UNORTHODOX COMPROMISING SENATOR TED KENNEDY EXTENDED SOCIAL JUSTICE IDEALS BEYOND AMERICAN BORDERS

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Aug 28 2009

In May 2007, in his effort to put history in its proper perspective,
Senator Ted Kennedy voted that the President should accurately
acknowledge the Armenian genocide of the early 1900s. While the
Turkish government along with its lobbyists were opposed to the
passing of the U.S. Armenian genocide resolution by the U.S. House
Committee on Foreign Affairs in 2007, S. Res/H.Res.106, American
Genocide Resolution, was passed by a vote of 27-21. This resolution was
cosponsored by Senator Ted Kennedy. That same year Senator Ted Kennedy
urged Venezuela to re-open dissident radio and TV Stations in May
2007. He voted yes on ending the Vietnam embargo, no on strengthening
the trade embargo against Cuba, and no on limiting NATO expansion to
only Poland, Hungary & the former Czechoslovakia in 1998. He voted
to limit the President’s power to impose economic sanctions, no on
capping foreign aid at only $12.7 billion, and yes on enlarging NATO
to include Eastern Europe. His Senate record speaks for itself and
provides a glimpse at a Senator who believed in democratic ideals and
principles, fought for checks and balances on the executive branch and
against embargos that he deemed were ineffective (even given that his
brother President Kennedy had expanded the Cuban embargo.) Speaking
in 2007, he said,

"I believe the idea of isolating Cuba was a mistake…It has been
ineffective. Whatever the reasons and justifications may have been
at the time, now they are invalid."

And even while he regularly sparred with President Ronald Reagan,
as the featured speaker at a forum sponsored by the Ronald Reagan
Presidential Foundation and Library in 2007, he praised Reagan for his
aggressive stance toward the Soviet Union that resulted in securing
a better resolution to the Cold War. While there were certainly
abstract differences that led both to have different views of the
world around them, Kennedy found that Reagan’s interest to win a point
with a foe, didn’t lead to a rhetorical style that was contemptible
or that contained personal attacks. Reagan to Ted Kennedy was not a
loose cannon in the face of opposition.

"He was always a good friend and a gracious foe. He wanted to defeat
his opponents, but not destroy them."

Even so, Senator Ted Kennedy was very active on supporting a nuclear
freeze and in 1982 proposed a nuclear freeze resolution to halt the
nuclear arms race. He also actively opposed the Star Wars program. The
author of the "Hydrogen Molecular Ion" who later became part of the
Manhattan Project and the father of the first atomic bomb that was
built in Los Alamos, New Mexico, Edward Tiller had a very different
perspective that year.

"I hope [the nuclear-freeze movement] will not become an important
force. I hope more sense will prevail. If the nuclear freeze goes
through, this country won’t exist in 1990. The Soviet Union is a
country that has had totalitarian rule for many hundreds of years,
and what a relatively small ruling class there might do can be very
different from what a democratic country can decide to do. The rulers
in the Kremlin are as eager as Hitler was to get power over the whole
world. But unlike Hitler they are not gamblers. If we can put up a
missile defense that makes their attack dubious, chances are they
will never try the attack. We can avoid a third world war, but only
if strength is in the hands of those who want peace more than they
want power."

Even though he wanted to limit the use of sanctions as an instrument of
foreign policy, in 1985, after a visit to South Africa, he introduced
legislation to impose economic sanctions on South Africa. According to
Randal Robinson, a renowned anit-apartheid activist, and currently a
professor of human rights law at the Dickinson School of Law at Penn
State University,

"What we did that resulted in the overriding of Ronald Reagan’s veto
— the first time in the 20th century that a foreign policy veto of
a sitting president had been overridden by the Senate — that could
not have happened without Ted Kennedy. He was not just a major force,
he was the essential, he was the indispensable force."

Ted Kennedy’s vision of a just society didn’t end at the American
border.

When he spoke about the Iraq invasion, he was apprehensive.

"In Iraq, we have acted nearly alone, and we are paying a terrible
price," Kennedy said. "We can and sometimes must defend democracy
by force, but we cannot impose it by force. Democratic principles
are universal, but democracy must find its champions within each
country’s culture and tradition."

While conservative columnists had a field day calling the American
left morally bankcrupt as a result of Ted Kennedy’s public statements
about Iraq and specifically about the Abu Ghraib scandal – "We are
the most hated nation in the world," said Ted Kennedy, "as a result
of this disastrous policy in the prisons" – now they see him as a good
compromiser, pragmatic and a realist. Ted Kennedy was a bipartisan.

Speaking to the Council on Foreign Relations in 2004 on the Iraq issue,
he conjured up John Adams,

"The nation is engaged in a major ongoing debate about why America
went to war in Iraq, when Iraq was not an imminent threat, had no
nuclear weapons, no persuasive links to Al Qaeda, no connection to
the terrorist attacks of September 11th, and no stockpiles of weapons
of mass destruction.

Over two centuries ago, John Adams spoke eloquently about the need to
let facts and evidence guide actions and policies. He said, "Facts are
stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations,
or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of
facts and evidence." Listen to those words again, and you can hear
John Adams speaking to us now about Iraq. "Facts are stubborn things;
and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of
our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.""

And in order to respond to the discrediting and the quickness to label
Kennedy as a Senator acting and speaking against American interests,
Ted Kennedy gave a speech at Johns Hopkins’ Paul H. Nitze School of
Advanced International Studies in Washington D.C. that is a perfect
example of his steadfast belief in the freedom of expression and his
belief that the decision about war and peace is not one to be made
in a back room on Capitol Hill.

"I have come here today to express my view that America should not go
to war against Iraq unless and until other reasonable alternatives are
exhausted. But I begin with the strongest possible affirmation that
good and decent people on all sides of this debate, who may in the
end stand on opposing sides of this decision, are equally committed
to our national security.

The life and death issue of war and peace is too important to be left
to politics. And I disagree with those who suggest that this fateful
issue cannot or should not be contested vigorously, publicly, and all
across America. When it is the people’s sons and daughters who will
risk and even lose their lives, then the people should hear and be
heard, speak and be listened to.

But there is a difference between honest public dialogue and partisan
appeals. There is a difference between questioning policy and
questioning motives. There are Republicans and Democrats who support
the immediate use of force – and Republicans and Democrats who have
raised doubts and dissented.

In this serious time for America and many American families, no
one should poison the public square by attacking the patriotism
of opponents, or by assailing proponents as more interested in the
cause of politics than in the merits of their cause. I reject this,
as should we all."

Although 34 radio stations have been forced off the air in Venezuela
at the beginning of August under circumstances that are being debated
and discussed, while licensing issues are being cited, Senator Kennedy
tried to keep Radio Caracas Television (RCTV) open. It was closed in
2007 and since then it has been reported that independent stations
have been threatened with greater frequency.

Finally, on the issues of the Cuban embargo, while President Nixon
and Henry Kissinger were able to frame Cuba within a cold war context
with enough success to win over much of Congress, Senator Ted Kennedy
prominently voiced that the embargo was an "outdated and unrealistic"
approach. He suggested that China and Cuba were more analogous.

Ted Kennedy never apologized about his liberal values on domestic
issues and foreign matters. According to insider Jay Doherty, an old
friend of Ted Kennedy’s, Ted Kennedy worked hard at his job and he was
aggressive at maintaining his friendships. Although he was attacked
for his views that government has a responsibility to improve the
lives of its citizens, he always believed in human rights and kept
this belief at the core of his arguments whether they be on domestic
or foreign issues. He found cruelty and anti-democratic crackdowns
a call to action. He defied conventional wisdom when it came to
nuclear attacks, and he took political risks that many would not take,
ones that might be considered taboo or too soft. Senator Ted Kennedy
challenged the reigning orthodoxy when it mattered most, when there
were only prevailing dynamics and alternatives were discouraged and
seemed few and far between.