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Journalism is Dead in the United States

An Important Story Goes Untold - Ted Kennedy and the KGB

by Daniel Mallock

If the claims of author Paul Kengor in a recent Frontpage magazine interview are accurate, one of this country’s senior democratic Senators had what appears to be highly questionable and likely inappropriate communications with the government of the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War, or worse.

Mr. Kengor claims that he has a bombshell document which came directly from the KGB archives (discovered after Yeltsin opened them to western researchers) that has been vetted by scholars of Soviet archival materials and deserves a wider hearing by the American people. I agree entirely.

This story is worthy of investigation and discussion.

Why has this story not been given more media play than it has up to this point, which is to say, very little? Are we afraid to discuss issues because they are politically incorrect, or perhaps because the mainstream media is awash in self-censorship and will not discuss issues that may be detrimental to the leadership of the Left?

A good and professional investigative journalist would possibly undertake a discussion with the Senator’s office on this issue as a reasonable first step. Querying the office of the Senator as to weather or not the document was known to them, and was legitimate would be one of the first steps in the investigation. This was done:

For the record, one news source, a regional cable outlet in the Philadelphia area, called CN8, took the time to call Kennedy’s office. The official response from his office was not to deny the document but to argue with the interpretation. Which interpretation? Mine or Chebrikov’s? Kennedy’s office wasn’t clear on that. My interpretation was not an interpretation. I simply tried to report what Chebrikov reported to Andropov. So, I guess Kennedy’s office was disputing Chebrikov’s interpretation, which is quite convenient, since Chebrikov is dead, as is Andropov. Alas, the perfect defense—made more perfect by an American media that will not ask the senator from Massachusetts a single question (hard or soft) on this remarkable incident.

Such an allegation relating to an American leader, living or dead, currently serving or retired deserves a fair hearing and a proper intensive investigation. If this document from the KGB archives is legitimate - the response from Kennedy’s office would suggest that it is - it is certainly worthy of further study and discussion. Mr. Kengor states that the document has been both investigated and vetted:

It comes from the Central Committee archives of the former USSR. Once Boris Yeltsin took over Russia in 1991, he immediately began opening the Soviet archives, which led to a rush on the archives by Western researchers. One of them, Tim Sebastian of the London Times and BBC, found the Kennedy document and reported it in the February 2, 1992 edition of the Times, in an article titled, “Teddy, the KGB and the top secret file.”

But, according to Mr. Kengor, no western mainstream media outlet will run this story or put their “investigative journalists” onto the issue. In addition, Kengor had additional analysis done on the document.

I first authenticated it through Herb Romerstein, the Venona researcher and widely respected expert who knows more about the Communist Party and archival research beyond the former Iron Curtain than anyone. I also had a number of scholars read the original and the translation, including Harvard’s Richard Pipes.

It would appear that Mr. Kengor has done his homework.

Isn’t this potentially very serious issue worthy of investigation by America’s “objective” journalists? Where are they? Why is Kengor’s recent interview in Frontpage one of the few public discussions of this matter? Partisan political opinion should not prevent anyone from investigating this matter further. Nor should political correctness concerns prevent investigators, historians, and analysts from uncovering the full truth about this or any other controversial issue.

American journalists should be Americans first and foremost, political commentators and political partisans second. Certainly, our politicians have the same responsibility?

It has become a new theme in American “journalism” to be activist writers rather than the chroniclers and reporters of truth. Partisanship and “Journalism” are not complimentary.

“We see some of the same sentiments today, in that some Democrats see the Republican president as being a threat and the true obstacle to peace, instead of seeing our enemies as the true danger,” said Paul Kengor, a political science professor at Grove City College.” (source)

The letter in question in the KGB archive was a forwarding of an offer by Massachusetts Senator Edward M. Kennedy as presented by his “old friend and law-school buddy, John Tunney, a former Democratic senator from California” to:

… reach out to the Soviet leadership at the height of a very hot time in the Cold War. According to Chebrikov, Kennedy was deeply troubled by the deteriorating relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union, which he believed was bringing us perilously close to nuclear confrontation. Kennedy, according to Chebrikov, blamed this situation not on the Soviet leadership but on the American president—Ronald Reagan. Not only was the USSR not to blame, but, said Chebrikov, Kennedy was, quite the contrary, “very impressed” with Andropov.”

This is a potentially very serious matter. If the letter is a true communication from a US Senator (currently still in office) to high officials of the Soviet government whose purpose was to undermine the policies of this country - this is a serious matter indeed.

American journalists should be investigating this issue and either dismissing it as as silly or an innocent and misunderstood communication, or they should be pursuing it as something much more serious. They should go where the truth leads them - that is their mission and little else.

It is insufficient to dismiss this issue as something out of some classic partisan political playbook during an election cycle, or as something that could not possibly be so, or as something unworthy of American journalists due to Mr. Kennedy’s recent health problems.

For American journalists there should be nothing more important that finding the truth as isn’t that the mandate for a free press in a free society?

If the silence from the mainstream press on this potentially explosive issue is on account of some bizarre form of self-censorship or some kind-hearted conception of “protecting” public people from old mistakes or “unfortunate” events long in the past, it is an abrogation of the fundamental purpose of journalism in a free society.

The suggestions in the Frontpage interview regarding this previously undiscussed document are extraordinary. This document from the KGB archives must be investigated by independent sources and investigators. Mr. Kengor has stated that that is exactly what he wants - independent validation and discussion of this document. Mr. Kengor is confident that it is a legitimate document and, if so, what on earth can it mean? On its face, it is particularly unpleasant and belies a nasty partisanship on the part of a currently serving American political leader.

The Washington Times in an October 27/28, 2006 article is more to the point.

Even in a jaded world, it is breathtaking to discover a U.S. senator — brother of a former president — actively and secretly collaborating with Soviet leaders in an attempt to undermine the president of the United States’ nuclear defense policy during the height of the cold war.

Partisanship in journalism belongs on the Op/Ed pages, not in the body of reportage. This story may or may not now have any “legs”, but it remains for the journalists of this country - if there are any left without a partisan political bias - to refute or confirm the contents and character of this very disturbing letter from the archives of the KGB. It is the duty of the American press to report the truth, regardless of their opinion on the matter under discussion. Anything less is unworthy of the “profession” and a disservice to the American people.