EXCLUSIVE: Ted Kennedy’s Sons Share South Africa Award With Lowell Weicker

OLD LYME— It was January 1985. Ronald Reagan was the popular president of the United States, starting his new term after winning re-election by a wide margin, but for a U.S. Senator from Connecticut, the hottest issue was the injustice of apartheid in South Africa.

Lowell Weicker marched with five others to the South African embassy inWashington, D.C. and was arrested for being within 500 feet of the building during a demonstration.

“I think I was the first sitting United States senator to be thrown into jail,” Weicker recalled last week during in an exclusive interview with The Hartford at his Old Lyme home.

As the protests spread around the world, then-Republican Weicker joined together with his friend, U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy, to craft bipartisan legislation that imposed economic sanctions in an attempt to change the racial policies in South Africa. It was a pitched battle that ended with Weicker and Kennedy collecting 78 votes in theU.S. Senate and 313 in the House to override the president’s veto of their measure — a highly unusual rebuke of a president on foreign policy.

The sanctions were regarded widely as the measure that put the apartheid government in an economic stranglehold that eventually led to free elections and the elevation of Nelson Mandela as the country’s first fully democratically elected president.

Weicker, now 81, shared that story last week in his living room with Kennedy’s two sons, Ted and Patrick. The Kennedys had traveled to see Weicker after their father, who died in August 2009, had posthumously received the highest honor that South Africa awards to foreign citizens.Ted Kennedy, Jr.had flown to South Africa to receive the award, and he brought it with him to Weicker’s house.

“We just wanted to come by and really recognize you, governor, for all the work that you’ve done,” Ted told Weicker. “The two of you had such a collaboration. Patrick and I just wanted to stop by and thank you for your friendship with our father and recognize your contribution. … That’s really rare – that collaboration, cross-aisle collaboration. My father always believed that to get anything meaningful done, you really need to work together and establish these relationships.”

The award is named in honor of Oliver Tambo, president of the African National Congress for nearly 25 years. Besides Kennedy, previous winners have included Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi.Ted Kennedy, Jr.met with the South African president in late April to accept the award, which included a pin that the Kennedy brothers presented to Weicker as a keepsake.

“Our father could not have gotten that without you,” Ted Jr. said to Weicker, who beamed his thanks.

Patrick Kennedy, a former member of Congress from Rhode Island, added, “Frankly, he wouldn’t have gotten it without a partner like you.”

Weicker and Kennedy were two giants in the U.S. Senate in their heyday, and they both believed that one of their finest hours was imposing the sanctions against South Africa.

“The rest, of course, is history,” Weicker told the brothers. “The thing that surprised both your father and myself was how quickly this precipitated the downfall of apartheid and the regime in South Africa. We didn’t expect the collapse to come as fast as it did. … One of the reasons we treated South Africa with such kid gloves is they were a nuclear power.”

The 1985 sanctions took time to work, and the developments continued as Weicker lost the Senate race in 1988 and then won as an independent for governor in 1990.

“One of the great moments in my life was when I was governor and I was invited to go to South Africa … and witness Mandela’s swearing-in,” Weicker said. “That was a great moment. It truly was. I also learned why Al Gore never became president. He was the official representative. The night before the swearing-in, we saw a performance of an African group in Johannesburg before we went to Pretoria. Al gave a speech from the stage, and it went on and on and on.”

During his 18-year career in the U.S. Senate, Weicker also worked on health care and other issues with Kennedy, who eventually became the fourth longest-serving member in the chamber’s history.

“Among his colleagues, he had the reputation of being far and away the hardest-working United States Senator,” Weicker said of Kennedy. “He not only had the name, but he also had the work ethic. You have showhorses and workhorses.”

For decades, both Weicker and Kennedy battled against conservatives as they became national figures and the champions of liberal causes. Weicker concedes that there have been misfires on some legislation and mistakes made by high-profile politicians like Kennedy.

“As I look back on everything Ted Kennedy did, and the whole family did, it’s an example to everybody,” Weicker said. “And I don’t want to hear about all of the little tidbits that every one of us has in our family history or the negative side of things. I have as many slips on the pavement as anybody. But what did you do with the power when you had it? And that’s the big question. What did Ted Kennedy do with the power when he had it? Brother, I wish we had 100 senators acting down there [inWashington, D.C.now] in the same way that he did.”

During an hour-long visit at Weicker’s house, Ted Kennedy turned to a reporter at one point and said, “We love this guy.”

He added, “When I look at you, Governor Weicker, you remind me of my father. It’s consoling to be here.”