Immigrates to United States

Korbelova immigrates to the United States on the SS America, after a Soviet-sponsored Communist coup seizes power in Prague. Her father becomes the founding Dean of the School of International Relations at the University of Denver (where he later trains another female secretary of state, Condoleeza Rice).

Having been forced to flee my native Czechoslovakia two times – first from the Nazis and then from the Communists – I learned at a young age that human freedom is both immeasurably precious and inherently fragile.