U.S. Senate Confirmed Victoria Kennedy to Be Ambassador to Austria

CountriesUnited States ♦ Published: November 24, 2021; 15:30 ♦ (Vindobona)

The U.S. Senate has confirmed Victoria Reggie Kennedy (67), the widow of the late senator Edward M. Kennedy, to be the US ambassador to Austria, sending her to Vienna to continue a Kennedy family diplomatic tradition. Read about Ms. Kennedy's memories as a descendant of Lebanese immigrants, about her first trip to Austria as a college student in the 1970s, and about what she wants to do to further strengthen and deepen U.S.-Austrian relations.

Victoria Reggie Kennedy: "How glorious it was (as a college student in the 70s) to attend the opera in Vienna and hear a concert in Salzburg. From that time on, Austria was special to me." / Picture: © The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum

The US Embassy in Vienna recently announced on Twitter that Kennedy had been confirmed and said the schedule for her arrival had not yet been set.

Kennedy, the widow of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, a close friend of Joe Biden and a senior counsel at the international law firm Greenberg Traurig, was confirmed in a voice vote along with three other diplomatic nominees. She endorsed Biden in the 2020 presidential race.

Ms. Kennedy is also a gun control advocate. …