James W. Hilty - Robert Kennedy: Brother Protector

Cover

Page i

ROBERT KENNEDY

BROTHER PROTECTOR

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Image not available

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BROTHER PROTECTOR

James W. Hilty

Temple University Press Philadelphia

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Temple University Press, Philadelphia 19122

Copyright 1997 by Temple University
All rights reserved
Published 1997
Printed in the United States of America

The paper used in this publication meets the
requirements of American National Standard for
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Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984

Text designer: Kate Nichols
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This book was set in 11.3/14.4 Bembo text type with Copperplate and Engine type and a Type Embellishment Two ornament for display. The text was printed on 50# Glatfelter Supple Opaque, and the insert was printed on 70# Fortune Matte, with an initial print run of 5000.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Hilty, James W.

Robert Kennedy, brother protector / James W. Hilty.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.

ISBN 1-56639-566-6 (cloth: alk.paper) ISBN 1-56639-766-9 (pbk: alk.paper)

1. Kennedy, Robert F., 19251968. 2. Kennedy, John F. (John Fitzgerald), 19171963Assassination. 3. Kennedy family. 4. LegislatorsUnited StatesBiography. 5. United States. Congress. SenateBiography. 6. United StatesPolitics and government19611963. 7. United StatesPolitics and government19631969. I. Title.

E840.8.K4H55 1997
973.922'0922dc21

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Dedicated to my mother,
Henrietta Isabel Hilty (1903-1978),
in whose quiet countenance reposed a profound faith,
an indomitable will,
and the boundless courage still to dare

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ROBERT F. KENNEDY was a principal political enigma of the 1960s. We owe part of our puzzlement about him to his own bafflement over who and what he was or should be. Beset by many demons, he was a virtual bundle of contradictions. I have oscillated in Robert Kennedy's rainbow (to borrow from Melville) for the better part of eight years but cannot catalogue all of those demons or sort out all of those contradictions.

What has become clear, however, is that a personal understanding of Robert Kennedy begins with the realization that most of his life was dictated by his place within the Kennedy family, his obeisance to its rules and rituals, and his resolute loyalty to John Kennedy. His life literally became a trial by existencea series of experiences, one bound to the other, based solely on his being the third of Joseph Kennedy's four sons.

This book carries Robert Kennedy through his brother's assassination to the end of the first act of his life and to the precipice of despair from which he stepped off into a political life of his own. Mostly about what Robert and John Kennedy did in tandem, it hardly resolves all doubts.

History, of course, is never a closed book. Beneath the glitter of

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Camelot lie many unanswered questions about the Kennedys' reach for power, their possible involvements in unsavory and dangerous events, their true commitment to social justice, their personal conduct, and their leadership abilities. These questions have led some historians and investigative journalists to deny substance to the Kennedy legacy, attributing to the partnership only high-blown rhetoric at best and scandal and duplicity at worst. Those views, now firmly implanted in the public memory, often in competition with elements of the Kennedy legacy, cannot be ignored. But readers hoping for mythoclastic revelations will be disappointed here.

This book cannot offer a complete and detailed account of Robert Kennedy's personal life, for, among other reasons, tens of thousands of personal papers and records pertaining to his life remain closed. What it does offer is a reinterpretation based on my examination of the literature, buttressed by research into archival sources, and enriched by many memoirs, personal accounts, and interviews of Kennedy associates. Still, the Kennedys may perhaps best be examined from a safe distance, for their tantalizing allure, like that of a Venus's-flytrap, can be fatally encapsulating.