Jeane J. Kirkpatrick papers

Kirkpatrick was born Jeane Duane Jordan in Duncan, Oklahoma, in 1926, to Welcher F. Jordan and Leona (Kile) Jordan. She spent her early years in Duncan, and in Mt. Vernon, Illinois, and later earned degrees from Stephens College, Barnard College, and Columbia University. She married Evron Kirkpatrick in 1955 and they had three children. In her early career she was active in politics and was a political science professor at Georgetown University. She became a foreign policy adviser to President Ronald W. Reagan during his 1980 campaign, and was the first American woman to serve as ambassador to the United Nations in 1981-1985. Kirkpatrick was a forceful advocate of U.S. policies. In the mid-1980s she was involved in the Iran-Contra Affair, a political scandal in which weapons were secretly sold to Iran and the funds diverted to Contra rebels in Nicaragua. Ambassador Kirkpatrick wrote a syndicated column, numerous articles, and several books. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1985, and in 1993 she cofounded Empower America, a conservative public policy organization. She died in Maryland in 2006.