Jeane Kirkpatrick
Jeane Kirkpatrick's official portrait
16th United States Ambassador to the United Nations
In office 1981–1985
President	Ronald Reagan
Preceded by	Donald McHenry
Succeeded by	Vernon A. Walters
Personal details
Born	Jeane Duane Jordan (1926-11-19)November 19, 1926 Duncan, Oklahoma
Died	December 7, 2006(2006-12-07) (aged 80) Bethesda, Maryland
Political party	Democratic (until 1985) Republican (1985 - 2006)
Spouse(s)	Evron Maurice Kirkpatrick
Children	Douglas Jordan Kirkpatrick John Evron Kirkpatrick Stuart Kirkpatrick
Alma mater	Stephens College Barnard College Columbia University University of Paris
Profession	Professor, Diplomat, Politician

Jeane Duane Jordan Kirkpatrick (November 19, 1926 – December 7, 2006) was an American ambassador and an ardent anticommunist. After serving as Ronald Reagan's foreign policy adviser in his 1980 campaign and later in his Cabinet, the longtime Democrat-turned-Republican was nominated as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and became the first woman to hold this position.^[1]

She is known for her "Kirkpatrick Doctrine," which advocated U.S. support of anticommunist governments around the world, including authoritarian dictatorships, if they went along with Washington's aims—believing they could be led into democracy by example. She wrote, "Traditional authoritarian governments are less repressive than revolutionary autocracies."^[2]

Kirkpatrick served on Reagan's Cabinet on the National Security Council, Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, Defense Policy Review Board, and chaired the Secretary of Defense Commission on Fail Safe and Risk reduction of the Nuclear Command and Control System.^[3]

Early life[link]

Jeane Duane Jordan was born in Duncan, Oklahoma, the daughter of an oilfield wildcatter, Welcher F. Jordan, and his wife, the former Leona Kile. She attended Emerson Elementary School there and was known to her classmates as "Duane Jordan." She had one sibling, about a decade younger than she, Jerry Jordan. At age 12, her father moved the family to southern Illinois where she graduated from Mt. Vernon Township High School in Mt. Vernon, Illinois. In 1948, she graduated from Barnard College after receiving her Associate's Degree from Stephens College (then only a 2 year institution) in Columbia, Missouri. In 1968, Kirkpatrick received a PhD in political science from Columbia University.^[4] She spent a year of post-graduate study at the Institut des Sciences Politiques at the University of Paris, which helped her learn the French language. She was also fluent in Spanish.^[5]

Though she ultimately became a conservative, as a college freshman in 1945 she joined the Young People's Socialist League, the youth wing of the Socialist Party of America, influenced by her grandfather who was a founder of the Populist and Socialist parties in Oklahoma.^[6] As Kirkpatrick recalled at a symposium in 2002, "It wasn't easy to find the YPSL in Columbia, Missouri. But I had read about it and I wanted to be one. We had a very limited number of activities in Columbia, Missouri. We had an anti-Franco rally, which was a worthy cause. You could raise a question about how relevant it was likely to be in Columbia, Missouri, but it was in any case a worthy cause. We also planned a socialist picnic, which we spent quite a lot of time organizing. Eventually, I regret to say, the YPSL chapter, after much discussion, many debates and some downright quarrels, broke up over the socialist picnic. I thought that was rather discouraging."^[6]

Professor at Georgetown[link]

At Columbia University, her principal adviser was Franz Neumann, a revisionist Marxist. In 1967, she joined the faculty of Georgetown University and became a full professor of government in 1973.

She became active in politics as a Democrat in the 1970s, and was involved in the later campaigns of former Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Hubert Humphrey. Along with Humphrey, she was close to Henry M. Jackson, who ran for the Democratic nomination for President in 1972 and 1976.^[4] She was opposed to the candidacy of George McGovern. In 1976, she joined with George V. Allen and others to found the Committee on Present Danger for the purpose of warning Americans against the Soviet Union's growing military power and the dangers of the SALT II treaty.^[7] She also served on the Platform Committee for the Democratic Party in 1976.^[8]

Kirkpatrick published a number of articles in political science journals reflecting her disillusionment with the Democratic Party with specific criticism of the foreign policy of Democratic President Jimmy Carter. Her most well known piece was "Dictatorships and Double Standards," published in Commentary Magazine in November 1979.^[9] In that piece, Kirkpatrick mentioned what she saw as a difference between authoritarian regimes and the totalitarian regimes such as the Soviet Union; sometimes it was necessary to work with authoritarian regimes if it suited American purposes.^[4] She wrote: “No idea holds greater sway in the mind of educated Americans than the belief that it is possible to democratize governments, anytime and anywhere, under any circumstances... Decades, if not centuries, are normally required for people to acquire the necessary disciplines and habits. In Britain, the road [to democratic government] took seven centuries to traverse... The speed with which armies collapse, bureaucracies abdicate, and social structures dissolve once the autocrat is removed frequently surprises American policymakers.”^[1]

Reagan's Cabinet[link]

Jeane Kirkpatrick (center) with the other members of the Reagan Administration, 1981

Kirkpatrick (left, in red) among the Reagan Cabinet, 1984

This piece came to the attention of Ronald Reagan through his National Security Adviser Richard V. Allen.^[4] Kirkpatrick then became a foreign policy adviser throughout Reagan's 1980 campaign and presidency and, after his election to the presidency, the United States Ambassador to the United Nations, a position she held for four years. She had never been around a Republican before.^[1] On the way to her first meeting with him, she told Allen, "Listen, Dick, I am an AFL-CIO Democrat and I am quite concerned that my meeting Ronald Reagan on any basis will be misunderstood."^[7] She asked Reagan if he minded having a lifelong Democrat on his team; he replied that he himself had been a Democrat till age 51, and in any event he liked her way of thinking about American foreign policy.^[5]

She was one of the strongest supporters of Argentina's military dictatorship following the March 1982 Argentine invasion of the United Kingdom's Falkland Islands, which triggered the Falklands War. Kirkpatrick had a "soft spot" for Argentina's President Gen. Leopoldo Galtieri,^[1] and favored neutrality rather than the pro-British policy favored by the Secretary of State Alexander Haig.^[5] The administration ultimately decided to declare support for the British, thus forcing her to vote yes to UN resolution 501.

At the 1984 Republican National Convention, Kirkpatrick delivered the "Blame America First" keynote speech,^[4] which re-nominated Reagan by praising his administration's foreign policy^[5] while excoriating the leadership of what she called the "San Francisco Democrats"—the Democrats had just held their convention in San Francisco—for the party's shift away from the hawkish policies of former Democratic presidents such as Harry S. Truman and John F. Kennedy to a more strident anti-war position that the left-wing of the Democratic Party had pushed since Vietnam. It was the first time since the 1952 speech from Douglas MacArthur that a non-party member had delivered the Republican convention keynote address.^[8]

Kirkpatrick, a member of the National Security Council, did not get along with either Secretary of State Haig or his successor, George Schultz. She disagreed with Schultz most notably on the Iran-Contra affair, in which she supported skimming money off arms sales to fund the Contras.^[5] Kirkpatrick and Schultz actually came to physical violence in their disagreement over whether to find extra funding for Nicaraguan contras, with Schultz telling Kirkpatrick that it was an "impeachable offense."^[1] Kirkpatrick wished to be Secretary of State or head of the National Security Council, which did not help either.^[1] Shultz threatened to resign if Kirkpatrick was appointed National Security Adviser.^[5] Kirkpatrick was more closely allied with Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger and head of the CIA, William J. Casey.^[10]

Ambassador to the UN[link]

Kirkpatrick with President Ronald Reagan in the Oval Office

Kirkpatrick once said, "What takes place in the Security Council more closely resembles a mugging than either a political debate or an effort at problem-solving." Still, she finished her term with a certain respect for the normative power of the United Nations as the "institution whose majorities claim the right to decide - for the world - what is legitimate and what is illegitimate."^[11] She noted that the United States had increasingly ignored this significance and became increasingly isolated.^[12] This was problematic, because "relative isolation in a body like the United Nations is a sign of impotence,"^[13] especially given the ability of the United Nations to shape international attitudes.^[14] Kirkpatrick was ambassador to the U.N. during the Sept. 1, 1983 Soviet shooting down of Korean Air Lines Flight 007 near Moneron Island. KAL 007 had carried 269 passengers and crew including a sitting congressman, Larry McDonald from Georgia. She played before the Security Council the audio of the electronic intercept of the interceptor pilot during the attack, after which the Soviet Union could no longer deny its responsibility for the shootdown.

According to Jay Nordlinger, on a visit with American dignitaries, Soviet human rights activist Andrei Sakharov said, "Kirkpatski, Kirkpatski, which of you is Kirkpatski?" When others pointed to Kirkpatrick, he said, "Your name is known in every cell in the Gulag," because she had named Soviet political prisoners on the floor of the UN.^[10] Kirkpatrick said she would only serve one term at the UN and stepped down in April 1985.^[5]

Views on Israel[link]

She was a staunch supporter of the State of Israel.^[15] During her ambassadorship at the United Nations, she considered its frequent criticism and condemnation of the Jewish State as holding Israel to a double standard. She attributed it to hostility and considered it as politically motivated. In 1989, Mohammed Wahby, press director of Egypt's Information Bureau, wrote to the Washington Post saying, "Jeane Kirkpatrick has, somehow, consistently opposed any attempt to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict." Kirkpatrick had warned Secretary of State James Baker and President Bush, in an op-ed, not to get involved in the conflict, because any intervention "will fail."^[16] Kirkpatrick was a Board Member of the American Foundation for Resistance International and The National Council to Support the Democracy Movements as the primary organizations that helped to bring down Soviet and Eastern European Communism. Along with Vlaidmir Bukovsky, Martin Colman and Richard Perle she worked tirelessly to organize the democratic revolution against communism. Kirkpatrick frequently expressed disdain for what she perceived to be disproportionate attention on Israel at the expense of other conflicts. She "declared that what takes place in the Security Council "more closely resembles a mugging than either a political debate or an effort at problem-solving."^[17]

Anti-Defamation League President Abraham Foxman issued a press release upon her death saying that "She will be fondly remembered for her unwavering and valiant support of the State of Israel and her unequivocal opposition to anti-Semitism, especially during her tenure at the United Nations. She was always a true friend of the Jewish people."^[18]

Political views[link]

Comparing authoritarian and totalitarian regimes, she said:

• "Authoritarian regimes really typically don't have complete command economies. Authoritarian regimes typically have some kind of traditional economy with some private ownership. The Nazi regime left ownership in private hands, but the state assumed control of the economy. Control was separated from ownership but it was really a command economy because it was controlled by the state. A command economy is an attribute of a totalitarian state."^[19]

Explaining her disillusionment with international organizations, especially the United Nations, she stated:

• "As I watched the behavior of the nations of the U.N. (including our own), I found no reasonable ground to expect any one of those governments to transcend permanently their own national interests for those of another country."
• "I conclude that it is a fundamental mistake to think that salvation, justice, or virtue come through merely human institutions."
• "Democracy not only requires equality but also an unshakable conviction in the value of each person, who is then equal. Cross cultural experience teaches us not simply that people have different beliefs, but that people seek meaning and understand themselves in some sense as members of a cosmos ruled by God."

About socialist activism, she said:

• "As I read the utopian socialists, the scientific socialists, the German Social Democrats and revolutionary socialists — whatever I could in either English or French — I came to the conclusion that almost all of them, including my grandfather, were engaged in an effort to change human nature. The more I thought about it, the more I thought this was not likely to be a successful effort. So I turned my attention more and more to political philosophy and less and less to socialist activism of any kind."^[6]

After the Reagan administration[link]

In 1985, Kirkpatrick became a Republican (which The Economist called her "only recourse" after her speech at the 1984 Republican convention)^[1] and returned to teaching at Georgetown University. She also became a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington D.C. think tank, and a contributor to the American Freedom Journal. In 1993, she co-founded Empower America, a public-policy organization. She was also on the advisory board of the National Association of Scholars, a group that works against what it regards as a liberal bias in academia, with its emphasis on multicultural education and affirmative action.

Kirkpatrick briefly considered running for President in 1988 against George H.W. Bush, because she believed he was not tough enough on Communism.^[1][5] Kirkpatrick endorsed Senator Robert Dole of Kansas, who was the runner up to Bush. Despite a strong showing in the Iowa caucuses, Dole's campaign quickly faded after losing the New Hampshire primary in February 1988. Kirkpatrick was an active surrogate campaigner for Dole even as he was losing, as was her old foe, Al Haig, who endorsed Dole after ending his own '88 campaign several days before the New Hampshire primary.

Along with Empower America co-directors William Bennett and Jack Kemp, she called on the Congress to issue a formal declaration of war against the "entire fundamentalist Islamist terrorist network" the day after the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center.

In 2003, she headed the US delegation to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. Kirkpatrick was appointed to the Board of Directors of IDT Corp. in 2004.^[3] It was revealed after her death that in 2003, she was sent as a US envoy, to meet an Arab delegation and attempt to convince them to support the Iraq War; she was supposed to argue that pre-emptive war was justifiable, but she knew this would not work and instead argued that Saddam Hussein had consistently gone against the UN.^[5]

Personal life[link]

On February 20, 1955, she married Evron Maurice Kirkpatrick, who was a scholar and a former member of the O.S.S. (the World War II-era predecessor of the CIA). Her husband died in 1995. They had three sons: Douglas Jordan (1956–2006), John Evron, and Stuart Alan (a.k.a. Traktung Rinpoche, a Buddhist lama).^[20]

Kirkpatrick died at her home in Bethesda, MD, on December 7, 2006 of congestive heart failure.^[21] She had been diagnosed with heart disease and had been in failing health for several years.^[22]

Quotes[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Jeane Kirkpatrick

• "When Marxist dictators shoot their way into power in Central America, the San Francisco Democrats don't blame the guerrillas and their Soviet allies. They blame United States policies of one hundred years ago. But then they always blame America first."^[23]
• "Russia is playing chess, while we are playing Monopoly. The only question is whether they will checkmate us before we bankrupt them."^[24]
• "Americans need to face the truth about themselves, no matter how pleasant it is."

Awards and honors[link]

Kirkpatrick received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor.^[3] The Kennedy School of Government at Harvard created a Kirkpatrick Chair in International Affairs in her honor.^[25] Kirkpatrick received an *honorary doctorate degree from Universidad Francisco Marroquín in 1985^[26], she also received an honorary doctorate at Central Connecticut State University in 1991. She was also awarded an honorary degree by Brandeis University in 1994, but her honor was met with protests from some professors and students. 53 professors (of 350 total Brandeis faculty) opposed this award, one such critic said "We oppose the degree because she was the intellectual architect of Reagan administration policies that supported some of the Latin-American regimes with the most repressive records."^[27]

In 2007, Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) honored Jeane Kirkpatrick with the creation of the Jeane Kirkpatrick Academic Freedom Award. The first recipient was Marine Corps reservist and correspondent Matt Sanchez.^[28] Kirkpatrick was inducted in the Oklahoma Women's Hall of Fame in 1984.

In popular culture[link]

Kirkpatrick was portrayed by Lorelei King in the 2002 BBC production of Ian Curteis's controversial The Falklands Play.

In Berkeley Breathed's weekly comic strip Bloom County, Kirkpatrick becomes former Meadow Party Presidential candidate Bill the Cat's love interest.

In an October 1987 sketch on Saturday Night Live, Kirkpatrick (portrayed by Nora Dunn) is a contestant on a game show called "Common Knowledge" (in which answers to questions are determined by 17-year old high school seniors).

Books authored[link]

• Making War to Keep Peace, 2007 (ISBN 0-0611-9543-X)
• The Withering Away of the Totalitarian State—And Other Surprises, 1992 (ISBN 0-8447-3728-3)
• Legitimacy and Force: National and International Dimensions, 1988 (ISBN 0-88738-647-4)
• International Regulation: New Rules in a Changing World Order, 1988 (ISBN 1-55815-026-9)
• Legitimacy and Force: Political and Moral Dimensions, 1988 (ISBN 0-88738-099-9)
• Legitimacy and Force: State Papers and Current Perspectives 1981–1985, 1987 ISBN 9999962750
• The United States and the World: Setting Limits, 1986 (ISBN 0-8447-1379-1)
• The Reagan Doctrine and U.S. Foreign Policy, 1985 (ISBN 999650591X
• Reagan Phenomenon and Other Speeches on Foreign Policy, 1983 (ISBN 0-8447-1361-9)
• U.N. Under Scrutiny, 1982 (ISBN 99938-872-9-3)
• Dictatorships and Double Standards: Rationalism and Reason in Politics, 1982 (ISBN 0-671-43836-0)
• Presidential Nominating Process: Can It Be Improved, 1980 (ISBN 0-8447-3397-0)
• Dismantling the Parties: Reflections on Party Reform and Party Decomposition, 1978 (ISBN 0-8447-3293-1)
• The New Presidential Elite: Men and Women in National Politics, 1976 (ISBN 0-87154-475-X)
• Political Woman, 1974 (ISBN 0-465-05970-8)

See also[link]

• List of U.S. political appointments that crossed party lines
• Dictatorships and Double Standards
• List of notable Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients

References[link]

External links[link]

• Honorary Doctoral Degrees, Universidad Francisco Marroquín
• Jeane Kirkpatrick, Reagan’s Forceful Envoy, Dies—The New York Times
• Spartacus Educational Biography
• Kirkpatrick hit liberals for blaming America first - short political bio
• Empower America - official site of the Empower America organization
• Senior Fellow at the AEI, The American Enterprise Institute
• Profile: Jeane J. Kirkpatrick
• ADL Mourns the Passing of Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick Press release from the Anti-Defamation League
• The Cold War series: interview with Jeane Kirkpatrick, The National Security Archive, February 28, 1999.
• Jeane Kirkpatrick advocates war, The Oprah Winfrey Show, October 1, 2001.
• The National Association of Scholar's Board of Advisors
• Jeane Kirkpatrick interviewed by Peter Krogh On American Interests,1982

v t e Cabinet of President Ronald Reagan (1981–1989)   Cabinet Secretary of State Alexander M. Haig, Jr. (1981–1982) George P. Shultz (1982–1989) Secretary of the Treasury Donald T. Regan (1981–1985) James A. Baker, III (1985–1988) Nicholas F. Brady (1988–1989) Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger (1981–1987) Frank C. Carlucci (1987–1989) Attorney General William French Smith (1981–1985) Edwin Meese III (1985–1988) Richard L. Thornburgh (1988–1989) Secretary of the Interior James G. Watt (1981–1983) William P. Clark, Jr. (1983–1985) Donald P. Hodel (1985–1989) Secretary of Agriculture John R. Block (1981–1986) Richard E. Lyng (1986–1989) Secretary of Commerce Malcolm Baldrige, Jr. (1981–1987) C. William Verity, Jr. (1987–1989) Secretary of Labor Raymond J. Donovan (1981–1985) William E. Brock (1985–1987) Ann Dore McLaughlin (1987–1989) Secretary of Health and Human Services Richard S. Schweiker (1981–1983) Margaret M. Heckler (1983–1985) Otis R. Bowen (1985–1989) Secretary of Education T. H. Bell (1981–1985) William J. Bennett (1985–1988) Lauro F. Cavazos (1988–1989) Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Samuel R. Pierce, Jr. (1981–1989) Secretary of Transportation Andrew L. Lewis, Jr. (1981–1983) Elizabeth H. Dole (1983–1987) James H. Burnley IV (1988–1989) Secretary of Energy James B. Edwards (1981–1983) Donald P. Hodel (1983–1985) John S. Herrington (1985–1989)   Cabinet-level Vice President George H. W. Bush (1981–1989) Director of Central Intelligence William J. Casey (1981–1987) William H. Webster (1987–1989) Ambassador to the United Nations Jeane Kirkpatrick (1981–1985) Vernon A. Walters (1985–1989) Trade Representative William E. Brock, III (1981–1985) Clayton K. Yeutter (1985–1989)

v t e United States Ambassadors to the United Nations Stettinius Austin Lodge Wadsworth Stevenson Goldberg Ball Wiggins Yost Bush Scali Moynihan Scranton Young McHenry Kirkpatrick Walters Pickering Perkins Albright Richardson Holbrooke Negroponte Danforth Bolton Khalilzad Rice

The Edge
Background information
Birth name	David Howell Evans
Born	(1961-08-08) 8 August 1961 (age 50) Barking, Essex, England, United Kingdom
Origin	County Dublin, Ireland
Genres	Rock, post-punk, alternative rock
Occupations	Musician, songwriter, activist
Instruments	Guitar, vocals, keyboards, piano, bass guitar
Years active	1976–present
Labels	Island, Mercury
Associated acts	U2, Passengers
Website	www.u2.com
Notable instruments
Gibson Explorer Fender Stratocaster Gibson Les Paul Fender Telecaster Gretsch Country Gentleman Gretsch White Falcon Rickenbacker 330/12

David Howell Evans (born 8 August 1961), more widely known by his stage name The Edge (or just Edge),^[1] is a musician best known as the guitarist, backing vocalist, and keyboardist of the Irish rock band U2. A member of the group since its inception, he has recorded 12 studio albums with the band and has released one solo record. As a guitarist, The Edge has crafted a minimalistic and textural style of playing. His use of a rhythmic delay effect yields a distinctive ambient, chiming sound that has become a signature of U2's music.

The Edge was born in England to a Welsh family, but was raised in Ireland after moving there as an infant. In 1976, at Mount Temple Comprehensive School, he formed U2 with his fellow students and his older brother Dik. Inspired by the ethos of punk rock and its basic arrangements, the group began to write its own material. They eventually became one of the most popular acts in popular music, with successful albums such as 1987's The Joshua Tree and 1991's Achtung Baby. Over the years, The Edge has experimented with various guitar effects and introduced influences from several genres of music into his own style, including American roots music, industrial music, and alternative rock. With U2, The Edge has also played keyboards, co-produced their 1993 record Zooropa, and occasionally contributed lyrics. The Edge met his second and current wife, Morleigh Steinberg, through her collaborations with the band.

As a member of U2 and as an individual, The Edge has campaigned for human rights and philanthropic causes. He co-founded Music Rising, a charity to support musicians affected by Hurricane Katrina. He has collaborated with U2 bandmate Bono on several projects, including songs for Roy Orbison and Tina Turner, and the soundtracks to the musical Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark and the Royal Shakespeare Company's London stage adaptation of A Clockwork Orange. In 2011, Rolling Stone magazine placed him at number 38 on its list of "The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".

Personal life[link]

The Edge at a U2 concert in Anaheim (2005)

David Howell Evans was born at the Barking Maternity Hospital,^[2] Essex, England to Welsh parents Garvin and Gwenda Evans.^[1] When he was one, his family moved to County Dublin, Ireland where he attended St Andrew's National School. He received piano and guitar lessons and often performed with his brother Dik Evans before they both answered an advertisement posted by Larry Mullen, Jr. at their school, Mount Temple Comprehensive School, seeking musicians to form a band.^[3] The band accepted both of them. This band went through several incarnations before emerging as U2 in March 1978 (Dik Evans left the band just before the name change).^[3] U2 began performing in various venues in Ireland and eventually began developing a following. Their debut album, Boy, was released in 1980.

In 1981, leading up to the October tour, Evans came very close to leaving U2 for religious reasons, but he decided to stay.^[3] During this period, he became involved with a group called Shalom Tigers, in which bandmates Bono and Larry Mullen Jr. were also involved.^[4] Shortly after deciding to remain with the band, he wrote a piece of music that later became "Sunday Bloody Sunday".^[3] The Edge married his high school girlfriend Aislinn O'Sullivan on 12 July 1983.^[5] The couple had three daughters together: Hollie in 1984, Arran in 1985 and Blue Angel in 1989.^[4] The couple separated in 1990, but were unable to get officially divorced because of Irish laws regarding marriage annulment; divorce was legalised in 1995 and the couple were legally divorced in 1996.^[4]

In 1993, The Edge began dating Morleigh Steinberg, a professional dancer and choreographer employed by the band as a belly dancer during the Zoo TV Tour. They had a daughter, Sian (born 1997), and a son, Levi (born 25 October 1999),^[4] before marrying on 22 June 2002.^[4] He appeared in the 2009 music documentary film It Might Get Loud.^[6] The Edge has been criticized for his efforts to build five luxury mansions on a 156 acre plot of land in Malibu, California.^[7] The California Coastal Commission voted 8-4 against the plans, with the project described by the commission's executive director, Peter Douglas, as "In 38 years...one of the three worst projects that I've seen in terms of environmental devastation...It's a contradiction in terms – you can't be serious about being an environmentalist and pick this location."^[7] The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy agreed to remain neutral on the issue following a $1 million donation from The Edge and a commitment from The Edge to designate 100 acres of the land as open space for public footpaths.^[7]

Music style[link]

Guitar playing[link]

As a guitar player, The Edge has a sound typified by a low-key playing style, a chiming, shimmering sound (thanks in part to the sound of VOX AC-30s) that he achieves with extensive use of delay effects and reverb. The feedback delay is often set to a dotted eighth note (3/16 of a measure), and the feedback gain is adjusted until a note played repeats two or three times.^{[citation needed]}

On 1987's The Joshua Tree, The Edge often contributes just a few simple lead lines given depth and richness by an ever-present delay. For example, the introduction to "Where the Streets Have No Name" is simply a repeated six-note arpeggio, broadened by a modulated delay effect. The Edge has said that he views musical notes as "expensive", in that he prefers to play as few notes as possible. He said in 1982 of his style,

"I like a nice ringing sound on guitar, and most of my chords I find two strings and make them ring the same note, so it's almost like a 12-string sound. So for E I might play a B, E, E and B and make it ring. It works very well with the Gibson Explorer. It's funny because the bass end of the Explorer was so awful that I used to stay away from the low strings, and a lot of the chords I played were very trebly, on the first four, or even three strings. I discovered that through using this one area of the fretboard I was developing a very stylized way of doing something that someone else would play in a normal way."^[9]

Many different influences have shaped The Edge's guitar technique.^{[citation needed]} His first guitar was an old acoustic guitar that his mother bought him at a local flea market for only a few pounds; he was nine at the time. He and his brother Dik Evans both experimented with this instrument.^[9] He said in 1982 of this early experimentation, "I suppose the first link in the chain was a visit to the local jumble sale where I purchased a guitar for a pound. That was my first instrument. It was an acoustic guitar and me and my elder brother Dik both played it, plonking away, all very rudimentary stuff, open chords and all that."^[9] The Edge has stated that many of his guitar parts are based around guitar effects. This is especially true from the Achtung Baby era onwards, although much of the band's 1980s material made heavy use of echos.

Vocals[link]

The Edge in June 2005

The Edge also supplies the backing vocals for U2. U2's 1983 live album and video release, Under a Blood Red Sky and Live at Red Rocks: Under a Blood Red Sky are good reference points for his singing (as are the live DVDs from the Elevation Tour, U2 Go Home: Live from Slane Castle and Elevation 2001: Live from Boston). For example, he sings the chorus to "Sunday Bloody Sunday" (Bono harmonizes on the final 'Sunday'). U2 used this tradeoff technique later in "Bullet the Blue Sky" as well. His backing vocals are sometimes in the form of a repeated cry; examples of songs that use this approach include "Beautiful Day", "New Year's Day" and "Stay (Faraway, So Close!)". Another technique he uses in his backing vocals is the falsetto, in songs such as "Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of", "Sometimes You Can't Make It on Your Own", "A Man and a Woman", "The Wanderer", live versions of "The Fly", and "Window in the Skies".

The Edge sings the lead vocal on "Van Diemen's Land" and "Numb", the first half of the song "Seconds", dual vocals with Bono in "Discotheque", and the bridge in the song "Miracle Drug".^[4] He also sings the occasional lead vocal in live renditions of other songs (such as "Sunday Bloody Sunday" during the PopMart Tour and "Party Girl" during the Rotterdam Zoo TV show when it was Bono's birthday).^[10] He also plays a solo acoustic version of the song "Love is Blindness" that is featured in the documentary film From the Sky Down.

Other instruments[link]

He has played piano and keyboards on many of the band's songs, including "I Fall Down", "October", "So Cruel", "New Year's Day", "Running to Stand Still", "Miss Sarajevo", "The Hands that Built America", and "Original of the Species" and others. He plays the organ on "Please". In live versions of "New Year's Day", "The Unforgettable Fire", "Your Blue Room", and "Moment of Surrender", he plays both the piano and guitar parts alternately. In most live versions of "Original of the Species," piano is the only instrument played during the song. Although The Edge is the band's lead guitarist, he occasionally plays bass guitar, including the live performances of the song "40" where The Edge and bassist Adam Clayton switch instruments.

Solo recordings[link]

In addition to his regular role within U2, The Edge has also recorded with such artists as Johnny Cash, B. B. King, Tina Turner, Ronnie Wood, Jay-Z, and Rihanna. The Edge connected with Brian Eno and Lanois collaborator Michael Brook (the creator of the infinite guitar, which he regularly uses), working with him on the score to the film Captive (1986). From this soundtrack the song "Heroine", the vocal of which was sung by a young Sinéad O'Connor was released as a single.

He also created the theme song for season one and two of The Batman. He and fellow U2 member, Bono, wrote the lyrics to the theme of the 1995 James Bond film GoldenEye. The Edge, along with bandmate Bono, recently composed a musical adaptation of Spider-Man. On May 25, 2011, a single titled Rise Above 1: Reeve Carney Featuring Bono and The Edge was released digitally.^[11] The music video was released on July 28, 2011.^[12]

Musical equipment[link]

Edge's 1964 Vox AC30 on stage in Foxborough for the U2 360° Tour.

The Edge plays electric guitar, acoustic guitar, keyboards, piano, bass guitar (on "40" and "Race Against Time") and lap steel guitar. Compared to many lead guitarists, The Edge is known for using many more guitars during a show. According to his guitar tech Dallas Schoo, a typical lead guitarist uses four or five different guitars in one night, whereas The Edge takes 45 on the road, and uses 17 to 19 in one 2.5-hour concert. He is estimated to have more than 200 guitars in the studio.^{[citation needed]}

Philanthropy[link]

In 2005, The Edge along with Bob Ezrin and Henry Juszkiewicz co-founded Music Rising, a charity that helped provide replacement instruments for those that were lost in Hurricane Katrina. The instruments were originally only replaced for professional musicians but they soon realized the community churches and schools needed instruments as well. The charity's slogan is "Rebuilding the Gulf Region note by note" and has so far helped over a hundred musicians who were affected by Hurricane Katrina. The Edge also serves on the board of the Angiogenesis Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to improving global health by advancing angiogenesis-based medicine, diets, and lifestyle.^[13]

See also[link]

• Timeline of U2
• List of people on stamps of Ireland

References[link]

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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: The Edge

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• Food Bank For New York City public service announcement
• Comment on the mathematical analysis of The Edge's guitar sound