Shattered too soon. Adding to national cemetery. Two brothers gunned down just five years apart reunited. President john f. Kennedys murder In Dallas On November Twenty second One Thousand Nine Hundred Sixty Three that ended the age of american innocence and plunged the country into violence and social turmoil. At his brothers funeral Bobby Kennedy was consumed by remorse and guilt. And as he reflected on the political life he had shared with john he asked himself who had killed his brother and why. John and Bobby Kennedy had made numerous sentiments including matthew abbass f. B. I. Director j. Edgar hoover fidel castro Labor Union Leaders like jimmy hoffa and southern racists
oswald had acted alone. To done so would have meant confronting terrible truths about his role in his brothers administration and the rage he felt at John Kennedys murder. Just. Just. At the time Robert Kennedy was running for the u. S. Senate in new york he took time off from the campaign to reflect on the year
through congress in one thousand nine hundred sixty four and the voting rights act one year later. he also set about creating the great society a sweeping set of social domestic policy programs bobby kennedy was now little more than a spectator as his nemesis lyndon johnson moved ahead with his reforms. as he slowly adjusted to life after his brother s assassination bobby kennedy considered a new mission to return to the white house this time as president but first he would have to get past lyndon johnson. in july nine hundred sixty four kennedy his wife and several of their children visited poland greeted by and large enthusiastic crowds on the streets while he returned to america confident that he could run for president and win to started seek a u.s. senate seat in new york johnson would run for
again. it was the end of an era bobby kennedy was devastated by the assassination and to a lesser extent by the fact that he and john would never be able to fulfill their vision for america. be fair that his brother would now go down in history as a well intentioned mater and that the kennedy presidency would be remembered mostly for this final tragedy and not for the crises it had faced. lyndon johnson was sworn in as president bobby disliked johnson intensely and all of
but it was the vietnam war that was to become the turning point in his political destiny. in one nine hundred sixty two but we had supported his brother s intervention in vietnam but only as a testing ground for developing counter insurgency strategies. but by nine hundred sixty five under the johnson administration the country was at war. bobby was deeply troubled by the current conflict but he could not yet oppose it in public because it was part of his brother s political legacy. meanwhile more than two hundred thousand men were drafted into the us armed forces in one thousand nine hundred eighty five alone many of them from the working classes. johnson also ordered massive air strikes in north vietnam kennedy disagreed with his strategy because he believed that it would not bring hanoi to the negotiating table. by all of this that could. i m opposed to resuming the bombing at the moment until i have
information that indicate that such reduction is necessary or than our national interest. by nine hundred sixty seven vietnam was no longer john kennedy s legacy it was lyndon johnson s tragedy. robert kennedy was now politically isolated but he was determined to defy johnson and his allies. and johnson wasn t the only threat. to. our reports surface that kennedy as attorney general had approved wiretaps on dr martin luther king and others. bobby s reputation as a civil rights advocate lay in tatters but he survived his sent back and now focused his efforts on ending the conflict in vietnam. johnson s policies on the