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/* Conservative critic */ more wikifying
[[Image:20021218 Kirkpatrick.gif|right|thumb]]
'''Jeane Jordan Kirkpatrick''' (November 19, 1926 – December 7, 2006) was a leading conservative spokesman during the [[Reagan Era]]. Kirkpatrick was President [[Ronald Reagan]]'s Ambassador to the UN [[United Nations]] during 1981-85.
==Career==
Born in [[Oklahoma ]] to a wealthy oil family, Jean Jordan attended Stephens College in Missouri and Barnard College (BA 1948) in New York City where she majored in political science. She took a master's degree in political science at Columbia University in 1950.
After study studying in [[Paris]], in 1953 she worked at the [[Department of Defense]]. In 1955 she married Evron Kirkpatrick, an eminent [[political science|political scientist]]. They had three sons.
==Politics==
A lifelong [[Democrat]], Kirkpatrick worked in both state and national campaigns including [[Hubert Humphrey]]'s 1972 presidential campaign. She grew increasingly dissatisfied, however, with the Democratic Party's far-left faction led by [[George McGovern]], the 1972 nominee for president. In 1972 she was a cofounder co-founder of the Coalition for a Democratic Majority. Her [[conservative ]] writings regarding U.S. [[United States]] foreign policy impressed presidential candidate Ronald Reagan, and during his 1980 presidential campaign she worked as his national security advisor.
==UN==
Upon Reagan's election, he appointed her as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, a position she held from 1981 to 1985. In 1986 she joined the Republican Party and returned to her teaching position at Georgetown University.
==Conservative critic==
Kirkpatrick spoke out on foreign policy. In a major address at the 1996 [[Republican National Convention]], she accused the [[Clinton administration Administration]] of not maintaining the nationNation's military preparedness, arguing that Clinton allowed the United Nations to have control over United States troops. She charged that he had sent American troops into dangerous areas where the United States had no national interests and then had not supported them with adequate arms, training, or intelligence information. She also contended that he had not provided funding for a [[missile defense system]], while other countries were increasing their weaponry, including nuclear arsenals, thereby placing the United States and its allies at risk.
==Further reading==