Well ... to listen to the NE Corridor news media over the weekend, you would think that Ted Kennedy was as near as we're going to come in this country to our own Gandhi.
Have you heard about the memo? What memo you say? Well .. that would be the memo written by Victor Chebrikov back in 1983. Comrade Victor was the head of the Soviet Union's KGB. The memo was addressed to one Yuri Andropov, the HCWIC of the USSR. The Boss. The Top Commie. The Big Red.
First - 1983 status check. It's the Soviet Union back then, not Russia. The Berlin Wall stands and East German border guards are shooting people who try to escape Communist East Germany. Ronald Reagan is president .. and he is beginning preparations to deploy Pershing missiles to Europe. Andropov is not pleased - and when the leader of the Soviet Union wasn't pleased back in those days, neither was the American liberal establishment.
There's a presidential election just around the corner, and Ted Kennedy is starting to think that he will be the one the Democrats choose to keep the hated Reagan from winning that second term. Kennedy believes that his chances of getting the nomination and winning the election might be enhanced if he can somehow manipulate American public opinion more to the favor of the Soviet Union and less to the favor of Reagan and his plans to deploy missiles in Europe. So ... Kennedy hatches a scheme.
Now we get back to Chebrikov's memo. Chebrikov is telling Andropov that John Tunney, a close confidant to Ted Kennedy, visited Moscow in May of 1983. Tunney, according to the memo, was there on a mission from Kennedy. He wanted to get a message to Andropov. The message was that Kennedy was willing to help Andropov manipulate the American media into providing Andropov a chance to spread a bit of anti-Reagan propaganda. Kennedy, according to Tunney, was willing to arrange for some sit down interview for Andropov on American television. Kennedy would take the steps necessary for the major TV networks to contact Andropov to arrange for an invitation to Moscow. There Andropov would be interviewed and would be given a pretty good hunk of air time on American television. The trick here is that Kennedy, working with the TV networks, would make it look like the idea was all Andropov's; reaching out to the American people, so to speak.
What would Kennedy get in return? The memo makes vague references to the Soviets helping him challenge Reagan in the 1984 elections.
I guess we'll never learn what type of help Kennedy was seeking from the Soviets; and that would be because Andropov went Tango Uniform about 8 months later .. .and the Democrats didn't seem all that interested in running Kennedy anyway.
Quite a guy, our Uncle Ted. Offering to help our enemy, the Soviet Union, gain a propaganda edge in the United States ... all to boost his own chances to become president. What a guy!
Yes .. this memo was reported long ago. The London Times had a story in 1992. It was also covered in the book "The Crusader: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism" by historian Paul Kengor. The media paid no attention to the London Times story, or to Kengor's book. After all, the Liberal Lion had to be protected.
Want more? Here's the story from Forbes: Ted Kennedy's Soviet Gambit
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