U.S. Foreign Policy People

Former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright was born May 15, 1937 in Prague, Czechoslovakia. Her family fled Czechoslovakia once to escape the Nazis and again to escape the communists. They settled in the United States in 1948.

Former U.S. Secretary of State James A. Baker III was born April 28, 1930 in Houston, Texas. His government career has been marked by service to American presidents in the highest executive branch offices including Secretary of State, Secretary of Treasury, and White House Chief of Staff.

In 1962, Ban Ki-Moon came to the White House and met President John F. Kennedy. Then, Ban was the 18 year-old winner of an English-language speech contest from rural South Korea. Today he is the eighth secretary-general of the United Nations.

Senator Joe Biden (D-DE) was born November 20, 1942 in Scranton, Pennsylvania and grew up in Delaware. He is a graduate of the University of Delaware and Syracuse University College of Law. He practiced law before election to the U.S. Senate in 1972 at the age of 29. He is now in his sixth term.

U.S. President John F. Kennedy severed diplomatic ties with Cuba, including an embargo on trade, shortly after Fidel Castro took power in 1959.

Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) was born October 26, 1947, in Chicago, Illinois. She is a graduate of Wellesley College and Yale Law School. She worked for the Children's Defense Fund, served on the staff of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee during the Watergate hearings, and taught law at the University of Arkansas. She served as the First Lady of Arkansas before becoming First Lady of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Her husband, Bill Clinton, was the 42nd President of the United States. In 2000 and 2006, Clinton was elected to the U.S. Senate from New York.

Senator Christopher Dodd (D-CT) was born May 27, 1944 in Willimantic, Connecticut. He is a graduate of Providence College and the University of Louisville law school. He served in the U.S. Peace Corps and the U.S. Army Reserves. He practiced law before being elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1974. He has served in the U.S. Senate since election in 1980.

Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NE) was born October 4, 1946 in North Platte, Nebraska. He is a graduate of the Brown Institute for Radio and Television in Minnesota and the University of Nebraska at Omaha. He worked in government as a Congressional staff person and as a deputy administrator of the Veteran's Administration before beginning a career in business. He was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1996 and again in 2002.

Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Christopher Hill speaks Polish, Serbo-Croatian, Macedonian, and Albanian. He plays a major role in the six-party talks on North Korea nuclear issue as the head of the US delegation.

Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Richard Holbrooke was born on April 24, 1941 in New York City to Dan Holbrooke and Trudi Moos Kear. He is a well-known American diplomat widely seen as a potential secretary of state in a Democratic presidential administration.