A Tribute to Robert F. Kennedy (1925-1968)

[I wrote a research paper for my AP US history class on the feud between LBJ and RFK. Done at the last minute and very badly written. I think I pretyt much just quoted everything. Still, I put it up, just so that you guys might learn something new. I don't have any footnotes on the page, because I'm not exactly sure how to do that, but I do have the works cited list.]

All throughout the history of the United States, there have been great political feuds that have shaped the nation’s public policy. Thomas Jefferson clashed with Alexander Hamilton over his financial program, Henry Cabot Lodge locked horns with Woodrow Wilson over his League of Nations, and most recently, Newt Gingrich disputed with Bill Clinton over his proposal of universal health care. But never has there been a rivalry, so heated, so fierce, and so deeply rooted in ideological and temperamental differences as in the case of Lyndon Johnson and Robert Kennedy. It was an epic tale of two enemies that played out in the turbulent backdrop of the 1960s. From the time of John Kennedy’s election to the office of President until the assassination of Robert Kennedy, the already profound enmity would continue to intensify and their ill will and bad blood would come to overshadow the politics of the era.

“Bobby, you do not like me,” Johnson murmured after a White House dance in 1961. “Your brother likes me . Your sister-in-law likes me. Your Daddy likes me.” He continued, “But you don’t like me. Now why? Why don’t you like me?” Bobby, shocked by the unexpected confrontation, shied away from Johnson, unable to find a simple answer to such a complicated question. LBJ would later answer it himself in his memoirs, where he attributed the hostility between them to “a matter of chemistry.” Indeed, Lyndon Johnson and Bobby Kennedy were as different as night and day, making them ill-matched to work for the common good. On one hand, LBJ, who could boast of humble Southern beginnings, “gloried [in the gold] of his new wealth.” On the other hand, RFK, with roots in a wealthy, established family in Boston, would tell Jack Newfield, “I’m jealous of the fact you grew up in a ghetto. I wish I did. I wish I had that experience.” In addition to their difference in backgrounds, Johnson, who delighted in telling his “Texan tall tales,” would spar with Bobby, who hated “liars.” In addition, in the matter of politics, Johnson was a master. When he wanted something, he knew exactly what to do and what to say to get it. “He was sort of like a cowboy making love,” Hubert Humphrey recalled. “He knew how to massage the senators.” On the opposite end of the spectrum was RFK, who once said, “You can’t get any work out of a politician,” and called politics “ a hell of a way to make a living.”

Despite these differences, LBJ and RFK did parallel each other in one aspect: their devotion to those less fortunate. “Some men want power simply to strut around the world and to hear the tune of ‘Hail to the Chief,’ “ Johnson told Doris Kearns. “Others want it simply to build prestige, to collect antiques, and to buy pretty things. Well, I wanted power to give things to people - all sorts of things to all sorts of people, especially the poor and the black.” Bobby Kennedy held a similar concern for the disadvantaged and the dispossessed, by identifying with their role as the underdog. RFK “was neither a natural athlete nor a natural student nor a natural success with girls and had no natural gift for popularity,” his friend David Hackett remembered. “Nothing came easily for him. What he had was a set of handicaps and a fantastic determination to overcome them.” Nevertheless, with so many disparities between the pair, Johnson and Kennedy were bound to clash. It would be for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1960 that would first pit two such antithetical personalities together, as RFK sought it for his brother, and LBJ on his own behalf.

Although he once relied solely on his achievements as Senate Majority Leader, Johnson resorted to political mudslinging as it became overwhelming evident that John Kennedy was leading the race. While the media was already busy exploiting JFK’s youth and religion, LBJ concentrated on the Kennedy family name. Johnson accused, “I never was any Chamberlain umbrella policy man. I never thought Hitler was right...When Joe McCarthy was on the march in this country, and someone had to stand up and be counted, I was a voting liberal...I was not contributing comfort to his thinking or contributions to his campaign,” in reference to Joseph P. Kennedy’s support for Chamberlain in the 1930s and Joseph McCarthy in the 1950s, and his alleged anti-Semitism. Faced with the rumors of his own fledgling heart condition, Johnson would deliver another low blow when his aides revealed that JFK was struggling with Addison’s disease. Although John considered these below-the-belt tactics as a part of the game of politics, they were burned into Bobby’s memory. “Lyndon Johnson has compared my father to the Nazis and John Connally and India Edwards lied in saying my brother is dying of Addison’s disease,” Bobby accused. “You Johnson people are running a stinking damned campaign and you’re gonna get yours when the time comes!” Instead, John Kennedy would reward Johnson, by offering him the position as his running mate.

If it was the 1960 Democratic National Convention that first catalyzed the LBJ-RFK feud, then it would be their positions as Vice President and Attorney General that would feed the flame of the rivalry. Up until that point in time, vice presidents had established a reputation for doing nothing. However, with Johnson filling the seat, U.S. News & World Report predicted that "the vice presidency is to become a center of activity and power unseen in the past.” He would take upon "important assignments," because "the restless and able Mr. Johnson is obviously unwilling to become a ceremonial nonentity." During the Eisenhower administration, "they [Johnson and Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn] were the President and the Vice President...Christ, [Ike] didn't run the government." LBJ hoped to continue this influence upon the nation as John Kennedy's vice president, but his vision did not last long, as Robert Kennedy soon came into the picture and assumed the role of "assistant president."

“It is Bobby...who will be the new man-to-see in Washington,” Newsweek predicted after the election. Even LBJ conceded, “It’s a different matter if some ol’ boy hasn’t got sense enough to pour piss out of a boot, but I don’t think that you can say that about Bobby Kennedy. He may be a snot-nose but he’s bright.” As soon as he accepted the position, RFK quickly created an atmosphere of “movement” by involving himself in every aspect of the Justice Department. This deep and intense commitment to his office, brother, and nation would soon turn him into JFK’s chief counsel.

Meanwhile, as Bobby claimed his role as the “number two man in Washington...second only to the president in power and influence,” LBJ sat on the sidelines, waiting for the prophecy he and the journalists had made earlier before the inauguration to come true. Once JFK and LBJ had entered office, Kennedy was not sure how to utilize Johnson’s previous experience in the Senate to his advantage. Still, he knew that “I’ve got to keep him happy somehow.” Time noted that “President Kennedy is tireless in his efforts to keep Lyndon Johnson busy - and happy...[Kennedy is] going out of his way to please and placate Johnson.” One of these measures was taken as JFK appointed LBJ as the head of new councils set up in his administration, particularly the President’s Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity (CEEO), formed to prevent racial discrimination by corporations holding government contracts.

Since Bobby was a member of the CEEO, Johnson knew from the beginning that he would need his support. LBJ even wrote to RFK that he was "looking forward to cooperating with you in achieving [the] objective" of ending hiring discrimination.” In this cooperative effort, Bobby "made a public show of deferring to the vice president, speaking up quickly when he agreed with Johnson's statements." However, the sentiment turned into an intensified dissonance in the summer of 1962 when JFK gave Bobby permission to survey businesses with government contracts that still did not have any black employees. Bobby discovered that about 70% of government-contracted firms fit under this category. Often "100 percent gains" stated in corporate questionnaires meant that the number of Negro workers increased from one to two. He concluded that the CEEO and its “Plans for Progress” agreement - binding eighty-five firms that held government contracts - was producing more “Plans” than “Progress.” RFK would blame the inefficacy of the CEEO on the leadership of Lyndon Johnson.

When JFK learned of the statistics, he became equally outraged. The president would approve a draft executive order to expand the CEEO to include highways and other programs funded federally. Lee White, who had been in charge of finalizing the order, observed, "I've never seen a more surprised, disappointed and annoyed guy than Lyndon Johnson when the President issued [the] executive order changing the jurisdiction of his committee." At the next CEEO meeting, Bobby stormed into the room and began blasting questions at its members, but no one seemed prepared to answer them. Johnson later recollected to Ted Sorensen, "Bobby came in the other day to our Equal Opportunity Committee and I was humiliated. He took on Hobart [Taylor, the executive vice chairman of the CEEO]...and he just gave him hell." The incident brought to light the weaknesses of the CEEO and of Johnson. Once hailed as the second most important person in the country, Johnson now could not even assert his authority over a mere committee. The hostility and conflict between Robert Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson over the CEEO would become markedly, as Bobby believed, the "sharpest disputes I ever had with Vice President Johnson."

Johnson's inadequacies in the direction of these councils were a direct result of his insecurities and indecision. His ineptitude as Vice President frustrated JFK even further when he compared it with Johnson's success in the Senate. Theodore Sorensen had said that "we expected him [LBJ] to be a major voice in not only shaping but delivering and selling the program, and he did very little, if any, of that." Bobby agreed that it was "exasperating...that Lyndon Johnson wouldn't...make more of an effort in connection with a lot of legislation." He believed that "[Johnson's] ideas about how to proceed were helpful on occasion...but as far as making any personal effort...he almost invariably refused to do so." Johnson became even more alienated from the administration from what he saw as a conspiracy of Kennedy loyalists, led by Bobby Kennedy, against him.

While President Kennedy often teased LBJ by asking for his opinions on an issue just to see him squirm, the derision of Johnson was far worse within the Kennedy social circle. The “Hickory Hill gang” often met at parties at Robert Kennedy’s estate in McLean, Virginia, where Johnson’s presence was felt as the topic of the conversation - or more appropriately, the butt of their jokes. The Kennedy loyalists saw LBJ as “a gatecrasher, an anomaly, an embarrassment to the president, and a blight on the bright New Frontier.” RFK even received a voodoo doll of Johnson from his friends as a symbol of the common hatred they held for the vice president. Time’s Hugh Sidey called the mockery of LBJ “just awful...inexcusable really.”

All the while, Johnson was aware of this, but he showed modesty and restraint even when such behavior reared its ugly head in front of him. In one particular instance, at a party in November 1963 for a recent Kennedy appointee, as Ron Linton and John J. Riley engaged in lively conversation, LBJ stood aside, politely waiting for a break in the conversation. Linton and Riley, unaware of Johnson’s presence, continued talking. Finally, Linton noticed LBJ walking away, disheartened by what he saw as a deliberate brush-off of the Kennedy men. “John, I think we just insulted the vice president of the United States,” Linton said. Riley responded, “F--k ‘im.” Johnson, overhearing the comment as he walked away, spun around, stared at the two men, but said nothing. LBJ saw such incidents as the ploys of a coalition headed by Robert Kennedy to oust the vice president from office. Johnson would continue to believe this, to the point of clinical paranoia, about Bobby after JFK was assassinated and LBJ inherited the Presidency. The tragedy in Dallas would bring the worlds of LBJ and RFK crashing down, but would soon elevate the conflict between them to dangerous heights, as each blamed the other for JFK’s assassination.

Upon the arrest of Lee Harvey Oswald, John Kennedy’s assassin, it was discovered that Oswald had been engaged in several pro-Communist activities: “defection to the USSR, contacts with the Soviet embassy in Mexico, and pro-Castro activity in New Orleans.” This would cause questions to arise about whether the assassination was an act of retaliation for the plots against the life of Fidel Castro. Earlier that year, on September 7, Castro had stated in an interview that eight out of the twelve assassination attempts had been connected to the CIA, and he warned against anymore. "We are prepared to...answer in kind," Castro threatened. "United States leaders should think that if they assist in terrorist plans to eliminate Cuban leaders, they themselves will not be safe." RFK had been on of the U.S.'s leaders that condoned these attempts. Though Bobby had been disturbed by such activities, "it was made abundantly clear to everyone involved in the operation that the desire was to get rid of the Castro regime and to get rid of Castro." As Bobby carried the heavy burden of guilt with the idea that he may have indirectly caused his brother's death, LBJ also placed blame on Bobby for "the excesses of American policy in Cuba." In Johnson's eyes, it was divine retribution.

On the other hand, the tragedy in Dallas had occurred in LBJ's home state. The night before he had left to Texas, JFK has said "how irritated he was with Lyndon Johnson, who wouldn't help at all in trying to iron out the problems in Texas, and that he was an s.o.b...[Johnson] just wouldn't lift a finger to try to assist." Bobby had been referring to the political disputes in Texas that JFK tried to straighten out "as a favor to Lyndon Johnson." In his book, The Death of a President, William Manchester wrote:

In the tranquil autumn of 1963 a political issue was about to take the President and his Vice President a thousand miles from Washington, into deepest Texas. They had to go, because the state's Democratic party was riven by factionalism. Governor John Connally and Senator Ralph Yarborough were staking one another with shivs...If the Governor and Senator didn't agree to a truce soon, the national ticket wouldn't stand a chance there next fall. No party writes off twenty-five electoral votes, so both Kennedy and Johnson were going to patch things up...The Lone Star State was, after all, the Vice President's fief...As a professional Kennedy coolly assessed the present crisis and concluded that he must go after all. But he reached the decision grudgingly. It appeared to him that Johnson ought to be able to resolve this petty dispute himself.

Bobby blamed LBJ, because he knew "John Kennedy had gone to Dallas to clean up Johnson's mess and returned to Washington in a casket." A year after the assassination, just as these gaping wounds began to heal, a threat of a “wider war” in Vietnam would reopen them and rub salt in the Johnson-Kennedy feud.

In 1964, the temper had eased between LBJ and RFK as they forged an alliance in pursuit of the election of Bobby for Senator of New York. In gratitude for his support during the campaign, Bobby was careful not to spark another conflict that would revive speculation of their feud. He knew the media would interpret any criticisms he had against Johnson as a ploy to denigrate LBJ’s reputation for RFK’s potential presidential campaign in 1968. However, when Johnson broke his promise of “no wider war” in his 1964 presidential campaign by escalating the war, RFK knew he had to speak out.

“From November ‘62 until July ‘65,” Johnson said, “I did everything I could to avoid the commitment that ultimately I had to make - either run or stand.” RFK knew that LBJ had no intention of running. When Rolling Thunder - the largest aerial bombing campaign in the history of warfare - began execution in February 1965, Kennedy had drafted a speech in opposition to the escalation, but scrapped it, because he “had not taste for the martyrdom of the moral purist or the perpetual dissenter.”

Nevertheless, Johnson saw Kennedy as a constant threat. He knew that “there would be Robert Kennedy out in front leading the fight against me, telling everyone that I had betrayed [John] Kennedy’s commitment to South Vietnam...That I was a coward...Oh, I could see it coming all right.” Kennedy’s “first break” would indeed come when RFK gave a speech to the Senate on May 6, calling not for unilateral withdrawal or escalation, but for negotiations in Vietnam. Bobby’s fears were confirmed with the speech as U.S. News & World Report declared that Bobby was leading the urban Democrats, “who are turning on their fellow Democrat in the White House,” into a “liberal break” with Johnson. “Some self-described liberals who formerly regarded him as a ruthless, cold-blooded and even unprincipled political operator now look to him increasingly as the symbol and exponent of their dissatisfaction with the Johnson administration.” Still, RFK’s fears went deeper than the public perception of his cause; though he was told that “if the brother and heir of President Kennedy threw his name, prestige, and political power against Mr. Johnson’s Vietnamese policy, others would be emboldened to stand up in the protecting shadow of a Kennedy,” Bobby remained hesitant, because he thought “Lyndon Johnson was so insane that he would literally prolong the war simply because Bobby Kennedy was against it.” RFK told Jack Newfield, “I’m afraid that by speaking out I make Lyndon do the opposite, out of spite. He hates me so much that if I asked for snow, he would make it rain, just because it was me. But, maybe I will have to say something. The bombing is getting worse all the time now.” However, Kennedy would not speak out until 1967, “the year of the hawk,” when nearly half a million American combat troops were in Vietnam and $2 billion was spent each month on the war.

Despite Kennedy’s caution, the press still saw his antiwar issue as an “accelerating...effort to propel himself into a position on the world stage clearly identifiable as contrary to that of President Johnson.” To counter the common public opinion that he would challenge LBJ in 1968, RFK asserted that “I’m going to support President Johnson. If they feel it would help, I’ll be glad to campaign [for him].” His statement failed to appease the press, as headlines asked, “Will Bobby’s friends trip up LBJ in ‘68?” and “Is Robert Kennedy trying to upset LBJ in ‘68?” While the media seemed confident that he would run, Bobby was still unsure himself. “I would have a problem if I ran first against Johnson. People would say that I was splitting the party out of ambition and envy. No one would believe that I was doing it because of how I felt about Vietnam and poor people...I think that someone else will have to be the first one to run. It can’t be me because of my relationship with Johnson.” Then came the turning point to his decision. RFK received a letter from his friend, Pete Hamill, that said:

If we have LBJ for another four years, there won’t be much of a country left. I’ve heard the arguments about the practical politics which are involved. You will destroy the Democratic Party, you will destroy yourself. I say that if you don’t run, you might destroy the Democratic Party; it will end up nationally, the way it has in New York, a party filled with decrepit old bastards like Abe Beame, and young hustlers, with blue hair, trying to get their hands on highway contracts. It will be a party that says to milions and millions that they don’t count, that the decision of 2,000 hack pols does... I wanted to remind you that in Watts I didn’t see pictures of Malcolm X or Ron Karenga on the walls. I saw pictures of JFK. That is your capital in the most cynical sense; it is your obligation in another, the obligation of staying true to whatever it was that put those pictures on those walls...If a 15-year-old kid is given a choice between Rap Brown and RFK, he might choose the way of sanity...Give that same kid a choice between Rap Brown and LBJ, and he’ll probably reach for his revolver.

On March 16, 1968, Robert Kennedy announced his candidacy for the President of the United States. "I do not run for the Presidency merely to oppose any man" - an obvious reference to Johnson - "but to propose new policies." Bobby added:

My decision reflects no personal animosity or disrespect toward President Johnson. He served President Kennedy with the utmost loyalty and was extremely kind to me and members of my family in the difficult months which followed the events of November 1963. I have often commended his efforts in health, in education, and in many areas, and I have the deepest sympathy for the burden that he carries today. But the issue is not personal. It is our profound differences over where we are heading and what we want to accomplish.

Even with this statement, the press speculated that Kennedy was running for President out of a deep personal hatred for LBJ. "Senator Kennedy so dislikes Lyndon Johnson that he is willing to risk his future and his party's in an effort to knock the President out of the White House," U.S. News & World Report declared. Still, Bobby began his campaign St. Patrick’s Day night, speaking to more than 250,000 people within two weeks, when Lyndon Johnson made his shocking announcement.

At 9 p.m. on the night of March 31, LBJ delivered a nationally televised speech about the Vietnam War. Thirty-five minutes into the address, after announcing a “unilateral reduction of the bombing of North Vietnam,” Johnson proclaimed:

With American sons in the fields far away, with American's future under challenge right here at home, with out hopes and the world's hopes for peace in the balance every day, I do not believe that I should devote an hour, or a day, of my time to any personal partisan causes. Or to any duties other than the awesome duties of this office - the Presidency of your country. Accordingly, I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your President.

That morning, Johnson eulogized Kennedy on television, calling him “a noble and compassionate leader, a good and faithful servant to the people.” On June 8, the day of the funeral, he told Ethel Kennedy very warmly that he would do “anything I can do to help you or yours.” The one thing that she did want was to have her husband permanently buried alongside his brother in the Arlington National Cemetery. Little did she know that on the day of RFK’s death, Johnson had been trying to prevent his burial there. He also later refused to include in the federal budget or even the supplementary budgets that followed, to allocate $431,000 to maintain the grounds around the grave site in the way that they had maintained the grounds around JFK’s grave. It would be left to Richard Nixon to allocate the money, and he did so on the first day of his Presidency.

In this way, the tragedy between Lyndon Johnson and Robert Kennedy ended with a sudden finale - with a bitterness that lingered on after the death of one of its protagonists. As it progressed and played out on the nation’s center stage, “Lyndon Johnson’s presidency began and ended in the blood of a Kennedy.” He believed that he would always be seen as the interregnum between two Kennedy presidencies - haunted by questions of what might have been. Since JFK and RFK had both stirred up so much hope and optimism in the country, it seemed that whatever they would have done, it would have been far grander than what Johnson himself had done.

As Lyndon Johnson reflected back on his feud with Robert Kennedy in his memoirs, he believed that their relationship was “firstly personal and ultimately political. It was not at heart a dispute over policy in Vietnam, the war on poverty, or competing visions of the Kennedy legacy.” In fact, Johnson and Kennedy had similar public policy positions. Still, his antagonism toward Bobby Kennedy would plague his every political move. Doris Kearns explained that his hatred of RFK came from the fact that “Kennedy had come to stand for everything Lyndon Johnson hated in others and feared in himself...When Kennedy became an open opponent to the war, the same sense of Kennedy as ‘the enemy’ only helped to stiffen his unwillingness to consider any change in his policies.” Bobby had understood this, and tried to steer clear of Johnson’s opposition. Johnson would still see RFK’s policy decisions as personal vendettas against him. In the end, the feud between LBJ and RFK would end in another tragedy as Johnson would carry his antagonism toward Bobby Kennedy to his own grave.

Guthman, Edwin O. and Jeffrey Shulman, eds. Robert Kennedy: In His Own Words. New York: Bantam Books, 1988.

Kearns, Doris. Lyndon Johnson & the American Dream. New York: Harper & Row, 1976.

Lincoln, Evelyn. Kennedy and Johnson. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1968.

Newfield, Jack. Robert Kennedy: A Memoir. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc., 1969.

Shannon, William V. The Heir Apparent: Robert Kennedy and the Struggle for Power. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1967.

Shesol, Jeff. Mutual Contempt: Lyndon Johnson, Robert Kennedy, and the Feud that Defined a Decade. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1997.

Wicker, Tom. JFK and LBJ: the influence of personality upon politics. New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1968.

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