Quote

Vietnam presumably taught us that the United States could not serve as the world's policeman it should also have taught us the dangers of trying to be the world's midwife to democracy when the birth is scheduled to take place under conditions of guerrilla war.

Jeane Kirkpatrick

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Jeane Kirkpatrick
Age: 80 †
Born: 1926
Born: November 19
Died: 2006
Died: December 7
Diplomat
Political Scientist
Politician
United States Ambassador To The United Nations
University Teacher
Duncan
Oklahoma
Jeane Jordan Kirkpatrick
Jeane Duane Kirkpatrick
Take
Military
Policeman
Trying
Taught
Policemen
World
Democracy
Dangers
United
Vietnam
Scheduled
War
Serve
Guerrilla
Place
Birth
Guerrillas
Also
Danger
Presumably
States
Conditions
Midwife

More quotes by Jeane Kirkpatrick

Image
Truth, which is important to a scholar, has to be concrete. And there is nothing more concrete than dealing with babies, burps and bottles, frogs and mud.
Jeane Kirkpatrick
Image
I think that it's always appropriate for Americans and for American foreign policy to make clear why we feel that self-government is most compatible with peace, the well-being of people, and human dignity
Jeane Kirkpatrick
Image
Democrats can't get elected unless things get worse-and things won't get worse unless they get elected.
Jeane Kirkpatrick
Image
I believe that detente was having almost the opposite effect of what was intended. What was intended was to sort of end the contest for power and to stop Soviet expansion, especially by military means and the military build-up, the military contest
Jeane Kirkpatrick
Image
I think that there is absolutely no free market in modern industrial states.
Jeane Kirkpatrick
Image
The speed with which armies collapse, bureaucracies abdicate, and social structures dissolve once the autocrat is removed frequently surprises American Policy makers.
Jeane Kirkpatrick
Image
Words can destroy. What we call each other ultimately becomes what we think of each other, and it matters.
Jeane Kirkpatrick
Image
The real point is that totalitarian regimes have claimed jurisdiction over the whole person, and the whole society, and they don't at all believe that we should give unto Caesar that which is Caesar's and unto God that which is God's.
Jeane Kirkpatrick
Image
Neither nature, experience, nor probability informs these lists of 'entitlements', which are subject to no constraints except those of the mind and appetite of their authors.
Jeane Kirkpatrick
Image
I always assume that democracy is the only good form of government, quite frankly, and democracy is always to be preferred
Jeane Kirkpatrick
Image
A government is not legitimate merely because it exists.
Jeane Kirkpatrick
Image
Mr. President, we've taken off our Kick Me sign.
Jeane Kirkpatrick
Image
There is an absolutely fundamental hostility on the part of totalitarian regimes toward religion.
Jeane Kirkpatrick
Image
In the years just before... during the Carter years, the Soviets regularly violated, if you will, both the spirit and theletter of arms control agreements, I think, that they had negotiated during the period of detente.
Jeane Kirkpatrick
Image
Americans need to face the truth about themselves, no matter how pleasant it is.
Jeane Kirkpatrick
Image
When the San Francisco Democrats treat foreign affairs as an afterthought, as they did, they behaved less like a dove or a hawk than like an ostrich - convinced it could shut out the world by hiding its head in the sand.
Jeane Kirkpatrick
Image
And I think detente had manifestly failed, and that the pursuit of it was encouraging Soviet expansion and rendering the world more dangerous, and especially rendering the Western world in greater peril.
Jeane Kirkpatrick
Image
I'm a political scientist and I study these things, and I know that economic problems, with the rising unemployment and inflation and low productivity and so forth, were a factor in that election, in that defeat of President Carter.
Jeane Kirkpatrick
Image
Look, I don't even agree with myself at times.
Jeane Kirkpatrick
Image
I was a woman in a man's world. I was a Democrat in a Republican administration. I was an intellectual in a world of bureaucrats. I talked differently. This may have made me a bit like an ink blot.
Jeane Kirkpatrick