Reading an interesting article in Forbes, I was dumbfounded by the idea that Ted Kennedy might have sought out Yuri Andropov’s help to run for Mike Wallace Jersey president against Ronald Reagan in 1984. A relevant summary from the article:
Kennedy’s message was simple. He proposed an unabashed quid pro quo. Kennedy would lend Andropov a hand in http://www.hotravens.com/Vonta_Leach_Jersey_VL973 dealing with President Reagan. Ben Roethlisberger Jersey In return, the Soviet leader would lend the Democratic Party a hand in challenging Reagan in the 1984 presidential election.
First, I don’t believe the text of Kennedy’s original letter has ever been released. The original news story by Tim Sebastian (former Moscow correspondent for the BBC), published in The Sunday Times on 2 February 1992, covers a memo written in 1983 by Victor Chebrikov, the text of which is nowadays freely circulated, and available among other places in the appendix of the 2007 book The Crusader: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism by Paul Kengor (a complimentary history of Reagan’s policies Vonta Leach Jersey in Europe). Second, the column you cite is an opinion piece from a research fellow at the Hoover Institution, a right-wing think tank with little love for Kennedy’s approach to communism.
In other words, we are three degrees removed. There was the original letter then an interpretation of the letter offered by a bemused KGB officer- which would not be evidence of treason. And then we form another interpretation based on that memo. Yes, I have seen numerous left wing people – politicians and not – fully and honestly believe that {insert objectively non-good figure with sympathetic ideology} >> {insert right wing politician}. As a random example, Nancy Pelosi had a demonstrably higher opinion of Assad Jr. than of Bush Jr :) Or Che worship on part of “what do you you mean Che hated rock musicians AND was anti-black racist” Santana. DVK Oct 2 at 14:59
Forbes is owned by multi-milionarie Republican (demi-Libertarian) Steve Forbes. It is not a friend of Democrats in general, and Liberal Democratic icons like Ted Kennedy in particular. Still, it was restrained and friendly compared to some other right-wing sources.
The letter the article refers to did appear to happen. The hostile analysis you quoted though, is just that. There’s nothing in the letter itself about a “quid pro quo”, and no request for help in the upcomming election. If anything, Kennedy seems to be saying he’d have credibility on the subject precisely because he wasn’t running in the upcomming cycle (’84).
Another perfectly reasonable cynical political interpretation of this letter is that Kennedy felt that anti-Soviet feeling strengthened Reagan’s hand, so anything Ed Reed Jersey he could do to help promote understanding and cool tensions would therby weaken Reagan.
Here’s what Kennedy’s wiki page says about this incident:
Kennedy became the Senate’s leading advocate for a nuclear
freeze http://raylewisproshop.com/Terrell_Suggs_Jersey and was a critic of Reagan’s confrontational policies
toward the Soviet Union. So the foreign conspiracy story was already out there. All that needed to be done was change a few names.
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