Serpent Pin, circa 1860
An eighteen-carat gold snake coiled around a branch, with a diamond dangling from its mouth. A second brooch reinforced her approach. This brooch was a blue bird. Until the twenty-fourth of February 1996, she wore the pin with the bird’s head soaring upward. On the afternoon of that day, Cuban fighter pilots shot down two unarmed civilian aircraft over international waters between Cuba and Florida. Three American citizens and one legal resident were killed. At a press conference, Albright denounced both the crime and the perpetrators, “I was especially angered by the macho celebration at the time of the killings. “This is not cojones,” I said, “it is cowardice.”” To illustrate her feelings, she wore the bird pin with its head pointing down, in mourning. Her comment departed from the niceties of normal diplomatic discourse, and caused an uproar. Albright held her ground. She says of the incident that, “As a rule, I prefer polite talk, but there are moments when only plain speaking will do.”
