(Posted by John.)
I'd like to preface the following with a disclaimer that I have not studied the late Ambassador's career that closely, so I can't comment with any kind of authority. That said, I was kind of intrigued when CNN described Kirkpatrick as "the first Neo-con." My understanding was that modern neocons rejected the amoral calculus inherent in her career. Kirkpatrick, after all, denied the existence of human rights abuses in Latin America during the Reagan Administration, and most importantly wrote "Dictatorships and Double Standards", which contains a bracing rebuke of the modern neoconservative movement:
