Rice is sworn in as U.S. National Security Advisor, becoming the first woman and first African American to hold the office.
On January 22, 2001, Condoleezza Rice was sworn in as the National Security Advisor to President George W. Bush, becoming the first woman and first African American ever to hold this critical post at the center of U.S. foreign and defense policymaking.
The National Security Advisor coordinates foreign policy and national security matters for the President, sitting atop an apparatus that includes the State Department, Pentagon, and intelligence community. Rice's appointment shattered a barrier in one of the most powerful yet historically inaccessible positions for women and people of color in the U.S. government.
During her tenure from 2001 to 2005, Rice navigated the administration through the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the invasion of Afghanistan, and the lead-up to the Iraq War, becoming one of the most visible and influential foreign policy voices in the country. Her close relationship with President Bush and her academic background in Soviet and Eastern European studies made her a formidable strategist during a period of dramatic global upheaval.
This appointment was a watershed moment, proving that the highest levels of national security leadership were no longer closed to women or African Americans, and it paved the way for her subsequent, even more historic, appointment as Secretary of State.