1968 was a year of bitter protest-marches and sit-ins in Australia against the Vietnam War and against conscription. As a university student then, I remember it well ☹. But in the USA, that year was marred by social and political turmoil, and violence not seen since the brutal Civil War. Apart from the Vietnam War, 1968 was the year Lyndon Johnson’s presidency fell apart; Martin Luther King was murdered; and George Wallace became more publicly racist than ever.
Robert Kennedy (1925–68), the senator and former attorney general, was murdered in Los Angeles at 42, only 5 years after his brother President John Kennedy was murdered. So now is the time for us to read Chris Matthews' book Bobby Kennedy: A Raging Spirit (Simon & Schuster, 2017). Matthew’s stated aim was “to honour Kennedy’s life in politics and to raise the hope that the county can find its way back to the patriotic unity he championed.”
The author followed Bobby’s life from his comfortable Boston childhood to the family’s time in London when dad Joseph was US ambassador to the UK. Rose and Joseph’s 7th child, Bobby, was a quiet child who simply wanted recognition from his domineering father, Joseph. Dad was driven by a passion to see first his oldest son, Joe, in the White House. When Joe died in WW2, Joseph turned his attention to his second son, John. But Joseph thought his third son had no redeeming qualities. Fortunately Bobby was his mother’s favourite child. And fortunately Bobby gained a strength that would have filled his father with disbelief.
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The Kennedy Brothers - Bobby, Teddy, John
Dad Joseph Kennedy was a right wing magnate who wanted to endear himself to the Nazis, so father-son clashes grew. And the misery level went up, after Bobby’s two older brothers were killed.
Catholic Senator Joseph McCarthy (1908–57) established a very strong bond with the powerful Kennedys, a family that had already had high visibility among American Catholics. As a result, Bobby was slow to turn against the racist McCarthy, given that McCarthy had been his father’s close friend and Bobby’s own boss in the 1950s. The author showed that even though McCarthy’s war against suspected Communism was eventually disastrous for him, loyalty was one of Bobby’s greatest virtues. This made no sense to me, since I always found Senator McCarthy very nasty.
Note the even greater impact that Bobby’s Irish-American Catholic heritage had on Bobby’s young life and early politics; his awareness of the prejudice faced by Irish Catholics who emigrated to America underpinned his sense of social justice. His growth into political maturity was driven by HIS sense of social justice. Clearly the horrific Vietnam War shook him up. But the author noted that although Bobby Kennedy at first opposed the official US Vietnam policy, young Senator Kennedy refused to side with anti-war activists opposing the college draft. Nonetheless, Matthews believed, Bobby wanted to right wrongs that greatly mattered then! So which was it?
As Matthews wrote, the Kennedy brothers symbolised the optimistic zeitgeist then. Most American reviewers agreed the book presented a sensitive account of a man who evolved from his association with his brother… to become a presidential hopeful in his own right; from a focused political strategist to advocate for the marginalised communities.
So it was the political association with his brother John that was to define Bobby’s (short) life. At first it was an improbable relationship. John, the older brother, said Bobby’s usefulness had to be proven. Afterall, who trusts their little brother? Bobby, busy working in the Justice Dept in Washington, was also doubtful. But once accepted to run his brother’s senate campaign, the partnership worked. Bobby became the enforcer who could make his presence felt in situations where John had to remain untouchable. When John decided to stand for president, Bobby was the only man who could organise the campaign.
Robert Kennedy (1925–68), the senator and former attorney general, was murdered in Los Angeles at 42, only 5 years after his brother President John Kennedy was murdered. So now is the time for us to read Chris Matthews' book Bobby Kennedy: A Raging Spirit (Simon & Schuster, 2017). Matthew’s stated aim was “to honour Kennedy’s life in politics and to raise the hope that the county can find its way back to the patriotic unity he championed.”
The author followed Bobby’s life from his comfortable Boston childhood to the family’s time in London when dad Joseph was US ambassador to the UK. Rose and Joseph’s 7th child, Bobby, was a quiet child who simply wanted recognition from his domineering father, Joseph. Dad was driven by a passion to see first his oldest son, Joe, in the White House. When Joe died in WW2, Joseph turned his attention to his second son, John. But Joseph thought his third son had no redeeming qualities. Fortunately Bobby was his mother’s favourite child. And fortunately Bobby gained a strength that would have filled his father with disbelief.
Dad Joseph Kennedy was a right wing magnate who wanted to endear himself to the Nazis, so father-son clashes grew. And the misery level went up, after Bobby’s two older brothers were killed.
Catholic Senator Joseph McCarthy (1908–57) established a very strong bond with the powerful Kennedys, a family that had already had high visibility among American Catholics. As a result, Bobby was slow to turn against the racist McCarthy, given that McCarthy had been his father’s close friend and Bobby’s own boss in the 1950s. The author showed that even though McCarthy’s war against suspected Communism was eventually disastrous for him, loyalty was one of Bobby’s greatest virtues. This made no sense to me, since I always found Senator McCarthy very nasty.
Note the even greater impact that Bobby’s Irish-American Catholic heritage had on Bobby’s young life and early politics; his awareness of the prejudice faced by Irish Catholics who emigrated to America underpinned his sense of social justice. His growth into political maturity was driven by HIS sense of social justice. Clearly the horrific Vietnam War shook him up. But the author noted that although Bobby Kennedy at first opposed the official US Vietnam policy, young Senator Kennedy refused to side with anti-war activists opposing the college draft. Nonetheless, Matthews believed, Bobby wanted to right wrongs that greatly mattered then! So which was it?
As Matthews wrote, the Kennedy brothers symbolised the optimistic zeitgeist then. Most American reviewers agreed the book presented a sensitive account of a man who evolved from his association with his brother… to become a presidential hopeful in his own right; from a focused political strategist to advocate for the marginalised communities.
So it was the political association with his brother John that was to define Bobby’s (short) life. At first it was an improbable relationship. John, the older brother, said Bobby’s usefulness had to be proven. Afterall, who trusts their little brother? Bobby, busy working in the Justice Dept in Washington, was also doubtful. But once accepted to run his brother’s senate campaign, the partnership worked. Bobby became the enforcer who could make his presence felt in situations where John had to remain untouchable. When John decided to stand for president, Bobby was the only man who could organise the campaign.
Then John asked Lyndon Johnson to be his vice presidential candidate, making Bobby very unhappy.
John’s presidential victory was great for Bobby’s own career, given that the younger brother was appointed attorney general at 35! The book clarified the significance of Bobby’s role in the key events of JFK’s presidency eg see the tension at the White House as the Cuban crisis heated up. The Bay of Pigs and the Cuban Missile Crisis events showed the backroom in the Kennedy administration and the role Bobby played in ending the crisis peacefully.
My favourite section of the book concerned Bobby’s empathy with the civil rights movement. Despite father Joseph’s nasty right wing politics, civil rights issues dominated Bobby’s time. Coretta and Martin Luther King needed him to weigh the abuse of power wielded by the judge in the King case. At each stop across the globe and around the USA, Bobby Kennedy listened, learned and grew in intellectual depth and in focused commitment.
Matthews’ treatment of JFK’s death in Nov 1963 was brief so he moved on to the last 4.5 years of Bobby’s life - his election as Senator for New York and his difficult decision to contest the Democratic presidential primary.
John’s presidential victory was great for Bobby’s own career, given that the younger brother was appointed attorney general at 35! The book clarified the significance of Bobby’s role in the key events of JFK’s presidency eg see the tension at the White House as the Cuban crisis heated up. The Bay of Pigs and the Cuban Missile Crisis events showed the backroom in the Kennedy administration and the role Bobby played in ending the crisis peacefully.
My favourite section of the book concerned Bobby’s empathy with the civil rights movement. Despite father Joseph’s nasty right wing politics, civil rights issues dominated Bobby’s time. Coretta and Martin Luther King needed him to weigh the abuse of power wielded by the judge in the King case. At each stop across the globe and around the USA, Bobby Kennedy listened, learned and grew in intellectual depth and in focused commitment.
Matthews’ treatment of JFK’s death in Nov 1963 was brief so he moved on to the last 4.5 years of Bobby’s life - his election as Senator for New York and his difficult decision to contest the Democratic presidential primary.
How shocking that he was the third Kennedy brother to be killed while serving his country, having just won the California primary. What might have happened otherwise? Could Bobby have gone on to win the nomination and defeat Richard Nixon in the next election? Would he have ended the war in Vietnam on less destructive terms? Might the appeal he demonstrated in his 90-day campaign, to both the working-class and the nation’s minorities, unite the nation?
Matthews presumably knew American politics better than his readers did, having been a presidential speechwriter and an adviser to a speaker of the house. He argued that Bobby might have been a man ahead of his time in the pivotal year of 1968. Yet his dreams faded as many Boomers turned to cynicism in the '70s and to materialism in the '80s.