Edward Kennedy and the Chappaquiddick Incident

Seminar paper from the year 2017 in the subject History - America, grade: 2,0, University of Tubingen, language: English, abstract: The Chappaquiddick Incident was a spectacular political scandal in 1969 that attracted heavy media attention. To this day, it remains a subject of speculation in the press. Due to an upcoming movie, called Chappaquiddick, in April 2018 and the recently released trailer about the Chappaquiddick Incident there is currently a heightened media interest about the scandal.

In this paper, I want to analyze how a political scandal affects the career of a politician by using the example of Edward Kennedy and the Chappaquiddick Incident as a case study. First I define the term "political scandal". In my second section, I give an overview of Edward Kennedy's life. Next, I describe the events of his political scandal, the Chappaquidick Incident. Finally, I want to show the consequences of the Chappaquiddick Incident for Kennedy¿s further career as a politician.