Robert Kennedy's face shared a button with Lyndon Johnson on the previous page, but that was wishful thinking. In 1968 he picked his spot in a race that previously had seemed unrealistic. He campaigned against the sitting LBJ in an open grab for control of the Democratic Party.
Kennedy had served as attorney general for his brother John Kennedy. After JFK's assassination he stayed on in that role under Johnson for nine months. In 1965 he ran for, and won, a seat in the U.S. Senate representing New York.
Three years later he moved into the presidential race when Johnson looked vulnerable in the New Hampshire primary. Many Democrats urged Kennedy to run while the party splintered into several groups: Johnson had the labor unions, but the youth and academics fell in with Eugene McCarthy, the Southerners cast their lot with George Wallace and Kennedy had a big Catholic and black vote forming. In March of 1968 Johnson threw in the towel and the race was Kennedy's to win.
And then came California. He'd just declared victory over McCarthy in the key state and was shot while leaving the hotel party on June 5. He'd die the next day.
He'd served in the military briefly, and in the government in one function or another all of his life. Being a Kennedy made it easier, but he brought his own talent to the effort. From investigating Soviet agents to questioning Jimmy Hoffa to Cuba and through the assassination of his brother he'd been at the center of most everything.
And as the so-called Kennedy Curse continued it drew him in once again.
Despite the unrealized of what he might have been, he's perhaps most remembered for what he said in Indianapolis.
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