President Clinton had similarly no hesitation in appointing Mrs Albright as his Secretary of State. The Senate confirmed them without any difficulty - but only after the FBI had subjected them and their relatives to the most intense security vetting and told the Senate Committee that it did not find anything adverse against them. Despite their intellectual brilliance, professional competence and the trust and admiration that they enjoyed in the American society, neither Dr Kissinger nor Mrs Albright could have aspired to the high office of the President or Vice-President because of their foreign origin. So is the case in most other countries, including Italy, the country of Mrs Sonia Gandhi's origin. This unique exception in the case of the heads of state and government is due to four reasons - national pride, ethical dilemma, possible conflict of national interests and national security.
National pride is self-explanatory and needs no elaboration.
The head of a government presides over a vast bureaucracy. All governments, democratic as well as authoritarian, have special provisions relating to bureaucrats marrying foreign men or women. These special provisions relate to prior permission before marriage, keeping them out of sensitive posts etc. In the USA, the most liberal society, bureaucrats wishing to marry Cuban, Chinese or North Korean men or women, undergo a special vetting. Before 1991, such vetting applied in the case of the Communist countries of Europe too.