After repeated attempts, Judicial Watch has managed to pry loose certain documents relating to Teddy Kennedy from the FBI. The FBI’s original redactions plainly had nothing to do with national security, so the agency apparently was trying to protect Kennedy’s reputation.
The most entertaining documents relate to a trip Kennedy took to Latin America in 1961. He visited a number of countries, accompanied by his “political counselor.” In each country, Kennedy met with prominent Communists or other left-wing leaders. The U.S. Ambassador to Mexico was outraged that Kennedy wanted to bring such people to the embassy–this was the heart of the Cold War, after all–and he refused, telling Kennedy to arrange his own interviews somewhere else. A State Department official in Peru described Teddy as “pompous and a spoiled brat.”
In Colombia, the first person Kennedy wanted to meet with was Lauchlin Currie, a Russian spy who served as a key aide to Franklin Roosevelt, then moved to Colombia and renounced his American citizenship.
By the time he got to Chile, Kennedy apparently was tired of political work, so he “made arrangements to ‘rent’ a brothel for an entire night” in Santiago. You can read the FBI reports here. Here is one of them; click to enlarge:
The year after his Latin American tour, Kennedy entered the United States Senate. It is quite remarkable: the Kennedy that emerges from the FBI reports sounds like a right-winger’s cartoon fantasy of the man. However bad you thought Ted Kennedy was, he was worse!
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