Jeane Kirkpatrick

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Jeane Kirkpatrick
United States Ambassador to the United Nations
In office
February 4, 1981 – April 1, 1985
PresidentRonald Reagan
Preceded byDonald McHenry
Succeeded byVernon Walters
Personal details
Born
Jeane Duane Jordan

(1926-11-19)November 19, 1926
Duncan, Oklahoma, U.S.
DiedDecember 7, 2006(2006-12-07) (aged 80)
Bethesda, Maryland, U.S.
Political partySocialist (1945–1948)
Democratic (1948–1985)
Republican (1985–2006)
SpouseEvron Kirkpatrick
Children3
EducationBarnard College
Columbia University (BA, MA, PhD)
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Jeane Duane Kirkpatrick (née Jordan; November 19, 1926 – December 7, 2006) was an American

United States Ambassador to the United Nations.[1]

She was known for the "

authoritarian regimes around the world if they went along with Washington's aims. She believed that they could be led into democracy by example. She wrote, "traditional authoritarian governments are less repressive than revolutionary autocracies."[2] She sympathized with the Argentine junta during the Falklands War when President Reagan came out in support of British prime minister Margaret Thatcher
.

Kirkpatrick served in Reagan's Cabinet on the National Security Council, Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, Defense Policy Review Board, and chaired the Secretary of Defense Commission on Fail Safe and Risk reduction of the Nuclear Command and Control System.[3] She wrote a syndicated newspaper column after leaving government service in 1985, specializing in analysis of the activities of the United Nations.

Early life and education

Kirkpatrick was born in

Mt. Vernon, Illinois, where she graduated from Mt. Vernon Township High School. In 1948, she graduated from Barnard College of Columbia University after receiving her associate degree from Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri
, which was then only a two-year institution.

In 1968, Kirkpatrick earned a Ph.D. in political science from Columbia University.[4]

She spent a year of postgraduate study at Sciences Po at the University of Paris, which helped her learn French. She was fluent in Spanish.[5]

While she ultimately became a

revisionist Marxist.[6]
As Kirkpatrick recalled at a symposium in 2002:

It wasn't easy to find the YPSL in Columbia, Missouri. But I had read about it and I wanted to be one. We had a very limited number of activities in Columbia, Missouri. We had an anti-Franco rally, which was a worthy cause. You could raise a question about how relevant it was likely to be in Columbia, Missouri, but it was in any case a worthy cause. We also planned a socialist picnic, which we spent quite a lot of time organizing. Eventually, I regret to say, the YPSL chapter, after much discussion, many debates and some downright quarrels, broke up over the socialist picnic. I thought that was rather discouraging.[6]

Career

Georgetown University

In 1967, she joined the faculty of Georgetown University and became a full professor of government in 1973. She became active in politics as a Democrat in the 1970s, and was involved in the later campaigns of former Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Hubert Humphrey. In addition to Humphrey, she was close to Henry Jackson, who ran for the Democratic nomination for president in 1972 and 1976.[4] Like many in Jackson's circle she became identified with neoconservatism.[7][8]

Opposed to the candidacy of

SALT II treaty.[9] She also served on the Platform Committee for the Democratic Party in 1976.[10]

Kirkpatrick published articles in political science journals reflecting her disillusionment with the Democratic Party with specific criticism of the foreign policy of Democratic President Jimmy Carter. Her most well known essay, "Dictatorships and Double Standards", was published in Commentary magazine in November 1979.[11] In the essay, Kirkpatrick mentioned what she saw as a difference between authoritarian regimes and the totalitarian regimes such as the Soviet Union; sometimes, it was necessary to work with authoritarian regimes if it suited American purposes:[4] "No idea holds greater sway in the mind of educated Americans than the belief that it is possible to democratize governments, anytime and anywhere, under any circumstances ... Decades, if not centuries, are normally required for people to acquire the necessary disciplines and habits. In Britain, the road [to democratic government] took seven centuries to traverse ... The speed with which armies collapse, bureaucracies abdicate, and social structures dissolve once the autocrat is removed frequently surprises American policymakers."[1]

Cabinet

Jeane Kirkpatrick (center) with the other members of the Reagan Administration, 1981
Kirkpatrick (left, in red) among the Reagan Cabinet, 1984

The piece came to the attention of Ronald Reagan through his National Security Adviser Richard V. Allen.[4] Kirkpatrick then became a foreign policy adviser throughout Reagan's 1980 campaign and presidency and, after his election to the presidency, Ambassador to the United Nations, which she held for four years. The Economist writes that until then, "she had never spent time with a Republican before."[1]

On the way to her first meeting with Reagan, she told Allen, "Listen, Dick, I am an

AFL–CIO Democrat and I am quite concerned that my meeting Ronald Reagan on any basis will be misunderstood."[9] She asked Reagan if he minded having a lifelong Democrat on his team; he replied that he himself had been a Democrat until he was 51, and in any event, he liked her way of thinking about American foreign policy.[5]

Kirkpatrick was a vocal advocate of US support for the military regime in El Salvador during the early years of the Reagan Administration. When four US churchwomen were murdered by Salvadorean soldiers in 1980, Kirkpatrick declared her 'unequivocal' belief that the Salvadorean army was not responsible, adding that 'the nuns were not just nuns. They were political activists. We ought to be a little more clear about this than we actually are.'[12] After the release of declassified documents in the 1990s, New Jersey congressman Robert Torricelli stated that it was 'now clear that while the Reagan Administration was certifying human rights progress in El Salvador they knew the terrible truth that the Salvadoran military was engaged in a widespread campaign of terror and torture'.[13]

She was one of the strongest supporters of

Rio Pact of 1947, which stated that an attack against one state in the hemisphere should be considered an attack against them all.[14]

British ambassador

Reagan administration ultimately decided to declare support for the British, making her vote for United Nations Security Council Resolution 502
.

At the 1984 Republican National Convention, she delivered the "Blame America First" keynote speech,[4] which renominated Reagan by praising his administration's foreign policy[5] while excoriating the leadership of what she called the "San Francisco Democrats" (the Democrats had just held their convention in San Francisco) for the party's shift away from the policies of Harry S. Truman and John F. Kennedy to a more strident antiwar position for which the left-wing of the Democratic Party had pushed since the Vietnam War. It was the first time since the 1952 speech from Douglas MacArthur that a non-party member had delivered the Republican Convention's keynote address.[10]

Kirkpatrick, a member of the National Security Council, did not get along with either Secretary of State Haig or his successor, George Shultz. She disagreed with Shultz, most notably on the Iran–Contra affair in which she supported skimming money off arms sales to fund the Nicaraguan Contras[5] while Shultz told Kirkpatrick that it would be an "impeachable offense" to do so because of the massacres perpetrated by that group.[1] Shultz threatened to resign if Kirkpatrick was appointed National Security Adviser.[5] Kirkpatrick was more closely allied with Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger and head of the CIA William J. Casey on the issue.[16]

Noam Chomsky, for example, referred to her as the "Chief sadist-in-residence of the Reagan Administration" and went on to criticize what he called the hypocrisy of supporting brutal military regimes that showed no respect for human rights or democracy while claiming to be protecting the region from communism.[17] Author Lars Schoultz has argued that her policy was based on her belief that "Latin Americans are pathologically violent" and goes on to criticize that as a prejudice with no factual basis.[18]

Ambassador to UN

Kirkpatrick with President Ronald Reagan in the Oval Office.

Kirkpatrick said, "What takes place in the Security Council more closely resembles a mugging than either a political debate or an effort at problem-solving."[19] Still, she finished her term with a certain respect for the normative power of the United Nations as the "institution whose majorities claim the right to decide—for the world—what is legitimate and what is illegitimate."[20] She noted that the United States had increasingly ignored that significance and became increasingly isolated.[21] That was problematic, because "relative isolation in a body like the United Nations is a sign of impotence,"[22] especially given its ability to shape international attitudes.[23] She was ambassador to the UN during the September 1, 1983, Soviet shooting down of Korean Air Lines Flight 007, near Moneron Island. It had carried 269 passengers and crew including a sitting congressman, Larry McDonald (D-GA). She played before the Security Council the audio of the electronic intercept of the interceptor pilot during the attack, and the Soviet Union could no longer deny its responsibility for the shootdown. [24]

Kirkpatrick was a board member of the American Foundation for Resistance International and the National Council to Support the Democracy Movements, intended to help bring down Soviet and East European Communism. Along with Vladimir Bukovsky, Martin Colman and Richard Perle, she worked to organize democratic revolutions against communism. [citation needed]

According to Jay Nordlinger, on a visit with American dignitaries, Soviet human rights activist Andrei Sakharov said, "Kirkpatski, Kirkpatski, which of you is Kirkpatski?" When others pointed to Kirkpatrick, he said, "Your name is known in every cell in the Gulag" because she had named Soviet political prisoners on the floor of the UN.[16] Kirkpatrick had said she would serve only one term at the UN and stepped down in April 1985.[5]

Views on Israel

Kirkpatrick was a staunch supporter of

Washington Post, "Jeane Kirkpatrick has, somehow, consistently opposed any attempt to resolve the Arab–Israeli conflict". However, in a 1989 op-ed, Kirkpatrick warned Secretary of State James Baker and Bush not to get involved in the conflict because any intervention would fail.[26]

Kirkpatrick frequently expressed disdain for what she perceived to be disproportionate attention towards Israel's at the expense of others' conflicts.[27] Despite this, during her tenure as UN Ambassador, she supported several resolutions condemning Israel.[28][29]

anti-Semitism, especially during her tenure at the United Nations. She was always a true friend of the Jewish people."[30]

Political views

Comparing authoritarian and totalitarian regimes, she said:

  • "Authoritarian regimes really typically don't have complete
    private ownership. The Nazi regime left ownership in private hands, but the state assumed control of the economy. Control was separated from ownership but it was really a command economy because it was controlled by the state. A command economy is an attribute of a totalitarian state."[31]

Explaining her disillusionment with international organizations, especially the United Nations, she stated:[citation needed]

  • "As I watched the behavior of the nations of the U.N. (including our own), I found no reasonable ground to expect any one of those governments to transcend permanently their own national interests for those of another country."
  • "I conclude that it is a fundamental mistake to think that salvation, justice, or virtue come through merely human institutions."
  • "Democracy not only requires equality but also an unshakable conviction in the value of each person, who is then equal. Cross cultural experience teaches us not simply that people have different beliefs, but that people seek meaning and understand themselves in some sense as members of a cosmos ruled by God."

Regarding socialism, she said:

  • "As I read the utopian socialists, the scientific socialists, the German Social Democrats and revolutionary socialists—whatever I could in either English or French—I came to the conclusion that almost all of them, including my grandfather, were engaged in an effort to change human nature. The more I thought about it, the more I thought this was not likely to be a successful effort. So I turned my attention more and more to political philosophy and less and less to socialist activism of any kind."[6]

Later life

In April 1985, Kirkpatrick became a Republican, a move which

universities in the United States, with its emphasis on multicultural education, and affirmative action
.

Kirkpatrick briefly considered running for president in 1988 against George H. W. Bush, because she believed he was not tough enough on Communism.[1][5] Kirkpatrick endorsed Senator Robert Dole of Kansas, who was the runner-up to Bush. Despite a strong showing in the Iowa caucuses, Dole's campaign quickly faded after he lost the New Hampshire primary in February 1988. Kirkpatrick was an active surrogate campaigner for Dole even as he was losing, as was her old foe, Alexander Haig, who endorsed Dole after ending his own 1988 campaign several days before the New Hampshire primary. [citation needed]

Along with

IDT Corp. in 2004.[3] It was revealed after her death that in 2003, she was sent as a US envoy, to meet an Arab delegation and attempt to convince them to support the Iraq War; she was supposed to argue that pre-emptive war was justifiable, but she knew that it would not work and instead argued that Saddam Hussein had consistently gone against the UN.[5] However she described George W. Bush as "a bit too interventionist for my taste" and felt that what she described as "moral imperialism" was not "taken seriously anywhere outside a few places in Washington, D.C."[1]

Personal life

According to a spokesperson at the

CIA). Her husband died in 1995. They had three sons: Douglas Jordan (1956–2006), John Evron, and Stuart Alan.[34]

She had been diagnosed with heart disease and had been in failing health for several years. Kirkpatrick died at her home in

Parklawn Memorial Park in Rockville, Maryland.[35]

Awards and prizes

In 1985, Kirkpatrick was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor.[3] Harvard Kennedy School created a Kirkpatrick Chair in International Affairs in her honor.[36]

She was given the Simon Wiesenthal Center's Humanitarian Award in 1983.[37]

She received an honorary doctorate degree from

honorary doctorate at Central Connecticut State University in 1991.[citation needed
]

She was awarded an honorary degree by Brandeis University in 1994, but declined it when her honor was met with protests from some professors and students, whom she described as "ideological zealots".[39] Fifty-three professors opposed the award, with one [who?] stating: "We oppose the degree because she was the intellectual architect of Reagan administration policies that supported some of the Latin-American regimes with the most repressive records."[40]

In 1995 she received the

Jeane Kirkpatrick Academic Freedom Award. The first recipient was Marine Corps reservist and correspondent Matt Sanchez.[42] Kirkpatrick was inducted into the Oklahoma Women's Hall of Fame in 1984.[43]

In popular culture

Kirkpatrick was portrayed by Lorelei King in the 2002 BBC production of Ian Curteis's The Falklands Play.[citation needed]

In Berkeley Breathed's daily comic strip Bloom County, Kirkpatrick becomes former Meadow Party Presidential candidate Bill the Cat's love interest before he is exposed as using that relationship to perform espionage for the Soviet Union.[44]

Books authored

She was also editor of a 1963 book titled The Strategy of Deception: A study in world-wide Communist tactics.

See also

  • List of notable Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients
  • List of U.S. political appointments that crossed party lines

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h "Jeane Kirkpatrick". The Economist. December 19, 2006. Archived from the original on November 20, 2007. Retrieved August 16, 2007.
  2. ^ "Middle Israel: The new world order". The Jerusalem Post. December 14, 2006. Retrieved August 16, 2007.[permanent dead link]
  3. ^ a b c "Jeane Kirkpatrick, Former United States Ambassador to The United Nations, Joins IDT Corporation Board of Directors". IDT Europe. September 27, 2004. Archived from the original on September 27, 2007. Retrieved August 16, 2007.
  4. ^ a b c d e "Jeane Kirkpatrick and the Cold War (audio)". NPR. December 8, 2006. Archived from the original on April 6, 2019. Retrieved August 16, 2007.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Cornwell, Rupert (December 11, 2006). "Jeane Kirkpatrick". The Independent. London, UK. Archived from the original on October 1, 2007. Retrieved August 16, 2007.
  6. ^ a b c "Socialism: What Happened? What Now?". symposium transcript. Notesonline and the New Economy Information Service. June 27, 2002. Archived from the original on December 6, 2006. Retrieved December 9, 2006.
  7. ^ Bianca Joy Rowlett, Jeane Kirkpatrick and Neoconservatism: The Intellectual Evolution of a Liberal (2014)
  8. ^ Peter Collier, Political Woman: The Big Little Life of Jeane Kirkpatrick (2012) pp 184–91.
  9. ^ a b Allen, Richard V. (December 16, 2006). "Jeane Kirkpatrick and the Great Democratic Defection". The New York Times. Archived from the original on August 15, 2018. Retrieved August 16, 2007.
  10. ^ a b William, Buckley (August 10, 1984). "Prime time for Mrs. Kirkpatrick?". National Review. Retrieved August 16, 2007.[dead link]
  11. Commentary Magazine, vol 68, No 5, November 1979, pp. 34–45.
    Amazon.com profile Archived February 23, 2017, at the Wayback Machine
    ; accessed May 20, 2014.
  12. ^ "The Diplomat Who Wouldn't Lie". Politico. Archived from the original on November 8, 2020. Retrieved August 3, 2018.
  13. ^ Krauss, Clifford (March 21, 1993). "How U.S. Actions Helped Hide Salvador Human Rights Abuses". The New York Times.
  14. ^ Aldous, Richard (2012). Reagan and Thatcher: The Difficult Relationship. W. W. Norton & Company. p. 80.
  15. Burns, John F. (December 28, 2012). "Papers Show Rare Friction for Thatcher and Reagan". The New York Times. p. 8. Archived
    from the original on January 19, 2023. Retrieved September 1, 2017.
  16. ^ a b O'Sullivan, John (December 31, 2006). "She was right: Jeane Kirkpatrick, statesman and intellectual". National Review. Retrieved August 16, 2007.[dead link]
  17. ISBN 978-0-89608-266-3
    .
  18. ISBN 9780674922761
    .
  19. ^ Bosco, David L., Five to Rule Them All: The UN Security Council and the Making of the Modern World, Oxford University Press, 2009, p. 142.
  20. ^ Kirkpatrick, Jeane J., Legitimacy and Force Vol. 1 (Oxford: Transaction Books, 1988), p. xvi.
  21. ^ Kirkpatrick, Jeane J., "Standing Alone" in Legitimacy and Force, vol 1 (Oxford: Transaction Books, 1988), pp. 193–94.
  22. ^ Kirkpatrick, Jeane J., "Standing Alone" in Legitimacy and Force, vol 1 (Oxford: Transaction Books, 1988), 195.
  23. ^ Kirkpatrick, Jeane J., "The UN as a Political System" in Legitimacy and Force, vol 1 (Oxford: Transaction Books, 1988), p. 222.
  24. ^ "Statement on KAL-007 - Sept. 6, 1983". Archives of Women's Political Communication. Retrieved April 23, 2024.
  25. ^ "EMPOWER AMERICA: Twenty facts about Israel and the Middle East". April 24, 2002. Archived from the original on June 1, 2002. Retrieved June 2, 2010.
  26. ^ "Jeane Kirkpatrick's Mideast Warning". Washington Post. December 27, 1989. Archived from the original on November 4, 2012. Retrieved August 16, 2007.
  27. ^ "The United Nations and Israel by Mitchell Bard". Jewishvirtuallibrary.org. Archived from the original on January 19, 2023. Retrieved June 2, 2010.
  28. ^ "U.S. JOINS AS U.N. COUNCIL VOTES TO CALL GOLAN ANNEXATION ILLEGAL". The New York Times. Archived from the original on January 19, 2023. Retrieved February 19, 2020.
  29. ^ "U.S. AND IRAQ AGREE ON U.N. RESOLUTION TO 'CONDEMN' RAID". The New York Times. Archived from the original on January 19, 2023. Retrieved February 19, 2020.
  30. ^ "ADL Mourns the Passing of Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick". Archived from the original on March 4, 2007. Retrieved December 8, 2006.
  31. Religion & Liberty. 2 (2). March–April 1992. Archived
    from the original on January 19, 2023. Retrieved December 9, 2006.
  32. ^ "Jeane J. Kirkpatrick". Catholic New York. December 21, 2006. Archived from the original on January 19, 2023. Retrieved May 18, 2021.
  33. ^ "Jeane Kirkpatrick buried in quiet Maryland rites". Oklahoman.com. December 12, 2006. Archived from the original on January 19, 2023. Retrieved May 18, 2021.
  34. ^ Hartson, Merrill (December 8, 2006). "Jean Kirkpatrick, Ex-Ambassador, Dies". Forbes.com. Archived from the original on December 10, 2006. Retrieved December 9, 2006.
  35. ^ a b "Former U.N. envoy Kirkpatrick dies". Politics (section). CNN.com. Associated Press. December 8, 2006. Archived from the original on December 8, 2006. Retrieved December 9, 2006.
  36. ^ "EDITORIAL: Jeane Kirkpatrick". Pueblo Chieftain. December 14, 2006. Archived from the original on May 16, 2011. Retrieved August 16, 2007.
  37. ^ Kamins, Toni L. (April 25, 1983). "Award to Kirkpatrick Denounced". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Archived from the original on January 19, 2023. Retrieved August 30, 2020. The executive secretary of the Holocaust Survivors Association, U.S.A., has issued a sharp attack on Simon Wiesenthal, the famed Nazi-hunter, for having "committed a tragic error" when the Simon Wiesenthal Center presented its Humanitarian Laureate Award to Jeane Kirkpatrick, the U.S. Ambassador to the UN.
  38. ^ Honorary Doctoral Degrees at Universidad Francisco Marroquín Archived May 1, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
  39. ^ Staff (May 4, 1994). "Jeane Kirkpatrick declines honorary degree from Brandeis University". The Sunday Gazette. Retrieved June 24, 2014.
  40. ^ "Jeane Kirkpatrick: hated, but right. (Originated from Boston Globe)". Knight-Ridder News Service. May 12, 1994. Archived from the original on May 16, 2011. Retrieved August 16, 2007.
  41. ^ Walter Judd Freedom Award
  42. ^ "CPAC 2007 Agenda". CPAC. March 7, 2007. Archived from the original on October 29, 2007. Retrieved April 10, 2008.
  43. ISBN 0-313-29195-0
    .
  44. ^ Breathed, Berkeley. "Bloom County comic strip Feb 8, 1988". Bloom County comic strip. GoComics. Retrieved September 20, 2015.
  45. ^ Review of Political Woman (1974) Archived August 13, 2013, at the Wayback Machine, american.com; accessed June 24, 2014.

Further reading

  • Bashevkin, Sylvia. Women as Foreign Policy Leaders: National Security and Gender Politics in Superpower America (Oxford UP, 2018) excerpt; also online review
  • Byrnes, Sean T. "The United States in Opposition: The United Nations, The Third World, and Changing American Visions of Global Order, 1970–1984". (PhD Diss. Emory University, 2014) excerpt.
  • Collier, Peter. Political Woman: The Big Little Life of Jeane Kirkpatrick (2012).
  • Rowlett, Bianca Joy. Jeane Kirkpatrick and Neoconservatism: The Intellectual Evolution of a Liberal (2014)

External links

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Jeane Kirkpatrick
By Jeane Kirkpatrick
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Diplomatic posts
Preceded by
United States Ambassadors to the United Nations

1981–1985 		Succeeded by
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