Defunct Newspapers Journals TV channels Websites Other Congressional caucuses Economics Gun rights Identity politics Nativist Religion Watchdog groups Youth/student groups Social media Miscellaneous Other Jeane Duane Kirkpatrick (née Jordan; November 19, 1926 – December 7, 2006) was an American diplomat and political scientist who played a major role in the foreign policy of the Ronald Reagan administration.

"[2] She sympathized with the Argentine junta during the Falklands War, while Reagan took the other side in support of British prime minister Margaret Thatcher.

[3] She wrote a syndicated newspaper column after leaving government service in 1985, specializing in analysis of United Nations activities.

Kirkpatrick was born in Duncan, Oklahoma, on November 19, 1926, the daughter of an oilfield wildcatter, Welcher F. Jordan, and his wife, Leona (née Kile).

The speed with which armies collapse, bureaucracies abdicate, and social structures dissolve once the autocrat is removed frequently surprises American policymakers.

[5] Kirkpatrick was a vocal advocate of US support for the military regime in El Salvador during the early years of the Reagan Administration.

'[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'.

[14] British ambassador Sir Nicholas Henderson allegedly characterized her in a diplomatic 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.

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

[18] 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.

[19] 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] 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.

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.

[26] 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.

[27] During her ambassadorship at the United Nations, she considered its frequent criticism and condemnation of the Jewish state as holding Israel to a double standard, which she attributed to hostility and regarded as politically motivated.

In 1989, Mohammed Wahby, press director of Egypt's Information Bureau, wrote to the Washington Post, "Jeane Kirkpatrick has, somehow, consistently opposed any attempt to resolve the Arab–Israeli conflict".

[30][31] Anti-Defamation League President Abraham 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 to anti-Semitism, especially during her tenure at the United Nations.

She was also 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.

[citation needed] 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 Islamist terrorist network" the day after the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center.

[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] According to a spokesperson at the American Enterprise Institute, Kirkpatrick was a Presbyterian.

[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".

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.

[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".

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.