That at least is what Kennedy has told friends about the incident, which allegedly took place in 1996. Neither Kennedy nor Smith has spoken publicly about the incident, and both declined requests to tell their story for the record. Officially, the Army refuses to confirm or deny that Smith is under investigation, although sources say a probe will be completed soon. No one thinks the investigators will have an easy time substantiating Kennedy’s allegations, which friends and colleagues related to NEWSWEEK for the first time. Despite published reports that she complained about the incident at the time, Pentagon sources say they are now sure she never lodged a formal complaint. “It’s a ‘he said, she said’ sort of thing,” said a woman officer who is Kennedy’s friend.
One key reason she didn’t report it, friends say, is that Kennedy did not want to embarrass the Army. Kennedy knew plenty about the Army’s woman problem. She served on a high-profile Army panel on sexual harassment, and in press reports before the incident, she said she’d experienced sexual harassment several times in her career. Still, Kennedy was reluctant to file formal charges against Smith. “I dealt with it,” she told friends later. “It never happened again.”
Then last August Smith was picked to become the Army’s deputy inspector general, a post in which he would have supervised investigations of sexual-harassment complaints. Appalled that he would have a pivotal role in enforcing sexual-harassment policies, Kennedy decided to act. She contacted a senior Army lawyer and related what had happened in 1996, then told her story to the inspector general’s office. Smith’s appointment was put on hold. Friends say Kennedy wasn’t prepared when the controversy went public, and she could hardly have been ready for what happened next. Out of the blue, citing events that took place at least 10 years earlier, a retired officer charged Kennedy herself with sexual harassment.
These charges were quickly investigated and just as quickly dismissed–but the message, according to one of Kennedy’s supporters, is that the Army’s old-boy network wants Kennedy and the Smith case “to go away.” In fact, she intends to retire this year, a decision that friends say has nothing to do with the investigation.
Last week Kennedy became the focus of yet another controversy. The Center for Public Integrity reported that in 1997 she accepted positions on the boards of three companies started by Democratic fund-raiser and Clinton friend Terry McAuliffe. Though virtually unknown to the public before the Smith incident, Kennedy is politically connected. A frequent guest at the White House, she dated McAuliffe’s father-in-law, Richard Swann, who recommended that McAuliffe put her on the boards. Kennedy and Swann were introduced by Walter Kaye, the major Democratic fund-raiser best known as the man who recommended Monica Lewinsky for a White House internship. Kennedy’s detractors charge she violated ethics rules by joining the companies. But Army officials say the general sought and received legal approval to take the nonpaying posts, which have since expired. Kennedy had no comment. McAuliffe’s companies never got off the ground.
Political controversy aside, Kennedy is leaving a legacy–a determination among Army women to draw a tighter line against sexual misconduct. According to one source, recent focus groups among Army women show support for Kennedy with one caveat: most younger women think she should have filed charges against Smith right away.
