Алан Кийс: Американский политик и дипломат

American politician (born 1950)

Alan Lee Keyes (born August 7, 1950) is an American politician, political scientist, and perennial candidate who served as the Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs from 1985 to 1987. A member of the Republican Party, Keyes sought the nomination for President of the United States in 1996, 2000, and 2008. A doctoral graduate of Harvard University, Keyes began his diplomatic career in the U. S. Foreign Service in 1979 at the United States consulate in Bombay, India, and later in the American embassy in Zimbabwe. Keyes was appointed Ambassador to the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations by President Ronald Reagan and later as President Reagan's Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs, a position he held from November 13, 1985, until November 17, 1987; in his capacities as a U. N ambassador, Keyes was involved in the implementation of the Mexico City Policy. Aside from his presidential runs, he was the Republican nominee for the U. S. Senate in Maryland against Paul Sarbanes in 1988 and Barbara Mikulski in 1992, as well as in Illinois against Barack Obama in 2004. Keyes lost all three elections by wide margins. Keyes hosted a radio call in show, The Alan Keyes Show: America's Wake Up Call, from 1994 until 1998 on WCBM. The show was briefly simulcast by National Empowerment Television. In 2002, he briefly hosted a television commentary show on the MSNBC cable network, Alan Keyes Is Making Sense. He is a long time columnist for World Net Daily.

Born at the St. Albans Naval Hospital (now a VA Community Living Center) in St. Albans, Queens, Keyes is the fifth child of mother Gerthina (Quick) and father Allison L. Keyes, a U. S. Army sergeant and a teacher. Due to his father's tours of duty, the Keyes family traveled frequently. Keyes lived in Georgia, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Texas, Virginia and overseas in Italy. After high school, Keyes attended Cornell University, where he was a member of the Cornell University Glee Club and The Hangovers. He studied political philosophy with American philosopher and essayist Allan Bloom and has said that Bloom was the professor who influenced him most in his undergraduate studies. Keyes has stated that a passage of Bloom's book, The Closing of the American Mind, refers to this incident, speaking of an African American student "whose life had been threatened by a black faculty member when the student refused to participate in a demonstration" at Cornell. Shortly after this incident occurred, Keyes left Cornell and spent a year in Paris under a Cornell study abroad program connected with Bloom. Keyes continued his studies at Harvard University, where he resided in Winthrop House. Keyes completed his Bachelor of Arts degree in government in 1972, graduating magna cum laude. During his first year of graduate school, Keyes's roommate was William Kristol. In 1988, Kristol ran Keyes's unsuccessful U. S. Senate campaign in Maryland. Keyes earned his PhD. in government from Harvard in 1979, having written a dissertation on Alexander Hamilton and constitutional theory under Harvey C. Mansfield. Due to student deferments and a high draft number, Keyes was not drafted to serve in the Vietnam War. Keyes and his family were staunch supporters of the war, in which his father served two tours of duty.

A year before completing his doctoral studies, Keyes joined the United States Department of State as a protégé of Jeane Kirkpatrick. In 1979, he was assigned to the consulate in Mumbai, India. The following year, Keyes was sent to serve at the embassy in Zimbabwe. He also served on the staff of the National Security Council. At a fundraiser for Keyes's senate campaign, President Reagan spoke of Keyes's time as an ambassador, saying that he "did such an extraordinary job  defending our country against the forces of anti Americanism." Reagan continued, "I've never known a more stout hearted defender of a strong America than Alan Keyes." In 1987 Keyes was appointed a resident scholar for the American Enterprise Institute. His principal research for AEI was diplomacy, international relations, and self government. Following government service, Ambassador Keyes was President of Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) from 1989 to 1991, and founded CAGW's National Taxpayers' Action Day. In 1991, he served as Interim President of Alabama A&M University, in Huntsville, Alabama.

Among the U. S. delegation to the 1984 World Population Conference in Mexico City, Keyes was selected by Reagan as deputy chairman. In that capacity, Keyes negotiated the language of the Mexico City Policy to withhold federal funds from international organizations that support abortion. Additionally, Keyes fought against an Arab backed UN resolution calling for investigation of Israeli settlements. The measure passed, 83–2, with 15 abstentions and only Israel and the U. S. voting against it. Reagan again appointed Keyes to represent the U. S. at the 1985 Women's Conference in Nairobi.

In 1988, Keyes was drafted by the Maryland Republican Party to run for the United States Senate, and received 38 percent of the vote against victorious incumbent Democrat Paul Sarbanes.

Four years later, he ran again for the Senate from Maryland, coming in first in a field of 13 candidates in the Republican primary. Against Democrat Barbara Mikulski, he received 29 percent in the general election. During the 1992 election, Keyes attracted controversy when he took an $8,463 (~$ in )/month salary from his campaign fund.

Keyes sought the Republican presidential nomination in 1996. In public debates, he asked other candidates about abortion. Many Republican leaders saw this as unnecessary and divisive. Keyes was particularly critical of Clinton during his campaign, saying, "This guy lies, but he lies with passion." He questioned whether a Republican candidate who is truthful, yet cold and heartless, had a chance to win against the incumbent. Keyes was especially critical of Pat Buchanan, once saying during an interview on the Talk from the Heart program with Al Kresta that Buchanan had a "black heart." Keyes's entry into the Republican race after Buchanan had secured victories in New Hampshire and Louisiana led many to believe that Keyes was a stalking horse for neoconservative elements in the Republican Party, since Buchanan was well known as ardent foe of abortion and had suffered political fallout for bringing abortion and "cultural war" to the center of public policy debates. Later during the primaries, Keyes was briefly detained by Atlanta police when he tried to force his way into a debate to which he had been invited, and then uninvited. He was never formally arrested and was eventually picked up 20 minutes later by Atlanta's mayor at the time, Bill Campbell.

Keyes again campaigned for the Republican nomination in the 2000 primaries on an anti abortion, family values, tax reform plank. In Iowa, he finished 3rd, drawing 14 percent in a crowded field. He stayed in the race after the early rounds and debated the two remaining candidates, John McCain and George W. Bush, in a number of nationally televised debates. He finished second in 8 primaries. His best showing in the presidential primaries was in Utah, where he received 20 percent of the vote. He was also noted for jumping into a mosh pit during a Rage Against the Machine song during the Iowa caucus as part of a segment on Michael Moore's TV series The Awful Truth.

On November 14, 2008, Keyes filed a lawsuit—naming as defendants California Secretary of State Deborah Bowen, President elect Barack Obama, Vice President elect Joe Biden, and California's 55 Democratic electors—challenging Obama's eligibility for the U. S. presidency. The suit requested that Obama provide documentation that he is a native citizen of the United States. Following the inauguration, Keyes alleged that Obama had not been constitutionally inaugurated, refused to call him president, and called him a "usurper" and a "radical communist". Keyes also claimed that Obama's birth certificate had been forged and he was not qualified to be president.