Political Woman tells the compelling life story of one time socialist, then lifelong Democrat and then, eventually, disenfranchised Democrat-turned-neoconservative-Republican Dr. Jeane Kirkpatrick, the first American woman ambassador posted at the United Nations and also a candidate for Secretary of State. A recognised Columbia University Ph.D.-trained political scientist and authority on geopolitics as well as being an unyielding foreign policy hawk who never minced words, she always had President Reagan’s ear. Her anti-communist writings and rhetoric in the pre years and then lead-up up to the Reagan Administration helped set the tone for America’s foreign policy objectives during the cold war of the early eighties. And her political savvy helped keep American foreign policy not just steady but ‘on guard’ against what was then the Soviet Union and her allies.
With a known disdain and blunt aversion to writing about herself, it is amazing that any biographical work on her life ever came into being. She cold draft up foreign policy, (most notably the Kirkpatrick Doctrine, based off of her scholarly essay, “Dictatorships and Double Standards," whereby anti-communist dictatorships were supported by the U.S. government) and write up assorted strategies and a plethora of academic tracts and books about the global platform and the American role within it. But when it came to talking about herself, her private life, her marriage and kids and of her ascendancy to the top echelons of American foreign policy, she hit a psychological brick wall and would become mute, a total 360 degree difference from most of our current-day politicians, who like to endlessly take selfies and opine about themselves and everything else via social media and every other conceivable media platform available to them. For her, separation between her private life and her public life was established for a reason, which is quite commendable. Leaving behind reams of biographical sketches and information before her death, author Peter Collier was able to being some organisation to the scattered papers that eventually comprised elements of her life story. Kirkpatrick, at the tail-end of her government life, her emerita years, was attempting to write up her memoirs, but she just could not make headway on it. After her death, Collier took the baton and researched, wrote and edited what is, I would consider, the most definitive biography on Ambassador Kirkpatrick to date.
Some fun tidbits about her life was her love for France and French cuisine and her friendship with Julia Child. Although they were on opposite sides of the political spectrum, they shared a love for French food and all things French, and their cutting one-liners made for colourful dinner conversations. Also moving, was a unique yet sorrowful bond and friendship that developed between her and former 1972 Presidential candidate George McGovern, both of whom had children (he a daughter and she a son) who suffered horribly form alcohol addiction. The yo-yo like battles that they both faced as parents with their addicted kids was not only exhausting but endless. The two friends (each political opposites) commiserated and supported each other when their personal family lows became almost unbearable. Both of them fought valiantly for their child’s well being and health. But it really was to no avail. Both McGovern and Kirkpatrick worked hard to maintain their high profile positions and the responsibilities that went along with it. It really did entail mental gymnastics. They were both good at compartmentalising. At points during Reagan’s first term (according to his diaries), Jeanne Kirkpatrick wanted out of the U.N. post and transferred to the National Security Council (NSC), perhaps annoyed at the bureaucracy and little headway that she felt she made there. However, President Reagan thought she was brilliant and was perfect for the role. But she never hesitated to speak her mind, which he appreciated. Reagan thought there might have been a serious personality conflict if Kirkpatrick was switched over to the NSC. He offered to make her his personal advisor on foreign policy, but she balked, thinking that it was a role where her voice and insights would not be taken seriously. President Reagan strongly disagreed. He wanted to find a role for her in his administration outside of the U.N., but that was not an overnight fix. Until then, Jeanne Kirkpatrick agreed to stay on as the U.S. envoy to the U.N. and then afterwards go back into academia where she had a lifetime chair at Georgetown University. She was a true fighter when it came to the Soviet’s actions with the downing of Korean Airlines Flight 007, but her role with El Salvador was perhaps even more strong, going so far as to needlessly designate lay Catholic missionary Jean Donovan and the three religious sisters (Dorothy Kazel, Its Ford and Maura Clark) as leftist radical sympathisers who overtly worked with Marxist guerrilla soldiers. Donovan was herself a registered Republican. And they were all raped and murdered by leftist soldiers. But I think small yet important details (like that) get left out for the ‘bigger’ political picture, sad to say. Hopefully, Donovan, Kazel, Ford and Clarke will be looked into for possible sainthood by the Church. At the end of her term and with her rightful anti-communist and anti-socialist sentiments, there was really no room for her in the Democratic Party, for she had lived through and seen the disastrous foreign policy flubs that came from it, and the Democratic Party excelled at belittling American exceptionalism and excelled at weakening American strength, even purposefully so, on the global chessboard. She would always say the Democratic Party is not the party of President Truman. After him, it went on a downward spiral to failure. What she would think of today’s Democratic Party would just make her roll her eyes in disbelief and disgust. And rightfully so. And she did not hesitate to say as much at the 1984 GOP convention with her blistering Blame America First Speech, available on Youtube. This was an informative political biography on a tough-as-nails policy wonk broad. They don’t make them like her anymore.
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