“Look at him”: Ibid.
“He wasn’t frustrated”: Thomas, p. 83.
“My first love”: Schlesinger, p. 169.
“Now he was dead”: Robert F. Kennedy, The Enemy Within, p. 35.
Bobby accused Jimmy Hoffa: Ibid., p. 62.
You also meet here: Ibid., p. 75.
Frank Kierdorf, the arsonist: Ibid., p. 84.
“Sam” Giancana: Thomas, p. 83.
“Every man has his price”: Robert F. Kennedy, The Enemy Within, p. 58.
“I have every politician in town”: Ibid., p. 67.
the Kennedy brothers would be lionized for the quest: KOD interview.
“toughness and idealism that guided”: Robert F. Kennedy, The Enemy Within, p. 325.
11. ENFORCER
“How do you expect to run”: Fay, p. 6.
“How would you like”: Ibid., p. 7.
“It doesn’t matter if they like”: Steel, p. 56.
Bobby, on Jack’s orders: Shesol, p. 10.
Observing those early days: David L. Hackett, John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, Oral History Collection.
“What we basically did”: Ibid.
“loyalty index”: Ibid.
“To get a ten”: Ibid.
12. THE ENEMY WITHIN
This chapter relies heavily on Jeff Shesol’s Mutual Contempt. His is the best account of Kennedy’s decision to select Lyndon Johnson as his vice presidential running mate.
He called him a “riverboat gambler”: Benjamin C. Bradlee, Conversations with Kennedy (New York: W. W. Norton, 1984), p. 18.
They revealed that: Shesol, p. 35.
“He’s my choice”: Ibid., p. 43.
“I wasn’t any Chamberlain”: Caro, The Passage of Power, p. 105.
“You’ve got your nerve!”: Robert Dallek, An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy (New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2003), p. 57.
Johnson had one further trick: Shesol, p. 39.
“Do not reject this man”: Sandbrook, p. 105.
had broken his third promise: Ibid., p. 39.
Bobby was now in total command: Caro, The Passage of Power, p. 245.
They’d arrived with 600: Sabato, p. 53.
Jack sent a message to: Guthman, p. 77.
asked Johnson if he’d like to be his: W. H. Lawrence, “Johnson Is Nominated for Vice President; Kennedy Picks Him to Placate South,” New York Times, July 15, 1960.
events become murkier: Shesol, pp. 52–54.
“so savagely attacked”: Ibid., p. 57.
fell to Bobby: Shesol, p. 52.
They’d guessed wrong: Ibid., p. 54.
“Bobby’s been out of touch”: Ibid.
“Don’t worry, Jack”: Thomas, p. 98.
“Yesterday was the best day”: Ibid.
13. VICTORY
“I think it so unfair of people”: Leaming, Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis, p. 94.
“Jack, who’d needled Hubert Humphrey”: Edward M. Kennedy, True Compass: A Memoir (New York: Warner, 2009), p. 155.
“I was in the green room”: Author interview with Bill Wilson.
The Kennedy plan now: Matthews, Jack Kennedy, p. 295.
“What the hell is this?”: Author interview with Bill Wilson.
“There was a guy standing”: Ibid.
“the glaring failure of American”: Senator John F. Kennedy speech, Cincinnati, Ohio, Democratic Dinner, October 6, 1960.
“We must attempt to”: Statement on Cuba by Senator John F. Kennedy, October 20, 1960.
“There was hardly a place”: The account of Martin Luther King’s arrest and the Kennedys’ effort to free him is drawn from Harris Wofford’s Of Kennedys and Kings, p. 16.
“I am deeply indebted”: Martin Luther King, The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr., Volume V, edited by Clayborne Carson, Tenisha Armstrong, Susan Carson, Adrienne Clay, and Kieran Taylor (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005).
“Hi, Johnny. How are you?”: Schlesinger, p. 219.
“Last week, Dick Nixon”: Fay, p. 60.
Bobby’s house in Hyannis Port: Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, Times to Remember, p. 321.
“Each state has certain bellwether”: KOD interview.
“Bobby found me and pulled”: Ibid.
“We called the Senator”: Ibid.
“I don’t mind him”: Ibid.
“I think, around eleven”: David L. Hackett, John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, Oral History Collection.
Jack went off to bed: Thomas, p. 107.
presented Bobby with a special: Hilty, p. 193.
14. FREEDOM FIGHTER
“At last, Bobby’s moral center seemed to stir”: Harry Belafonte, My Song: A Memoir of Art, Race, and Defiance (New York: Vintage, 2011), p. 234.
“We’re going to do what”: Hilty, p. 184.
“Not necessarily young men”: Ibid.
One of the earliest to land: KOD interview.
Over O’Donnell’s opposition: Ibid.
“understandably reluctant to call”: Fay, p. 75.
“suggested to me the possibility”: Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., Journals: 1952–2000 (New York: Penguin, 2007), p. 101.
“For the last four years”: Dallek, An Unfinished Life, p. 308.
Soon after the election: Neff, p. 205.
“I said I didn’t want”: Shesol, p. 65.
“I didn’t want to spend”: Nasaw, p. 759.
Jack dispatched Clark Clifford: Ibid.
“I made up my mind today”: Dallek, An Unfinished Life, p. 64.
“I need to know that”: Thomas, p. 110.
“It’s the first thing he’s”: Shesol, p. 67.
“If I learned anything”: Ibid., p. 66.
Three months later, on April 12: Thomas, p. 120.
“The great mass of Cuban”: Ibid.
Monday, just hours after: Ibid.
“I don’t think it’s going”: Reeves, p. 92.
“I think we’ve made”: Guthman, pp. 110–11.
“You can start praying”: Ibid.
“There’s an old saying”: President John F. Kennedy press conference, April 21, 1961.
“Those sons-of-bitches”: Reeves, p. 103.
“There can be no long-term”: Ibid., p. 264.
On May 4, thirteen “Freedom Riders”: Thomas, p. 128.
“During those days”: RFK, American Experience, PBS, July 1, 2004.
But the worst violence: Thomas, pp. 128–29.
“Stop them!”: Ibid., p. 129.
Just a month later: Barbara Leaming, Jack Kennedy: Education of a Statesman (New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 2007), p. 299.
The new attorney general: Sabato, p. 79.
“To them, the Freedom Riders”: Belafonte, p. 233.
Bobby also felt a genuine concern: Thomas, p. 129.
“that’s the last thing”: RFK, American Experience, PBS, July 1, 2004.
“I just leaped out”: Ibid.
“Troops are on the way”: NBC News Archives.
“Robert Kennedy became educated”: RFK, American Experience, PBS, July 1, 2004.
“At last, Bobby’s moral center”: Belafonte, p. 230.
On a Voice of America broadcast: Guthman, p. 181.
15. GENERAL
“He would have taken a bolt”: Peter Collier, The Kennedys: An American Drama (San Francisco: Encounter Books, 2002), p. 450.
pursuing organized crime: Thomas, p. 115.
One of his first acts: Neff, p. 217.
crime-busting potential: Ibid., pp. 215–17.
His first step was contacting: Ibid.
“One of the things I’m going”: Ibid.
“From the moment he was”: Ibid., p. 233.
“unstable as an animal”: Thomas, p. 162.
Bobby also found himself engaged: Guthman, p. 226.
President’s Committee on: Godfrey Hodgson, JFK and LBJ: The Last Two Great Presidents (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2016), p. 140.
“It goes b
ack to the very”: David L. Hackett, John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, Oral History Collection.
“Perhaps a juvenile delinquent”: Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy and His Times, p. 409.
“I started in the Department”: Guthman, p. 88.
it was important that they trust: Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy and His Times, p. 241.
“Maybe at one o’clock”: John Seigenthaler, John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, Oral History Collection.
“I’m Bob Kennedy”: Ibid.
The lawyers working for him: Thomas, p. 112.
“In the next three and a half”: Guthman, p. 92.
“Did you see any Negroes?”: John Seigenthaler, John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, Oral History Collection.
“We’re not seeking”: Ibid.
an event took place that changed: Reeves, p. 272.
issue of Life magazine featured: “The No. 2 Man in Washington,” Life, January 26, 1962.
“wondrously qualified for”: Ibid.
Once coming across a: Ibid.
“He seems to be genuinely”: Ibid.
Forgoing a wage increase: Reeves, p. 295.
Four days after signing: Ibid., p. 296.
“You’ve made a terrible”: Ibid.
five other steel companies: Ibid.
“Some time ago”: Ibid., p. 298.
“There shouldn’t be any”: “Today’s Titans Can Learn from Fall of U.S. Steel,” Floyd Noris, New York Times, July 3, 2014.
The orders to the FBI agents: Guthman, p. 233.
already raised a ruckus: Ibid., p. 231.
“I get some credit”: Ibid., p. 234.
“Why is it that all the telephone calls”: Ben Bradlee, A Good Life (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2011), p. 240.
He went on: Ibid.
“And, of course”: Ibid.
who’d been tracking him: Steel, p. 66.
was involved in an ongoing: Neff, p. 239.
Hoover had logs of: Ibid.
It took the director’s visit: Reeves, p. 290.
“Johnny, you just can’t associate”: Ibid., p. 292.
And so was their friendship: Steel, p. 68.
“I trust that if you ever”: Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy and His Times, p. 493.
“like the Alamo”: Thomas, p. 18.
“Shoot anybody that puts”: Reeves, p. 362.
“the mightiest internal struggle”: Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy and His Times, p. 325.
“It seemed to me very clear”: Hilty, p. 347.
16. TWO GREAT MEN
“Every time they have a conference”: Shesol, p. 107.
Bobby Kennedy was haunted: Thomas, p. 146.
“Cuba means a great deal to the old Bolsheviks”: Reeves, p. 105.
“It was almost as simple as”: Thomas, p. 146.
Code-named Operation Mongoose: Ibid., p. 149.
below-the-radar mission: Ibid., p. 133.
At their first meeting: Ibid.
On October 15, a U-2 spy plane: Reeves, p. 379.
The president was in his bedroom: Caro, The Passage of Power, p. 208.
emergency meeting in the West Wing: Reeves, p. 368.
Bobby’s response: “Shit”: Ibid., p. 369.
“Ken Keating will probably”: Ibid., p. 370.
“We kidded ourselves”: Guthman, p. 118.
he made a strong case: Reeves, p. 378.
both Kennedys found themselves: Caro, The Passage of Power, p. 210.
“This thing is falling apart”: Thomas, p. 217.
“I remember going into”: Author interview with Ethel Kennedy.
Bob Kennedy and Ted Sorensen: Reeves, p. 418.
The president asked his brother: Dallek, An Unfinished Life, p. 561.
“I should say that during”: Thomas, p. 228.
“In order to save the world”: Ibid., p. 230.
“Looking back on it”: Wofford, p. 408.
he brought in James B. Donovan: Guthman, p. 131.
17. CIVIL RIGHTS
“What I didn’t fully appreciate”: Guthman, p. 90.
In early 1963: Newsweek, March 18, 1963.
“No Kennedy likes”: Caro, The Passage of Power, p. 250.
“You talk to McNamara”: Wofford, p. 409.
“We have a party in revolt”: Belafonte, p. 267.
Loudest and most belligerent: Ibid.
“What you’re asking us”: Ibid.
“Never! Never! Never!”: Thomas, p. 244.
“Maybe it’s what Bobby”: Belafonte, p. 270.
“They didn’t want to talk”: Guthman, p. 221.
“I guess if I were in his shoes”: Ibid.
“Segregation now, segregation tomorrow”: Inaugural Address of Alabama governor George Wallace, January 14, 1963.
Bobby continued to make the case: Ted Sorensen, John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, Oral History Collection.
President Kennedy turned to: Belafonte, p. 267.
Martin Luther King, in tears: Ibid., p. 271.
The sense of accomplishment: Ibid.
“How can we say to the Negro in Jackson”: Guthman, p. 223.
“Get rid of them”: Reeves, p. 530.
Reluctantly, he let: Belafonte, p. 275.
“We are launched on a”: Cablegram from Ambassador Lodge to Secretary Rusk, New York Times, July 1, 1971.
“I told you he was going”: Reeves, p. 642.
“that we’re just going”: Thomas, pp. 270–71.
On November 2: Reeves, p. 649.
On Friday, November 22: Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy and His Times, p. 608.
“Jack’s been shot”: Neff, p. 4.
“There’s so much bitterness”: Steel, p. 86.
He now wanted answers: Thomas, p. 277.
Even before seeing McCone: Ibid.
“Why?” he was asking: Charles Spaulding interview, RFK, American Experience, PBS, July 2004.
18. RELIC
“I thought it would be me”: Schlesinger, p. 609.
“His eyes were haunted”: Guthman, pp. 244–45.
“He looked to me like a man”: John Seigenthaler interview, RFK, American Experience, PBS, July 2004.
“I could not imagine”: Wofford, p. 388.
“Everything was pulled out”: Schlesinger, p. 612.
“It veered close to being”: Edward Kennedy, True Compass, p. 210.
“He who learns must suffer”: Steel, p. 96.
He was being sent to Southeast Asia: Richard Goodwin, Remembering America, p. 247.
“Bobby and Ethel witnessed”: Edward Kennedy, True Compass, p. 211.
One person who suspected: Guthman, 254.
Paul Corbin had been recently spotted: Caro, The Passage of Power, p. 583.
was by now a true favorite of: John Seigenthaler interview, RFK, American Experience, PBS, July 2004.
“If he’s such a good fellow”: Thomas, p. 651.
“Knowing Paul, Bobby knew”: John Seigenthaler interview, RFK, American Experience, PBS, July 2004.
Bobby didn’t actually care: Shesol, p. 182.
“I know who he’s loyal to”: Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy and His Times, p. 248.
Johnson wasn’t about to let: Guthman, p. 254.
The New Hampshire write-in: Ibid.
“The Attorney General has said”: Ibid., pp. 255–56.
arrived at his brother’s bedside: Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, Times to Remember, p. 392.
“How much more do they”: Guthman, p. 285.
“There were many who felt”: Ibid., p. 274.
“version of the assassination”: Ibid.
“There is no question that”: Ibid., p. 277.
allowed by the government: Ibid.
The moment proved equally: Shesol, p. 165.
Senate in New York: Clymer, p. 58.
“all the messiness of the arrogant”: Richard Goodwin, Remembering America, p. 297.
“That job doesn’t have”: Schlesinger, Journals, p. 230.
&
nbsp; “That’s really Teddy’s state”: Richard Goodwin, Remembering America, p. 297.
Bobby continued to view: Bradlee, A Good Life, p. 296.
Johnson called the attorney general: Richard Goodwin, Remembering America, p. 298.
“could be a real dead end”: Guthman, p. 283.
“It would be awful if I lost”: Ibid., p. 284.
“If it’s McCarthy”: Sandbrook, p. 11.
Johnson had been unable: Sabato, p. 272.
“Why don’t you let them”: John Seigenthaler interview, RFK, American Experience, PBS, July 2004.
Robert Kennedy broke down: Thomas, p. 296.
“Inevitably, during the briefing”: Guthman, p. 289.
“Although by this time”: Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, Times to Remember, p. 393.
“At the beginning”: Author interview with Peter Edelman.
Bobby faced resistance: William Jacobus vanden Heuvel and Milton Gwirtzman, On His Own: Robert F. Kennedy, 1964–1968 (New York: Doubleday, 1970), p. 44.
“I think labels are so difficult”: NBC News Archives.
Paul Corbin noticed one day: Schlesinger, p. 670.
decided it was time to meet: Ibid., p. 675.
“Kindly inform Senator Keating”: vanden Heuvel and Gwirtzman, p. 53.
Keating panicked, running: Ibid.
“He was back on his feet”: Guthman, p. 311.
19. BRAVE HEART
Frank Mankiewicz was Bobby’s loyal press secretary. His posthumous So As I Was Saying . . . is a colorful, inside guide to Bobby through his Senate years to the end.
“John Kennedy was a realist”: Schlesinger, p. 602.
Bobby had traveled to Bismarck: New York Times, September 16, 1963.
presented Bobby: Ibid.
“resident, melancholy bleakness”: Jim Stevenson, The New Yorker; Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy and His Times, p. 817.
black necktie he hadn’t yet: Shesol, p. 233.
“whether he got to be”: Ibid., p. 234.
“impotent, frustrated, floundering”: RFK, American Experience, PBS, July 1, 2004.
Canadian government had just: Schlesinger, p. 811.
The National Geographic: Ibid.
“I planted President Kennedy’s”: “Robert F. Kennedy,” Life.
He also left behind: RFK, American Experience, PBS, July 1, 2004.
“He looked over at me”: Edward Kennedy, True Compass, p. 230.
“Is this the way”: vanden Heuvel and Gwirtzman, p. 64.
After first thinking: Frank Mankiewicz, So As I Was Saying . . . My Somewhat Eventful Life (New York: Thomas Dunne Books, 2016), p. 141.
“I don’t talk that way”: Ibid., p. 142.
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