October 21, 2006

1983

Huge.

    There’s a new book on Ronald Reagan making the rounds, The Crusader: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism. Its author, Paul Kengor, unearthed a sensational document from the Soviet archives. That document is a memo regarding an offer made by Sen. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts via former Senator John Tunney, both Democrats, to the General Secretary of the Communist Party, USSR, Yuri Andropov, in 1983. The offer was to help the Soviet leadership, military and civilian, conduct a PR campaign in the United States as President Ronald Reagan sought re-election. The goal of the PR campaign would be to cast President Reagan as a warmonger, the Soviets as willing to peacefully co-exist, and thereby turn the electorate away from Reagan. It was a plan to enlist Soviet help, and use the American press, in unseating an American president.

    Think about that.


I can't believe Karl Rove put a sitting Senator up to something like that.

They say that if you tell a lie big enough, anyone will believe it.

Charging the elder statesman of the Democrat Party with treason right before an election?

It's true, or it's an unprecidented libel.

Politics Posted by AlexC at October 21, 2006 12:47 AM

You wouldn't want to accuse a murderer of treason without proof. (Did jk just say that? What happened to dispassionate reason?)

I agree with Jay Nordlinger that the left has never had to account for its support of Communism. Every time I hoist a delicious cup of contra cafe (www.contracafe.com) coffee grown by the freedom fighters in Nicaragua, I think of Senator Dodd -- almost ruining the taste.

Dodd openly backed the Sandinistas, choosing Communism and tyranny in this hemisphere rather than aligning himself with the evil Reagan. He's still representing the Nutmeg State, vindictively opposing Otto Reich's nomination because Reich was on the right side.

Do note than an update makes it clear that the memo was not written by Senator Kennedy.

Posted by: jk at October 21, 2006 12:05 PM

True dat. I never understood the memo to have originated with Kennedy, but "overthere."

In anycase, you're dead on. They've never had to account. No communists did, outside of say, Caucescu in Romania, and a few like that.

The fellow travelers? They're still truckin'.

Posted by: AlexC at October 21, 2006 12:37 PM | What do you think? [2]