Posted on 05/24/2017 12:46:20 PM PDT by Red Badger
Sen. Edward Ted Kennedy had selfish political and ideological motives when he made secret overtures to the Soviet Unions spy agency during the Cold War to thwart then-President Ronald Reagans re-election, a Reagan biographer said in an interview with The Daily Signal.
When they came to light years later, Kennedys secret contacts with the Russians through their KGB spy agency in the early 1980s didnt cause nearly the tizzy that Russias alleged interference with this years election has for President-elect Donald Trump among liberal activists and reporters.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, with whom Trump has said he hopes to get along, is a former foreign intelligence officer and lieutenant colonel in the KGB.
In the 1980s, Kennedy was terribly misguided and a fool for seeing Reagan as a greater threat than either the leader of the Soviet Union or the head of its brutal secret police and intelligence agency, political science professor and writer Paul Kengor told The Daily Signal.
The presidential hopefuls secret correspondence with the Soviet spy service was first reported Feb. 2, 1992, by the London Times in an article headlined Teddy, the KGB and the Top Secret File.
As this reporter wrote in 2010, the story focused on a 1983 document from the spy agency detailing Kennedys overtures to top officials in the former Soviet Union. The Massachusetts Democrat had challenged President Jimmy Carter in the 1980 Democratic primaries and was considering the possibility of running again for president.
In a letter addressed to then-Soviet General Secretary Yuri Andropov, dated May 14, 1983, KGB head Viktor Chebrikov explained that Kennedy was eager to counter the militaristic policies of Reagan, who defeated Carter as the Republican nominee, and to undermine his prospects for re-election in 1984.
Sen. Edward Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., greets Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev in 1980. (Photo: Vladimir Musaelyan /TASS/Newscom) ==============================================================================================================================
Kennedy was considering another run for president in 1988, but did not rule out running in 1984, Chebrikov informed Andropov in the letter.
Kennedy suggested he could work with the American news media to help organize favorable American press coverage for Andropov and other Soviet officials, according to the 1983 letter.
Here is how the KGBs Chebrikov described Kennedys proposal, in a published English translation:
Kennedy believes that in order to influence Americans it would be important to organize in August-September of this year, televised interviews with Y.V. Andropov in the USA. A direct appeal by the general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union to the American people will, without a doubt, attract a great deal of attention and interest in the country. The senator is convinced this would receive the maximum resonance in so far as television is the most effective method of mass media and information.
Going a step further, according to the letter, Kennedy then offered up the possibility of having top media personalities such as Walter Cronkite, Barbara Walters, and Elton Raul, president of the board of the ABC television network, travel to Moscow to do television interviews with Andropov.
The senator underlined the importance that this initiative should be seen as coming from the American side, the letter to Andropov says.
Kennedys proposal also called for lower level Soviet officials, particularly from the military, to travel to the United States for a series of television interviews where they could appeal directly to the American people about the peaceful intentions of the USSR.
Former Sen. John Tunney, D-Calif., who was Kennedys law school roommate at the University of Virginia, traveled to Moscow on May 9 and 10, 1983, to meet with KGB officials and inform them of Kennedys proposal. (Tunney, also a former congressman, served one Senate term from 1971 to 1977.)
It was not Tunneys first trip to Moscow on behalf of Kennedy. He also visited the KGB in Moscow three years earlier, on March 5, 1980.
In that earlier visit, Tunney told KGB agents that Kennedy was impressed by the foreign policy statements made by General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev, Andropovs immediate predecessor as the top Soviet leader. He said Kennedy blamed Carter for becoming overly belligerent toward the Soviets after they invaded Afghanistan in December 1979.
Kennedy, an icon among Democrats who died in office in 2009, was first elected to the Senate in 1962 to fill the seat of brother John F. Kennedy when he became president.
Kennedys history with the KGB, and the trips Tunney took to Moscow on his behalf, are documented in what are known as the Mitrokhin papers filed with the Cold War International History Project of the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, D.C.
Vasiliy Mitrokhin was a former KGB agent who defected to Britain from the Soviet Union in 1992. Mitrokhin continued to work with British intelligence until his death in 2004.
Andropov died less than eight months after receiving the letter about Kennedy from his KGB head in 1983, and it is not clear if the Soviet Communist Party chief ever acted on the Democrat senators proposal.
But what is clear from history is that Russian agents have worked with dupes such as Kennedy and other naïve Americans to influence U.S. policy to serve their own ends, Kengor, a Grove City College political science professor, told The Daily Signal.
While its difficult to determine the truth behind recent allegations that Russian hackers meddled in the U.S. election, Trump and his team would be well advised to revisit Kennedys KGB correspondence to glean important lessons about the tactics of Russian intelligence, Kengor suggested:
The lesson to be learned here is, dont ever make the mistake of thinking that these KGB types are your buddies, and dont make the mistake that because they are nice to you they are going to work for you in a positive way thats good for your country. People in the KGB were schooled in the art of manipulation, misinformation. They know how to dupe people and they know how to use people.
Kengor is the author of several books on Reagan, including The Crusader: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism, which includes a copy of the entire 1983 KGB document.
In his book, Kengor points out that Tunney, now 82, acknowledged making 15 separate trips to the Soviet Union. The California Democrat served as an emissary not just for Kennedy but for other U.S. senators.
Its not clear how many, but the KGB chiefs 1983 letter to Andropov says Kennedy suggested the Soviet leader meet with Sen. Mark Hatfield, an Oregon Republican who joined with Kennedy in supporting a freeze on nuclear weapons. Hatfield died in 2011.
The KGB document that blew the lid off Kennedys overtures to the Soviets came to light in the early 1990s. Boris Yeltsin, the first president of the Russian Federation after the Soviet Union disintegrated in part because of Reagans economic and defense policies, opened the Kremlin archives.
I think Kennedy did what he honestly thought was in the best interests of the country, and that he thought Reagan was dangerous, Kengor said, adding:
But this does say something about how terribly misguided Ted Kennedy was and what a fool he was for seeing a greater danger in Reagan than he did in Chebrikov, the head of the KGB, and in Andropov, the leader of the Soviet Union.
Unless Trump surrounds himself with Russian realists who understand what they are up against with Putin, Kengor said, he is concerned Trump could be duped as many other U.S. policymakers have been.
Trump has expressed admiration for some of Putins leadership qualities.
Personally, I dont think Trump has the ideological and historical background to understand what hes dealing with in a Russian president who has spent 16 years in the KGB, Kengor said.
Guess what, Folks? It’s not illegal!!!
Personally, I dont think Trump has the ideological and historical background to understand what hes dealing with in a Russian president who has spent 16 years in the KGB, Kengor said.
Yep, Trump shoo ain’t as street smart as John “You Got a Friend” Kerry and Obama “Ramma lamma ding dong” Obama.
I’m sure glad that pompous windbag Kerry is GONE!...................
Bttt.
5.56mm
Why do people keep referring to Putin as a former KGB officer when one of our presidents was Director of the CIA? Like most other countries, the elite political class in our country is pretty damned incestuous.
Obviously it’s OK if Dems do it. That’s why Clinton’s dealings with the Russians aren’t being investigated, much less reported on!
Who killed Jack Kennedy?
Bush league investigation.
Yeah, but everyone knew Teddy was a commie.
Whittaker Chambers was right...and it hasn’t changed
“Kennedy, an icon among Democrats who died in office in 2009, was first elected to the Senate in 1962 to fill the seat of brother John F. Kennedy when he became president. “
English was my worst subject but I knew better ...
were his trousers down around his ankles....
but but but ..... the lion of the senate
the chapaquidic murderer ..... how could HE do such TREASON...
a kennedy..... camelot.... camel dung
the only good kennedy is a deceased KENNEDY...
Trump and Republicans in Congress should be demanding a full public report on Russian contacts with members of the Clinton campaign and DNC. They should also be demanding full disclosure of the content of Weiner’s laptop as well as the way the classified information was put on the laptop.
The best defense is an aggressive offense. I watched George W. Bush take body blows daily in the press for 8 years. It looks like I’m in for a repeat of that ugly show.
I can’t imagine Trump, Bannon, and even Mr. Kushner can’t find a top notch public relations operative to lead an attack on the Democrat/media propaganda machine. I’m sure the now invisible Ms. Conway knows how do do it. Where is the bare fisted response to every attack we saw in the campaign? Certainly there is plenty of dirt that can be dug up on Democrats. Please Mr. Trump, stop listening to the RINO’s and Bushies you’ve put into office.
History repeating itself with the dems going to the Russians.
It’s hard to believe it’s been 8 years since Teddy was cast into 5the pit.
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