41 Facts About Jeane Kirkpatrick

Jeane Duane Kirkpatrick was an American diplomat and political scientist who played a major role in the foreign policy of the Ronald Reagan administration.

Jeane Kirkpatrick was known for the "Kirkpatrick Doctrine", which advocated supporting authoritarian regimes around the world if they went along with Washington's aims.

Jeane Kirkpatrick believed that they could be led into democracy by example.

Jeane Kirkpatrick wrote a syndicated newspaper column after leaving government service in 1985, specializing in analysis of the activities of the United Nations.

In 1968, Jeane Kirkpatrick earned a PhD in political science from Columbia.

Jeane Kirkpatrick spent a year of postgraduate study at Sciences Po at the University of Paris, which helped her learn French.

Jeane Kirkpatrick 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.

Jeane Kirkpatrick was opposed to the candidacy of George McGovern in 1972 and that year she joined with Richard V Allen and others to found the Committee on the Present Danger for the purpose of warning Americans against the Soviet Union's growing military power and the dangers of the SALT II treaty.

Jeane Kirkpatrick served on the Platform Committee for the Democratic Party in 1976.

Jeane Kirkpatrick published a number of articles in political science journals reflecting her disillusionment with the Democratic Party with specific criticism of the foreign policy of Democratic President Jimmy Carter.

Jeane 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.

Jeane 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, Jeane Kirkpatrick declared her 'unequivocal' belief that the Salvadorean army was not responsible, adding that 'the nuns were not just nuns.

Jeane Kirkpatrick was one of the strongest supporters of Argentina's military dictatorship following the March 1982 Argentine invasion of the United Kingdom's Falkland Islands, which triggered the Falklands War.

Jeane Kirkpatrick had a "soft spot" for Argentina's General Leopoldo Galtieri and favored neutrality rather than the pro-British policy favored by Secretary of State Alexander Haig.

Jeane Kirkpatrick, who, according to British UN Ambassador Sir Anthony 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 the Rio Pact of 1947, which stated that an attack against one state in the hemisphere should be considered an attack against them all.

Shultz threatened to resign if Jeane Kirkpatrick was appointed National Security Adviser.

Jeane Kirkpatrick was ambassador to the UN during the September 1,1983 Soviet shooting down of Korean Air Lines Flight 007, near Moneron Island.

Jeane Kirkpatrick 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.

Jeane 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.

Jeane Kirkpatrick had said she would serve only one term at the UN and stepped down in April 1985.

However, in a 1989 op-ed, Jeane Kirkpatrick warned Secretary of State James Baker and Bush not to get involved in the conflict because any intervention would fail.

Jeane Kirkpatrick frequently expressed disdain for what she perceived to be disproportionate attention towards Israel's at the expense of others' conflicts.

Jeane Kirkpatrick was always a true friend of the Jewish people.

Jeane Kirkpatrick returned to teaching at Georgetown University and became a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington DC think tank, and a contributor to the American Freedom Journal.

Jeane Kirkpatrick was on the advisory board of the National Association of Scholars, a group that works against what it regards as a liberal bias in universities in the United States, with its emphasis on multicultural education, and affirmative action.

Jeane Kirkpatrick endorsed Senator Robert Dole of Kansas, who was the runner-up to Bush.

Jeane 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.

Jeane Kirkpatrick was appointed to the Board of Directors of IDT Corp.

On February 20,1955, she married Evron Maurice Jeane Kirkpatrick, who was a scholar and a former member of the OS.

Jeane Kirkpatrick had been diagnosed with heart disease and had been in failing health for several years.

Jeane Kirkpatrick died at her home in Bethesda, Maryland, on December 7,2006 from congestive heart failure.

Jeane Kirkpatrick was interred at Parklawn Memorial Park in Rockville, Maryland.

In 1985, Jeane Kirkpatrick was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor.

Jeane Kirkpatrick was given the Simon Wiesenthal Center's Humanitarian Award in 1983.

Jeane Kirkpatrick received an honorary doctorate degree from Universidad Francisco Marroquin in 1985; she received an honorary doctorate at Central Connecticut State University in 1991.

Jeane Kirkpatrick 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".

Jeane Kirkpatrick was inducted into the Oklahoma Women's Hall of Fame in 1984.

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

In Berkeley Breathed's daily comic strip Bloom County, Jeane 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.

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