace her as National Security Advisor. A radio host in Wisconsin, John "Sly" Sylvester, compared Rice to Aunt Jemima, calling her a "black trophy" of the Bush administration. He also referred to former Secretary of State Colin Powell as Uncle Tom. [11]

The Future

After the November 2004 election, a prominent Republican radio host started advocating Rice's candidacy for President in the 2008 elections, to possibly run against Hillary Clinton.

Trivia

Rice has stated several times in interviews that she has aspirations of becoming the Commissioner of the National Football League.

Rice has never married.

On April 10, 2004, Saturday Night Live guest-host Janet Jackson spoofed her Superbowl tit-flash in a skit about the 9/11 commission, in which she portrayed a flustered Condoleezza Rice.

Rice made use of her pianist's training to accompany cellist Yo-Yo Ma for Brahms's Violin Sonata in D minor at Constitution Hall in April 2002 [12].

In November 2004, Rice had surgery to remove a non-cancerous fibroid tumor on her uterus.

Sources

Nordlinger, Jay. "Star-in-Waiting : Meet George W.'s Foreign-Policy Czarina," National Review. (August 30, 1999)
Plotz, David. "Condoleezza Rice: George W. Bush's celebrity adviser," Slate. (May 12, 2000)
Author Unknown. "Smart, Savvy, Strong-willed Rice Charts Her Own Course," CNN. (2001)
Marinucci, Carla. "Critics Knock Naming Oil Tanker Condoleezza," San Francisco Chronicle. (April 5, 2001)
Marinucci, Carla. "Chevron Redubs Ship Named For Bush Aide," San Francisco Chronicle. (May 5, 2001)
Marinucci, Carla. "Security adviser Rice weighs run for governor," San Francisco Chronicle. (February 27, 2003)
Author Unknown. "Rice Says Race Can Be 'One Factor' In Considering Admissions," CNN (January 18, 2003)
Author Unknown. "Condoleezza Rice: The Devil's Handmaiden," Black Commentator. (January 23, 2003)
Stern, Teresa. "Affirmative Action on Trial," Ms. Magazine. (March 2003)
Author Unknown. "The Amazing Stories of Condoleezza Rice," Buzzflash. (July 25, 2003)
Bayé, Betty. "Condoleezza Rice Gets Little Slack From Her African-American Critics", The Courier-Journal. (October 2, 2003)
Becker, Maki. "Twenty Things About Condi," New York Daily News. (April 4, 2004)

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations by or about Condoleezza Rice.

Condoleezza Rice quotes
Biography from the White House
Biography from the Hoover Institution
Profile from BBC News
Profile from CNN
Profile: Star-in-Waiting from National Review
Rice 2008, unofficial supporter's site advocating a 2008 presidential candidacy

Preceded by: Colin Powell	United States Secretary of State	Succeeded by: Presumed nominee
Preceded by: Sandy Berger	National Security Advisor	Presumed successor: Stephen Hadley

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