Kennedy Robert F - Kennedy, Robert: His Life

P RAISE FOR R OBERT K ENNEDY

Quantities of new information.... Thomas is an experienced biographer and... an accomplished political journalist. His style is clear, a little homely, and anything but overwrought, and this allows the almost operatic nature of the tale he tells to speak for itself.... He is respectful of evidence and measured in his judgements. He is neither an apologist nor a debunker.

Hendrik Hertzberg, The New Yorker

Thomas truly magisterial biography of Robert Kennedy may signal a new wave of writing on the Kennedy brothers that will at last bring those ever-fascinating figures into clear focus. Based on years of research, this rich, detailed, and balanced account of Robert Kennedy brings that many-sided man to life more vividly than anyone else has done.... Gripping [and] powerful.

Harris Wofford, Washington Monthly

Assured, gripping new biography.... Thomas book is exemplary. He knows how far the evidence will take him and how far it will not. He respects his predecessors. Good at compression, he has the discipline to keep his book under 400 pages of narrative text, which is not a la mode in biographical writing but is a gift to the reader. The emotional pitch stays high, where it belongs. Thomas knows he need not be maudlin. The life of Robert Kennedy does not need a boost to break the heart.

Todd Gitlin, Chicago Tribune

A reminder of what great journalism can be.... Wonderously textured.... The book reads quickly, even suspensefully in many places.... Robert Kennedy: His Life ... shows the place that real scandal and intrigue can have in public policy and the people who make itand shows how a real journalist can handle the subject matter in a way that elevates rather than degrades both the writer and the reader.

Steve Brill, Brills Content

One hesitates to use the word definitive in any book about any Kennedy, but Robert Kennedy: His Life ... approaches perfection and achieves greatness.... This is a major, authoritative work, neither hagiography nor hatchet job, at once eminently fair and sympathetic. The reader finishes Thomas study with as complete an account as we are likely to get of this complicated, many-faceted man.

Jay Strafford, Richmond Times-Dispatch

An impressively researched, richly detailed, tightly written account that confirms [Thomas] initial assertion: RFKs life, he says, is the story of an unpromising boy who died as he was becoming a great man. It is also a warts-and-all portrait that is the single indispensable book about Robert Kennedy.

Jeff Greenfield, Newsday

Read Arthur Schlesinger Jr.s Robert Kennedy and His Times if you want an occasional soak in the mythological waters of Camelot. But if you want the real Robert Kennedy, the floppy haired, scrawny but tough man-boy still remembered simply as Bobby, then read Evan Thomas Robert Kennedy: His Life .

The Plain Dealer

Robert Kennedy: His Life by Evan Thomas advances our understanding of one of the most complex, intense, and changeable political leaders in modern history.... Measured [and] subtle.... Thomas... proves to be a psychologically astute biographer.

Jack Newfield, Tikkun

A compelling re-telling of one of the saddest and most intriguing life stories in American politics.

Kirkus Reviews

Nuanced... capably written... there is a lot of new information.... As a result, Thomas offers an illumination of the mans failings as well as his strengths, and unravels the complex knot of relationships within the Kennedy family.... Thomas book sheds new light on a manand an era, and a familyabout whom Americans will probably never know the whole truth.

Publishers Weekly

Evan Thomas separates the myth from the man.... The definitive book on the most complex Kennedy.

Donn Esmonde, The Buffalo News

Thoroughly readable, thoughtfully analyzed.

Yvonne Crittenden, Toronto Sun

Simply brilliantclear, unvarnished and even-handed.

Howard Troxler, St. Petersburg Times

Remarkable.... Thomas adds fresh insights into Kennedys complex personality.... Profoundly moving and sad.

Kevin Hamilton, The Seattle Times

An intelligent and unvarnished look.

Larry D. Woods, The Tennessean

Absorbing and passionate... terrific.

David Blum, George

Lucidly written.

Sam Allis, The Boston Globe

ALSO BY EVAN THOMAS

S EA OF T HUNDER :

Four Commanders and the Last Great Naval Campaign 19411945

J OHN P AUL J ONES :

Sailor, Hero, Father of the American Navy

T HE V ERY B EST M EN :

Four Who Dared: The Early Years of the CIA

T HE M AN TO S EE :

Edward Bennett Williams

Ultimate Insider; Legendary Trial Lawyer

T HE W ISE M EN :

Six Friends and the World They Made

(with Walter Isaacson)

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M Y FIRST AND GREATEST DEBT is to my researcher, Michael Hill. Mike is tireless, responsive, and resourceful. He approaches all challenges with boundless good cheer and zest. He is a true partner and friend.

This book draws heavily on interviews with RFKs friends and colleagues. Kennedy was forty-two years old when he died; three decades later, most of his associates are in their sixties and seventies. With few exceptions, the men who served Kennedy were forthcoming. I want to thank, in particular, Joe Dolan, Richard Donahue, Fred Dutton, Peter Edelman, Ed Guthman, Frank Mankiewicz, John Nolan, John Reilly, and John Seigenthaler, all of whom read and commented upon drafts of the manuscript. They did not all like, or agree with, my conclusions, but they tried to be fair-minded in their comments. Many others, listed in the source notes, helped me as well. There is a rich lode of oral histories in the Kennedy Library, and I wish to thank Jean Stein for allowing me to see the oral histories she conducted with George Plimpton for their book American Journey.

Over the past thirty years, the Kennedy family has only slowly and sparingly made public RFKs papers. That is one reason Arthur Schlesingers magisterial 1978 biography has remained definitive. Schlesinger had exclusive access to all of RFKs papers. I am, I believe, the first author since Schlesinger to be allowed to see the most significant of the closed RFK papers at the Kennedy Library, RFKs confidential file as attorney general, and his family correspondence. Kennedys official files are still not fully declassified, but the material I reviewed included some important documents, including his original handwritten notes from the Cuban Missile Crisis, which have never before been made public. I am grateful to Maxwell Taylor Kennedy for giving me access on behalf of the Robert Kennedy family, and thankful as well to John Nolan and John Seigenthaler for recommending that he do so. I am also grateful to Paul Kirk for his role in granting me access to the family correspondence and to Charles Daly of the Kennedy Library Foundation for his advice and guidance.

I benefited from another resource that has long been kept closed, some ninety hours of tape-recorded reminiscences by RFK and JFKs close aide and friend Kenneth ODonnell, originally intended for a book on the so-called Irish mafia by NBC newsman Sander Vanocur. My thanks to Kenny ODonnell Jr. for giving me permission to listen to those tapes and to quote from them, and to Helen ODonnell for first telling me about the tapes and their contents and for sharing her recollections of her father.