— President-elect Reagan’s designated Ambassador to the United Nations, Georgetown University Prof. Jean Kirkpatrick, pledged today to fight issues inimical to the U.S. and its friends before they became resolutions in the UN General Assembly or Security Council.
She made that comment after being asked if the American Mission would combat issues in the UN’s subcommittees and commissions before they became accepted decisions in the top UN forums and if her subordinates would pursue the issues with the same objectivity she herself sought.
“I certainly intend to try,” she told an overflow luncheon audience at B’nai B’rith head-quarters here. “I will pay close personal attention to the evolution of policies. The best time to make a decision is before it is made, “she said.
Kirkpatrick, the first woman nominated to be the chief U.S. representative to the UN, also anticipates a “constructive working relationship” between the State Department and the U.S. delegation to the world organization. “If I didn’t realize that possibility I wouldn’t have accepted this job, “she said.
WILL NOT DEVIATE FROM STATED POLICIES
Asked if U.S. officials at the UN would meet formally or informally with the Palestine Liberation Organization, she replied, “I believe the U.S. representatives in this and all other matters should closely adhere to the policies of their government.”
She added, in that connection, “I see no likelihood of deviation from the stated policies” made by President-elect Reagan. Reagan has called the PLO a terrorist organization.
Asked what changes she would make in her performance at the UN compared with those of her recent predecessors, Kirkpatrick replied to applause, “My highest hope is to represent the Reagan Administration as effectively as Andrew Young and Donald McHenry have represented the Carter Administration.”
Asked if she approved a reduction of U.S. financial contributions to the UN, she expressed her “personal opinion” that she found it “difficult to finance or support organizations which seriously undermine our positions and those of our friends and allies.”
SCORES’ ABUSE OF WORLDS’ IN THE UN
Kirkpatrick said she would avoid controversial topics in her appearance before the B’nai B’rith at this time since the Reagan Administration has not yet taken office. However, she impressed her audience with her statements scoring the “abuse of words in the UN and in domestic politics” that get away from facts. She noted that “confusion” of meaning of words “leads to confusion of facts” and “to nihilism.”
Scorning “labels” like “Zionism” and “racism”, she said: “It is past time for intellectuals to face the fact that we live with words and to make sure that words resemble more the facts of life.” She noted as an example of the use of words that “electoral system” has various meanings and that “an appropriate system to the West Bank would be different than in Britain or in the U.S. or, to choose a country at random, El Salvador.”
Kirkpatrick said she would work for “more accurate, clear-eyed political realities” to make the UN what it was set out to be at its founding in 1945.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
