by Larry Tye
“Thanks, fellows”: Some of It Was Fun, 93.
Pete Ray’s case: Author interview with Janet Ray.
outraged by the lies: Fineman and Mascarenas, “Bay of Pigs: The Secret Death,” Los Angeles Times; and author interview with and emails from Janet Ray.
downplaying mistakes: Kraslow, “Bay of Pigs Invasion Errors Detailed,” [Yonkers] Herald Statesman; Wyden, Bay of Pigs: The Untold Story, 278; McGeorge Bundy memo to JFK, April 18, 1961, FRUS, 1961–1963, vol. X; Kenworthy, “Goldwater Asks Senate Inquiry,” New York Times; and Pearson, “Washington Merry-Go-Round,” January 27, 1963.
defuse hostilities with Castro: Gordon Chase memo, “Mr. Donovan’s Trip to Cuba,” March 4, 1963, National Security Archive; Gordon Chase memo to William At-wood, November 8, 1963, National Security Archive; and Kornbluh and Lucci, “JFK and Castro,” Cigar Aficionado.
still more overtures: JFK address to Inter-American Press Association, November 18, 1963 (presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=9529); Szulc, Fidel: A Critical Portrait, 588; and “CIA Inspector General’s Report on Plots.”
What we do know: RFK memo to Dean Rusk, “Travel to Cuba,” December 12, 1963, National Security Archive; RFK OH, April 30, 1964, 277; and author interview with Ethel Kennedy.
7. THE INTERREGNUM
The calm was broken: Manchester, Death of a President, 195.
“I have news for you”: Death of a President, 196 and 257.
the news was cataclysmic: Robert Kennedy and His Times, 608; and Davidson, “Profile in Family Courage,” Saturday Evening Post.
“There’s been so much hate”: Death of a President, 196–97.
First Brother to First Son: Death of a President, 254–58.
Barely an hour: Death of a President, 258 and 269; and Band of Brothers, 244.
“Tears were streaming”: Author interview with David Kraslow.
The moment the plane: Death of a President, 387, 391–92, 419, and 442–43; and Robert Kennedy and His Times, 610.
“It’s such an awful shame”: Spalding OH, 57.
the laws of primogeniture: “Pride of the Clan,” Time; and “Democrats: The Shadow & the Substance,” Time.
rumor floated around Washington: Jack Rosenthal OH, December 8, 2004, 17, JFKL.
Jack’s dark secrets: Robert Kennedy: His Life, 276–80; Death of a President, 257–58; and Goldstein, Lessons In Disaster, 117–18.
drawn Bobby even closer: Death of a President, 11 and 146.
it was just the opposite: Death of a President, 493–94 and 517; Robert Kennedy and His Times, 612; Davidson, “What Has Tragedy Meant,” Good Housekeeping; and Califano, Inside, 128.
He would come unstrung: Author interview with Haynes Johnson; Seigenthaler OH, June 5, 1970, 7, JFKL; and author interview with Ethel Kennedy.
his grief was different: Times to Remember, 458; and Pierre Salinger OH, May 26, 1969, 2, JFKL.
Bobby who crumpled: Shining Hour, 116; On His Own, 2–3; Making of a Folk Hero, 217; Seeds of Destruction, 475; Some of It Was Fun, 134; and Andersen, Jackie After Jack, 87.
Ed Guthman begged journalists: When I Think of Bobby, 124; Shocking the Conscience, 280; and Spalding OH, 59.
Jack was no longer: Making of a Folk Hero, 219; RFK: A Memoir, 29–30; and Davidson, “Profile in Family Courage.”
“I think often of Bobby’s grief”: True Compass, 210.
To Seigenthaler, it looked: Author interview with Seigenthaler.
“The moment he walked in”: American Journey, 146–47.
The other perpetual mourner: Robert Kennedy: His Life, 282; Heymann, Bobby and Jackie: A Love Story; Shining Hour, 284; and author interview with Ethel. The notion that Bobby was romantically involved with Jackie offered the latest take on the Camelot legend, with Jackie now in the role of Guinevere.
What about Jimmy Hoffa: “Hoffa ‘Plot’ to Kill R. F. Kennedy,” New York Times; and Sheridan OH, 3.
where he stood with LBJ: Robert Kennedy: His Life, 290; Sidey, “Amid Disorder,” Life; RFK OH, May 14, 1964, 322; and Johnson, Vantage Point, 99.
gulf was on graphic display: Robert Kennedy and His Times, 623–24; Mutual Contempt, 9; Passage of Power, 229–30; Spalding OH, 64; and RFK OH, February 27, 1965, 623.
on earth to annoy the other: Goodwin, Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream, 200.
“a great horse”: Robert Kennedy and His Times, 622.
LBJ’s advisers pushed: Robert Kennedy and His Times, 627; Passage of Power, 374–75; and Death of a President, 453–54.
first gathering of the cabinet: Passage of Power, 375–77; Death of a President, 475–78; and LBJ OH, August 12, 1969, 20, LBJL.
third perceived affront: Death of a President, 480.
another passive-aggressive move: Stossel, Sarge, 317.
influence would wane: Schott, No Left Turns, 204–5; Guthman OH, 24; O’Donnell OH, 2–3; Band of Brothers, 251; and Kempton, “Pure Irish,” New Republic.
Nowhere was Bobby’s diminished: Richard Goodwin, Remembering America, 248; RFK OH, May 14, 1964, 317; and Mutual Contempt, 186.
LBJ got even meaner: Robert Kennedy and His Times, 649; Califano, “Concoction of Lies,” Wall Street Journal; and Janos, “Last Days,” Atlantic Monthly. South Vietnamese President Ngô Đình Diệm was assassinated in 1963. Dominican President Rafael Trujillo was assassinated in 1961.
“Our power will last”: Journals: 1952–2000, 214–15.
classic Bobby Kennedy reasoning: RFK OH, May 14, 1964, 324, 327, and 329; and Band of Brothers, 256–57.
“I’d given three years”: Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream, 200.
The reality was that: Bradlee, “Bobby Going,” Newsweek; Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream, 201; and RFK OH, May 14, 1964, 329.
“I could have helped you”: White, Making of the President, 1964, 266.
might have ended relatively amicably: Sam Johnson, My Brother, Lyndon, 167–68; Robert Kennedy and His Times, 662; Making of the President, 1964, 264; and Miller, Lyndon: An Oral Biography, 389.
Johnson dangled the vice presidency: Sarge, 377; and Robert Kennedy and His Times, 659–62.
FBI agents dispatched to Atlantic City: Sullivan and Brown, The Bureau: My Thirty Years, 58.
before his JFK testimonial: Seigenthaler OH, July 1, 1970, 46–47, JFKL; McGrory, “They Had Something to Say,” Washington Star; Opotowsky, “Bobby Stops,” New York Post; and Mutual Contempt, 219–20.
Finally he began: RFK: Collected Speeches, 116–17; and Robert Kennedy: His Life, 296.
Journalists trumpeted: “They Had Something to Say”; and “Bobby Stops.”
The first turning point: RFK: Collected Speeches, 103–4 and 110.
slowly remembering what it was: Bradlee, Good Life, 295–96.
off on another trip: Krock, “Kennedy Interview,” New York Times; Robert Kennedy and His Times, 655–56; Olsen, “Kennedy Meets Polish Cardinal,” New York Times; Olsen, “Warsaw Throngs,” New York Times; Olsen, “Oswald Acted on Own,” New York Times; and Olsen, “Kennedy’s Visit Jolts Regime,” New York Times.
Ethel asked him: Author interview with Seigenthaler.
The one issue that mattered enough: Todd Purdum email to author.
“Had they ever been”: Valenti, Very Human President, 123–24.
Much of Bobby’s energy: Heir Apparent, 7; and Lemann, Promised Land, 142.
the glory of King Arthur’s Camelot: In Search of History, 523–25.
determined not to help: “Kennedy Says He Won’t Read,” New York Times; and Vantage Point, 27.
still a torrid debate: Flick, “Kennedys Make Rare Visit,” Dallas Morning News; and True Compass, 212.
Washington’s Cardozo High School: Casey, “Students Steal Show,” Washington Post.
Reading the Greeks: Kennedys, Make Gentle, 145; and author interview with Marty Nolan.
“It’s strange”: Kempton, “Pure Irish,” New Republic.
“Bobby Kennedy, after November”: Remembering America, 446
.
Most people have this kind: RFK: A Memoir, 29–30; and “What Makes Bobby Run?” Newsweek.
The Bobby Kennedy that emerged: “Politics of Restoration,” Time; and O’Donnell and Powers, Johnny, We Hardly Knew Ye, 282.
He still had enemies: O’Donnell OH, 37; and author interview with Rose Styron.
8. OFF AND RUNNING
Bobby had offered LBJ: RFK letter to LBJ, June 11, 1964, Family papers, Box 8, JFKL; and Vantage Point, 99.
“What I really want”: “What Has Tragedy Meant.”
“He never verbalized”: “RFK Remembered,” Kennedy Library Forum, April 25, 2004, 11–12.
“I like this kind of life”: Fallaci, “Robert Kennedy Answers,” Look.
Bobby sent a young lawyer: Philip Ryan OH, December 13, 1973, 3, JFKL.
“there is nothing illegal”: “Another Senator Kennedy?” New York Times.
Kennedy curse struck again: Breslin, “ ‘I guess the only reason,’ ” Boston Globe; and Band of Brothers, 285.
on a dime and without a flinch: True Compass, 228; and “What’s Bobby,” Newsweek.
Joe Kennedy understood: Dallas, Kennedy Case, 280–81.
Bobby Kennedy announced: Weaver, “Keating Welcomes Kennedy,” New York Times.
The first step: Apple, “How Kennedy Did It,” New York Times.
The mayor “welcomed Kennedy’s arrival”: Heir Apparent, 21; and “How Kennedy Did It.”
“Robert Kennedy tended”: Gwirtzman OH, 23–24.
six thousand shirtsleeve delegates: Robert Kennedy in New York, 18–19.
he was unseasoned and unsteady: Breslin, “Real Kennedy Handicap,” Boston Globe; Robinson, “Kennedy in Trouble,” New York Times; James Tolan OH, December 10, 1969, 243, JFKL; and author interview with Eugene Rossides.
Jewish New Yorkers: Making of a Folk Hero, 249; On His Own, 38; and Gwirtzman OH, 38.
old rivals harbored a grudge: Fall and Rise, 378–79; and Wright, “Hoffa Preparing,” New York Times.
he was back criticizing Bobby: Robinson, “Kennedy and Keating,” Amsterdam News.
Other attacks on Bobby: Heroes of My Time, 19; and “Keating Fights the Kennedy Magic,” Time.
early attempts to fight back: John Burns OH, December 18, 1969, 57, JFKL; and Feldman OH, November 26, 1969, 39, JFKL.
“Everybody was sitting there”: Ronnie Eldridge OH, April 21, 1970, 6–7, JFKL.
He performed only marginally better: Hess, America’s Political Dynasties, 526; and Breslin, “Nobody but Kennedy,” Boston Globe.
It worked at first: Robert Kennedy in New York, 74–75; Joseph Alsop, “Thousands in Glens,” Washington Post; and Apple, “4,000 at Glens,” New York Times.
Every stop brought more: Robert Kennedy in New York, 61–75.
“This is something new”: “Thousands in Glens”; Kempton, “Hosts of Unreason,” New Republic; Robert Kennedy in New York, 65; and RFK: Collected Speeches, 123.
Kennedy’s lead evaporating: Lubell, “Keating in the Lead,” New York World-Telegram; Halberstam, “Cites Suit on Aniline,” New York Times; and Wechsler, “Case of Mistaken Identity,” Progressive.
a wake-up call: “Nonsense for New Yorkers,” New York Times; Robert Kennedy in New York, 120–21; Robert Kennedy and His Times, 673; and Band of Brothers, 303.
his new feistiness: Band of Brothers, 126 and 128.
his answers were sharper: Feldman OH, 35–36; RFK: Collected Speeches, 124–30; and Breslin, “Nobody but Kennedy,” Boston Globe.
“That was absolutely”: Feldman OH, 35–36 and 40.
he noticed Cathy Troy: Feldman OH, 40–41.
he set his investigators loose: Bill Haddad OH, February 27, 1969, 8, JFKL; Greenfield, “Keating Record,” Reporter; and “Kennedy vs. Keating,” Reporter.
a counterattack: “Criticism and Retraction,” New York Times; Felknor, Dirty Politics, 197; Heir Apparent, 36–38; and “Kennedy Discusses Campaign,” New York Times.
reluctant to debate: Band of Brothers, 309–11; Robert Kennedy in New York, 137–52; and Bigart, “Keating vs. Kennedy,” New York Times.
“a longtime personal friend”: RFK confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, January 13, 1961, 34.
LBJ made two trips: Robinson, “Kennedy Cheered,” New York Times; O’Donnell OH, July 23, 1969, 85–87, JFKL; Richard Wade OH, December 13, 1973, 19, JFKL; and Robinson, “President Greets Kennedy,” New York Times.
Joe’s millions: Wade OH, 13; Albert Blumenthal OH, December 14, 1973, 21, JFKL; and Apple, “Kennedy Enlisting A Diversified Staff,” New York Times.
Terence Smith, who covered: Smith, “Bobby’s Image,” Esquire; Band of Brothers, 306–7; “Kennedy Discusses Campaign”; and author interview with Terence Smith.
rich man’s idiosyncrasy: “Bobby’s Image”; and author interview with Smith.
his most effective tactic: Apple, “Kennedy Reports Gains,” New York Times; and Apple, “Kennedy, Keating Close,” New York Times.
Rose, now seventy-four: Times to Remember, 460; Rose Kennedy and Her Family, 249; and Cameron, Rose: A Biography, 212.
“When we were in New York”: Kennedy Case, 280–82.
“We were campaigning”: Author interview with Kerry Kennedy.
“There was an abundance”: Robert Kennedy in New York, 186–87.
One critic called: Senator Jacob Javits was the critic (Apple, “Calls Campaign ‘Arrogant,’ ” New York Times).
news outlets were editorializing: “Key Republican Candidates,” Saturday Evening Post (Bobby had always been registered to vote on Cape Cod); “Keating for Sen.,” Nation; and “Six Key Senate Races,” New York Times.
“Who is he, this rich man’s son”: Breslin, “Nobody but Kennedy,” Boston Globe; and Mailer, “Vote for Bobby K,” Village Voice.
Bobby stood out: Robert Kennedy in New York, 186–87.
“This vote,” he said: Band of Brothers, 311.
the numbers seemed to speak: Author interview with Rossides; and “Kennedy Victory,” New York Times.
“Kennedy did not need”: Gwirtzman OH, 47–48.
Bobby himself had it both ways: Beschloss, Reaching for Glory, 107–8; and Valenti, This Time, This Place, 209.
his genial best: “Bobby’s Image”; author interview with Smith; and Bigart, “Kennedy Fulfills Some,” New York Times.
Bobby had one more person: The Kennedy Case, 285–86.
“Being clawed and pushed”: “Kennedy Discusses Campaign,” New York Times.
he bantered in a way: Robert Kennedy in New York, 39–40; America’s Political Dynasties, 526; and Feldman OH, November 26, 1969, 39, JFKL.
He was changing: RFK: A Memoir, 32; and “Robert Kennedy Answers.”
That conflict and growth: RFK, Pursuit of Justice, 11, 20, and 69.
hate J. Edgar: RFK OH, April 13, 1964, 129 and 131, JFKL.
His new exemplars: “Thousands in Glens Falls.”
9. SENATOR KENNEDY
What he heard: Lapides, “Sen. Stennis, RFK in Clash,” Memphis Press-Scimitar; Loftus, “Poverty Hearing Set,” New York Times; RFK: Collected Speeches, 199–200; Kotz, Let Them Eat Promises, 36; and Senate Anti-Poverty hearings transcript, April 10, 1967 (mdah.state.ms.us/arrec/digital_archives/vault/projects/OHtranscripts/AU1060_121027.pdf).
“I want to see it”: RFK: Collected Speeches, 200; Booker, “RFK Poverty Probe,” Jet; and Carr, “With RFK in the Delta,” American Heritage. The full name of the Labor Subcommittee was Employment, Manpower, and Poverty.
“I’ve been to third-world”: Wilkie, “Robert Kennedy Meets Hunger in the Delta,” Clarksdale Press Register; author interviews with Kenneth Dean, Peter Edelman, Charles Evers, George Lapides, and William Minor; Searching for America’s Heart, 52; Wright Edelman, Lanterns, 107; “With RFK in the Delta”; and Lapides, “Two Senators ‘Shocked,’ ” Memphis Press-Scimitar.
Quietly shattered: “Bobby Asks Hike in Aid,” Chicago
Tribune; Wilkie, Dixie, 169; and “With RFK in the Delta.”
The reassembled motorcade: “Robert Kennedy Meets Hunger”; Dixie, 169; and “Two Senators ‘Shocked.’ ”
That trip to the Delta: “RFK Remembered,” 19; Lanterns 106–7; and author interview with Curtis Wilkie.
what he could deliver: Searching for America’s Heart, 53; Stewart, “Southern Negroes Starving?” Boston Globe; “JFK MLK RFK—1960–1968,” Kennedy Library Forum, October 23, 2005, 7; and Lanterns, 108.
“I hope I’ve learned”: Stewart Alsop, “Robert Kennedy and the Liberals,” Saturday Evening Post.
three provocative speeches: RFK: Collected Speeches, 165–76.
the Bedford-Stuyvesant experiment: Harrington, “South Bronx Shall Rise,” New York; Newfield, “Few Rays of Hope,” Life; RFK: Collected Speeches, 185; and 1968 Annual Report, Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation.
Bobby had collected rents: Remarkable Kennedys, 43–44.
Any doubts that: Kennedy Library Forum, April 25, 2004, 19–20; and RFK: A Memoir, 90.
contravene political orthodoxies: RFK: Collected Speeches, 189–91.
Integration remained: “Few Rays of Hope”; Franklin Thomas OH, March, 23, 1972, 7, JFKL; and Blumenthal, “Brooklyn Negroes Harass Kennedy,” New York Times.
The first initiative: Edelman, So Rich, So Poor, 110–11; and “South Bronx Shall Rise.”
“I’m not at all sure”: RFK: A Memoir, 96.
In the last instance, especially: Searching for America’s Heart, 44; and author interview with Paul Schrade.
Bobby showed whose side: On His Own, 103; and Robert Kennedy and His Times, 791.
a hero to the farmworkers: Author interview with Peter Edelman; Cesar Chavez OH, January 28, 1970, 16, JFKL; Chavez, Autobiography of La Causa, 449.
He didn’t have to travel: RFK: A Memoir, 82; and Millones, “Kennedy and Javits Are Shocked,” New York Times.
Bobby never forgot: RFK: A Memoir, 82–83; Robert Kennedy and His Times 683–84; and The Bureau: My Thirty Years, 59.
It wasn’t the FBI: Doyle, “U.S., State Bar Groups Fight Morrissey,” Boston Globe; Healy, “BC Law School Records,” Boston Globe; Doyle, “Bar Assn., Morrissey Conflict,” Boston Globe; Doyle and Nolan, “Morrissey Furor Mounts,” Boston Globe; author interviews with and emails from Nolan and James Doyle; and Gwirtzman OH, February 10, 1972, 69 and 74, JFKL. Doyle says the FBI didn’t help the Globe in its investigation.
