by Larry Tye
Always the Happy Warrior: Camelot’s Court, 54; Education of a Public Man, 152; Matthews, Jack Kennedy: Elusive Hero, 259; Robert Kennedy and His Times, 196–97; and Shirley, Rendezvous with Destiny, 424.
the next major battleground: Making of the President, 1960, 120–21.
as Bobby put it: Robert Kennedy and His Times, 198.
a master stroke: Making of the President, 1960, 127–28; and William Geoghegan OH, February 17, 1966, 9–10, JFKL.
“Poor Little Jack”: wvculture.org/history/1960presidentialcampaign/article.html.
Kennedy side hit back: Making of the President, 1960, 118–20; William Lawrence OH, April 22, 1966, 5–7, JFKL; Lawrence, “Roosevelt Hits Humphrey,” New York Times; Fleming, Kennedy vs. Humphrey, 51; No Final Victories, 73; and Eisele, Almost to the Presidency, 148.
Humphrey was equally outraged: Kilpatrick, “Humphrey Angered by Big Outlays,” Washington Post; Heroes of My Time, 16; O’Brien, No Final Victories, 68–69; and Kennedy vs. Humphrey, 152.
“The door opened”: Joseph Rauh OH, December 23, 1965, 71–72, JFKL.
Kennedys were planting doubts: Peter Lisagor OH, April 22, 1966, 25, JFKL; and Lawrence, “Johnson Backers Urge Health Test,” New York Times.
LBJ thought his adversaries naïve: “Johnson Backers Urge Health Test”; and Mutual Contempt, 35–36.
It happened at a pool party: Fletcher Knebel OH, August 1, 1977, 17–20, JFKL.
clear-eyed assessments: Jack Kennedy: Elusive Hero, 255; and author interview with John Patterson.
“Dad called us up”: Author interview with James Symington.
“Helps with farmers”: Mutual Contempt, 42.
The two finally met: Passage of Power, 61–62.
Each new encounter had fueled: Unfinished Life, 204; and Baker and King, Wheeling and Dealing, 118.
JFK “really hadn’t thought”: RFK OH, February 27, 1965, 617, JFKL.
JFK got to the point: Kennedy, John F., “Day I’ll Remember,” Life.
“I’m forty-three years old”: O’Donnell and Powers, Johnny, We Hardly Knew Ye, 193.
equally sober-minded calculation: Making of the President, 1960, 200.
“Obviously, with the close relationship”: RFK OH, February 27, 1965, 619.
exactly how it turned out: Charles Bartlett OH, May 6, 1969, 36, Lyndon Baines Johnson Library (LBJL); and Lawrence, “Choice a Surprise,” New York Times.
“Even if Jack wanted”: O’Donnell and Powers, Johnny, We Hardly Knew Ye, 191.
Only Joe Kennedy: Bartlett OH, January 6, 1965, 51, JFKL; and Bartlett OH, May 6, 1969, 35, LBJL.
Bobby dropped in at headquarters: Milton Gwirtzman OH, December 23, 1971, 2, JFKL; and “Democrats: The Shadow & the Substance,” Time.
Time was the enemy now: Kennedy Circle, 208; and “Little Brother Is Watching.”
Issues mattered less: huffingtonpost.com/earl-ofari-hutchinson/JFKs-civil-rights-legacy_b_4290163.html; ontheissues.org/Celeb/Richard_Nixon_Civil_Rights.htm; President Kennedy speech, Cincinnati Democratic Dinner, October 6, 1960 (presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=25660); and Heroes of My Time, 17.
Shortly before the candidates: Robert Kennedy: His Life, 106; Jack Kennedy: Elusive Hero, 294–95; Seeds of Destruction, 265; Making of the President, 1960, 325–27; and True Compass, 156.
The debates reversed: Making of the President, 1960, 326–33; and “Exchange is Calm,” New York Times.
The opposition research: Robert Kennedy: His Life, 106–7; Kelley, His Way, 304–5; Bill Haddad OH, November 2, 1967, 51–53, JFKL; Dean, “Memories with Gov. John Patterson,” Lake Martin Living; and author interviews with Haddad and Patterson.
Bobby did uncork: Nixon, RN: Memoirs of Richard Nixon, 225–26; Feldstein, Poisoning the Press, 63–72; and author interview with Bill Haddad.
real master of political hardball: O’Donnell and Powers, Johnny, We Hardly Knew Ye, 83; White, In Search of History, 465; and John Seigenthaler OH, July 22, 1964, 94, JFKL.
“one bit less”: Making of the President, 1960, 360.
sparring with the race hero: Rampersad, Jackie Robinson: A Biography, 347.
Jack “asked the assistance”: Ernest Vandiver OH, May 22, 1967, 69, JFKL.
Harris Wofford, Kennedy’s civil rights liaison: Branch, Parting the Waters, 362; King, My Life with Martin Luther King, 196; Kennedys & Kings, 19; and Shriver, “Kennedy’s Call to King,” 24.
Bobby told the judge: Bass, Taming the Storm, 171.
Kennedys’ gamble paid off: “Dr. King Released,” New York Times; “R. F. Kennedy’s Part in King Case Scored,” New York Times; “Vandiver Criticizes Kennedy,” New York Times; Taming the Storm, 171; Bryant, Bystander, 185; and Kennedys and Kings, 23.
story behind those Kennedy phone calls: Vandiver OH; and “Vandiver Criticizes Kennedy.”
New threads in the reconstruction: Author interviews with Harris Wofford and Carl Sanders.
his back-channel orchestrations: RFK OH, December 4, 1964, 347; and author interview with John Seigenthaler.
Bobby did the right thing: Kennedys and Kings, 22; and Kempton, “His Brother’s Keeper,” New York Post.
Bobby always worried more: Edson, “Restive Brother of President,” Salt Lake Tribune; Making of the President, 1960, 387–88; and author interview with Liz Moynihan.
When a margin of victory: Nixon, Six Crises, 362–63; and Making of the President, 1960, 397.
Jack wrote out: Robert Kennedy and His Times, 232.
4. GETTING JUSTICE
Saturday Evening Post profile: “Amazing Kennedys,” 48.
never had so close a relative: President Eisenhower named his favorite brother Milton to several part-time posts, including special envoy to Latin America, and Milton was a key behind-the-scenes adviser to the president.
Only twice had a younger man been U.S. attorney general: Pennsylvania’s Richard Rush was just thirty-two when he became attorney general in 1814. Caesar Rodney of Delaware turned thirty-five the same month he took office in 1807. (Baker, Conflicting Loyalties, 55.)
“Fuck public opinion”: Cassini, I’d Do It All, 218. The always practical Joe is said to have advised Jack, “When you get to the White House there are two jobs you must lock up—Attorney General and director of the Internal Revenue Service” (Beschloss, Crisis Years, 302).
“Bobby’s the best man”: Sidey, John F. Kennedy, President, 12.
In trademark fashion: Kessler, Sins of the Father, 389; and Clifford, Counsel to the President, 336–37.
Bobby’s own wishes: RFK OH, February 29/March 1, 1964, 15–16; and Robert Kennedy and His Times, 228–29.
The attorney general idea: RFK OH, February 29/March 1, 1964, 15; and Brother Within, 14.
“we just vacillated”: Robert Kennedy and His Times, 231.
“Nothing but headaches”: Seigenthaler OH, February 22, 1966, 306–7, JFKL; and Court Years, 305.
Bobby agonized over his decision: Seigenthaler OH, February 22, 1966, 307–8 and 325–26.
The full story is even better: Court Years, 305–6; and Beale, “It Wasn’t JFK’s Idea,” Miami Herald.
“Kennedy people try to make out”: Real Story, 115–16.
Woodrow Wilson had thought about: Carroll, “Appointing a Relative,” New York Times.
take the sting out: Lawrence, “Robert Kennedy Being Considered for Cabinet Post,” New York Times; and Joseph Alsop, “Religious Issue,” Washington Post.
A dash of Kennedy wit: Robert Kennedy and His Times, 233; Morris, “Senate Confirms Cabinet,” New York Times; and Robert Kennedy: His Life,
“Even though I went back”: John Reilly OH, October 22, 1970, 18, JFKL.
Those preparations paid off: “Appointing a Relative”; and Bickel, “Robert F. Kennedy: The Case Against Him,” New Republic.
courtesy of Bobby’s least favorite person: Baker interviews, Senate Historical Office, 83.
“Once I
had made up my mind”: Robert Kennedy and His Times, 233.
Frank “Screw” Andrews, a poster-child: Messick, Syndicate Wife, 46.
That history earned Screw: DeMichele and Potter, “Sin City Revisited,” Eastern Kentucky University; “9 in Policy Racket Indicted,” New York Times; and “Sentencing is Slated for 8 in Tax Fraud,” Marion Star.
actually waging that war: Navasky, Kennedy Justice, 50–51, 54–55, and 61.
The only agency that balked: Kennedy Justice, 49; and Robert Kennedy: His Life, 115.
Kennedy would not be denied: Author interview with G. Robert Blakey; Kennedy Justice, 49–51; Maas, The Valachi Papers, 35; and Robert Kennedy and His Times, 264–66.
an evangelist from the first: Kennedy Justice, 55; Andrew, Power to Destroy, 12; and author interview with Mortimer Caplin.
pose a serious threat to the Mafia: Ragano and Raab, Mob Lawyer, 135; Giancana and Giancana, Double Cross, 295–97; and “Silent F.B.I. Man,” New York Times.
judged by his results: Kennedy Justice, 55; and Goldfarb, Perfect Villains, 43 and 313.
“No politics—period”: Harris, “Justice II,” New Yorker.
first politically sensitive case: RFK OH, April 30, 1964, 245; Band of Brothers, 146; and Seigenthaler OH, February 22, 1966, 393. In this case and others, the attorney general could not indict directly, but had to work through a grand jury. Yet grand juries do what state and federal prosecutors want them to do so regularly that, as Chief Judge Sol Wachtler of the New York Court of Appeals famously said, they’d “indict a ham sandwich.”
a style that would become characteristic: Kennedy Justice, 416; author interview with and email from Gerald Shur; and William Hundley OH, February 17, 1971, 30, JFKL.
operatives at the White House were furious: Walter Sheridan OH, May 1, 1970, 55–56, JFKL; author interview with Henry Ruth; and Hundley OH, 31.
It was true: Kennedy Justice, 413; and Robert Kennedy: His Life, 114.
“If grandfather is so close”: Landis, 199; author interview with Nicholas Katzenbach; and Justin Feldman OH, October 23, 1969, 19, JFKL.
Bobby had been suspicious of Frank: Wilson, Sinatra: An Unauthorized Biography, 170–71; and Kelley, His Way, 329.
Did he back off: FBI Los Angeles office memo to J. Edgar Hoover, October 7, 1963, File 92-6667, FBI Frank Sinatra records; Gage, “Ex-Aides Say Justice Department Rejected a Sinatra Inquiry,” New York Times; and author interview with Dougald McMillan.
Looking back, McMillan: Author interview with McMillan; and “Ex-Aides Say Justice Department Rejected.”
effort expended was unprecedented: Fall and Rise, 193; and Kennedy Justice, 455–60.
a case that had stuck in his craw: Parton, “An Insider’s Chilling Story,” Time; and Trials of Jimmy Hoffa, 239 and 284.
Nashville trial was historic: Kennedy Justice, 471.
“If you indict someone enough”: Author interview with James P. Hoffa.
“It’s like Ahab and the whale”: Author interview with Victor Navasky; and Trials of Jimmy Hoffa, 211.
the attorney general “was delighted”: Kenneth O’Donnell OH, May 6, 1969, 37, JFKL.
Roy Cohn was the other old enemy: Cohn OH, 4 and 7; and Citizen Cohn, 261.
“It’s a toss-up”: Cohn OH, 5; Citizen Cohn, 261; and author interview with Neil Gallagher.
Bobby gave the green light: Cohn OH, 10-1; Perlmutter, “Cohn Mail Watch Scored,” New York Times; and author interview with Gerald Walpin.
Walpin disagrees, explaining: Author interview with Walpin.
his hometown paper said: Scales and Nickson, Cause at Heart, 281.
Scales’s punishment: Goldman, “Junius Scales, Communist,” New York Times; and Wechsler, “Robert F. Kennedy: A Case of Mistaken Identity,” Progressive.
But Bobby was changing: Author interview with Anthony Lewis; “Human Rights and the Legacy of Robert F. Kennedy,” Kennedy Library Forum, March 3, 2003; and Cause at Heart, 412.
“The lesson of the Otepka case”: Kluckhohn, Lyndon’s Legacy, 156–57.
liberal critics applauded: Maas, “Robert Kennedy Speaks Out,” Look; Kennedy Justice 10–11; and author interview with Patricia Wald.
issues facing American Indians: Ramsey Clark OH, June 29, 1970, 13–16, JFKL; “Indians Victims,” New York Times; Mudd, Place To Be, 213; and Clarke, Last Campaign, 159.
a more pervasive problem: Kennedy Justice, 19; and Edelman, Searching for America’s Heart, 36.
“As he inspected the pool”: Anderson, “Robert’s Character,” Esquire.
“Her teacher didn’t believe her”: Author interview with James Clayton.
policing the errant rich: Pearson and Anderson, “Big Business Reassured on Kennedy,” Washington Post; Hailey, “Robert Kennedy Rebuts Critics,” New York Times; and “Antitrust Cases Defended By U.S.,” New York Times.
The Kennedys felt double-crossed: RFK OH, April 13, 1964, 197 and 200, JFKL.
not to unleash a tempest: Courtney Evans OH, December 18, 1970, 61, JFKL; Carroll, “Steel: A 72-Hour Drama,” New York Times; and “Miller Hits Steel Probe Tactics,” Niagara Falls Gazette. Bobby’s press secretary then, Edwin Guthman, said the press calls came at the more reasonable hour of 5:00 A.M. (Band of Brothers, 233–34.)
In fact, Bobby and Jack: Robert Kennedy and His Times, 405; Evans OH, 61; and RFK OH, April 13, 1964, 200.
So it was with Sergeant Alvin York: Means, “JFK Joins Drive to Help Sgt. York,” New York Journal-American.
one of the most consequential cases: Author interview with Bruce Terris; and Terris, “Attorney General Kennedy versus Solicitor General Cox,” Journal of Supreme Court History.
“Everybody in town wanted to see”: Kennedy Justice, 314.
With no text or even notes: Oral arguments of Gray v. Sanders, 372 US 368.
surrounding himself with such a gifted staff: American Journey, 82; and Kennedy Justice, 183–84.
staff took on his passions: John Doar OH, November 13, 1964, 19, JFKL; and Kraft, “Riot Squad for the New Frontier,” Harper’s.
image of a riot squad: Band of Brothers, 106.
“The Kennedys didn’t wait”: Edwin Guthman OH, February 21, 1968, 10, JFKL; Reilly OH, December 16, 1970, 98, JFKL; and author interview with Katzenbach.
Bobby’s stamina: Shining Hour, 54–55; and Wallace, “50-Mile Walk,” Life.
The new mood was conspicuous: “Justice II”; Band of Brothers, 105; and “What Makes Bobby Run?” Newsweek.
Randomly selected messengers: Author interview with Jayne Lahey; and Band of Brothers, 106.
“Are you coming to my party”: Norris, Mary McGrory, 60.
didn’t appreciate the informality: Schott, No Left Turns, 192–93; Vendetta, 234; and Band of Brothers, 266.
the way he used his desk: Making of a Folk Hero, 127; and author interview with Haynes Johnson.
Skeptics inside and outside the government: Miller, Plain Speaking: An Oral Biography, 409; and author interview with Katzenbach.
Bobby’s mythos would grow: Weiner, Enemies: A History of the FBI, 420 (Ashcroft and President Bush honored Bobby in part to win Ted Kennedy’s support for their No Child Left Behind law, although Ashcroft also modeled his war on terror after Bobby’s war on crime); Eric Holder briefing September 25, 2014 (whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/09/25/statement-president-and-attorney-general-eric-holder); and Biddle letter to RFK, January 8, 1962. (While Biddle’s praise was effusive, he didn’t and possibly couldn’t offer any examples of Bobby’s accomplishments in the realm of civil liberties at that early stage.)
less time for life outside work: Robert Kennedy and His Times, 585.
“Sinatra kept calling”: Author interview with Sam Adams.
The compound was never empty: Place to Be, 209.
Most dads “go to work”: Author interview with Kerry Kennedy.
after-dark pool parties: Schlesinger, Journals: 1952–2000, 158; and American Journey, 165.
Hickory Hill University: Wilson, The First 78 Years, 164; American Journey, 166–67; and Marian Cannon Schlesinger, I Remember, 160–61.
“he became increasingly bored”: RFK: Collected Speeches, 5–6.
He was funny about money: American Journey, 149–50.
Joe had left Bobby a fortune: Arthur Krock OH, May 10, 1964, 11, JFKL; and Kennedy, Fruitful Bough, 113.
“His driver drove us”: Author interview with Jack Rosenthal.
proud patriarch generally refrained: John F. Kennedy, President, 21; and The Patriarch, 774.
suffered a massive stroke: American Drama, 287; and The Patriarch, 774–77.
none as deeply as Bobby: Perry, Rose Kennedy: The Life and Times, 259.
managed to visit Joe: Robert Kennedy: His Life, 190; and Dallas and Ratcliffe, The Kennedy Case, 103 and 161.
“His interest in life has been his children”: Fruitful Bough, 215.
his brother’s keeper: RFK OH, February 29/March 1, 1964, 5–7 and 20–21; and author interview with Adlai Stevenson III.
build a dam in Ghana: Robert Kennedy and His Times, 561; and Rostow, Diffusion of Power, 203.
That brief included politics: Kennedy Justice, 405–6; and “Riot Squad for the New Frontier.”
“The chief political manager”: Day, My Appointed Round, 9.
Partisan politics came into play: Power to Destroy, 20–44 and 327; and “Investigation of the Special Service Staff of the Internal Revenue Service,” U.S. Joint Committee on Internal Revenue Taxation, June 5, 1975.
Bobby didn’t always get his way: Wheeling and Dealing, 97–99; author interview with Herbert Stern; and Joseph Alsop OH, June 22, 1971, 45–49, JFKL. In his book, Baker calls Adams “Mr. Jones.” In an interview with the author, he confirmed that Jones is in fact Adams.
it was Ted’s turn: Gwirtzman OH, 4–5.
JFK’s planned run for reelection: “ ’64 Plan Is Denied by Robert Kennedy,” New York Times; Seymour Harris letter and memo to RFK, May 13, 1963, Box 238, RFK Papers; and RFK OH, December 4, 1964, 353.
