CBC Digital Archives

Ted Kennedy: troubled and triumphant

As the sole survivor of an American political dynasty, Senator Edward Kennedy's life is one of promise, trial and tragedy. In his 40-plus years in the U.S. Senate, Kennedy has often been his own worst enemy as his poor judgment and raucous behavior threatened to undermine his crusade to improve life for all Americans. In this 1991 broadcast, CBC-TV's The Journal examines the complicated life of Edward Kennedy, often bloodied, but still unbowed.
• On June 26, 1964, less than a year after his brother John's murder, Edward Kennedy narrowly survived a plane crash outside Westfield, Mass. that killed two others. Kennedy injured his back and suffered a punctured lung, broken ribs and internal bleeding. His nephew John F. Kennedy Jr. died in a July 1999 plane crash that also killed his wife and sister-in-law.
  • The 1991 Miami drinking binge discussed in this clip led to the high-profile rape trial of Kennedy's nephew William Kennedy Smith. Smith was acquitted of the charges after a 10-day trial in December 1991. Smith later became a physician and founded the Center for International Rehabilitation, an organization promoting rehabilitation and rights of disabled persons, as well as Physicians Against Land Mines (PALM).

Medium: Television
Program: The Journal
Broadcast Date: June 26, 1991
Guest(s): Edward Kennedy, Judith Lichman, Marty Nolan, Norman Ornstein, Kevin Philips, Nancy Traver
Host: Barbara Frum
Reporter: Susan Reisler
Duration: 21:10

Last updated: February 2, 2012

Page consulted on March 28, 2013

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