RIP Jeane Kirkpatrick

Jeane Kirkpatrick died today at the age of 80. President Reagan appointed her as his first ambassador to the United Nations in 1981, and her spirited defense of freedom and American ideals really shook up the place.

Kirkpatrick is probably best remembered for her fiery speech at the 1984 Republican National Convention. You can read the whole speech here. A little sample:

The American people know better.... They know that Ronald Reagan and the United States didn't cause Marxist dictatorship in Nicaragua, or the repression in Poland, or the brutal new offensives in Afghanistan, or the destruction of the Korean airliner, or the 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 Anatoly Shcharansky and Ida Nudel, or the obscene treatment of Andrei Sakharov and Yelena Bonner, or the re-Stalinization of the Soviet Union.

The American people know that it's dangerous to blame ourselves for terrible problems that we did not cause.

They understand just as the distinguished French writer, Jean Francois Revel, understands the dangers of endless self- criticism and self-denigration.

He wrote: "Clearly, a civilization that feels guilty for everything it is and does will lack the energy and conviction to defend itself."

With the election of Ronald Reagan, the American people declared to the world that we have the necessary energy and conviction to defend ourselves, and that we have as well a deep commitment to peace.

All these years later, it's hard to remember that we once all lived in fear of nuclear annihiliation by the Soviet Union, what Reagan called an"evil empire." Together with giants like Margaret Thatcher, Pope John Paul II, Cap Weinberger, and countless others, Reagan won the Cold War. I'm proud to have served in that war - which was not nearly as "cold" as most people think. Jeane Kirkpatrick's fought the battle with only her words, and she wielded them skillfully.

America lost a hero today. RIP.

UPDATE 12/9 - Here is an excellent tribute from WSJ.