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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-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.
Photograph folder
White House Photographs
JFKWHP-1962-12-27-B
ST18
Photograph folder
White House Photographs
JFKWHP-1962-01-03-A
ST08
Photograph
White House Photographs
JFKWHP-ST-C73-2-62
President John F. Kennedy stands outdoors with the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) and others following a meeting at the residence of C. Michael Paul in Palm Beach, Florida. Left to right: Commandant of the United States Marine Corps, General David M. Shoup; Chief of Staff of the United States Army, General Earle G. Wheeler; Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral George W. Anderson, Jr.; Secretary of Defense, Robert S. McNamara; President Kennedy; Chairman of the JCS, General Maxwell D. Taylor; Deputy Secretary of Defense, Roswell L. Gilpatric; Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force, General Curtis E. LeMay.
Photograph
White House Photographs
JFKWHP-ST-289-13-61
President John F. Kennedy meets with administration officials. (L-R) Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson; President Kennedy; Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara; Military advisor to the President General Maxwell Taylor; Deputy Secretary of Defense Roswell Gilpatric. Palm Beach, Florida.
Photograph
White House Photographs
JFKWHP-ST-A41-1-62
President John F. Kennedy meets with administration officials. (L-R) Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson; President Kennedy; Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara; Military advisor to the President General Maxwell Taylor; Deputy Secretary of Defense Roswell Gilpatric. Palm Beach, Florida.
Photograph
White House Photographs
JFKWHP-ST-272-1-61
President John F. Kennedy meets with members of his administration regarding the budget for the Department of Defense at the Joseph P. Kennedy residence in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts. Clockwise, from top: President Kennedy; David E. Bell, Director, Bureau of the Budget; Roswell Gilpatric, Deputy Secretary of Defense; Jerome B. Wiesner, Special Assistant to the President for Science and Technology; Theodore C. “Ted” Sorensen, Special Counsel to the President; McGeorge Bundy, National Security Advisor; unidentified man; General Lyman Lemnitzer, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; General Maxwell D. Taylor, Military Representative of the President; and Robert S. McNamara, Secretary of Defense.