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John F. Kennedy's Incident On Chappaquiddick Island

Decent Essays

When one hears the name Kennedy, what comes to mind? Many families have multiple icons in the political scene; the Kennedys are no exception. Some think of John F. Kennedy and his assassination. Others think of Jacqueline Kennedy and her elegance, style, and grace. Still others think of Bobby, Rose, or Caroline. Others think of yet another Kennedy, Ted Kennedy and the car crash that wrecked his career on Chappaquiddick Island. Kennedy’s response to the accident ruined his chances of ever becoming president and raised questions about the accident across the nation. If handled properly, the Chappaquiddick incident would not have become a national ordeal. Instead, Kennedy’s irresponsibility and drunkenness led to the incident on Chappaquiddick …show more content…

Ted Kennedy forever lived with the “Kennedy Curse.” In 1963, Ted’s oldest brother and President of the United States, John F. Kennedy, was assassinated. Less than a year later in 1964, Ted was flying his small airplane for campaign purposes and crashed. Ted suffered from a broken back and had reoccurring injuries for the duration of his life (Special Report, 2015, Political Life section, para. 3). In 1968, a second brother and United States Senator, Bobby, was assassinated. Shortly over a year later, the Chappaquiddick incident struck. Politically, Kennedy had a strong background that continued still after the incident. He was elected to serve in the United States Senate in 1962 where he remained serving until his death in 2009 (Lengle, 2015, para. 1). Kennedy was a successful Senator who served on many different chair committees that promoted basic civic and equal rights (Lengle, 2015, para. 1). In 1980, he ran for the Democratic presidential nomination; however, due to raised unanswered questions about the Chappaquiddick incident, he lost the nomination to Jimmy Carter (Lengle, 2015, para. 2). The Chappaquiddick incident marked as yet another episode of the “Kennedy Curse” and also marked the end of Ted Kennedy’s career as a presidential …show more content…

On July 18, 1969, Senator Ted Kennedy took a wrong turn on an island that he had traveled many times and wrecked his car into the pond. His failure to report the accident until ten hours later resulted in the death of a family friend, Mary Jo Kopechne. Kennedy was likely to drink at parties and

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