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I don't really understand what would have led Teddy Kennedy to become a Communist patsy, other than the fact that he seems to be both evil and stupid. Unlike many of those other people, the Kennedy family does not seem to have had a Communist background. Mobsters, yes, but not Communists that I have heard of. I would have suspected Jimmy Carter before Teddy Kennedy.

I'm still trying to figure that out as well. I think it's probably rooted in Robert Kennedy's shift towards the antiwar movement in the mid-60s. This occurred on several fronts. Vietnam was the most public expression of it, but there was also his relationship to Cesar Chavez, and his involvement with the left wing of the anti-Castro movement, which predated the Bay of Pigs. The Kennedys supported a left-wing faction of the anti-Castro exile community against a more conservative faction which was closer to Nixon and to Allen Dulles' faction of the CIA. I think the Kennedys' rivalry with Nixon and LBJ had a lot to do with it. Robert was planning to run against LBJ in '68, and Ted was a candidate to run against Nixon in '72 and remained involved in the campaign even after he dropped out following Chappaquidick, so I think it was partly a case of the Kennedys opportunistically aligning with Nixon's enemies, domestic and foreign. This became easier to do after Nixon initiated detente and Ted could legally travel to Russia; I think Ted was taking advantage of that opportunity.

Thought provoking discussion. I think the political winds and grounds were shifting duing the late 60's. It's easy sitting here in 2006 to underestimate how volatile things were back then and how scared some folks in power that the whole thing was going to fall apart at the seams. Society and politics were literally ripped apart by the SDS, the antiwar movement, the love and peace crowd and on and on.

We always talk about our "leaders" but that, in almost all cases, is an extreme mis-characterization. Politicians are obviously the crassest of opportunists. 1968 perhaps, was the pivotal year with the Tet Offensive and LBJ bowing out of the race.

Both RFK and Edward the swimmer, sensed the shift in the political winds and hitched their fortunes to the new wind that was blowing. And as the "honey pot" poster pointed out, there was a lot of tail to be had in the process, something that certainly fits the Kennedy persona.

I think JFK was a reasonably solid anti-communist, if not by the standards of 1960 then at least by the standards of today. I think when things really started coming apart in 1968 the Kennedy's sold out to the side that would take them the farthest and the result is the information being discussed here. In other words, The times really were a changin' and the Kennedy's wanted to crawl on board.