Remembering RFK
On June 6, 1968 (43 years ago today), Robert Francis Kennedy, the 64th Attorney-General of the United States, the brother of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, and himself a candidate to be the Democratic nominee for President in 1968, died in Los Angeles from gunshot wounds that he had received hours earlier. He was only 42 years of age.
President John F. Kennedy's choice of his younger brother Robert (then only 35 years of age) as Attorney General following his election victory in 1960 was very controversial. Major newspapers such as The New York Times and The New Republic called the younger Kennedy inexperienced and unqualified. He had no experience before any state or federal court, and when this was pointed out to President Kennedy, he quipped "I can't see that it's wrong to give him a little legal experience before he goes out to practice law." Despite this controversy, Robert Kennedy easily won senate confirmation in January 1961.
Robert Kennedy's tenure as Attorney General was historic. No previous United States Attorney General had enjoyed such clear influence on all areas of policy during an administration. President Kennedy sought the advice and counsel of his younger brother (and former campaign manager), and Robert Kennedy became the President's closest political adviser. President Kennedy once remarked about his brother that, "If I want something done and done immediately I rely on the Attorney General. He is very much the doer in this administration, and has an organizational gift I have rarely if ever seen surpassed."
When John Kennedy was assassinated in November of 1963, Robert Kennedy was devastated. A year later he ran for the Senate in New York and was easily elected, defeating incumbent Republican Jacob Javits by 10% of the popular vote. Despite that there was an incumbent Democrat in the White House (Lyndon Johnson), on March 16, 1968, Robert Kennedy announced his intention to run for President, stating "I do not run for the Presidency merely to oppose any man, but to propose new policies. I run because I am convinced that this country is on a perilous course and because I have such strong feelings about what must be done, and I feel that I'm obliged to do all I can." On March 31, 1968, Johnson stunned the nation by dropping out of the race.
On June 4, 1968 Robert Kennedy scored a major victory by winning the California primary. He addressed his supporters shortly after midnight on June 5, 1968, in a ballroom at The Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, California. Leaving the ballroom, he went through the hotel kitchen after being told it was a shortcut. In a crowded kitchen passageway, Sirhan Sirhan, a 24-year-old Palestinian, opened fire with a .22-caliber revolver. Kennedy was hit three times and five other people also were wounded. Following the shooting, Kennedy was first rushed to Los Angeles's Central Receiving Hospital and then to the city's Good Samaritan Hospital where he died early on the morning of June 6th.
He was eulogized by his younger brother Senator Edward "Ted" Kennedy, who said:
"My brother need not be idealized, or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life; to be remembered simply as a good and decent man, who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop it. Those of us who loved him and who take him to his rest today, pray that what he was to us and what he wished for others will some day come to pass for all the world. As he said many times, in many parts of this nation, to those he touched and who sought to touch him: 'Some men see things as they are and say why. I dream things that never were and say why not.'"
President John F. Kennedy's choice of his younger brother Robert (then only 35 years of age) as Attorney General following his election victory in 1960 was very controversial. Major newspapers such as The New York Times and The New Republic called the younger Kennedy inexperienced and unqualified. He had no experience before any state or federal court, and when this was pointed out to President Kennedy, he quipped "I can't see that it's wrong to give him a little legal experience before he goes out to practice law." Despite this controversy, Robert Kennedy easily won senate confirmation in January 1961.
Robert Kennedy's tenure as Attorney General was historic. No previous United States Attorney General had enjoyed such clear influence on all areas of policy during an administration. President Kennedy sought the advice and counsel of his younger brother (and former campaign manager), and Robert Kennedy became the President's closest political adviser. President Kennedy once remarked about his brother that, "If I want something done and done immediately I rely on the Attorney General. He is very much the doer in this administration, and has an organizational gift I have rarely if ever seen surpassed."
When John Kennedy was assassinated in November of 1963, Robert Kennedy was devastated. A year later he ran for the Senate in New York and was easily elected, defeating incumbent Republican Jacob Javits by 10% of the popular vote. Despite that there was an incumbent Democrat in the White House (Lyndon Johnson), on March 16, 1968, Robert Kennedy announced his intention to run for President, stating "I do not run for the Presidency merely to oppose any man, but to propose new policies. I run because I am convinced that this country is on a perilous course and because I have such strong feelings about what must be done, and I feel that I'm obliged to do all I can." On March 31, 1968, Johnson stunned the nation by dropping out of the race.
On June 4, 1968 Robert Kennedy scored a major victory by winning the California primary. He addressed his supporters shortly after midnight on June 5, 1968, in a ballroom at The Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, California. Leaving the ballroom, he went through the hotel kitchen after being told it was a shortcut. In a crowded kitchen passageway, Sirhan Sirhan, a 24-year-old Palestinian, opened fire with a .22-caliber revolver. Kennedy was hit three times and five other people also were wounded. Following the shooting, Kennedy was first rushed to Los Angeles's Central Receiving Hospital and then to the city's Good Samaritan Hospital where he died early on the morning of June 6th.
He was eulogized by his younger brother Senator Edward "Ted" Kennedy, who said:
"My brother need not be idealized, or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life; to be remembered simply as a good and decent man, who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop it. Those of us who loved him and who take him to his rest today, pray that what he was to us and what he wished for others will some day come to pass for all the world. As he said many times, in many parts of this nation, to those he touched and who sought to touch him: 'Some men see things as they are and say why. I dream things that never were and say why not.'"