Conciliator par excellence

Machiavellian Henry Kissinger, and the non-nonsense image of Madeleine Albright, is a study in contrast in American diplomacy. Kissinger — a cold war Republican warrior — seeped in conservatism, and the latter — a post-cold war Democrat and the 'First Female US Secretary of the States' — brought her inevitable dynamics; as she described herself once, '14 suits and a skirt in a room'. India, too, imagined very contrasting emotions related to the two US Secretaries of State, who were pivotal in defining Indo-US trajectories.

Recently declassified 'Documents on South Asia 1969-72' confirm the bitter view on India from Capitol Hill's perspective that was shaped by Kissinger who oversaw the 1971 Indo-Pak war times. From trying to 'scare off the Indians' (even contemplating roping in China to posture aggressively), sailing their own 7th Fleet flotilla menacingly into the Indian Ocean, to using the most cuss words for Indira Gandhi and Indians in general, Kissinger personified the anti-India freeze that outlived his tenure, for decades.

Cut to 1993, Cold War iron-curtains were collapsing and a 'New Democrat' in Bill Clinton promised change from the past. Amongst his first cabinet-level decisions that passed thesenate unanimously, was the appointment of a Czech-born with mixed Christian-Jewish ancestry, Madeleine Albright, as the US Ambassador to the United Nations. International diplomacy was in her bloodline with her Czech diplomat father being at one time a United Nations delegate mediating between India and Pakistan on Kashmir. The lifelong Democrat earned her academic-political stripes in various substantial offices and faculties with a feminist zeal to emerge as amongst the foremost professionals in international affairs. The next four years in the UN Security Council offered a sneak peek into the hard-nosed diplomat that she eventually got acknowledged to be, as she never shied from asserting her voice or playing to the intrigues that beset the multilateral forum. She courted controversies and questionable stances but never gave in — this perseverance would hold her in good stead for the next career jump, as the Secretary of State. When Bill Clinton won his second term, Madeleine Albright muscled herself into the consideration set, despite much opposition which clearly stated, 'anybody but Albright'. Yet, Madeleine was chosen to be the highest-ranking woman in any US administration (her University junior, Hillary Clinton, too would become the Secretary of State later, and was bettered by fellow Democrat, Kamala Harris, as Vice President).

1997-2001 was the Madeleine Albright era of defining and steering the US foreign policy. It was also a period of tumult and 'reimagination' of India, in many ways. Having 'opened' the Indian economy in the early 90s, Congress Party was seceding ground to regional parties and coalitions, till the fructification of the right-wing appeal under Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The timing was ominous and a break from the shackles of the frozen cold war past was reverberating in Washington DC and Delhi, simultaneously. A sense of chickens coming home to roost in the aftermath of the Taliban's first homecoming in Kabul (1996-2001), US Embassy bombings in Nairobi and Daressalaam (1998) and the shelter provided by the ISI-Taliban duo to Osama Bin Laden was decidedly colouring the US perceptions about Pakistan, vis-à-vis India. Importantly, both Washington DC and Delhi were governed by self-assured statesmen in Clinton and Vajpayee, who deferred to the sage counsel of their able and empowered cabinet colleagues, Madeleine Albright and Jaswant Singh respectively.

Two events challenged and shaped the thawing of the relationship, firstly the May 1998 'Operation Shakti' entailing nuclear bomb tests by India and, secondly, the 1999 Kargil War. Expectedly, the Indian nuclear tests had rattled the US and led to severe condemnation and sanctions. Vajpayee tasked his 'Hanuman' — Jaswant Singh — at the crucial juncture to engage with the deeply entrenched anti-India mindset in the US administration. India's earlier refusal to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) under the previous Clinton administration hadn't helped matters either. It is to the credit of Jaswant Singh, Madeleine Albright and her Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbot that 11 torturous rounds of reassuring Indo-US talks took place. In such trying times, personal chemistry and trust is invaluable. The most audacious move of not only assuaging the immediate fallout but also of building a solid and strategic foundation of the hitherto weak Indo-US equation was put in place, simultaneously. The daring diplomatic manoeuvring led to dramatic transition and understanding in bilateral relations. Reciprocal state visits of Clinton and Vajpayee were inked and the process of mutual 'de-satanization' of each other was ensured.

1998-1999 is a rather short time in the complicated world of wounded diplomacy. But that is the exact timeframe within which the United States visibly demonstrated its change of preferences in capitals from Islamabad to Delhi. During the 1999 Kargil War, the US had practically leaned on the Indian side; and the memories of the nuclear tests a year earlier, or the 1971 Indo-Pak war where the Kissinger-Nixon duo were firmly on the Pakistani side, became a distant memory. The same cold and dour Madeleine Albright who gave professional grief to Jaswant Singh earlier, later told him, 'A masterly handling of the Kargil crisis. You did not put a foot wrong'. Neither of them did so, in those formative years of blue-blooded diplomacy.

As the Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, along with her deputy Strobe Talbot, can take the credit for repairing and rebooting the strategic relationship that has survived ever since. The proverbial glass ceiling breaker passed away at 84 and was arguably amongst the best POTUSA's aides who couldn't become one, owing to her naturalized citizenship. She lamented the regression of politics in later years in her book, 'Fascism: A Warning', and might perhaps not even empathize with the current political tenor in India, post the Vajpayee-Jaswant era. They belonged to different values and expectedly civilisational-liberal-democratic India, was her natural draw – as she had personally signed a photo of herself with Jaswant (Taj Mahal in the backdrop) signed 'with admiration and affection'. India owes the very same sentiment to the lady who truly changed the Indo-US narrative, for posterity.

The writer is the former Lt Governor of Andaman and Nicobar Islands & Puducherry. Views expressed are personal