Text of KGB Letter on Senator Ted Kennedy

The Crusader - Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism | 2006 | Paul Kengor (excerpt - Appendix Page 317)

[Savage Beast]

And the least intelligent. And the least influential. And the least qualified to lead.

[The Westerner]

But a most useful idiot, nonetheless. Think of how far the tentacles of the Kennedy family reach, even as far as the governor of California who has aspirations of being President.

[Cheburashka]

Senator Kennedy is a public figure, which makes suing problematical.

I repeat, is there a copy of the letter in Russian?

[piasa]

Senators McGovern and Hatfield belonged to an IPS-linked lobby called Members of Congress for Peace Through Law (MCPL) which supported the antiwar protestors during Dewey Canyon III and the subsequent NPAC and PCPJ demonstrations. During the April 24 March Against the War, the VVAW was addressed by MCPL Senators McGovern, Ted Kennedy, Walter Mondale, and Philip Hart, along with two MCPL Congressmen. Meanwhile eight MCPL Congressmen addressed a PCPJ group.195
Political support also came from other antiwar Congressmen and Senators.196 Most notably, Senator Hart and Senator Claiborne Pell, a critic of US policy towards Cuba as well as Vietnam,197 hosted a VVAW fundraiser which was attended by Senator J. William Fulbright. Fulbright, who sat with Pell on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and shared Pell’s views on Cuba and Vietnam, had led Senate opposition to the Vietnam War since 1966,198 and during the fundraiser he invited Kerry to speak to his committee about war crimes.
Other members of Fulbright’s committee who listened to Kerry sympathetically during his testimony were Stuart Symington, who had been Dean Acheson’s favored choice for Democratic Presidential candidate in 1960,199 and Frank Church, who would soon lead a Congressional attack on the US intelligence community which was supported by the VVAW, the National Lawyers Guild, the Institute for Policy Studies, and Cuban and Soviet agents.200 ...197On Pell, see “Pell, Claiborne”, Current Biography, Bronx, New York: The H. W. Wilson Company, 1972; “Pell, Claiborne de Borda, 1918-“, Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=P000193 (September 24, 2004); Claiborne Pell, Power and Policy: America’s Role in World Affairs, New York: Norton, 1972; Powell, 252, 389.--------------see Hanoi John: Kerry and the Antiwar Movement’s Communist Connections via 32 posted on 05/01/2006 3:51:16 PM PDT by Fedora | To 29

[piasa]

Imagine the size of the weight belt you'd need to sink two 55 gallon drums of lard.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Senator Kennedy is a public figure, which makes suing problematical.

John Kerry doesn't seem to have a problem suing. Ask the Swift Boat group.

I repeat, is there a copy of the letter in Russian?

From the book source, "The Crusader - Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism," which is listed at the beginning of this thread:

The author, Paul Kengor, describes the Kennedy/Tunney/Soviet matter in Chapter 17, where he writes about the 1984 presidential campaign. I don't plan to type that entire chapter (go buy the book) but I did type up the "Notes" on the KGB letter referenced in chapter 17 and will add them below. If you want more information about what language the letter was in, I believe I've given you enough information to pursue that on you own.

Quote: Notes (full text) page 369

25. To the best of my knowledge, this book is the first full examination and presentation of the Chebrikov document. The document came from the Central Committee Archives of the Communist Party of the former USSR. There are a number of different archives from the Soviet period, including, for example, the KGB Archives, the Comintern Archives, among others. The archives were opened in the early 1990s by the Boris Yeltsin government, whereupon scholars and journalists eagerly began digging into the documents. The Yeltsin government, for various reasons, closed many of the archives, including the Central Committee Archives, in the 1994-95 period.

The document that I cite here was apparently initially found by a London Times reporter in early 1992. The London Sunday Times subsequently published an article on the document, titled “Teddy, the KGB and the top secret file,” in the February 2, 1992 edition. The Times article, however, was brief and included only a few quotes from the document; the newspaper published only a photo of a small section from the upper left corner of page one of the five page document. Once the Times piece ran, a number of people scrambled to the archives to obtain their own copy of the document, which then began circulating in and around Moscow. Various individuals obtained copies. Shortly thereafter, the Russian government closed the file.

Among those who obtained a full copy was Herb Romerstein, author of the seminal work on the Venona papers, The Verona Secrets. Romerstein is a former staff member of the U.S. House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and a seasoned veteran of archival research from the Cold War period. Romerstein continues to do research from intelligence archives of former Communist countries. My copy was obtained through Marko Suprun, who got the copy from Herb Romerstein and Walter Zaryckyj. Romerstein provided details to me on the document’s origin in a number of discussions in June 2005. Unquote.

[Gothmog]

has sub commander kennedy ever responded to the release of this information?

[Cincinatus' Wife]

I don't know if Kennedy has responded.

Here's a quote from a Washington Times editorial:

....If Chebrikov's account of events is accurate, it's clear Mr. Kennedy was actively engaging the Russians to influence the 1984 election. He also seems to have genuinely believed that Mr. Reagan's policies were endangering U.S.-Soviet relations and that the best solution was to get Mr. Reagan out of office. The letter closes with Chebrikov saying that "Tunney remarked that the senator wants to run for president in 1988," possibly suggesting Mr. Kennedy had other, more selfish motives.

As Mr. Kengor concludes, "if the memo is in fact an accurate account of what transpired, it constitutes a remarkable example of the lengths to which some on the political left, including a sitting U.S. senator, were willing to go to stop Ronald Reagan."

We agree. Even in a jaded world, it is breathtaking to discover a U.S. senator -- brother of a former president -- actively and secretly collaborating with Soviet leaders in an attempt to undermine the president of the United States' nuclear defense policy during the height of the cold war. ....

http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20061027-084248-4386r.htm

[Gothmog]

I'm wondering what response I might get from a letter to his office. BTW, thanks for posting the original article and this response.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

If you get a response, please post it as a stand alone thread and link this thread to it.

Good luck.

[Savage Beast]

Yes, quite right.

Once in Massachusetts (I forgot where I was) I made a remark about Teddy Kennedy that was not really critical but merely slightly offhanded. You would have thought I had insulted the Prophet Mohammed in one of the Muslim theocracies.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

I've noticed that people from MA make jokes about their elected officials and big government messes but don't like "outsiders" to assume the role of critic.

[CPT Clay]

Kennedy was wrong then and is wrong now.

[ALOHA RONNIE]

.

Thank you for your CLARITY, plasa.

Your outstanding historical Post No. 124 would be a great addition with us over on:

http://www.Freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1308949/posts

So, Come on Down..?

I will NEVER FORGET my happily striding into the Travis Air Force Base Terminal in April 1966 when returning home from the 1st Major Battles for Freedom of the Vietnam War.

Only to see on a lobby TV the 1st FULLBRIGHT Foreign Relations Committee Vietnam War Hearings ...grilling away at Sec. of State DEAN RUSK and Sec. of Defense ROBERT McNAMARA about the Vietnam War.

A FULLBRIGHT Committee that later on had as one of its Staffers one...

...WILLIAM Jefferson CLINTON.

As Sen. FRANK CHURCH's Intelligence Committee went on to completely devastate our Nation's Intelligence capibilities ...after the post-WATERGATE Democrat Congressional Election Victory of 1974.

Something we are all paying very dearly for now..?

For...
...the Enemy is now Within...
...and always has been.


NEVER FORGET

.

[stockpirate]

What a piece of scum!

[narses]

+

If you want on (or off) this Catholic and Pro-Life ping list, let me know!

[Cheburashka]

Imagine the size of the weight belt you'd need to sink two 55 gallon drums of lard.
---
I'd like to see Teddy walk in it before we toss him in the drinkwater.

[metalurgist]

Why isn't this treasonous lump of lard being charged with treason and whose job is it to charge him, and why are'nt they? This cannot be allowed to stand.

[Cheburashka]

John Kerry doesn't seem to have a problem suing. Ask the Swift Boat group.
---
JF'n is a kept man, and he is suing with someone else's money.

Senator Kennedy presumably would be more judicious in the spending of his own family's fortune.

The answer as to the Russian copy of the Letter is: maybe. It hasn't been published anywhere.

I reviewed the information linked in post #111 above. Interesting, but hardly proof of anything. A lot of allegations. Which is why Teddy hasn't sued about THEM either. Suing would just give the makers of the allegations publicity. You can't prove a negative, that Teddy DIDN'T have questionable contacts the the Soviets. In fact as an important leader in American politics for about 40 years you would expect him to have some contacts with every major or minor foreign power at one time or another. The issue would be the appropriateness of these contacts.

Nothing here proves he was illegitimately coordinating with the Soviets. He may have been, but I'm talking about proof.

The letter we are talking about might be nothing more than a report of a drunken conversation Mr. Tunney had with a female Russian while conducting a corporate client's business in Moscow. Unfortunately for Mr. Tunney he was stupid enough not to realize that such a woman was almost certainly a Soviet government agent and he tried to impress her that he was a personal friend of Teddy. Perhaps he wanted to try out his horizontal Russian? Oh, no, that has never happened in the history of humanity.

And it might be something more. But there's no proof.

A story to watch. Perhaps proof will come out some time in the future.

[Palladin]

Traitor Ted is a dangerous man.

Was he in cahoots with the KGB before, during, or after the assassination attempt on Reagan?