Ambassador Jeane J. Kirkpatrick: Accomplished Intellectual, Successful Diplomat, and Opponent of Communism.
The Margaret Thatcher Center bids goodbye to a leading voice for American leadership, integrity, and victory during the Cold War. Her conviction that America must triumph in the war against communism led her to denounce the failed policies of President Carter and join ranks with President Reagan. Her convictions informed and enriched Reagan’s foreign policy and helped lead to American victory and the liberation of millions suffering under the yoke of Soviet repression.
Those unfamiliar with Ambassador Kirkpatrick might be surprised to learn that her political roots, along with many staunch conservatives, began in the far left of the ideological spectrum, along with many staunch conservatives. While earning her doctorate in political science at Columbia University and during her early academic career, she was a Marxist and a member of the Socialist Party of America. She was active in politics as a Democrat, but grew increasingly disillusioned with the international policies of that party – particularly the foreign policy of Democratic President Jimmy Carter.
The failures of President Carter’s Administration led her to serve as Ronald Reagan’s foreign policy adviser in his 1980 campaign. The two were compatriots on a long path of estrangement from the Democratic Party that became increasingly leftist. As President Reagan, himself a life-long a Roosevelt Democrat who reregistered as a Republican in 1962, famously noted, "I didn't leave the Democratic Party; the Democratic Party left me."
President Reagan nominated Dr. Kirkpatrick to be the U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations and she was confirmed in 1981. She was the first woman to hold that position and served with distinction as an ardent anticommunist, unapologetic champion of U.S. interests and forthright voice in calling for the organization to correct its many failings and live up to its founding principles. She was a voice of integrity in the U.N. willing to voice unpopular, if accurate, observations of the inner workings of the organization including the still pertinent comment, "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."
Ambassador Kirkpatrick frequently denounced the anti-Israeli bias in the world body, the unwillingness to confront repressive regimes that violate the founding principles of the U.N., and the growing tendency in the U.N. of granting expansive lists of entitlements with little regard to how they would be provided, who should enforce them, or the obvious contradiction of having new economic "rights" that could only be provided by violating preexisting human rights through forceful expropriation of property.
She is perhaps best known for her speech at the 1984 Republican National Convention during which she excoriated the leftward drift of the Democratic party and the tendency of the leaders of that party to place blame for world events at the feet of the American people:
"When our Marines, sent to Lebanon on a multinational peacekeeping mission with the consent of the United States Congress, were murdered in their sleep, the 'blame America first crowd' didn't blame the terrorists who murdered the Marines, they blamed the United States. But then, they always blame America first.
"When Marxist dictators shoot their way into power in Central America, the San Francisco Democrats don’t blame the guerrillas and their Soviet allies. They blame United States policies of 100 years ago. But then they always blame America first.
"The American people know better."
Following her service as Ambassador, Dr. Kirkpatrick returned to teaching at Georgetown University. She also continued to speak and write on political issues at the American Enterprise Institute. She contributed an essay titled "Defending U.S. Interests and Principles in the United Nations" to The March of Freedom published by The Heritage Foundation.
The unifying theme of Ambassador Kirkpatrick’s life and work was a fundamental belief in the worthiness of America and necessity in defeating communism. Her contributions to President Reagan’s foreign policy and her willingness to promote those policies in the hostile environment of the United Nations contributed greatly to reviving the luster and confidence of America and to the eventual liberty enjoyed by millions of people no longer suffering under the Soviet Empire.