Straight Talk

Although Ambassador Kirkpatrick's controversial remarks last week were not taped or read from a prepared text, her office later released a version of the speech based on her recollection of what she had said. Some excerpts:

> The lack of influence of the U.S. in the U.N. does not represent some sort of worldwide revulsion against the Reagan Administration or even against me. The fact is that we have been virtually powerless in the U.N. for more than a decade.

>We have one vote; Vanuatu [in the South Pacific] has one vote. That kind of principle creates a disjunction between power and responsibility because some of the nations who have... the resources to implement decisions are not identical with those who have the power to vote to make them.

> My tentative conclusion is that the lack of U.S. influence at the U.N. is due to our lack of skill in practicing international politics. It is also part and parcel of the decline of U.S. influence in the world.

>We suffer from too rapid turnover in our permanent representatives. We ought to have permanent representatives who stay there long enough to come to know the scene.

>By not really learning the rules, we have often behaved like a bunch of amateurs in the U.N. Unless we approach the U.N. as professionals-professionals at its politics--we won't ever know whether the U.N. could be made a hospitable place for the American national interest.

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