Posted by Mar 7th 2011 at 3:49 pm
This is the most recent installment of exclusive interviews with Dr. Paul Kengor, professor of political science at Grove City College, on his book revealing how communists, from Moscow to New York to Chicago, have long manipulated America’s liberals/progressives. Dupes: How America’s Adversaries Have Manipulated Progressives for a Century is based on an unprecedented volume of declassified materials from Soviet archives, FBI files, and more.
Big Peace: Professor Kengor, we’ve discussed Ted Kennedy since we started this series. Well, in the last few days, there’s more intriguing material on the late senator, with another batch of declassified FBI files.
Kengor: I’m surprised this hasn’t gotten more attention, even from conservatives. I guess scandalous information on Ted Kennedy and brothels and communists isn’t news.
Here’s the latest: Ted Kennedy’s declassified FBI file is about 2,200 pages long, which might stretch from Washington to Cape Cod. The latest batch is around 200 pages. The one item that has gotten some attention, but not a lot, is the report that while Kennedy was in Latin America on a “familiarization” tour in July-August 1961, he attempted to “rent” an entire brothel in Santiago, Chile.
That would be a uniquely Kennedy-esque form of familiarization—an up-close way to get acquainted with the locals.
Big Peace: As you note, this got a little media attention. Even less remarked upon, however, is another Kennedy encounter during this “familiarization.” This one is potentially more serious.
Kengor: This one shocked me, even by Ted Kennedy standards. Apparently, Kennedy also met with none other than Lauchlin Currie, who is one of three or four FDR advisers most suspected of Soviet espionage. Currie gets mentioned in a short list with Alger Hiss, Harry Dexter White, Harold Glasser. According to these files, Kennedy “dined” with Currie in August 1961, during this tour.
Big Peace: Why? What did they discuss?
Kengor: I don’t know. There’s no additional information. But the files repeatedly note that Kennedy, during this tour, wanted to meet with “Leftists,” many of whom were at least “communist sympathizers.” He wanted to figure out what made them “think the way they did.”
Big Peace: This reaching out to communists is consistent with your reporting. In Dupes, you give the amazing example of Kennedy reaching out to the Soviet leadership.
Kengor: I publish, in Russian and English, a May 1983 KGB document titled, “Regarding Senator Kennedy’s request to the General Secretary of the Communist Party Y. V. Andropov.” It was highly classified, listed as “SPECIAL IMPORTANCE,” and sent directly from the head of the KGB, Victor Chebrikov, to the head of the USSR, the awful Yuri Andropov. In the memo, Kennedy is “very troubled by the current state of Soviet-American relations.” “The main reason” for the deterioration in relations is “Reagan’s belligerence.” According to Chebrikov, Kennedy wanted to work with the Soviets to counter Reagan’s “belligerent” defense policies and (this is my interpretation) to also attempt to undermine Reagan’s re-election prospects. I believe that’s an accurate interpretation. Readers can read the document and come to their own conclusions.
Big Peace: You say the document has been resealed in Russian archives?
Kengor: That’s my understanding. But if you have a copy of Dupes, you can read it on pages 498-505.
Big Peace: So, in both cases, Ted Kennedy reached out to some shady characters from the extreme Left?
Kengor: That’s correct. With the KGB incident, it was May 1983, when Kennedy was an elected senator and the Democratic presidential frontrunner. In the files just released, it was the summer of 1961, when Kennedy was hoping to fill his presidential brother’s Senate seat.
Big Peace: There’s another remarkable Kennedy item you flagged from the declassified file.
Kengor: I haven’t seen this reported anywhere. There’s a March 2, 1967 memo in the file. It contends that Kennedy, then a senator, wanted to bring 100 Vietnamese children to the United States. These were children who had been “horribly burned as a result of our napalm bombing.” The memo maintains that both Ted and his brother, Bobby, “were plotting to use these children by touring them through the country for political purposes to embarrass President [Lyndon] Johnson.”
Big Peace: Could that be true?
Kengor: I can’t confirm it. That said, we have reason to suspect the possibility. As we discussed here previously, Kennedy at the time was making outrageous accusations against our troops in Vietnam, accusing them of outlandish things.
Today, we remember Ted’s horrible statements about our troops in Iraq, including the irresponsible claim that “Saddam’s torture chambers” had simply reopened under “new management—U.S. management.” In fact, Kennedy was maligning our boys in Southeast Asia long before the Middle East.
So, the idea of parading maimed and burnt Vietnamese children around America would not seem completely out of character.
Also, bear in mind that the 1983 KGB memo describes how Kennedy wanted to bring Andropov and high-level Soviet officials to the United States—at the start of Reagan’s re-election campaign—so the Soviets could communicate their “peaceful” intentions directly to the American people. This would have been a Soviet goodwill tour to frame Reagan as the obstacle to peace. In both cases, Reagan in 1983 and LBJ in 1967, Kennedy portrayed the American president as the aggressor.
Big Peace: You’ve also noted that Kennedy portrayed Jimmy Carter that way (to the Soviets) in 1980.
Kengor: That’s based on the Mitrokhin archives. In all three cases, these were presidents (two were fellow Democrats) up for re-election, with a Kennedy the frontrunner challenging them.
Big Peace: Last question, regarding another Ted Kennedy gem in Dupes. You say the Soviets staged a fake wedding in Moscow to wine, dine, and manipulate Kennedy while he was there?
Kengor: That’s according to the testimony of Soviet defector Yuri Bezmenov. Bezmenov, who died a few years ago, had an actual photo of Kennedy dancing with the bride—assuming this was a real bride. I publish the photo in Dupes.
Big Peace: Has any reporter called you to ask about this?
Kengor: No, not even to try to dispute it. That’s not their job; they’re partisan Democrats first, and journalists second. They’ve also never called me about the KGB memo. They protected Ted Kennedy all the way to the grave, and still do.
Big Peace: But they can’t cover up the FBI files.
Kengor: No, and as these things are released, we will need to read them ourselves, drawing our own conclusions, given that this nation’s “journalists” aren’t interested.
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