Weeks Before Being Elected President, George HW Bush Thanks Jeane Kirkpatrick, Ronald Reagan’s National Security Advisor and UN Ambassador, for Her Rousing Speech at the 1988 Republican National Convention

The 1988 Republican National Convention was held in the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans from August 15 to August 18, 1988. The convention started out by honoring President Ronald Reagan, who gave a speech on opening night. It ended up nominating George HW Bush, the sitting vice president, as its candidate for president. The event is best known for Bush’s “thousand points of light” speech accepting the nomination. Other speakers included Senators Bob Dole and John McCain, former president Gerald Ford, and Jeane Kirkpatrick, Reagan’s foreign policy and national security advisor.

Kirkpatrick was a lifelong Democrat, working in both state and national campaigns including Hubert Humphrey’s 1972 presidential campaign. She grew increasingly dissatisfied, however, with the Democratic Party’s liberal faction and in 1972 cofounded the Coalition for a Democratic Majority. Her conservative writings regarding U.S. foreign policy impressed Ronald Reagan, and during his 1980 presidential campaign she was selected as his foreign policy advisor. Under President Reagan, she became the first woman to serve as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, serving from 1981 to 1985. She was also given cabinet rank and was also a member of Reagan’s national security team. She remained active in politics, but as a Republican.

At the 1988 convention, Kirkpatrick attacked Democratic nominee, Michael Dukakis, saying he “is more worried about an American president’s misuse of power than about an adversary’s use of power against us…The Khomeinis, the Gadhafis, the Ortegas and the proliferation of nuclear weapons make the world too dangerous for America to rely on naive, unrealistic, uninformed strategies to defend our freedom,” she said. She endorsed Bush.

Bush wrote her a letter of thanks. Typed letter signed, on his letterhead, October 24, 1988 to Kirkpatrick. “Before the great memories of New Orleans get overtaken by the next big event, I wanted to pause a moment to let you know how grateful I am for your contribution to the 1988 Convention program. The entire Bush family appreciates more than we can ever say the tremendous job you did for us. With friends like you by our side, I know we will win in November!” He signs “George”, and adds “So my thanks.”

A warm letter from the man who would in two weeks be elected president, to a woman who did so much to determine American foreign policy in the 1980s. We obtained this from the Kirkpatrick family, and it has never before been offered for sale.