Obituary: Jeane Kirkpatrick

Jeane Kirkpatrick, a hardline champion of US interests abroad

Jeane Kirkpatrick, who has died aged 80, was a no-nonsense politician who distinguished herself by becoming the first woman US Ambassador to the United Nations.

She followed the oft-trod path in American public life by moving from academe to politics.

She was less orthodox, though, in that she lurched spectacularly from left to right. She described herself as a Marxist in the early years of her career, and ended it as a neo-conservative.

She was born Jeane Duane Jordan in Oklahoma in 1926, and graduated from Barnard College. She gained a PhD in political science from Columbia University where she joined the Socialist Party of America in the heyday of student revolts on the campuses.

After becoming a full professor of political science in 1968, she began becoming active in the Democratic Party and helped the presidential campaign of Hubert Humphrey.

But she became disillusioned with what she perceived as the weakness of President Jimmy Carter's foreign policy in the 1970s, though it was not until 1985 that she finally joined the Republicans.

Jeane Kirkpatrick as US Ambassador at the UN in 1984

By this time, however, she had caught Ronald Reagan's eye, who took her on as his foreign policy adviser during his run for the White House in 1980.

Reagan called her "a giant among the diplomats of the world", and, once in the White House, appointed her as his UN Ambassador, a post she held for four years.

An ardent anti-Communist, Jeane Kirkpatrick's views were dubbed the "Kirkpatrick Doctrine"; the support for any anti-communist government in the world. Many of these were authoritarian regimes and this brought her into conflict with her western allies.

Hardline

In 1982, she supported the invasion of the Falkland Islands by the military junta in Argentina and clashed with her own government's Secretary of State, Al Haig.

She played a quiet role in cutting off US aid to a leftist government in Nicaragua and supporting a military junta in El Salvador. Her support for Israel, particularly at the United Nations where Israel often continues to be denounced, was steadfast.

At a famous 1984 Republican National Convention, she launched a bitter attack on the foreign policy of what she called the "San Francisco Democrats" for not standing up more strongly against Communist governments.

With Mikhail Gorbachev in 1987

Her hardline views meant that she often became a lightning rod for the opposition.

Kirkpatrick considered seeking the Republican presidential nomination that went to George Bush Snr in 1988. She stopped that process short, however, retreating to the position that she would accept the No. 2 slot if asked.

She returned to Georgetown University after her political career ended, and became a fellow of the right-wing think-tank, the American Enterprise Institute in Washington DC.

She was known as a blunt and sometimes acerbic advocate of her causes, and continued to be an influential voice on international affairs, particularly regarding the United Nations, with whom the current Administration has had a difficult relationship.

Last year, Jeane Kirkpatrick joined seven other former UN ambassadors in writing a letter to Congress telling its members that their plan to withhold dues to force reform at the world body was misguided and would only "create resentment, build animosity and actually strengthen opponents of reform".