The Nation's Pulse/St. Jeane of the U.S. Mission
Grenier, Cynthia
THE NATION'S PULSE
ST. JEANE OF THE U.S. MISSION
by Cynthia Grenier
An her final weeks in office as the U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Jeane J. Kirkpatrick is...
...She did not pull her punches...
...It's a chance to come in again with far greater power and freshness than if you're merely plotting in the trenches for the whole course...
...Various combinations are put forward: Bush and Kirkpatrick...
...As a woman who has always believed in the primacy of words, Kirkpatrick took office in 1981 prepared to test thoroughly one of her favorite propositions: Not only ideas but words, too, have consequences...
...Kirkpatrick and Kemp...
...As she has been insisting all along-persistent rumors to the contrary notwithstanding-the corridors of power in the White House are not for her...
...When Kirkpatrick first began to call delegates on their behavior-in writing, on the telephone, or in person (which no previous U.S...
...Goebbels III...
...MISSION by Cynthia Grenier An her final weeks in office as the U.S...
...Even more significant, Nicaragua withdrew an anti-American resolution when it could not round up sufficient votes for its adoption...
...Even debates on human rights no longer singled out Chile and South Africa, but also included references to Afghanistan, Poland, and the Soviet Union...
...Like any traditional big city mayor, Kirkpatrick knew when to cajole, when to twist arms...
...There are indeed...
...According to Michael Novak, Kirkpatrick could actually have a greater impact on the future now that she is about to move beyond the constraints of power...
...By UN...
...which helps explain why a portrait of Richard Daley hangs on the wall of her office at the U.S...
...When in office you have to operate almost entirely within the bounds of the acceptable," Novak says...
...Today's practitioners of power depend on concepts about tomorrow which could change the direction of arguments today...
...Since 1960 the tenure of a U.S...
...standards, Kirkpatrick has done the impossible...
...This is a terrible way to behave...
...Had she really wanted to stay on in the Administration, she says, she would have remained at the United Nations...
...As well she might...
...In a very few years ideas which seem shocking today may have their fitting hour...
...Willy nilly, she is now a world figure...
...Though not everyone was pleased with the Ambassador's performance, a recent blind quote in the Washington Post from a purported Arab diplomat of some standing reflects the changes she wrought...
...As the Ambassador likes to point out, the rough-and-tumble of Chicago or turn-of-the-century Jersey City makes a reasonably good model for understanding the dynamics of the UN...
...Contrary to the high-minded assumptions of the U.N.'s founders, world politics U.N.-style is a lot like old-style American urban politics-a matter of power, interests, skills, affections...
...The new legislation requires the President to scrutinize "the benefits derived by the United States from participation in the United Nations...
...Otherwise, she points out, she would have come on board last year when the President offered her Edwin Meese's position of White House counsellor after Robert McFarlane was named to the National Security post...
...Her distinguished former colleague at the UN., Charles Lichenstein, credits her success to the fact that she took the time to learn "how to create leverage and then turn that leverage to our advantage...
...Apracticing intellectual and proud of it, Kirkpatrick had hand-picked a stellar team for her staff at the U.S...
...Why, the 1984 General Assembly was practically boring, there were so many relatively non-controversial resolutions presented before it...
...As she had told Congress, "We need to communicate to nations that their votes, their attitudes, and their actions inside the United Nations system inevitably must have consequences for their relationship outside the United Nations system...
...In fact, Novak feels that it is almost essential for a political leader to alternate between immersion in public activity and retreat for spiritual replenishment...
...In particular, the more moderate Third World delegations were encouraged in their moderation and now appear glad to play a more responsible role...
...Kirkpatrick already has two books roughly shaped in her mind-one on her UN...
...On an all-important Security Council election issue, the United States was able to claim a memorable victory: The Soviet campaign to win a seat for Outer Mongolia failed, while Western-oriented Thailand did win a seat...
...Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Jeane J. Kirkpatrick is experiencing a certain sense of satisfaction...
...Boring the 1984 General Assembly may have been, but it also marked the first time that a perennial resolution against military collaboration with South Africa did not mention the United States or Israel...
...Comparing Kirkpatrick to her immediate predecessor, Donald McHenry, the diplomat said: "He was liked, but people realized there were no consequences if the United States was demeaned or ignored...
...She also reminded them "that Ronald Reagan and the United States did not cause the Marxist dictatorship in Nicaragua, or the repression of Poland, or the brutal new offensives in Afghanistan, or the destruction of the Korean airliner, or new attacks on religious and ethnic groups in the Soviet Union, or the jamming of Western broadcasts, or the denial of Jewish emigration, or the brutal imprisonment of Anatoli Shcharansky and Ida Nudel, or the obscene treatment of Andrei Sakharov and Elena Bonner, or the re-Stalinization of the Soviet Union...
...Four years ago the United States was virtually powerless at the UN., as it had been for nearly two decades-a pathetic giant who footed most of the bill and let itself be kicked around...
...had done)-they complained loudly on the floor and to the press...
...Jack Kemp has said he would be honored to serve on the same ticket with her...
...Condemnation of the United States for its "imperialist" and "colonial" denomination of Puerto Rico, another recurrent UN...
...But four years of 16-18 hour days have taken their toll, and she now wants some time to think and to write...
...But no longer...
...THE NATION'S PULSE ST...
...Kemp and Kirkpatrick...
...She began blocking resolutions...
...Mission...
...From the outset she insisted that the rhetoric of delegates on the floor of the General Assembly be consistent with their Cynthia Grenier, formerly with the New York Times, is a movie producer...
...You can't get too far ahead of the public for fear of arousing controversy...
...Such unorthodox diplomacy paid off...
...experiences, the other on foreign policy...
...military or economic aid are doing on issues important to the United States...
...ambassador to the UN...
...Those delegates who in private claimed to respect the U.S., and those delegates whose nations wanted and received assistance from the U.S., started one by one to match their public behavior with their private sentiments...
...Civility and moderation rose to levels unparalleled in recent memory...
...In the most memorable speech of the convention, she reminded Americans that their country was again standing tall and responsible in the world...
...privately expressed opinions and the national interests of their countries...
...committees nor in the plenary sessions...
...Her decision to join the Republican party on April 3 would seem to rule this out...
...Ironically," observes Michael Novak, "even in her occasional tongue lashings of the U.N.'s departure from reason, she turned it slowly, like an unwieldy battleship, back toward its own original ideals...
...has averaged 18 months...
...She traveled to places like Burundi and Rwanda and demanded "Why are you doing this...
...mission, composed mostly of young Ph.D.'s including Jose Sorzano and Kenneth Adelman of Georgetown University, Charles Lichenstein of Notre Dame, Alan Keyes of Harvard, Carl Gershman of Yale and the Social Democrats, USA, Allan Gerson of the Yale Law School, Joseph Shattan of the American Enterprise Institute, and Marc Planner of the Public Interest and the Twentieth Century Fund...
...Nor was the Israeli ambassador ever called a "Judeo-Nazi" or "Dr...
...instead of exercising the veto she got the resolution turned off at the pass...
...At the Republican Convention last summer in Dallas, Ambassador Kirkpatrick-a life-long and politically active Democrat until her 1981 appointment-celebrated America's return...
...Although she has given as one of her reasons for leaving public office the risk of losing her tenured position at Georgetown, it seems unlikely that having known the heady summits of power she will foresake them any more than have her two fellow academics, Henry Kissinger and Zbigniew Brze-zinski...
...There has been talk of a syndicated column, and she is one of the hottest items on the class A lecture circuit...
...The annual attempt by radical Third World elements Coined by Arab and Communist countries) to expel Israel collapsed in October, having far less support than in previous years...
...theme, came up neither in UN...
...Thanks in large measure to the efforts of the Ambassador and her staff, Congress in 1982 passed legislation providing crucial support for the tough lobbying line set down by Kirkpatrick...
...Gradually, however, they came to see that the Ambassador meant what she said...
...What about the present...
...ambassador to the UN...
...Charles Lichenstein, for one, is convinced that with the possible exception of President Reagan no one has articulated United States policy more forcefully than she-and doing so not by being offensive but simply by explaining "this is what we are for" A pretty decent accomplishment...
...The Ambassador herself responds to all the suggestions as any potential candidate might: with gratitude, yet politely firm that it's much too early to talk about the future...
...A few faithful Scoop Jackson Democrats talk of Kirkpatrick as the one person who could lead the Democratic party back into the American mainstream...
...For the first time in a long time she began playing politics at the United Nations and began winning...
...Not that she will not be missed...
...Kirkpatrick is not liked...
...Even before Dallas there was sporadic talk of running the Ambassador for Vice President in 1988, but since then the talk has geared up considerably...
...But her power here is respected and now, there are consequences...
...Meanwhile, the Secretary of State is to report annually to Congress on the voting behavior of all member states, so that there will be at least some awareness of what the sixty or so countries seeking or receiving U.S...
Vol. 18 • May 1985 • No. 5
