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Oral history
John F. Kennedy Oral History Collection
JFKOH-LHH-02
This interview focuses on the preparation and passage of the Trade Expansion Act, the United States’ trade with the Soviet Union and Cuba, and the Department of Commerce’s relations with Congress, among other issues.
Oral history
John F. Kennedy Oral History Collection
JFKOH-LHH-01
In this interview Hodges discusses the 1956 and 1960 Democratic National Conventions; the 1960 National Governors’ Conference; John F. Kennedy’s [JFK] 1960 presidential campaign; the Department of Commerce, including reorganization, agencies within the Department, and relations with other groups; establishing the U.S. Travel Service; the Business Advisory Council; businessmen and government; the economic recession in 1960–1961; the Area Redevelopment Act; the 1962 rise in steel prices; balance of payments; and trips abroad, among other issues.
Oral history
John F. Kennedy Oral History Collection
JFKOH-BBH-01
In this interview Hickenlooper discusses various meetings with President John F. Kennedy [JFK] on foreign relations; Soviet and American nuclear testing; the nuclear test ban treaty; the Bay of Pigs invasion; Laos and Vietnam; the Punta del Este Conference in 1962; the Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962; Hickenlooper's 1962 reelection campaign; traveling with JFK to Costa Rica; the 1961 Berlin crisis; JFK's congressional relations; and social occasions at the Kennedy White House, among other issues.
Oral history
John F. Kennedy Oral History Collection
JFKOH-KGH-02
In this interview Heath discusses how she came to join the Office of Education; the leadership within the Office of Education and different ideas on how it should be run; other agencies within the Department of Health, Education and Welfare [HEW]; changes in the status and administration of HEW; various pieces of education legislation; the 1954 Supreme Court decision on separate but equal and segregation in schools; international education affairs; the reasons for pushing for general school aid over categorical aid; the 1955 White House conference on education; coalescing all the organizations within HEW into one voice for the Department; working with other Departments; the International Labor Organization and the United Nations; getting political support from the different presidential Administrations; the nationalization of the Suez Canal; the shift to considering social matters in a much broader context; the impact of the Sputnik launch on the Office of Education; and the National Defense Education Act, among other issues.
Oral history
John F. Kennedy Oral History Collection
JFKOH-LBH-01
In this interview Hays discusses early interactions with John F. Kennedy [JFK]; obstacles to becoming an Assistant Secretary of State and his work in that position; Hays’ trip abroad to visit the Pope; moving over to the White House and his work as a Special Assistant to the President; Federal-State intergovernmental relations; visiting Africa and various Peace Corps installations; the relationship between JFK’s Administration and different African countries; JFK and humor; making speeches and acting as a spokesman for the Kennedy Administration; and Hays’ last interaction with JFK before the assassination, among other issues.
Oral history
John F. Kennedy Oral History Collection
JFKOH-FFC-01
Church discusses the 1960 presidential campaign and John F. Kennedy’s (JFK) campaign visit to Idaho in 1960, legislation during the Kennedy Administration, and various foreign policy issues during the Kennedy Administration, among other issues.
Oral history
John F. Kennedy Oral History Collection
JFKOH-DEB-02
Bell discusses U.S. Agency for International Development (AID) during the Kennedy administration including the process of and difficulties with getting Congressional appropriations for foreign aid; and Vietnam and Laos, among other issues.
Oral history
John F. Kennedy Oral History Collection
JFKOH-ERB-02
Bayley discusses U.S. Agency for International Development (AID), the Peace Corps, including the staffing, controversies and scandals, the difficulties of getting Congress to allocate money for foreign aid, the Alliance for Progress, and R. Sargent Shriver, Jr., and mental retardation.
Oral history
John F. Kennedy Oral History Collection
JFKOH-ROWK-05
In this interview Komer discusses working with McGeorge Bundy; the “inner circle” of the Bundy State Department; Komer’s major contacts; the intelligence system; the power and responsibilities of the State Department; how Bundy screened what President John F. Kennedy [JFK] would see; relations with other key officials; Robert F. Kennedy and foreign policy issues; the Bundy State Department and White House staff; the “little State Department” in the White House; the bureaucratic role of the State Department; U.S. foreign policy in Asia; relations with key U.S. Ambassadors; handling Arab-Israeli issues; domestic pressures of American-Jewish community on JFK; Arabists in the Kennedy Administration; working with Myer Feldman on Israeli issues; the United States, Saudi Arabia, and oil; filling the power vacuum left by the British; dealing with Congress on foreign aid matters; counterinsurgency; and looking back at programs during the Kennedy Administration, among other issues.
Oral history
John F. Kennedy Oral History Collection
JFKOH-RFK-04
In this interview Robert F. Kennedy [RFK] discusses American aid to Argentina; American, British, and French involvement in Africa; the 1962 executive order about segregation in federally-funded housing; appointing African-American judges; changes John F. Kennedy [JFK] was contemplating in the Alliance for Progress; the Dominican crisis; the wheat sale to the Soviet Union; the Bobby Baker case; preparing for JFK’s 1964 campaign; RFK’s return to work after JFK’s assassination and disagreements among the Cabinet members and under President Lyndon B. Johnson; changes in White House staff and the Democratic Party; RFK’s political plans for after 1964; and JFK’s opinions of his staff and appointees, among other issues.
Oral history
John F. Kennedy Oral History Collection
JFKOH-RFK-03
In this interview Robert F. Kennedy [RFK] discusses the 1962 steel crisis; some major issues and accomplishments of John F. Kennedy’s [JFK] presidency; choosing the U.S. Ambassador to Russia; foreign aid and treaties; the military coup in Peru; the space race during the Kennedy Administration; the 1962 congressional and gubernatorial campaigns; JFK’s dinner for the Nobel Prize winners; the Polaris submarines; problems with the New York Herald Tribune; New York politics; various pieces of federal legislation, 1961–1963; the Dominican Republic; Department of Justice investigations under RFK; the difficulties of being Attorney General; congressional issues in early 1963; the Vietnam War escalation in 1963; American support of the coup in Vietnam; Henry Cabot Lodge as the U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam; the prisoners from the Bay of Pigs invasion; American actions in Cuba; unemployment and civil rights; RFK’s meeting with James Baldwin; JFK’s trips to the South and speeches on civil rights; the nuclear test ban treaty; and JFK’s trip to Ireland and Rome, among other issues.
Oral history
John F. Kennedy Oral History Collection
JFKOH-RFK-02
In this interview Robert F. Kennedy [RFK] discusses the 1961 Berlin crisis; American forces, military and diplomatic, in Germany; John F. Kennedy’s [JFK] recommendation for Americans to have fallout shelters; nuclear testing; problems with the Department of State; the start of the conflict in Vietnam, 1961; the Department of Justice under RFK and organized crime; RFK’s difficult relationship with J. Edgar Hoover; the wiretapping bill; new federal judgeships in 1961 and other presidential appointments; the Alliance for Progress; Red China; crises during JFK’s presidency and how he was an optimist; RFK’s move for an income tax increase during the Berlin crisis; RFK’s disagreements with President JFK; indecisiveness over picking JFK’s running mate, 1960; the missile gap; fighting and UN operations in the Congo; Nikita S. Khrushchev’s speeches; RFK’s 1962 trip to Japan, Indonesia, Germany, and other countries; the release of Allen L. Pope; Dutch disputes in Southeast Asia; the 1961 crisis in the Dominican Republic and the assassination of Rafael Leonidas Trujillo Molina; the 1962 disarmament conference in Geneva; Edward M. Kennedy’s 1962 campaign for U.S. Senate; the Kennedy family national and political reputation; the Justice Department under RFK and civil rights; and the 1962 steel crisis, among other issues.
Oral history
John F. Kennedy Oral History Collection
JFKOH-RFK-01
In this interview Robert F. Kennedy [RFK] discusses beginning John F. Kennedy's [JFK] presidential Administration with no political obligations; carefully picking Cabinet members, specifically Secretaries of State, Defense, and Treasury; RFK’s decision on what role to play in JFK’s Administration; JFK’s unhappiness with Dean Rusk as Secretary of State; JFK’s advisers and other presidential appointments; Cabinet meetings; Department of Justice organization under RFK; the first 100 days of the Kennedy Administration; the role of the Vice President, according to RFK; JFK’s relationship with Lyndon B. Johnson and why JFK put Johnson on the ticket in 1960; what JFK was most concerned with as President; domestic programs versus foreign affairs in the Kennedy Administration; Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr.’s role during JFK’s presidency; the Bay of Pigs, the aftermath, and its effect on JFK; how JFK approached problems as President; dealing with Georgi Bolshakov; negotiating with the Soviet Union in Vienna, over Laos and Cuba, etc.; JFK’s relationship with foreign heads of state; State Department staff and U.S. Ambassadors; the military coup in Vietnam; the Berlin crisis of the summer of 1961 and the Berlin Wall; RFK’s 1961 trip to the Ivory Coast; and Soviet and American nuclear testing, among other issues.
Oral history
John F. Kennedy Oral History Collection
JFKOH-CJZ-01
Zablocki discusses John F. Kennedy’s [JFK] time while in the House of Representatives and the Senate, as well as his involvement in JFK’s presidential campaign and Wisconsin primary (1960). He also discusses his own relationship with, and support for, JFK, as well as JFK’s personality, among other issues.
Oral history
John F. Kennedy Oral History Collection
JFKOH-WBP-01
This interview focuses on military and economic assistance to other countries during the Kennedy administration, working with Congress to pass a budget, and the relationships between the various departments in the White House, among other topics.
Oral history
John F. Kennedy Oral History Collection
JFKOH-JSM-01
This interview focuses on John F. Kennedy’s 1960 presidential campaign in Connecticut, foreign aid during the Kennedy administration, and relations between Congress and the White House, among other topics.
Oral history
John F. Kennedy Oral History Collection
JFKOH-LS-02
This interview focuses on John F. Kennedy’s stance on domestic and foreign policy issues, his professional relationship with Saltonstall, and the Kennedy administration’s relations with Congress, among other topics.