I'm no fan of the Kennedys but Robert was something else. I'm saddened by what we could have had and what we're stuck with now. It is way past time we put the country back on the right path, vote the republican party into obscurity.
14
I witnessed Robert Kennedy speak at the University of New Mexico during the 1968 presidential campaign. He was a dynamic speaker who was a very likely winner of the presidential election that year. What a waste to have his life end so tragically, not unlike Martin Luther King Jr..
1968 was really a terrible year in this country's history.
15
I had to read this. I admired Bobby Kennedy immensely. I was 17 in 1968. I had been following politics for years. When I saw the film on tv saying he was dead, I'd been standing. I fell to my knees sobbing. Thank God my parents weren't home. Rabid
Republicans, they especially hated the Catholic Kennedys. I've always felt that I permanently lost something that day. Reading other accounts of how people were affected helps a bit, but what a horrible thing to share, the loss of hope, optimism, faith in humanity. I felt that come back with President and Mrs. Obama. Seeing their legacy trashed and soiled leaves the taste of ashes in my mouth. I know there are good public servants out there. May they thrive. But Bobby, he was one of a kind.
16
Robert Kennedy is the only hero I ever had.
Sirhan's neighbor, their back yards faced each other. Sirhan's neighbor that I knew in Oregon, explained to me that before Robert was killed that two men with suits with ties would come by and pick Sirhan up for about 3 hours for a few months before he was shot. My neighbor told all the Orange county police he could this story. NONE would write this down. He said, "I guess because I was just a 14 year old kid."
Is this written down; was this ever followed up or was this a cover up?
Think!
William
12
My father had recently retired and was having trouble adjusting to a new sleep cycle so he was awake in the early morning of that day (Eastern Time) when he heard the news on the radio.
Even though it was a school day he knocked on every one's bedroom door to wake them and tell them what happened.
School that day was like zombie land.
I think of RFK's death (and LBJ's retirement) to be the events that eventually got us to where we are today with Trump (sorry, #MeToo, Trump was a monster long before Bill and Monica connected.)
But it is worse than that. In the 1970 election to replace Bobby, the liberal vote was split between appointed incumbent Republican Charles Goddel (father of the current NFL commissioner) and Democrat Dick Ottinger.
That allowed Conservative Party candidate James Buckley (brother of William F) to win with 39% of the vote.
It was Valeo v. Buckley in 1976 that laid the groundwork for the extremist concept that money equals speech from which we have today Citzen's United and McCutcheon.
We lost a lot in 1968, very possibly our national soul.
11
Well, lets make it up to Bobby and swing into action the next 2 of 3 Novembers....
14
What could have been.
8
The evidence that Thane Eugene Cesar was the actual murdered of Robert Kennedy is quite simple: 1) LA county coroner Thomas Noguchi's autopsy that shows that the gun that killed RFK had to be 1 to 3 inches away from behind RFK's ear 2) the many witnesses, in particular Karl Uecker (as shown in the documentary "The Second Gun") that shows that Sirhan's gun was no closer than 3 feet from the front of RFK 3) the audio recording evidence of 13 shots while Sirhan's gun only held 8 rounds, firing no more than 2 or at most 3 before being tackled, 4) witness Don Shulman's testimony that Thane Cesar shot his gun in the direction of RFK during the assassination. Like the single-bullet theory for JFK, we have to accept that we live in a very dim age currently, but this dimness simply cannot last in the light of the free flow of more and more information.
10
RIP RFK.
We miss you.
We hope for another like you.
7
Paul Schrade, the other shooting victim, has claimed to this day that others were involved. Experts say there is no evidence, though the LA police destroyed evidence. RFK Jr. recently asked for a new inquiry into the killing of his father, after visiting Sirhan in jail.
4
What I will forever fondly remember about Bobby Kennedy was how he calmly and tenderly connected with an African American audience outside of Indianapolis where he was campaigning for the Indiana Democratic presidential primary.
On the night Dr. King was assassinated, Mr. Kennedy, was en route from Muncie, Indiana, to Indianapolis. Upon hearing the news of Dr. King’s murder, Mr. Kennedy thought about how he might break the news to the primarily black audience he was scheduled to address in an inner city park. Wearing one of John's old overcoats – he mounted the back of a flatbed truck to stand behind the microphone to deliver his spontaneous words to this audience.
I never completely agreed with all of Mr. Kennedy's politics, but that night, he was magnificent and he helped calm a frightened, angry, and devastated group of mourners who were in as much shock as they were in pain after hearing of Dr. King's murder.
17
The murder of RFK began something terrible in America, the process of depersonalization in American life. Moving away from big ideas and powerful personalities to an isolation of the spirit, and a lower form of existence, one governed by animalistic wants and desires. A move away from intellectualism , a de-evolution.
6
The Kennedy myth machine stills cranks onward - not a single mention of Sen./AG Robert Kennedy's close ties to Joe McCarthy and the lives their mutual commie witch hunt ruined.
2
Washington Post has had some excellent in-depth analysis of the RFK assassination the last few days. Among others, Harvard Medical Professor Daniel Brown is convinced Sirhan was unwittingly enrolled into CIA's MK Ultra program.
Although there is circumstantial and medical evidence supporting this, given CIA Director Richard Helm's orders to destroy all of the MK Ultra program records in 1973 (conveniently just as Frank Church and Congress began to demand answers), unfortunately we may never know.
The destruction of evidence referenced in this article is also further explored in the Washington Post and it is not insignificant.
6
Another commenter wondered why so few comments. I think it is because fifty years have passed. Those of us for whom RFK's assassination was a defining moment have lived with the memory for half a century. For me, there is no possible way to explain to anyone the feeling of total bereavement, of the ground falling away from under my feet, upon turning on the radio that morning in California and hearing those words. It just couldn't have happened again.
Rote routine took me to the office. I think I didn't want to be alone. Until Barack Hussein Obama, I never invested my heart in another politician, and then every day prayed that he would survive his presidency.
Fifty years later, tears still come to my eyes.
16
I think it was William Manchester who wrote that America seemed to be always mourning a lost dream. Fifty years later, this still hurts.
9
In all the discussions on RFK's death, I haven't heard much about why we have so few presidential candidates who appeal to what Lincoln called "the better angels of our nature" as he did.
I certainly can't think of any one running for the Republican nomination in the last 50 years who has even paid lip service to this concept. Even George H.W. Bush, who, in his old age, is being lauded, built his candidacy around a racist advertising campaign.
And the Democrats have been similarly often in the wilderness with regard to this. Obama did some of it but even here he didn't offer the inspiration of Kennedy. In fact, the only candidate I can recall who inspired anything like what he did was Bernie Sanders and even he didn't come close to Kennedy.
What is it with our country which leads the world in just about every other area that we can't do better than we have and, even worse, have wound up with the person who seems to have already won the title of worst president ever.
11
Did the LAPD ever give a reason for destroying evidence?
3
With respect to the door frames that FBI investigators and others said showed fresh bullet holes & held the base of bullets, LAPD said they did not have room to store this evidence and that there was supposedly no need to since Sirhan had been convicted (although his conviction was under appeal).
There are many different explanations and weird things that happened. Google Scott Enyart and his photos from in the Ambassador kitchen during the moments of the assassination.
8
When supporters of Gene McCarthy criticized me for supporting the "ruthless" "opportunistic" RFK, suggesting I chose him because of his brother (family dynasty) or because he was handsome, I could list issues, but found it hard to verbalize effectively why I supported him so strongly, until the following encounter, one day, registering voters and getting out the vote in East Oakland, just before the California primary.
Standing just inside her doorway, a woman said to me:
"I know Mr.McCarthy thinks it's unfair that my children don't have enough food, or the same opportunities, but with Mr.Kennedy, it's like it's HIS children."
13
I read this article and the comments attached with a great upwelling of emotion and sadness for the loss of RFK. No words can describe the pain and loss of RFK, who woke up to the vast injustices, discrimination, and suffering of many of our fellow citizens. RFK, alone had the power to heal this nation and when he was killed that last hope died with him. There is no way to repair this tragedy. The American people deserve the right to know what happened that night on June 5, 1968. RFK was shot from behind at close range. The American people should demand a new investigation into the facts of this case especially in light of LAPD's destruction of evidence. Apparently, Kamala Harris (shame on her) blocked attempts to open a new investigation into the assassination. America lost one its greatest political leaders with a moral compass of all time. There has not been anyone since who have come close to RFK. Indeed, his loss is one of the greatest tragedies to befall this nation.
15
I was fortunate enough to see Robert F. Kennedy in New Rochelle, NY, when he was running against Kenneth Keating for the U.S. Senate. He was charismatic, articulate, and an engaging candidate. Standing in his car with an adoring crowd encircling him, he seemed larger than life. His murder four years later in LA was a visceral body blow to this country; I don't think we've ever fully recovered from that turbulent era of assassination and palpable public loss. I tend to think Mr. Kennedy would be heartbroken to see how far we've fallen since the idealistic 1960s. For all the pain and angst of the postwar era, America today seems lost and vapid, thanks largely to an inept president and his sycophantic cohort. Thank God we have memories of far better days, and much wiser leaders.
12
Incredible. Just like his older brothers murder, people ask the wrong questions about the assassination of Robert Kennedy. The question everyone should ask about Bobby Kennedy's murder 50 years ago in the Ambassador Hotel is this - is it even possible, given all we now know about how John Kennedy was murdered by powerful interests (and Lee Oswald was made the patsy), that Sirhan Sirhan just happened to be in the hotel, waiting for Bobby Kennedy to leave via the kitchen, only moments after Kennedy accepted his victory in the California Democrat Party primary? How is it possible the man who had just come one giant step closer to winning the Presidency, on June 5, 1968, was shot dead only moments later? Shot dead, like his brother, supposedly, by a "lone gunman" without a motive? How was this act anything other than exactly what it appears to be - an intentional "rub out" of Bobby Kennedy the very moment he won the California delegates and came within a couple of steps of being President and then having the power to expose those who had actually ordered and carried out the hit on his older brother in 1963.
The 1960's didn't die with the death of Bobby Kennedy, or his brother five years earlier. Truth died. Reality died.
15
I was 17 when Bobby was assassinated and felt that all hope went out of this country as he would have been a fine president. I am not a conspiracy believer by nature, but I still find the death of Bobby Kennedy, his brother Jack and Martin Luther King in such a short time span to be very suspicious as all were very much involved in the civil rights movement.
10
The 60s didn't die with RFK, what died was optimism, and the sense, or belief, that the trending path of America was ever upward. Optimism was replaced by cynicism, especially in the young. People , then, as now, didn't believe that Sirhan Sirhan killed Kennedy, maybe he did maybe he didn't, but there was the underlying belief that things weren't adding up, that our government was lying to us, and that we the people were no longer in control. A democracy works on the principle that elections are the ultimate failsafe, that the people can control the course of their country, but after RFK's Murder, a belief that there was something beyond the President, something beyond the control of Presidents, powerful men, who really pulled the strings. The belief in the powerful man behind the scenes, who could do away with any President who didn't want to play the game.
There would still be good days ahead, a trip to the moon, the miracle Mets, great movies, and great books, the world moved on, and in 1969 things calmed down. It was Watergate, The proof that our Presidents and our government lied to us, The 1960s ended, the belief in politics as a way to change things ended. The 1970s, the Me decade began. Narcissism took the place of idealism as the national mindset. all that was best of America was gone, and with no one to trust or lead, we've been stuck in a rut ever since. Self medicating ever since. All that was the best of us died on June 6 1968. This is as good as it gets.
8
I had stayed up to watch the primary results and knew that RFK had won. I went to bed happy. In the morning I was readying for class and turned on the TV. I heard 'Kennedy assassination', caught a glimpse of a hospital and wondered why they were talking about JFK.
Then I realized. I was overcome with grief and shock.
This country was. The outpouring of it filled the airways.
It still affects me to this day. In 1987 I went to Arlington Cemetery for the last time. Walking to the graves I was overcome and had to steady myself in front of my friend.
Bobby was the last of the best hopes till 2007.
His void has never been filled. His evolution of compassion and concern for others should resonate today but doesn't.
We had him, then we lost him. Nothing was ever the same again. Hope dies many times but we should honor what he was trying to do, especially now.
We need to remember what that felt like.
49
The murder of Robert Kennedy hit me especially hard. Although I was a 1960s anti war activist, member of SDS, I secretly hoped that liberal democracy could be saved by Robert Kennedy. I loved Eugene McCarthy; however, I knew that Senator Kennedy could connect with a wider range of people. As riots broke out in American cities following the equally away murder of Dr. Martin Luther King, I was touched by Robert Kennedy's use of Greek philosophy in speaking to poor African Americans, let alone other Americans. When I think of the awful tyrant and liar in the white house today, I cry for our loss of Senator Kennedy. I love and honor Robert Kennedy and will do so till the day I die although I know all about his mistakes. Nevertheless, Senator Kennedy grew as a human being; we can not expect the same of the current occupant in the white house.
24
I was up all night walking a sick baby. About 6 am I turned on the TV to find out how he was doing. I heard, "and she was informed that her son had been shot."
I started screaming. Later that day, I had to take 3 buses from DC to a doctor in Virginia. Everyone on each bus was silent. When someone would board, everyone would look up and the newcomer would shake her head. It was this way 3 buses over and 3 buses home.
The older children played quietly. My neighbors and I would simply shake our heads if our eyes met.
There was such silence. Nothing we might say could articulate our loss.
27
I recall a frequent lament offered by one of my American history professors at university regarding RFK: “What could have been, my friend. What could have been.” After completing, his eyes seemed clouded over with genuine remorse.
14
i'm surprised there aren't more comments.
bobby has been dead eight years longer than he lived--which is hard for me to comprehend.
I was 13 when jfk was assassinated, a few days shy of 18 for mlk.
the 4 1/2 years between the brothers' deaths was a time when I started to mature enough to realize some things about life.
the death of rfk has stuck with me the longest tho it was devastating when the first two were wiped out in the traditional American way.
I don't recall a public figure/politician who changed so much--for the better--in such a short period of time.
of course, it's the great unknown now, but I think the usa would've been a much better country had he'd lived and became potus.
19
I was for Clean Gene back then, resentful that after he opened the door for a presidency against the ghastly Vietnam war, Bobby stepped through that door.
But I was wrong. Bobby had evolved to see that while yes we must end that war, America suffered a deeper disease within: the overprivileged above oppressing the underprivileged below. Bobby had a unique combination of appreciation of America’s deepest disease and toughness and skill to fight it and lead and move us toward cure.
21
Bobby Kennedy. John McCain. Jimmy Carter. Dwight Eisenhower.
These men were not only respectable public servants; they were and are incredible Americans. They remind us of a time in our political history of respect, decency and unity.
How sad it is that we are beyond that point.
9
I can't wait to go slumming tonight and see if Carlson or Hannity acknowledge this anniversary.
5
So much more than a man’s body died that morning fifty years ago in Los Angeles. After RFK’s murder, hope turned to despair. Compassion became suspect. Courage lost its currency. Unifying, uplifting liberal messages went silent.
Divisive identity politics on the left and nativist, racist, misogynist, and caste politics on the right sundered the middle of the spectrum from which RFK appealed to America’s better angels. Nixon, Reagan and Trump are in a straight line from 1968 to today. The deafening silence from national Democrats on a policy agenda for all Americans stems from that awful year.
In recent months, as I’ve endured Trump’s rants, I’ve hoped for an antidote, another RFK. I’m not sure that is possible. Hope, shattered fifty years ago, looks as difficult to rebuild as a crystal bowl cracked into a thousand shards. Particularly when the right disparages hope itself and actively resists social justice.
At 71, I’d love to feel the inspiration and hope for a better future that RFK posited. In all candor, I don’t see a path in that direction. A part of our body politic died fifty years ago and is not coming back.
14
Boy, does this country need a Bobby Kennedy now!
20
American history, for the left, reads like a litany of tragedies and lost opportunities. Meanwhile the right goes merrily along, impeding worker's benefits and restricting their right to organize, blowing smoke in their faces, calling that freedom and hollering USA! USA!
13
June 5, 1968.
The day many Americans , especially young women and men, lost hope.
Their beloved President, John F. Kennedy, was gone. Their social way-shower, Martin Luther King, Jr., was gone. Murdered.
Now Robert Kennedy. The corruption fighter and socially conscious candidate who would have carried on FDR's legacy of social and economic justice for all. Murdered.
Corruption and greed won. Average Americans turned away from politics and went on to build good, prosperous lives.
Now the corrupters and greedsters occupy OUR governments at all levels with the sole purpose of trying to destroy it. Finally, WE THE PEOPLE are waking up to the realization FDR/Elanor, JFK and Bobby Kennedy share OUR vision for OUR United States of America. WE are finally stepping up and demanding that OUR vision trumps the one the Robber Barons have.
It will be clear through voting results across America in the next few months. Good Job, Good People of America, and Thanks beyond words to FDR/Elanor, JFK, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Bobby Kennedy for showing us the way.
26
Today I want to salute Ethel Kennedy for founding and supporting the RFK Human Rights Foundation, to carry her husband's ideals forward. She is an amazing lady, effective and so strong. She can twist your elbow for donations in a way that is wonderful : ) I know her personally here on Cape Cod. God bless you, your husband and family and extended family.
9
The murder of Robert F. Kennedy brought the closure to an era of hope. I was 8 years old at the time. I remember two months earlier, my parents coming home from voting in the early-April Wisconsin primary. With an almost conspiracy-inspired twinkle in her eyes, my mom announced to me that she and my dad had written in Bobby Kennedy's name on their presidential ballot (he entered the race too late to be listed as a candidate in Wisconsin).
For the next two months, our family followed the insurgent candidacy of probably the most inspirational presidential aspirant in modern history. Even as a child, I knew that Bobby was special and that he provided a sense of great possibilities to millions of Americans.
And when I think of the morning of June 6, 1968, when my mother walked into my bedroom and said simply "He died", my eyes still become moist with tears. I can still remember weeping as we watched Ted Kennedy on the following Saturday eulogize his slain brother.
In the era of Trump and the degrading of American politics and human decency, the ache for someone like Robert Kennedy becomes even more acute. A good and decent man who challenged all Americans to "see things as they never were and say 'why not'".
It is a loss from which this country has never fully recovered.
30
I was a boy of 7 at the time. My mother's 40th birthday was June 5. Bobby's death struck her like a thunderclap; it was if a member of her own family had been shot. She had a piece of her ripped away that I do not believe was ever fully replaced. I shall never forget it.
We all lost so much hope that day. How so much different our nation and our lives would have been, perhaps, had he lived.
6
So sad. What a different America we would be living in today if RFK had lived.
13
I was an organizer for Eugene McCarthy in the 1968 California primary. But when our staff heard that RFK was appearing in a nearby town, we sped over to El Monte to watch what turned out to be one of his last raucous rallies.
Moments after I began to wade through the frenzied crowd, I saw him standing up in his car, held securely around the waist by a staff member protecting RFK as he leaned over the side to shake hands. To this day, I have never seen a man of his age look as completely spent and exhausted.
Then, as the car somehow inched forward, his hand was suddenly within my grasp. I shook it as he glanced at me with unforgettably mournful eyes and, just as quickly, the car broke free of the swarming car and sped off.
Then he was dead.
Richard Goodwin was absolutely right about the sixties coming to an end that night. But for me, what ended was more personal and fundamental. Never again would I even dare live with the illusion that the world was somehow inherently just and predictable.
I might have known that justice and moral clarity would still occasionally flow like a mighty stream, but I also realized that from that day on nothing was ever going to prevent the periodic and rude intrusion of barbarity that would destroy lives and ruin even the most hopeful dreams.
35
In 1964 I worked for Robert Kennedy during and after his run
for the United States Senate in New York.
In New York City, Bobby's advance men -- my guys (and yes, they were guys, and I loved it) -- were gathered to prep for the New York Primary and to see each other after a 4 year hiatus while Bobby was the Senator of New York State. And, of course, to drink. It was terrific fun, but there's a definite fog about it. Wendy Sears was there, and i KNOW Jack Lynch was there, because there was a continuous loop of Jack singing 'If You're Irish Step Into the Parlor.' It was fabulous. But my new husband Richard had work and school the next day and I had Richard, so we left.
In the middle of the night the phone rang. It was Peter Millard and he was frantic. They shot him They shot him They shot him and he was crying and out of it. It took minutes to get dressed. We returned to a very different same room in the same hotel with the same people. Ergo that was and is the fogginess: within a few hours it went from loud bawdy joy and drink to stunned paralysis and drink. And coffee if needed. Jack Lynch was no longer singing.
Plans were being made. The funeral at St. Patrick's Cathedral and The Train To Washington. (ASIDE: this is a sore point -- one of the worst --- in a long marriage. Richard in his 1968 way said 'I don't do funerals.' And I in my disbelief that anyone had married me, said I'll do what Richard does.) So I never went to the funeral nor was I on the train.)
6
In May, 1968, when I met RFK, he was in town during a campaign rally for the Oregon primary, which he lost to Minnesota Senator Eugene McCarthy on May 28, 1968.
Even though I was only in the sixth grade at the time, I was a big Kennedy supporter. To me Kennedy represented change and hope for the future of our country. He was against the war and in one of his campaign leaflets he wrote,
"When history looks back to this era it should recognize this generation as one which cared about human beings enough to halt the practice of war, to provide a decent living for every family, and to fulfill its responsibility to its children from the very moment of conception.”
Kennedy in 1968 was a pro-life, anti-war, family man. Issues that tear apart our country today, school shootings, abortion, the war on terrorism, were not even on the radar 50 years ago.
Kennedy was a practicing Roman Catholic. He was no saint but he was recognized as the most devout and pious of his 9 brothers and sisters, three of whom were already dead and one in a mental hospital by 1968.
Which leads us back to wonder would the United States or the world be a different place had Kennedy not been assassinated and became President? Would Kennedy alone been able to end the war in Vietnam earlier, defended the right to be born and worked to bring families out of poverty? Sadly we will never know.
13
What a great article. I was 16 that year, living in Minnesota. I of course remember the day J.F.K. died. By age 16, I was riveted by politics—the war; the left wing movement; the overwhelming (at least to a teenager) sense that 1968 was a pivotal year. But Martin L. King, Jr. was assassinated and Robert Kennedy was gunned down, and Chicago (“a police riot”) happened— and it defined my early life for years to come.
I ended up moving to Cesar Chavez’s Central Valley, working as a rural county public defender (I’m still there).
The Kennedys touched and influenced my life, as I know they did for so many others. Their dedication to public service, and their seeming decency, set a standard that seems so simple and yet so removed from what we witness in public life today.
I know America will heal after this episode passes. I just hope the damage is no greater than necessary.
Missing you, John, Bobby, Martin, Cesar.
23
I was a freshman in college—Spring semester when MLKJR and “Bobby” Kennedy were assassinated.
My first time working with the local Democratic Party. Soaring! The world is wonderful when you’re backing a charismatic intelligent empathetic leader!
My innocence died 50 years ago but made me more realistic! I became an MD and worked w VISTA now called AmeriCorps.
What I remember is how children would swarm around him, hugging him and being hugged back. As we saw when Barack Obama visited w children.
Kids are smart! They recognize true emotions. They watch and if the words don’t match the action they back off!
How many pictures do we have of Trump being swarmed by smiling laughing children? Kids are wired to feel true love.
For the ten years that Obama was in office and campaigning I had a deep dread that he too would be shot. We could NOT lose him too!
15
Such painful memories! I've read several accounts over the years of the events at the Ambassador. Never, though, have I read one that failed to mention the presence and actions of Rosie Greer. Do I misremember the events? Or is there a reason for having omitted these details in the present story?
7
As I remember not online Rosie Greer but a track star who’s name escapes me not only were there but broke Sirhans grip and possibly his thumb getting the gun
1
To Mimi:
No, you do not misremember the event. Rosie Greer supported Bobby Kennedy, and was one of his protectors. It was Rosie Greer who finally got hold of Sirhan, and helped get his gun from his hand.
I don't know why the authors choice to leave Mr. Grier out of Bobby's campaign. So many people would try to touch Bobby, Rosie Grier had to hold unto him to keep him from being pulled out of the car, or hurt. It must have been so painful for Mr. Greer the night of the assisination.
1
Rafer Johnson.
2
I was a university student then. It had been a terrible tumultuous year. The US consulate was an easy walk from the McGill campus and the site of many demonstrations against the war. We had many Americans on campus who had left the US for the time. I remember RFK offering a glimmer of hope after years of disappointment, disillusion, and distrust. We thought he would win the nomination and election and end the war. His murder felt like the death of a dream, of the dreams of young people not just in the US. I was in hospital on the day the funeral train proceeded all day and all day I cried. It was for him, his family, and the final loss of the hopeful idealism of youth. Politics became tribal and crass with the advent of Nixon and but for the return of hope with Obama has continued to devolve giving us Trump. I wish we could go back to that time and undo the undoable and see how things would have turned out.
11
A sad day working in my office and looking at the photo of RFK hanging on the wall.
10
Had recently watched "Bobby Kennedy for President" on Netflix; excellent documentary. Could not help but think there was more evidence for a conspiracy than in JFK's murder. Very disturbing.
10
Mr. Yaroslavsky found no basis to support a theory that Mr. Sirhan was not the sole shooter, but it was clear the police had destroyed evidence. Movement was popped like a balloon just as Pete Edelman recounted on CNN series 1968. REOPEN-America deserves this now knowing Trump wanted to build tallest skyscraper where RFK died--like dancing on his grave..............
7
1. Cesar Chavez, an American labor leader and civil rights activist who co-founded the National Farm Workers Association , was on a " hunger strike" to protest dismal conditions for agricultural workers. Does anyone in 2018 America make such self sacrifices? Chavez broke his hunger strike only when Bobby Kennedy travelled to California to visit him.
2. My 77 year old friend who worked on RFK's campaign can still not view movies of pictures from that era. The heartbreak is still too onerous.
21
Interesting that Trump bought the hotel. I hope he had something to do with making it schools for underprivileged children.
1
Trump had absolutely nothing to do with it. As the article shows, the City of Los Angeles used eminent domain to get the property for a desperately needed public school.
4
Can anybody here seen my old friend Bobby.....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5hFMy4pTrs
6
The Sixties was an extremely painful time for us. We saw a glimpse of future with JFK but the assassin's bulletin took it away from us. Robert Kennedy was a beacon to giving us a promise to American Dream of peace, equality and prosperity. The promise of that dream died on the floor of Ambassador Hotel. The thought of what could have been is tantalizing and heartbreaking. Truly, we smiled again but never laughed again with sheer abandon.
9
i remember being a PA on a commercial filming at the Ambassador. we snuck away from set and toured the hotel with the site reps. it was incredible to see the state of disrepair of such a historic landmark. but such is LA...always looking to the new. we weren't able to go into the kitchen. it was sealed off. but i hope somehow it has been preserved. I'm glad there's a school there now but i do miss the ambassador.
4
RFK was multi-dimensional - a deep thinker, compassionate, action-oriented and tough when he needed to be. These are character traits so missing in today’s one-trick pony politicians.
10
The overall caliber of people in politics has long been decreasing. Where are the giants we used to have - the Bill Bradleys, the Daniel Patrick Moynihans, the Tip O'Neils; the Paul Wellstones? Even a John Boehner seems several steps up from what we have now.
7
I hope somewhere in the Times will come a fuller look at Bobby Kennedy and the context of his life and stolen potential.
He deserves to be fully known.
We deserve to know about his development and evolution into a major, influential political and cultural figure in his last years.
He changed personally, powerfully, progressively and turned on a light that became a beacon of hope and higher consciousness which was sorely needed in a time of useless war and deep afflictions and division in our country.
Sounds familiar…
There will always be problems.
But, there is not always a person to speak like a clear bell, with reason and compassion and willing to help heal and join us together.
To face issues intelligently.
To face each other with love and respect.
Bobby attempted to be such a person.
He was taken, but the humanity and the possibilities are as close as we dare to make them.
Give us more about him and his example we can aspire to on this solemn 50th anniversary.
We need it.
22
As a boy I recall the initial shock of MLK followed by the appalling news of RFK. Ugly. We really haven't improved as a society or a culture since the chaotic days of 1968, if anything we are now so far away from anything like a democracy that many politicians alive then would be dismayed. The fascism and massive income divide between the wealthy and everyone else, that would also include the superrich Kennedy clan, is what happens whenever a country decides to take the capitalist road, I suppose.
8
"No evidence" of conspiracy to kill RFK " . . . but it was clear the police had destroyed evidence." True, we don't know what happened but we cannot rule out a conspiracy to murder JFK, Dr King, and RFK.
5
On what are you basing this statement.
I have ruled it out.
1
It's no coincidence that JFK, MLK, and RFK were were senselessly slaughtered in rapid succession in the 1960's.
Forget the simple stories that these men were randomly murdered by Lee Harvey Oswald, James Earl Ray and Sirhan Sirhan...they may have pulled a physical trigger, but there were serious right-wing America forces behind each of these murders that couldn't stand to see democracy, progress, intelligence and civil rights take modern root in this country.
The JFK assassination is the most obvious cover-up, but the other two murders were also part of a very successful rabid, violent right-wing takeover of America for which this country has suffered terribly ever since.
Those three murders are the reason America has the greatest healthcare rip-off in the world.
Those three murders are the reason America's campaign system is a 0.1% operation.
Those three murders are the reason American does not have free and fair elections.
Those three murders are the reason 2nd Amendment Derangement Syndrome remains our national cancer.
Those three murders are the reason our military spending is obscene and our tax code is a 1% tax haven.
Those three murders are the reason Congress refuses to pay for national infrastructure and mass transit.
Those three murders murdered American progress.
Those three murders are reasons never to vote for Republican renegades who to this day use every evil means necessary to hijack America to a more terrible place.
D to go forward; R for reverse.
55
Ahh liberalism, where facts don't matter.
2 of the 3 assassins mentioned were far LEFT proto-anarchists (Oswald, Sirhan), but that doesn't matter.
JFK got us into Vietnam, not withdrawl, but who cares.
JFK's record on civil rights in the Senate and White House was paltry on results, but who cares.
RFK was a sharp elbowed political hack (please see McCarthy hearings, 1960 presidential campaign), but has undergone such think historical revisionism by the Camelot Amen Corner that one cannot recognize him.
Please, facts and analysis. Not irrational emotion.
4
You are correct in calling Sirhan Sirhan "conservative" but probably not in the way you mean. RFK was a victim of Palestinian terrorism. Palestianism is an annhilationist movement rather than a nationalist movement. As such, assassinations of figures like RFK are, like today's Hamas terror tunnels, part of "liberating" "Palestine" as opposed to spending energies and monies creating institutions and infrastructure for a Palestian nation. How this violent movement became the darling of the American Left is baffling to me. I expect it would be baffling to RFK too had he lived to see it happen.
9
You are absolutely right. JFK's death was a horrible tragedy and MLK's death seemed inevitable given this country's refusal to confront its virulently deadly racism. But when RFK was killed, it was, to borrow a Star Wars term, a shatterpoint in the Force, an eternal fork in the road of this country's potential for true and lasting greatness. All hope was killed with him as right wing forces consolidated their grip on us. We went straight downhill afterwards and will never recover.
The other commenter tries to bring up the supposed left-wing pasts of the assasins but all were mentally ill drifters that could be easily manipulated by smarter strong-willed right wing men who simply used them as tools. Sure they flirted with communism or whatever. What better way to hide right-wing finger prints? Why on earth would they want one of their kind to pull the trigger and blow the cover?
And gullible commenters like Jonny are still swallowing the shadowly manipulated coverup explanation to this day.
8
Sorry this article didn’t include more interviews. The impact of RFK’s death was immeasurable. I was 19, finishing my freshman year. We had lived through JFK’s death, though my peers, in junior high, didn’t yet have much perspective on the significance. We just knew that our articulate, charismatic, smart, handsome leader, who reminded us of our fathers, was a breath of fresh air after Eisenhower, who was from our grandparents’ generation. But 1968 was different. We hated the Vietnam War (after all, it directly affected our peers, who could fight and die, but not vote), and we hated racial, social and economic injustice. Maybe we were naive, but how else does one mature? In that one stretch of less than three months, we had our hopes raised (RFK said he would run), and raised again (LBJ said he wouldn’t). Then it all crashed. MLK’s death was crushing; our perception was that there was no one else with his moral power. But then Bobby’s momentum grew, and it was clear that he could keep the disparate dissenting groups together. We pinned our hopes on him, and at age 19, that is no small thing. His death was for us the death of hope and the beginning of cynicism. To pre-sage the CSNY song about Kent State from two years later: we felt we were on our own. We will never know what Bobby could have done, but after his death we got many more years of Vietnam, Richard Nixon, and Watergate. I still can’t listen to Teddy’s eulogy of Bobby without tearing up.
18
5 June 2018
Robert Francis Kennedy speaks to us, especially now, in this intensely divisive, racially polarized nation. RFK exemplified the best in public service, eternally optimistic, encouraging, challenging, and pushing all persons to do better. The present malaise permeating the White House and the chief executive relishing and inciting racial divisiveness and class internecine, RFK summons the electorate to rise to the occasion and express their extreme dissatisfaction at the polls this number, a referendum clearly expressing hope rather than despair. Bobby Kennedy promotes inclusiveness and transparency, which is patently absent with tis president. In conclusion, the life of Robert F. Kennedy significantly influences us all, and we will witness that influence reflected this November. Meeting RFK at a mall in Portland, Oregon, Thursday, 23 May 1968, instilled within me the desire to become an attorney and speak up for those less fortunate, especially racial and ethnic minorities. I am privileged to have met RFK and be so influenced. Respectfully presented, Dean Browning Webb, Attorney and Counselor at Law
28
In a democracy, the people deserve the leader that they have. It was RFK who got MLK out of a Birmingham jail when RFK called his brother, a US Senator with no authority in AL, who then called the judge. RFK was born into wealth but RFK’s last words were “Is everyone alright?”. America never got this man for President. They got Nixon and Trump.
37
I was supposed to begin working for Bobby's campaign as of Saturday in the Orange County office. Earning extra credit for summer in JHS. My first experience with political campaigns. But certainly not my last. His legacy lived on in many of those he inspired. It certainly inspired me. I have worked as a volunteer in political campaigns every since. And now I work registering voters to ensure everyone still has a voice.
11
I've always thought that the conspiracy theories about the murder of Robert Kennedy flourished because of the fact that this first occurrence of Middle Eastern associated terrorism in the U.S. seems so incongruent with the causes and political history of the Senator. Instead of being killed for his involvement in the causes of the 50's and 60's, he died for the brewing tempest to come in the Middle East, an unfamiliar cause for many Americans at that time. So some tried to find a different narrative to fit his assassination.
8
RFK was a great man and leader, we need more people like him these days.
13
Lincoln, JFK, Martin Luther KIng, Bobby Kennedy: the murders that derailed American promise.
35
The more one knows about RFK and the qualities that made him such a compelling and sometimes complicated figure--compassionate yet tough, a willingness to fight for what he believed in, yet able to connect with people of different backgrounds and ideas--the more his absence is felt. None the today's figures comes close.
49
RFK was a complex human being who, most importantly, was capable of growth and development, *as an adult*.
He started off a tunnel visioned, right-wingish aide to Joe McCarthy (although he resigned as McCarthy became even more unhinged and dangerous), a runt in the Kennedy family with a chip on his moneyed shoulder.
Freedom rides of 1961: he urged activists to "get your friends off those buses." Those Negroes, might have a legitimate point, but they were embarrassing the U.S., and more importantly, his brother JFK, abroad. Only when his assistant John Seigenthaler was clobbered by a mob snarling white Alabama terrorists did RFK become emotionally involved.
Months later, he would urge his brother to go on television to speak about civil rights as a moral issue.
RFK went from a kind of American cowboy, enthused with the Green Berets and the CIA plots to assassinate other countries' leaders (Castro, for one) to, rubbed raw after his brother's own assassination, read the Greeks' writing on the hubris of the powerful.
He developed from pushing Vietnam to anti-Vietnam. He spoke eloquently about the American sickness of violence the night of Dr. King's murder.
He was never a soft-headed liberal, believed in the value of hard work but also believed that ALL Americans, including Black people, Latinos, Native Americans, should get a fair shake.
Where are the American leaders of today who are open to intellectual and emotional development?
MLK + RFK. Ripped from our grasp.
14
From a strident anti-communist RFK evolved to become the humanitarian we remember.
How many other political leaders have done the same?
Just wondering.