Bobby Kennedy by Chris Matthews, A Book Report
Bobby Kennedy by Chris Matthews
A Book Report by Bobby Everett Smith
January 3, 2018
Spoiler Alert
Setting
Washington, D.C. and around the world, 1930’s to 1968
Characters
Robert Kennedy, Attorney General, Senator from New York, candidate for president, brother to Jack Kennedy, president of U.S.
John F. (Jack) Kennedy, President of U.S., assassinated while in office in Dallas Texas, November 1963
Lyndon Johnson, President of U.S. and Vice President under Jack Kennedy, succeeded JFK when he was assassinated.
Joseph P. Kennedy, father of Bobby Kennedy and his brothers Jack and Joe, Jr. Ambassador to London in 1937
Thomas P. “Tip” O’Neill, Jr., Congressman from Massachusetts
Ethel Kennedy, wife of Bobby. Mother of his kids. Married in June 1950. Maiden name Ethel Skakel
Richard Nixon, President of the United States in 1969 and competitor for President with Jack in 1960
Joseph Kennedy, Jr., oldest brother of Bobby and Jack Kennedy. Killed in combat in WWII
Joe McCarthy, Senator from Minnesota, famous for confrontations with Communists in the U.S. Hired Bobby as Assistant to General Counsel in McCarthyism fights
Henry Cabot Lodge Jr., 1947 Massachusetts Senator, competitor with Jack for U.S. Senate in 1950, Ambassador to South Viet Nam, 1968, Republican
Jacqueline Bouvier, wife of Jack Kennedy and First Lady of United States, with Jack in car when he was assassinated in 1963
Jimmy Hoffa, U. S. Head of Teamster’s Union. Tried for racketeering by Bobby Kennedy in the Senate. Murdered and body never found
Michael DiSalle, Governor of Ohio. Supported Jack Kennedy for President in 1960
Ted Kennedy, younger brother of Kennedy clan. Senator from Massachusetts
Coretta Scott King, wife of Martin Luther King, received sympathy phone call from Jack Kennedy when her husband was in jail in Alabama. Call helped Jack win election
Ed Guthman, Press Secretary under President Jack Kennedy, 1960.
- Edgar Hoover, Director of FBI, for several presidents including Jack Kennedy. Went after Communists more than gangsters
Sam Giancana, Chicago Mobster, chased by Bobby Kennedy
James Meredith, first African American to apply for enrollment in University of Mississippi. Supported at enrollment by federal marshals sent by Bobby Kennedy
McGeorge Bundy, National Security Advisor to President Kennedy. Introduced pictures proving Soviet missiles were installed on Cuban soil with a range of 1100 miles
Robert McNamara, Secretary of Defense under Jack Kennedy and later under Lyndon Johnson during the Vietnam war
Executive Summary
On March 16, 1968, Robert F. Kennedy announced his candidacy for president of the United States. “I run to seek new policies—policies to end the bloodshed in Viet Nam, and in our cities, policies to close the gaps that now exists between black and whites, between rich and poor, between young and old, in this country and around the world….to stand for hope instead of despair, for reconciliation of men instead of the growing risk of world war.”
Bobby Kennedy was the third son of Joseph P. Kennedy, one of the richest men in America, at that time. He had two older brothers, Joe, Jr., and Jack. Joe was killed in a combat mission in World War II flying a plane over France. Jack went on to become the president of the United States. Teddy, the youngest son, became a highly-respected Senator from Massachusetts.
Bobby had a good heart and a generous spirit, two traits not respected by his father—”characteristics that are basically worthless,” Joe Sr., stated.
Dad to the Kennedy boys was appointed to be Ambassador to England by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1936, a dangerous and tumultuous time in Europe and the world. Bobby and his older brothers were not too close at that time, but they accompanied their father to England until 1939 when the Ambassador sent his family home to avoid the dangers of Hitler’s invasion of England. Initially Joe, Sr. sided with Germany hoping to avoid war by giving in–at least to a certain extent. “Live and let live.” Kennedy said.
The Kennedy brothers all became Naval officers. Joe, jr. went to flight school, Jack became a PT Boat commander as a Lt. Junior Grade, and Bobby entered the V12 officers training program at age 18.
With early German successes in eastern Europe, Kennedy Sr. believed that Germany would defeat England in rapid order. FDR lost confidence in Kennedy and started dealing directly with Winston Churchill, Prime Minister. Soon Kennedy was relieved of his duties as Ambassador and he returned to the U.S.
At the end of the war, Jack decided to go into politics and ran for office as a Congressman in Massachusetts. Bobby entered Harvard as a Junior, getting college credit for the time he spent in the V12 program. Jack won his first election and became a member of the U.S. House of Representatives.
After graduating from Harvard, Bobby enrolled in the University of Virginia Law School. In June 1950, he married Ethel Skakel. That September, Jack announced his candidacy for the U.S. Senate from Massachusetts.
Jack’s campaign for the Senate was coming along but there was one big problem—no one was in charge. Jack could only campaign on the weekends and no one else was there during the week to make things happen. Jack invited Bobby to take over as Campaign Manager.
He proved himself to be a fighter—a hard-working, hard-driving, no-excuses Campaign Manager. Bobby’s role in the campaign was to be the bad guy, leaving Jack to make friends and be the good guy. Jack won the Senate seat, and he gave Bobby credit for making it happen. This was the beginning of a close relationship between the two brothers, one that would last for the rest of both of their lives.
Jack opted to run for president in 1960 with Bobby as his campaign manager. Bobby would be the enforcer and Jack would be the charmer. Jack chose Lyndon Johnson for political reasons to be his running mate. The 1960 election would be Kennedy/Johnson vs. Nixon/Lodge.
The final popular vote for the election was Kennedy 34.2 million votes and Nixon 34.1 million. Jackie Kennedy wrote, “To Bobby who made the impossible possible and changed all our lives.”
The new president appointed Bobby Kennedy to be Attorney General. Jack needed someone in the cabinet in whom he had complete trust and that person was Bobby for the position of Attorney General.
Just four months after JFK was inaugurated as president, the Bay of Pigs fiasco transpired. Under the Eisenhower administration, the CIA had planned to train 1400 Cuban refugees to invade Cuba. The plan assumed that the Cuban people would join the raiders and revolt against the Fidel Castro regime. As a fallback, the CIA expected the president of the United States to send military support as needed to defeat Castro.
The whole plan blew up in the face of the two Kennedy brothers and they were left with an embarrassing defeat early in Jack’s term of office. Bobby did an autopsy on the invasion to provide lessons learned for future events.
In October 1962, a U-2 spy plane doing reconnaissance over Cuba brought back pictures of Soviet ballistic missile launch pads being constructed in Cuba. For the Kennedy’s this was a full-blown crisis, Soviet Missiles within 90 miles of Florida with the range to hit most major cities in the eastern United States.
Jack and Bobby formed a high-level national security committee to decide what to do. Inaction was as high a risk, they thought as a military strike. Hawks in the U.S. wanted an immediate air strike. The committee recommended a Naval Quarantine.
Messages between Khrushchev, the Soviet leader, and Kennedy began to travel back and forth. The Soviets offered to remove the missiles if the U.S. would promise not to invade Cuba. Bobby was at the front of drafting messages to be sent to Khrushchev.
The two international leaders finally agreed, saving the world from a nuclear holocaust. Bobby and JFK were given credit for clear-thinking and successful negotiations.
John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963.
Robert Kennedy, just after making a speech in his run for the presidency, was assassinated in Los Angeles in 1968.
Life Magazine featured Attorney General Bobby Kennedy as the number two person in the United States, maybe the world. Life highlighted Bobby’s contempt for liars, his leadership of his family, and his idealism (in the extreme.
In the White House, Bobby became the most important adviser to the president. Lyndon Johnson stated “Bobby is first in, first out with the president.
I wish we had either or both Kennedy’s in the White House today.
The Story
Ambassador to England
Bobby Kennedy was the third boy in the Joseph Kennedy family behind Joe Jr. and Jack (JFK). The youngest boy was Teddy Kennedy who later became Senator from Massachusetts. From childhood Bobby had a good heart and a generous spirit. His dad thought those characteristics were basically worthless, and Bobby worried all his life about pleasing Dad. Five girls completed the Joseph Kennedy family—Rosemary, Kathleen, Jean, Eunice, and Pat.
Joseph Kennedy was one of the nation’s richest men.He was conceited and arrogant to match his wealth. Joe Jr. was the apple in Dad’s eye, and Bobby was the least like his father.
Bobby and Jack were not close as they grew up and did not become close until 1952 when politics brought them together. While there was a JFK era, there never would be a Robert Kennedy era even though it was Bobby who recognized the historic urgency of making civil rights a national priority.
While Bobby was the odd man out with his father, he was the darling of his mother, Rose’s, eye. Bobby was the most thoughtful and considerate of all the children, the mother thought.
The Great Depression struck the United States in 1929 and by 1932, it was in full swing. Joe Kennedy was a life-time Democrat who sometimes voted Republican if it suited his personal interests. In 1932, Joe was behind FDR who won the election by a landslide. Joe expected patronage assignment from FDR and finally received appointment to the Maritime Commission, but it was not until 1936, that Kennedy was appointed Ambassador to England, that he got what he really wanted. This was a prestigious and powerful position.
Not long after Joe got his family settled in London, Hitler started his invasions of Eastern Europe. The Germans thought that Joe’s main objective was to keep the American’s out of the war completely. Kennedy told German ambassadors that the German treatment of Jews was not one of our problems.
Kennedy established a close relationship with Neville Chamberlain, England’s Prime Minister. These two leaders, Chamberlin and Kennedy thought that the best approach with Hitler was to let him run his course, i.e. continue with the current invasions of eastern Europe but not to the point of invading England. At that time, they did not think that was going to happen.
World War II
When Hitler invaded Poland in 1939, Kennedy realized the seriousness of the problem in England and began sending his family back to America. Kennedy was endorsing a policy of “live and let live” with Hitler even though he did not want to take a chance with his own family.
Kennedy was opposed to American aid to Britain. even though, in July 1940, Hitler prepared to invade England. German bombers began hitting British targets and more than one million buildings were hit, preparing England for a German sea invasion.
Kennedy believed that the British would lose the war to Germany and he even predicted that the Germans would be in Buckingham Palace within a couple of weeks. Roosevelt was now going around Kennedy and communicating directly with Winston Churchill about America’s support of England.
By November 1941, Joe, Jr., and Jack were already Naval Officers. Joe was in flight school in Jacksonville, Florida and Jack was working for Naval Intelligence in D.C. Bobby, eight years younger than Jack, was in a private boarding school in New England. Bobby developed a reputation of fearlessness, exemplified by his sticking up for others against school bullies, his refusal to tell or listen to dirty jokes, and his unwillingness to compromise to win acceptance.
Jack was transferred to the South Pacific where he was given command as a Lt.j.g. of a PT boat. In 1943, Jack’s boat was hit and sunk. Jack led his crew, swimming 5 miles in shark-infested waters, to save their lives. He became a big hero at home. Joe, Jr. was given a bombing assignment in England and was killed when his plane exploded enroute to the target.
Bobby entered V12 training for Naval Officers at age 18. Bobby wanted to fly like his brother, Joe, but he failed the flight aptitude test. Instead he became a seaman and was assigned the first cruise aboard a destroyer named for his brother, the Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr.
In 1946, jack began his first political race, Congressman from the 11th District in Massachusetts. Bobby was newly discharged from the Navy and offered to help. Jack won the election and Bobby entered Harvard where he joined the football team.
Senator Jack Kennedy
After graduating from Harvard, Bobby enrolled in the University of Virginia Law School. In June 1950, Bobby married Ethel Skakel. That September, Jack announced his candidacy for the U.S. Senate from Massachusetts.
Jack’s campaign for the senate was coming along but there was one big problem—no one was in charge. Jack could only campaign on the weekends and no one else was there during the week to make things happen.
Jack invited Bobby to come up and take over as Campaign Manager. Bobby did not want to do it, but he loved his brother so much that agreed to take the assignment. Bobby controlled the finances and the campaign activities. He proved himself to be a fighter, hard-working, hard-driving, no-excuses Campaign Manager. Bobby’s role in the campaign was to be the bad guy, leaving Jack to make friends and be the good guy.
Jack won the election by just over 70,000 votes and he gave Bobby credit for making it happen. Bobby had made Jack a United States Senator. The two of them would never forget what they had been through together.
Joe McCarthy
Senator Joseph McCarthy, the country’s most fervent adversary to American Communists, formed the Committee on Government Operations and the subordinate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. He was out to identify Communists in government. Joe Kennedy worked on Senator McCarthy to hire his son, Bobby, as Counsel for the subcommittee. Bobby was 27 years old and had graduated from UVA Law School. McCarthy did not hire Bobby for the intended job, but Bobby got a subordinate job.
At the end of July 1953, Bobby submitted his letter of resignation to Senator McCarthy. The Senate voted to condemn McCarthy on a vote of 67 to 22 in December 1954. The Kennedy’ were friends but at arm’s length due to McCarthy’s unpopularity.
Republicans lost control of the House and Senate when Eisenhower retired. Bobby Kennedy was rehired on the sub-committee as Chief Counsel under Senator John McClellan.
At the 1956 Democratic National Convention, Jack and Bobby Kennedy made a run for Jack to become the vice presidential democratic candidate under Adlai Stevenson. They lost but the experience motivated Jack to run for president in 1960 with Bobby as his campaign manager. Bobby would be the enforcer and Jack would be the charmer.
Despite Bobby’s protests and objections, Jack chose Lyndon Johnson for political reasons to be his running mate. The 1960 election would be Kennedy/Johnson vs. Nixon/Lodge. Jack won the democratic party’s nomination and Richard Nixon, the Republican’s.
Kennedy campaigned for economic growth, reduction in poverty, top flite education, and specifically against corruption in the Teamster’s Union which was run by Jimmy Hoffa, an explicit enemy of Bobby Kennedy.
Cuba, which had signaled alliance with the Soviet Union, became a major issue in foreign policy discussions. Americans realized that a Soviet ally was only 90 miles away from Florida.
Martin Luther King was arrested in Alabama for his civil rights actions. Jack Kennedy called Coretta Scott King to give his support and ask if he could help. “This could have been the most important episode of the campaign,” Chris Matthews wrote.
Jack jumped in and helped to get King released from jail. The black voters noted his empathy and support. Nixon on the other hand, stepped away when asked to help. This proved a significant change in getting the black vote.
America had never elected a Catholic president before and this continued to be an issue for Kennedy.
The final popular vote for the election was Kennedy 34.2 million votes and Nixon 34.1 million. Jackie Kennedy wrote, “To Bobby who made the impossible possible and changed all our lives.”
The new president appointed Bobby Kennedy to be Attorney General. Jack needed someone in the cabinet in whom he had complete trust and that person was Bobby for the position of Attorney General.
The Cuban Missile Crisis
In April, just four months after the inauguration, the president learned that the CIA had planned under Eisenhower to train Cuban exiles and support them in an invasion of Cuba with the goal of retaking control of Cuba from Fidel Castro.
The plan anticipated that the Cuban people and elements of the Cuban military would support the invasion. The CIA thought that Kennedy would send U.S. troops if needed to make the attack successful. He did not, and the invasion was a disaster and an embarrassment.
Bobby performed an autopsy on the Bay of Pigs Disaster. He concluded that we could not live near Cuba with Fidel Castro in charge. Bobby now became involved in all major decisions and all international questions.
On January 24, 1962, Life Magazine featured Attorney General Bobby Kennedy as the number two person in the United States, maybe the world. Life highlighted Bobby’s contempt for liars, his leadership of his family, and his idealism (in the extreme.)
In October 1962, a U-2 spy plane doing reconnaissance over Cuba brought back pictures of Soviet ballistic missile launch pads being constructed in Cuba. For the Kennedy’s this was a full-blown crisis, Soviet Missiles within 90 miles of Florida with the range to hit most major cities in the eastern United States.
Jack and Bobby formed a high-level national security committee to decide what to do. Inaction was as high a risk, they thought, as a military strike. Hawks in the U.S. wanted an immediate air strike. The committee recommended a Naval Quarantine.
Changing his mind, Bobby advocated a course of action that would give the Soviets some room to maneuver without allowing them to escalate their capabilities. The president spoke to the nation and in that speech, he warned the Soviets that any missile fired from Cuba would be treated as a weapon fired from the Soviets. We were on the verge of World War III with nuclear weapons aimed at either side.
Messages between Khrushchev, the Soviet leader, and Kennedy began to travel back and forth. The Soviets offered to remove the missiles from Cuba if the U.S. would promise not to invade Cuba. Bobby was at the front of drafting messages to be sent to Khrushchev.
For the sake of the world, the two countries decided on a course of action that prevented the use of nuclear weapons. The Kennedy’s scored a victory that made up for the defeat they had suffered at the Bay of Pigs invasion. We still had a Communist country just off our Florida coast.
In early 1963, Ben Bradlee, working for Newsweek, interviewed the president asking his opinion of Bobby Kennedy. JFK described Bobby as incorruptible, terrific executive energy, high moral standards, and the best organizer “I have ever seen.”
In May 1962, tens of thousands of children and young people walked the streets of Birmingham, Alabama in protest over continued civil rights abuses. The police met the marchers with snarling dogs, high-pressure fire hoses, and Billy clubs. Hundreds of the young people were arrested and thrown into jail. Cells meant for eight, had 75 children packed into them.
Bobby Kennedy, watching the events unfold from Washington, dispatched Burke Marshall, head of Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, to Birmingham, to negotiate with city and state leaders. Burke’s aim was to mediate between the civil rights leaders and the business leaders of the city.
Burke managed to get agreement that the WHITE ONLY and BLACK ONLY signs would be removed from restaurants, rest rooms and water fountains—to take effect within 90 days. This was an historic movement towards greater civil rights for all Americans irrespective of the color of their skin.
In his inaugural address as governor of Alabama, George Wallace stated, “segregation now, segregation tomorrow, and segregation forever.” He later vowed to resist a federal court order to admit two black students into the University of Alabama. Wallace vowed to stand in the schoolhouse door to prevent black students from entering the school.
Deputy Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach accompanied by Federal marshals arrived at the University of Alabama, to enforce the integration of the University of Alabama. Wallace, as promised, stood in the door of the registration building surrounded by state troopers.
The stalemate lasted for five hours. President Kennedy dispatched National Guard troops to make sure the doors to the University opened for the two black students, Vivian Malone, and James Hood.
The two students were admitted. President Kennedy delivered a speech to the nation that night on the civil rights issue. In tears, Martin Luther King proclaimed that it was the “most sweeping and most forthright speech ever given by an American president.”
Just over a week later, President Kennedy submitted to Congress a strong civil rights bill. Anti-communists movements and the civil rights movements now pressured the president. Bobby Kennedy suspected that the Soviets had invaded the Martin Luther King movements. J. Edgar Hoover, Director of the FBI, was more interested in anti-communist activities than civil rights activities.
In the summer of 1963, the president was confronted with the Cold War struggle with a need for additional troops in Viet Nam. The United States had 16,000 military advisers in Viet Nam at that time. The president named Henry Cabot Lodge as Ambassador to South Viet Nam.
Assassinations
On November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas, President Kennedy was assassinated as he drove in an open car through the streets of Dallas, with his wife Jackie, by his side. Lyndon Johnson was sworn in two hours later as the President of the United States. Herbert Hoover notified Bobby at his home that the president had been shot.
By the beginning of 1967, the U.S. had 400,000 troops in South Viet Nam. Over 6,000 Americans had been killed there in the previous year. President Johnson continued to believe that the U.S. could win the war against the Communists. Many Americans believed that it was an immoral pursuit that would never end.
Walter Cronkite, a popular news anchor, insisted that Bobby Kennedy run for president against Lyndon Johnson. “You must run for president,” he told Bobby, “it’s the only way to stop this awful war.”
President Johnson and Bobby Kennedy clashed over the pursuit of the Viet Nam war. Bobby finally decided to run for president in the next election. Johnson backed out, announcing that he would not run for re-election.
On June 5, 1968, Robert Kennedy was walking through the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, where he had just given a speech. He was shot and died the next day at 1:44 a.m.
Richard Nixon became the next president.
Rating
Four stars out of five. Chris Matthews has extensive knowledge of the history and politics of the Kennedy years. This is an important book to read, interesting and totally related to today’s battles over civil rights and relations with Russia. Making comparisons of the Kennedy’s with the current Trump administration made me yearn for the good old days of Jack Kennedy as in my mind one of the best presidents we have ever had despite a very short time in that position. I recommend reading this book.
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