PRESIDENT Clinton has made history by appointing the first woman to be Secretary of State in charge of US foreign policy.
She is the present US ambassador to the United Nations, Ms Madeleine Albright, who moves into a post once mentioned for former senator, Mr George Mitchell, now chairing the all party talks in Belfast.
The President's principal adviser on Northern Ireland, Mr Tony Lake, has been moved to head the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). He will be replaced as National Security Adviser by his deputy, Mr Sandy Berger.
The President has also appointed a Republican opponent to be Secretary of Defence as part of his bipartisan approach for his second term. He is Senator William Cohen (56), who has specialised in defence and intelligence questions but is also a poet and a writer of spy thrillers.
The appointment of Ms Albright had been anticipated in recent days but only two weeks ago she was being downgraded by White House aides as in the "second tier" of likely candidates. This caused a strong reaction from women's organisations which renewed their calls for the appointment of a woman to a high level cabinet post.
Announcing her appointment yesterday, the President denied that her gender had influenced his decision. He praised her record in advancing US foreign policy and referred to her Czech origins as an example of American openness to immigrants.
Ms Albright, who is 59, is the daughter of a Czech diplomat at the UN who sought political asylum in the US after the communist takeover in Prague in 1948. As a specialist in foreign affairs, especially on eastern Europe, Ms Albright advised in the presidential campaigns of Mr Michael Dukakis and later that of Mr Clinton. She also served in the Carter administration.
Before Mr Clinton appointed her his ambassador to the UN in 1993, she was a professor of international affairs in Mr Clinton's alma mater, Georgetown University.
At the UN she won a reputation for blunt speaking in her presentation of US foreign policy. She has, been criticised for what was seen as a clumsy US attempt to deny a second term to the UN Secretary General, Dr Boutros Boutros Ghali, but remained totally unapologetic about the US's determination to oust him.
Mr Lake was a former career foreign service officer but resigned from a senior post in the Nixon administration in protest at the US bombing of Cambodia. He later influenced President Clinton's decision to recognise Vietnam.