Would Ronald Reagan's Jeane Kirkpatrick Have Voted for Barack Obama?

Speaking for anyone from the grave carries risks -- especially if one portends to represent the views of the late Jeane Kirkpatrick, Ronald Reagan's "combative" representative to the United Nations. Still, Jeane Kirkpatrick was a writer, a professor, and an intellectual of the first magnitude. She would have preferred, I believe, that her views extend beyond her mortal life and be put forth, as best once can surmise (and I knew them as well as anyone) even at the risk of getting them wrong.

Her core belief was that words matter, and that competence and integrity crosses party lines. She believed in the role of international law, although with the caveat that America should never shy away from its own views, even while showing a decent respect for the opinion of mankind. When in 2003 President George W. Bush sent her as his chief envoy to the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva (I was there with her), she balked at his instructions to advance the doctrine of preemptive self-defense as justification for the war. "I won't sell it; it won't sell", she said of the new theory which would have legitimated the use of force way beyond anything the UN Charter contemplated. Instead, she chose to defend the US entry into the Iraq war on grounds that it was really not a new war at all, but merely a continuation of the first Iraq war, which had resulted in a UN negotiated ceasefire with Saddam Hussein, which he repeatedly breeched. Did that make a difference in garnering diplomatic support for the war? Most assuredly. Without the baggage of "preemptive war" as the new international norm the US was able to narrowly avoid condemnation by the Arab League and others which would have dealt an enormous diplomatic blow to U.S. efforts at the outset of the war.

When, early in her tenure at the UN post, Reagan's State Department instructed Jeane Kirkpatrick to vote to condemn Israel for "aggression" in its 1981 bombing of the Iraqi nuclear reactor at Osirak, she refused. "Aggression", she said, has serious legal consequences and should never be used without appreciation of provocation.

Today, she would have seen the proclivity to careless use of words rear its head once again. On the first significant foreign policy issue to come before the two candidates -- Russia's intrusion into Georgia -- Obama would have gotten high marks, and McCain a low grade. That is because she knew that the H-word in the diplomatic lexicon -- "aggression" -- should only be used sparingly. McCain used that word twice in his acceptance of the presidential nomination to describe Russia's entry into Georgia, and has since repeatedly made that charge. Obama, by contrast, has taken a much more nuanced approach, mindful of the reality of a Russia that we need to deal with on other important issues, and the complexities presented by diverse claims to the two breakaway provinces even though their autonomous status has been favored by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

She would have been torn by this election. Senator McCain was an old dear friend, as well as political ally, and she would have sided with him early on. But, more than anything else, his choice of Sarah Palin as running mate would have troubled her. After all, above all else Kirkpatrick valued thoughtfulness, intellect, and courage. Palin's qualities as a political woman would have attracted her in the beginning, but in the end she would have found that Sarah Palin is no Ronald Reagan in the rough. Ronald Reagan may not have been an intellectual, but he valued intellect. He served two full terms as governor of California, America's most populous state. Caution was his hallmark, including his choice of the words "evil empire" to characterize, when appropriate, the Soviet Union.

Of course, there is much about Obama that would have rankled her: his rise to power in Chicago; his absentee style in the Illinois Capitol; his choice of friends and gurus; his thin to bare record of achievements; and, above all, his decision to not support the surge in Iraq. The latter would have been seen as lacking in presidential judgment, perhaps courage. Yet, on balance, she would have attributed to his candidacy a presumption of measured thoughtfulness, which if coupled with the courage of one's convictions, is the hallmark of any great president.

In her posthumously published book, Making War to Keep Peace, she derisively characterized the Bush administration's foreign policy stance as one of "swagger". She could not have helped but notice elements of that in McCain's proclivity to the intemperate. Style influences policy. By contrast, as we had written in a piece co-authored for a Council on Foreign Relations publication, the Reagan Doctrine reflected Reagan's truly conservative nature. "Although ready to express solidarity with the struggle for democracy, [the Reagan Doctrine] was never ready to commit US force to implement it." Rather, the use of force was viewed as a last resort if the United States or an ally is thought to be under an attack or an imminent attack that cannot be repelled by other means.

As an educator and professor devoted to the classroom, Jeane Kirkpatrick taught that intellect and the courage to match it were the essential ingredients of inspired leadership. I believe -- or perhaps I should say that I would like to believe -- that if alive today she would have come to the difficult decision that the time has come to pass the torch to another generation, to Barack Obama, with all the uncertainties that it entails.

Allan Gerson, former Counsel to Ambassador Kirkpatrick, practices international law in Washington, D.C.

Comments

[charlietuna11]

if theres a female clone of dick cheney, its jean kirkpatrick. totally insensitive, over rated and hopelessly in love with herself. like most cold blooded selfish idiots, she lived to long a destructive life..mr gerson has a better chance getting pregnant than kirkpatrick voting for obama.....

[presidentsrus]

There are some hands even outreach shouldn't touch, and
Jeane-Kirk­patrick-By­-Proxy is one.

You start searching for the New Reagan, and sooner or later the stench
of the Old brings you back to reality.

What would the cold dead hands of Kirkpatrick bring to Obama?

http://www.presidentsrus.com/2008/10/15/obama-as-next-reagan-do-you-really-want-to-go-there/

[martinspringfield]

Of course not. She was as delusional as any neocon today -- note her ties to Kristol's father -- and would have been leading the parade on the Iraq invasion, putting her squarely at odds with Obama.

[Humeaudenparker]

A lot of hideous crimes in Central America and elsewhere were justified by Ms. Kirkpatrick's ridiculous distinction without a difference between *totalitarian* and *authoritarian* regimes, which was simply shorthand for: "It's ok when our guys do it."

The woman was either a creep or a fool, or perhaps both. She maintained that her theories proved that the Soviet Union could never reform itself from within even as Gorbachev was doing exactly that.

[FearlessFreep]

She's also famous for a speech at the 1984 Republican convention attacking the Democrats, where she kept repeating "They blame America first!" Never mind that blaming America was actually the last thing any leading Democrat would do.

Assertion is not argument, even with endless repetition.

[newpotusplease]

oh I agree. I remember Ms. Kirkpatrick when she participated in the Fred Friendly ethics forums (I can see her in her purple suit) and I think Obama would have fit in at the table with her and had a great exchange with her- I was reminded of that when Prof. Ogletree also supported Obama. the folks who participated in those sessions were intriguing and well spoken- they could communicate their ideas clearly and that is a critically important art/ability missing from so many parts of today's political landscape.

[cobraxus]

Jeane Kirkpatrick was brought onboard the Reagan administration to bash Amnesty International and back the Central American agenda which involved support of death squads and murdering unarmed farmers.In the end Kirkpatrick was thrown to the wolves after she was caught shaking hands with all the many dictators of every stinking third world torture state.She of course blamed George Shultz.Frankly I find it amusing that she'll best be remembered as the woman for whom an academic freedom award was named and whose first recipient was gay porn star male prostitute Matt Sanchez.

[arnray]

Thank you for bringing up the issue of Central American death squads. Kirkpatrick was one of their main apologists. I'm sick of all the whitewashing of "our glorious leader" Reagan. His administration supported death squads, ecouraged the type of deregulation that has led us in the financial mess we're in, was anti-gay, anti-literate, anti-environment, tripled the national debt, armed and trained the same Islamic fundamentalist that now attack us, and fed into the bigotry of our own Christian fundamentalists. In other words - his administration was just a preview of what the last eight years have brought us.