Jeane Kirkpatrick | |
|---|---|
 Official portrait, 1981 | |
| 16thUnited States Ambassador to the United Nations | |
| In office February 4, 1981 – April 1, 1985 | |
| President | Ronald Reagan |
| Preceded by | Donald McHenry |
| Succeeded by | Vernon Walters |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Jeane Duane Jordan (1926-11-19)November 19, 1926 Duncan, Oklahoma, U.S. |
| Died | December 7, 2006(2006-12-07) (aged 80) Bethesda, Maryland, U.S. |
| Political party | Socialist (1945–1948) Democratic (1948–1985) Republican (1985–2006) |
| Spouse | Evron Kirkpatrick |
| Children | 3 |
| Education | Barnard College Columbia University (BA,MA,PhD) |
Jeane Duane Kirkpatrick (néeJordan; November 19, 1926 – December 7, 2006) was an Americandiplomat andpolitical scientist who played a major role in theforeign policy of the Ronald Reagan administration. An ardentanticommunist, she was a longtimeDemocrat who became aneoconservative and switched to theRepublican Party in 1985. After serving asRonald Reagan's foreign policy adviser in his1980 presidential campaign, she became the first woman to serve asUnited States Ambassador to the United Nations.[1]
She was known for the "Kirkpatrick Doctrine," which advocated supportingauthoritarian regimes around the world if they went along with Washington's aims. She wrote, "traditional authoritarian governments are less repressive than revolutionary autocracies."[2] She sympathized with theArgentine junta during theFalklands War, while Reagan took the other side in support of British prime ministerMargaret Thatcher.
Kirkpatrick served in Reagan's cabinet on theNational Security Council, Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, Defense Policy Review Board, and chaired theSecretary 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 United Nations activities.
Kirkpatrick was born inDuncan, Oklahoma, on November 19, 1926, the daughter of an oilfieldwildcatter, Welcher F. Jordan, and his wife, Leona (née Kile).[4] She attended Emerson Elementary School in Duncan, and was known to her classmates as "Duane Jordan." She had a younger sibling, Jerry. At 12, her father moved the family toMt. Vernon, Illinois, where she graduated from Mt. Vernon Township High School. In 1948, she graduated fromBarnard College ofColumbia University after receiving her associate degree fromStephens College inColumbia, Missouri, which was then only a two-year institution.[4]
Kirkpatrick earned a master's degree and later aPh.D. inpolitical science from Columbia University.[5][6]
She spent a year of postgraduate study atSciences Po at theUniversity of Paris, which helped her learnFrench. She was fluent inSpanish.[5]
As a college freshman in 1945, Kirkpatrick joined theYoung People's Socialist League, a wing of theSocialist Party of America, influenced by her grandfather who was a founder of thePopulist andSocialist parties inOklahoma.
At Columbia University, her principal adviser wasFranz Leopold Neumann, arevisionist Marxist.[7] 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 ananti-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.[7]
In 1967, she joined the faculty ofGeorgetown University and became a full professor of government in 1973. She became active in politics as aDemocrat in the 1970s, and was involved in the later campaigns of formerVice President and Democraticpresidential candidateHubert Humphrey. In addition to Humphrey, she was close toHenry Jackson, who ran for the Democratic nomination for president in1972 and1976.[6] Like many in Jackson's circle she became identified withneoconservatism.[8][9]
Opposed to the candidacy ofGeorge McGovern in 1972, she joined withRichard V. Allen and others in co-founding theCommittee on the Present Danger, which sought to warn Americans ofSoviet Union's growing military power and the dangers that the organization believe were represented to the United States in theSALT II treaty.[10] She also served on the Platform Committee for the Democratic Party in 1976.[11]
Kirkpatrick published articles in political science journals reflecting her disillusionment with the Democratic Party with specific criticism of theforeign policy of Democratic PresidentJimmy Carter. Her most well known essay, "Dictatorships and Double Standards", was published inCommentary magazine in November 1979.[12] 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:[6] "No idea holds greater sway in the mind of educated Americans than the belief that it is possible todemocratize 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]
The piece came to the attention of Ronald Reagan through his National Security AdviserRichard V. Allen.[6] Kirkpatrick then became a foreign policy adviser throughout Reagan's1980 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 anAFL–CIO Democrat and I am quite concerned that my meeting Ronald Reagan on any basis will be misunderstood."[10] 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.'[13] After the release of declassified documents in the 1990s, New Jersey congressmanRobert 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'.[14]
She was one of the strongest supporters ofArgentina's military dictatorship following the March 1982 Argentine invasion of theUnited Kingdom'sFalkland Islands, which triggered theFalklands War. Kirkpatrick had a "soft spot" for Argentina's GeneralLeopoldo Galtieri[1] and favored neutrality rather than the pro-British policy favored by Secretary of StateAlexander Haig.[5] Kirkpatrick, who, according to British UN Ambassador SirAnthony Parsons, was very mixed up with Latin American policy, even went as far as supporting the Argentinian dictatorship by urging the Reagan Administration to act as outlined as in theRio Pact of 1947, which stated that an attack against one state in the hemisphere should be considered an attack against them all.[15]
British ambassadorSir Nicholas Henderson allegedly characterized her in adiplomatic cable as "more fool than fascist ... she appears to be one of America's own-goal scorers, tactless, wrong-headed, ineffective, and a dubious tribute to the academic profession to which she [expresses] her allegiance."[16] TheReagan administration ultimately decided to declare support for the British, making her vote forUnited Nations Security Council Resolution 502.
At the1984 Republican National Convention, she delivered the "Blame America First" keynote speech,[6] 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 ofHarry S. Truman andJohn F. Kennedy to a more strident antiwar position for which the left-wing of the Democratic Party had pushed since theVietnam War.[17] It was the first time since the 1952 speech fromDouglas MacArthur that a non-party member had delivered the Republican Convention's keynote address.[11]
Kirkpatrick, a member of the National Security Council, did not get along with either Secretary of State Haig or his successor,George Shultz.[18] She disagreed with Shultz, most notably on theIran–Contra affair in which she supported skimming money off arms sales to fund theNicaraguanContras[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 DefenseCaspar Weinberger and head of the CIAWilliam J. Casey on the issue.[19]
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.[20] 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.[21]
Kirkpatrick said, "What takes place in theSecurity Council more closely resembles a mugging than either a political debate or an effort at problem-solving."[22] 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."[23] She noted that the United States had increasingly ignored that significance and became increasingly isolated.[24] That was problematic, because "relative isolation in a body like the United Nationsis a sign of impotence,"[25] especially given its ability to shape international attitudes.[26] She was ambassador to the UN during the September 1, 1983, Soviet shooting down ofKorean Air Lines Flight 007, nearMoneron 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.[27]
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 toJay Nordlinger, on a visit with American dignitaries, Soviet human rights activistAndrei Sakharov said, "Kirkpatski, Kirkpatski, which of you is Kirkpatski?" When others pointed to Kirkpatrick, he said, "Your name is known in every cell in theGulag" because she had named Soviet political prisoners on the floor of the UN.[19] Kirkpatrick had said she would serve only one term at the UN and stepped down in April 1985.[5]
Kirkpatrick was a staunch supporter ofIsrael.[28] During her ambassadorship at the United Nations, she considered its frequent criticism and condemnation of theJewish state as holding Israel to a double standard, which she attributed to hostility and regarded as politically motivated. In 1989, Mohammed Wahby, press director ofEgypt's Information Bureau, wrote to theWashington Post, "Jeane Kirkpatrick has, somehow, consistently opposed any attempt to resolve theArab–Israeli conflict". However, in a 1989op-ed, Kirkpatrick warned Secretary of StateJames Baker and Bush not to get involved in the conflict because any intervention would fail.[29]
Kirkpatrick frequently expressed disdain for what she perceived to be disproportionate attention towards Israel's at the expense of others' conflicts. Despite this, during her tenure as UN Ambassador, she supported several resolutions condemning Israel.[30][31]
Anti-Defamation League PresidentAbraham Foxman issued a press release upon her death: "She will be fondly remembered for her unwavering and valiant support of the State of Israel and her unequivocal opposition toanti-Semitism, especially during her tenure at the United Nations. She was always a true friend of theJewish people."[32]
Comparingauthoritarian andtotalitarian regimes, she said:
Explaining her disillusionment with international organizations, especially theUnited Nations, she stated:[citation needed]
Regardingsocialism, she said:
In April 1985, Kirkpatrick became a Republican, a move whichThe Economist called her "only recourse" after her speech at the1984 Republican National Convention.[1] She returned[when?] to teaching at Georgetown University and became a fellow at theAmerican Enterprise Institute, aWashington D.C.think tank, and a contributor to theAmerican Freedom Journal. In 1993, she cofoundedEmpower America, a public-policy organization. She was also on the advisory board of theNational Association of Scholars, a group that works against what it regards as aliberal bias inuniversities in the United States, with its emphasis onmulticulturaleducation, andaffirmative action.[citation needed]
Kirkpatrick briefly considered running for president in 1988 againstGeorge H. W. Bush, because she believed he was not tough enough on Communism.[1][5] Kirkpatrick endorsed SenatorRobert Dole ofKansas, 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 withEmpower America co-directorsWilliam Bennett andJack Kemp, she called on theCongress to issue a formal declaration of war against the "entire fundamentalistIslamist terrorist network" the day after theSeptember 11 attacks on theWorld Trade Center. In 2003, she headed the US delegation to theUnited Nations Commission on Human Rights. Kirkpatrick was appointed to the Board of Directors ofIDT 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 theIraq War; she was supposed to argue that pre-emptive war was justifiable, but she knew that it would not work and instead argued thatSaddam Hussein had consistently gone against the UN.[5] However she describedGeorge 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]
According to a spokesperson at theAmerican Enterprise Institute, Kirkpatrick was a Presbyterian.[34][35] On February 20, 1955, she married Evron Maurice Kirkpatrick, who was a scholar and a former member of theO.S.S. (the World War II–era predecessor of theCIA). Her husband died in 1995. They had three sons: Douglas Jordan (1956–2006), John Evron, and Stuart Alan.[36]
She had been diagnosed with heart disease and had been in failing health for several years. Kirkpatrick died at her home inBethesda, Maryland, on December 7, 2006, fromcongestive heart failure.[37] She was interred atParklawn Memorial Park inRockville, Maryland.[37]
In 1985, Kirkpatrick was awarded thePresidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor.[3]Harvard Kennedy School created a Kirkpatrick Chair in International Affairs in her honor.[38]
She was given theSimon Wiesenthal Center's Humanitarian Award in 1983.[39]
She received an honorary doctorate degree fromUniversidad Francisco Marroquín in 1985;[40] she also received anhonorary doctorate at Central Connecticut State University in 1991 and delivered the Robert C. Vance Lecture.[41]
She was awarded anhonorary degree byBrandeis University in 1994, but declined it when her honor was met with protests from some professors and students, whom she described as "ideological zealots".[42] 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."[43]
In 1995 she received theWalter Judd Freedom Award[44] fromThe Fund for American Studies. In 2007, theConservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) honored Kirkpatrick with the creation of theJeane Kirkpatrick Academic Freedom Award. The first recipient was Marine Corps reservist and correspondent Matt Sanchez.[45] Kirkpatrick was inducted into theOklahoma Women's Hall of Fame in 1984.[46]
Kirkpatrick was portrayed byLorelei King in the 2002BBC production ofIan Curteis'sThe Falklands Play.[citation needed]
Comedic actress Nora Dunn portrayed Jean on a 1987 episode of Saturday Night Live hosted by Steve Martin as a contestant on a game show called "Common Knowledge". InBerkeley Breathed's daily comic stripBloom County, Kirkpatrick becomes former Meadow Party Presidential candidateBill the Cat's love interest before he is exposed as using that relationship to performespionage for theSoviet Union.[47]
She was also editor of a 1963 book titledThe Strategy of Deception: A study in world-wide Communist tactics.
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Conservatism portalThe 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.
| Diplomatic posts | ||
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| Preceded by | United States Ambassadors to the United Nations 1981–1985 | Succeeded by |
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