1984 - Education

Education

The United States pulls out of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) December 31. President Reagan sent Oregon-born Army officer's wife Jean Broward Gerard (née Shevlin), 46, as his envoy to UNESCO in 1981 with a mandate to clean up what his administration has regarded as woeful mismanagement (the agency had also become increasingly politicized and anti-Western). Mrs. Gerard tried to negotiate changes at the Paris headquarters but failed, she notified the agency a year ago that the United States would end its financial support, and the U.S. example will soon be followed by Britain and Singapore.