In a newly broadcast interview with the late Sen. Ted Kennedy, the senator describes how his father demanded him to do something important with his life.
“I had a sit down with my dad, and he said, I tell you, you have to make up your mind whether you want to have a constructive, positive attitude and influence on your time,” Kennedy said, “and if you’re not interested in a purposeful, useful, constructive life, I just want you to know I have other children that are out there … So you have to make up your mind about which direction you want to go.”
Kennedy said he remembers laying in bed that night staring at the ceiling. By the end of the night, he said, “It was very clear to me what kind of life I wanted to lead.”
Excerpts from the interview, which was recorded five months before Kennedy’s death with his publisher, were broadcast on 60 Minutes and Good Morning America. Kennedy’s memoir, True Compass, was released today.
In the interview, Kennedy spoke about the Iraq war, which he vehemently opposed from the beginning.
We would have an “entirely different world if we would have been able to stop that conflict,” he said.
