NONFICTION - Sept. 15, 1991

THE KIRKPATRICK MISSION: Diplomacy Without Apology, America at the United Nations, 1981-1985 by Allan Gerson (The Free Press; $22.95, 317 pp.). Were Jeane J. Kirkpatrick, Ronald Reagan’s first ambassador to the United Nations, to vanish from the face of the earth today, she would leave an odd legacy. On the one hand, she did indeed (in her own metaphor) take down the “Kick Me” sign from the U.S. representative’s office at the U.N.; on the other, in distinguishing between “totalitarian” and “authoritarian” regimes and suggesting that only the latter were capable of genuine reform, she provided the last gasp of Cold War intellectualism. “The Kirkpatrick Mission,” by her U.N. counsel Allan Gerson, emphasizes his former boss’ accomplishments, but the book is actually less about Kirkpatrick than the issues upon which Gerson worked. Kirkpatrick’s frequent absences from this book aren’t bothersome, however, for although Gerson describes in detail her clashes with Secretary of State Alexander Haig and other Reagan administration officials, his insights into diplomatic bureaucracy and negotiation are actually more interesting.