Albright's world.

Margaret O'Brien Steinfels's encomium to Madeleine Albright and her new book, Madam Secretary ("First in Her Class," February 13), is troubling and surprising. Steinfels endorses Albright's notion that war is "diplomacy by other means," when phrases like "human tragedy" or "moral failure" seem more apt. And in noting Albright's efforts to educate the American public on its role in the world, Steinfels applauds her for the conviction--at once jingoistic and unchristian--that the United States is "the indispensable nation."

More disturbing gaps emerge in the way Steinfels narrates Albright's greatness. For all of her treatment of "the Clinton administration's impressive and still underappreciated record on foreign affairs," Steinfels makes no mention of the sanctions imposed on the Iraqi people. And this directly involved Albright. As U.S. ambassador to the UN, she helped cement the sanctions in place.

Finally, Steinfels extols Albright the immigrant advocate: the "freedom and opportunity offered her family" have been "reference points for her policies." One cannot help but wonder, though, what the reference point was for Operation Gatekeeper along the U.S. Mexico border. To be sure, Albright did not design this Clinton administration policy that has been an effective death penalty for thousands of immigrants forced into dangerous desert crossings. Nor, however, did she oppose it. In failing to mention even one of these failures of Albright's career, Steinfels offers no help to Catholics trying to make moral sense of this important public figure.

MICHAEL GRIFFIN

Notre Dame, Ind.