The US ambassador to Ireland, Mrs Jean Kennedy Smith, has criticised the former US ambassador to London, Mr Raymond Seitz, describing comments he made about her as "unfortunate".
Mr Seitz, in an extract from his memoirs, had written that she was "an ardent IRA apologist".
Mrs Kennedy Smith, in a statement last night, said: "It is unfortunate that Mr Seitz has chosen to personalise this. Let the peace process speak for itself. The fact is that the party talks are under way and the outlines of a potential settlement are being discussed. The parties themselves have taken primary credit for this, but I think history will record that President Clinton and his administration have played a major part."
Mr Seitz, who was ambassador to London from 1991 to 1994, made his comments in extracts from his memoirs in the Sunday Telegraph. He said Mrs Kennedy Smith was "wilful and skittish" and "an ardent IRA apologist." He felt she had become "a promotion agent" for Mr Gerry Adams.
The former Taoiseach, Mr Albert Reynolds, defended Mrs Kennedy Smith yesterday. He said that while previous governments had not supported a US visa for Mr Adams, his government had changed that.
Referring to Mr Seitz's comments, Mr Reynolds said: "I don't think he understood the facts of the situation at that particular time. Jean Kennedy Smith was appointed ambassador here in 1993. What anybody would expect from any of the Kennedys, which has always been their hallmark, was that they were always very strong supporters of nationalism anyway.
"What is more important from where Mr Seitz is coming from is . . . I don't know if he understands that President Clinton in his first presidential election gave a commitment to Irish-America to participate in supporting the Irish peace process in every way he could.
"He offered to send a peace envoy to Ireland. He offered this to me in my first meeting with him, and I declined to accept that, but I said I would be back with a more pragmatic suggestion as to how he could help. The visa was exactly that, because up to that successive Irish governments had not supported a visa for Gerry Adams. My government changed the policy to support a visa for Gerry Adams at that period".
In an RTE interview, Mr Reynolds said: "Basically, what was happening was this. Behind the scenes in the talks for the Downing Street Declaration and afterwards, we were building an alternative strategy to violence.
"We had to prove that politics worked, worked better than violence and produced better results. In getting a visa for Gerry Adams against all the opposition from London would be seen to show clearly to the republican leadership and nationalists that politics does work and that the democratic system does work.
"By winning that battle we clearly demonstrated that. It was only one step along an alternative strategy to violence."
Asked if Mrs Kennedy Smith had made these representations on his prompting, Mr Reynolds said: "I spoke to Jean Kennedy Smith and she said that hasn't been the policy. I said my government has changed the policy and I would dearly appreciate your support and the support of your brother.
She said she would talk to her brother and talk to John Hume as well. I said I would be speaking to John Hume to tell him about the Government's position."