Remembering Jeane Kirkpatrick
December 12, 2006| By Nathaniel Ward
Former U.N. Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick speaks at The Heritage Foundation in January 2006.
Jeane Kirkpatrick, who served as America’s ambassador to the United Nations from 1981 to 1985, passed away last Friday. She was a champion of international freedom, a firm defender of America’s foreign policy and a true patriot. Her influence was incalculable.
“The world is completely different now than it was in the 1980s, thanks in large part to Jeane, her ideas and her skill in making them work,” Heritage President Ed Feulner said in a statement. “In Great Britain, they call Lady Margaret Thatcher ‘the Iron Lady.’ In America, they should call Jeane Kirkpatrick ‘the Steel Lady’—U.S. steel to be exact—for rebuilding an American foreign policy that’s so strong, we still stand on it today.”
Feulner continues: “With complete support from her friend, President Ronald Reagan, she developed foreign policies that pushed back against Soviet bullying in the U.N. and across the globe. She made the United Nations more effective, less anti-American and a better instrument to deliver people their God-given right to freedom.”
In his 2004 book The March of Freedom, Feulner dedicated a full chapter to discussing Ambassador Kirkpatrick’s impact on the conservative movement. You can read that chapter online in PDF format.
Nathaniel Ward is the Editor of MyHeritage.org—a website for members and supporters of The Heritage Foundation.
