She Was Right

THE most important story about Jeane Kirkpatrick was told by Jay Nordlinger in his NRO tribute to her: “Facing a group of visiting American dignitaries, [Andrei Sakharov] said, ‘Kirkpatski, Kirkpatski, which of you is Kirkpatski?’ Others gestured to Jeane. He said, ‘Your name is known in every cell in the Gulag.’ The reason was, she had named the names of Soviet political prisoners, on the floor of the U.N.”

A similar story is told about President Reagan by the anti-Soviet dissident Vladimir Bukovsky, who discovered in some Soviet archives a document he had painstakingly typed out himself years before. It was a list of Gulag prisoners he had handed to Reagan with the request that the president ask for their release at a superpower summit. Reagan had in turn handed it to Gorbachev.

About the Author

John O’Sullivan

John O’Sullivan is a senior fellow at National Review Institute and a contributing editor of National Review.

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THE most important story about Jeane Kirkpatrick was told by Jay Nordlinger in his NRO tribute to her: “Facing a group of visiting American dignitaries, [Andrei Sakharov] said, ‘Kirkpatski, Kirkpatski, which of you is Kirkpatski?’ Others gestured to Jeane. He said, ‘Your name is known in every cell in the Gulag.’ The reason was, she had named the names of Soviet political prisoners, on the floor of the U.N.”

A similar story is told about President Reagan by the anti-Soviet dissident Vladimir Bukovsky, who discovered in some Soviet archives a document he had painstakingly typed out himself years before. It was a list of Gulag prisoners he had handed to Reagan with the request that the president ask for their release at a superpower summit. Reagan had in turn handed it to Gorbachev.