U.P./. There Is Grave Reason For Concern About CHAPPAQUIDDICK Gary Allen is author of None Dare Call It Conspiracy; The Rockefeller File; Kissinger: Secret Side Of The Secretary Of State; Jimmy Carter/Jimmy Carter; and, Tax Target: Washington. He is an AMERICAN OPINION Contributing Editor. • DURING THE summer and fall of Teddy the 1972 nomination and al­ 1979, as Senator Edward Kennedy most certainly the Presidency in 1976. was making his decision on whether to But by 1979 an entire decade had challenge the seemingly terminal Car­ elapsed since the mysterious incident ter Administration in the Democratic which took the life of Mary Jo Ko­ primary, one of the factors he consid­ pechne and put Kennedy's political ered most carefully was that polls career under a cloud. The friendly showed the Chappaquiddick incident fellows of the Washington press to be receding in the public memory. corps had been very kind about not Chappaquiddick had probably cost asking him embarrassing questions. FEBRUARY, 1980 11 In fact the media had treated the had been solved. They were mistaken. death at Chappaquiddick as though it Once Teddy made the announcement were a social faux pas. They made it that he would seek the Democratic seem that any question about it was a nomination for President in 1980, key low blow, a cheap shot, and dirty poli­ members of the press revived Chap­ tics. Civilized people would not be­ paquiddick as an issue. foul the air by so much as breathing The breakthrough came on a Sun­ the word Chappaquiddick. To do so day night in November when C.B.S. would turn your Dry Sack into cooking carried a nationwide special on Ted­ sherry and your Perrier to vinegar. dy. The program featured an inter­ It appeared that Edward Moore view by Roger Mudd. Because Mudd Kennedy was home free, and he was is a Kennedy admirer and a family lulled into a sense of euphoria. Be­ friend, the Senator apparently ex­ sides, Kennedy and his staff had pected he would play a mild devil's never seen Chappaquiddick as a moral advocate and let Kennedy slay the issue. According to Walter Pincus, dragon of Chappaquiddick like a bril­ who as editor of The New Republic liant knight of Camelot. While Mudd admired Kennedy's voting record but did not go for the jugular, he was not his character: "They seem to see probing, personal, and professional. Chappaquiddick as a public-relations The interview proved a disaster for obstacle . .." For ten years the Senator Kennedy. "image makers" had been working Kennedy's replies ranged from the hard to overcome the Kennedy-Ko­ incredible to the unintelligible. The pechne scandal. The "Liberal" media man reputed to be "the greatest were slowly but certainly resurrecting street-corner orator in America" re­ the Kennedy image and building him sponded by raising babbling to an art into the "New Messiah," the one man form. For example, when Mudd who could lead the country to the high asked about the state of his marriage, plateaus of Nirvana. the Senator replied: "We .. I think But Kennedy and his staff real­ that it's a .. it's had some diffi­ ized that they could not stonewall the cult times, but I think we have . Chappaquiddick issue throughout a we, I think we have been able to make Presidential campaign, so they de­ some very good progress and it's, it's, cided to face the issue early, bury it, it's .. delighted that we're able to, and move on to other matters. They to share, the time and the relationship would allow reporters to interview the that we, that we do share." Senator on the tenth anniversary of As the interview continued, Ken­ the tragedy. His staff would review nedy did not improve.His response to all questions in advance and no tape Roger Mudd's query about why the recorders would be allowed . Senator was challenging a sitting Had President Nixon imposed sim­ Democratic President resulted in ilar rules on a press conference relat­ more indecipherable mumbo-jumbo ing to Watergate, the Washington as he ra mb led on with cliche-ridden press corps would have boycotted it sentence fragments about the coun ­ and roasted him for attempting to try's need for leadership. Columnist subvert the people's right to know. In Patrick Buchanan sarcastically sug­ the case of Kennedy, however, the gested that Carter should run seg­ press groveled and agreed. Little won­ ments of the interview as paid politi­ der that the Kennedy high command cal advertisements to assure his re­ thought its public-relations problem nomination. 12 AMERICAN OPINION The evidence indicates that Edward Moore Kennedy panicked in crisis and abandoned the helpless Mary Jo Kopechne to suffocate in an air pocket of the footwell of his submerged car; and that he then employed the full extent of his family's power and wealth to hide what he had done and to escape the legal consequences. And if Kennedy's response to the reply that he answered that question earlier questions was incoherent, his in its entirety at the inquest and can­ response when Mudd asked if he not elaborate. Next question, please. thought that "anybody really will ever This attitude invites review of the fully believe your explanation of known facts. Chappaquiddick" was pitiable. His Chappaquiddick is an Indian word halting reply was as follows: for "Separate Island." It is separated "On, there's ... the problem is from the main island of Martha's . .. from that night . .. I, I found Vineyard by a five-hundred-yard the conduct, the behavior, almostsort channel. Martha's Vineyard is twelve of beyond belief myself. I mean, miles off the coast of Cape Cod and that's why it's been . , but I think not far from the Kennedy family that's, that's the way it was. That, compound at Hyannisport. On that that happens to be the way it was. fatal weekend Kennedy had invited Now, I find it as I have stated, and I six attractive women in their twenties have found that the conduct that in, to attend a party at a remote cottage in that evening and in, in the - as a on Chappaquiddick Island the Satur­ result of the impact of the accident day night following the annual Ed­ of the - and the sense of loss; the gartown Regatta. (Edgartown is the sense of hope , and, the, and, the sense largest village on Martha's Vineyard of tragedy, and the whole set of cir­ and is located across from nearby cumstances, that the behavior was in­ Chappaquiddick Island.) The women, explicable. So I find that those, those, all single and part of a group known as those types of question as they apply "the boiler-room girls," were certified to that - questions of my own soul as Kennedy camp followers who had well. But that, that happens to be the worked in Bobby Kennedy's cam­ way it was." paign. These were certainly not dumb Since the Mudd debacle, Teddy floosies; of the five who survived has employed carefully rehearsed re­ that weekend, four became lawyers plies for such questions as can and the other a New York literary more or less be answered. When a re­ agent. Senator Kennedy balanced the porter gets down to the more basic affair by inviting five other men, on­ questions which would nail him to the ly one of whom was single. bridge pilings, the Senator slips and None of the five married men slides as if he had just taken a bath in brought their wives to the party. Ac­ Teflon. His favorite ploy is simply to cording to the late Arthur Egan of the FEBRUARY, 1980 13 Photos {rom U.P.I. The diver who recovered her body believes Mary Jo (I) suffocated in the submerged car because Kennedy neither helped her nor called for assistance. Her parents (r) were persuaded by a clergyman close to the Kennedy family to fight exhumation for an autopsy that would have proved what killed her. Manchester Union Leader: "Neither sembled a Wednesday night prayer Kennedy, Markham, Gargan, or the meeting. According to John Sylvia, a other three men attending the cookout Marine Corps veteran and lifelong 'celebration' has ever explained why resident of the island who lived next the party was limited to six females to the Lawrence cottage which Ken­ and six males - and no explanation nedy had rented for the weekend, the was ever offered why other workers in party noise diminished at about 1:30 the campaign of the late U.S. Sen. a.m., just as his family prepared to Robert F. Kennedy were not invited to call the police to quell the " distur­ the festivities." bance." Sylvia reported:"We were Both the men and the women had getting sick and tired of all the noise rooms in separate motels in Edgar- coming from that house. There was town. But the small ferry which plows yelling, music and general sounds of back and fourth between Edgartown hell-raising." The Sylvia house is sev­ and Chappaquiddick normally stops en ty-five yards from the cottage at midnight and none of the people at where the party took place. the party except Mary Jo Kopechne According to the Kennedy version and Teddy are even alleged to have of the story, Mary Jo asked him to expressed a desire to return to Edgar- take her back to Edgartown because town. One of the girls, Esther New- she was not feeling well; a secret she berg, was asked where the celebrants kept from everyone else, all of whom had planned to sleep.