Jeane Kirkpatrick Has Died
by John Little on 8/12/2006A powerful voice for freedom has been lost. The American Enterprise Institute released the news:
AEI senior fellow Jeane J. Kirkpatrick, who joined the Institute in 1978, died yesterday. As a young political scientist at Georgetown University, Kirkpatrick wrote the first major study of the role of women in modern politics, Political Woman, which was published in 1974. Her work on the McGovern-Fraser Commission, which was formed in the aftermath of the Democratic Party’s tumultuous 1968 convention and changed the way party delegates were chosen, led to Dismantling the Parties: Reflections on Party Reform and Party Decomposition, which AEI published in 1978. Yet it was an essay written for Commentary magazine in 1979, “Dictatorships and Double Standards” (later expanded into a full-length book), that launched her into the political limelight. In the article, Kirkpatrick chronicled the failures of the Carter administration’s foreign policy and argued for a clearer understanding of the American national interest. Her essay matched then-governor Ronald Reagan’s instincts and convictions, and when he became president, he appointed her to represent the United States at the United Nations. Ambassador Kirkpatrick was a member of the president’s cabinet and the National Security Council. The United States has lost a great patriot and champion of freedom, and AEI mourns our beloved colleague.
They have more information here. Her Wikipedia entry:
Jeane Jordan Kirkpatrick (November 19, 1926 – December 8, 2006) was an American conservative political scientist. After serving as Ronald Reagan’s foreign policy adviser in his 1980 campaign, she was nominated as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and was the first woman to hold this position. An ardent anticommunist, she is famous for her “Kirkpatrick Doctrine,” which advocates U.S. support of anticommunist governments around the world, including authoritarian dictatorships. Along with Empower America co-directors William Bennett and Jack Kemp, she called on the Congress to issue a formal declaration of war against the “entire fundamentalist Islamic terrorist network” the day after the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center.
A former AEI intern pays tribute:
Jeane would make a point of stopping for a chat every time she passed my bay at AEI, and we had many fascinating conversations about foreign policy, and I was constantly struck by her powerful mind, on which, mercifully, age was not taking its toll.
Hang Right Politics: Kirkpartick, a Democrat-turned-Republican, was a staunch anti-Communist. She was also a hero of the conservative movement during and after her service under President Ronald Reagan. In fact, it was the Kirkpatrick Doctrine – vigorous support of anti-Communist governments and regimes around the world – that enjoyed great support by the Reagan administration and helped bring down the Soviet Union.
def Sparse: You will be missed. America’s first female U.N. ambassador, staunch anti-communist and A.E.I. fellow, we’ve lost another iron lady. I hope that more will take her place.
OpiniPundit: A real hero of mine, she was John Bolton and Maggie Thatcher rolled up into one. Truely a brilliant and devoted public servant who will be missed dearly.
HolyCoast: One of the sharpest ladies in politics or public life has passed away.
Weapons of Mass Discussion: She will be missed. She was the kind of ambassador (like bolton) that could get things done at the UN.
Babalu Blog: She had more balls than all of the Dems combined.
A Blog for All: Kirkpatrick was a staunch defender of US interests at the United Nations and was excoriated by those who thought that the Ambassador should represent UN interests in the US (a position that John Bolton knows quite intimately).
Hot Air: Says DU, “The devil called her home.”
LargeBill Pontificates: She was a clear thinker and a clear speaker. She understood the threat of communism and brought the same clarity of thought to the current threat of Islamic-terrorism.
Carol Platt Liebau: Her speech to the 1984 Republican convention that renominated incumbent President Reagan became famous for its candor and its moral clarity. The “Kirkpatrick doctrine” helped in no small part to bring the end of the Soviet Union about. Jeane Kirkpatrick was a patriot to the core.
IRIS Blog: Today’s freedom fighters such as Natan Sharansky and George W. Bush grew up under the influence of Kirkpatrick’s idea, which is as relevant today as ever.
The American Pundit: She was never afraid to speak her mind, get things done, and cut through all the hypocrisy.
Texas Hold ‘Em Blogger: We have now lost two great minds in less than a month — Kirkpatrick and Milton Friedman. Both were intellectual giants in their respective fields of foreign policy and economics.
As expected, many on the Left aren’t shedding any tears:
Brand Blue Day: But Jeane Kirkpatrick, former UN Envoy, was a stone cold bitch, and I don’t mean that in a good way. We (and by “we” I don’t actually include myself, just folk in general) may look back all warm and fuzzy-like at the Reagan era, but for those of you who are too young or have forgotten, it sucked ass. Kirkpatrick was just as bad as Bolton in her day, so sorry if it’s mean, but good riddance.
Blast Off!: Anyway, we’re still trying to dig out of the mess that she and her ilk helped create over the last twenty years. So, goodbye, Jeane. Hope you like it hot.
Ronjazz (BoW comments): You wingnuts really like your fascists. Too bad she didn’t die in 1980 before she helped to screw this country up beyond repair.
Related:
Michelle Malkin
The Corner
Wizbang!
Related posts:
President Bush’s Memorial Day Tribute: They lived and died as Americans
The President spoke at Arlington National Cemetery: Those who serve are not fatalists or cynics. They know that one day this war will end — as all wars do....
There are 11 comments in this article: