Posthumous

Kennedy's Remorse

Memoir discusses Chappaquiddick.

Ted Kennedy may be gone, but his voice will be heard on September 14, when his 532-page memoir, True Compass, will be published posthumously. In it, the senator says he “made terrible decisions” on the night of the Chappaquiddick affair, and that the loss of Mary Jo Kopechne’s life was “inexcusable,” reports NYT blog The Caucus. Of the Warren Commission’s findings on JFK’s assassination, Teddy says he was “satisfied then, and satisfied now.” Kennedy also dives into politics, describing his 1980 relationship with Jimmy Carter as “unhealthy” due to the former president’s moderate position on health care, and being a “difficult man to convince—of anything.” He also describes Bill Clinton’s health-care defeat, writing that Clinton himself said he did not deserve to be president if he couldn’t get national health insurance through Congress.