Democracy Now! Special: Robert F. Kennedy’s Life and Legacy 40 Years After His Assassination

[L. Coyote]

Democracy Now! Special: Robert F. Kennedy’s Life and Legacy 40 Years After His Assassination
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/6/5/democracy_now_special_robert_f_kennedy

On June 5, 1968, Kennedy had just won the California Democratic primary, a major boost in his campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination. Just after midnight, Kennedy addressed supporters at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, in what would be the last moments of his life.

Robert F. Kennedy’s record as a political figure is a complicated one. To many Americans, he came to embody the hopes of the civil rights and antiwar movements. But while serving in government, he played a major role in actions these movements fought against. As a young lawyer, Robert Kennedy was a key aide to Republican Senator Joe McCarthy on the notorious Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. As Attorney General under his brother, President John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy signed the wiretap order authorizing the FBI’s spying on Martin Luther King, Jr. On foreign policy, Robert Kennedy played a key role in US efforts to overthrow Cuban President Fidel Castro. And he was part of the inner circle of advisers that backed President Kennedy’s escalation of the bombing and destruction of Vietnam. As a candidate, Kennedy took a more critical stance on the Vietnam War. Although he still refused to call for an immediate U.S. withdrawal. He was a longtime supporter of organized labor and the farmworkers.

Today, we spend the hour playing excerpts of rare Robert F. Kennedy speeches and the new documentary RFK Must Die: The Assassination of Bobby Kennedy, and we speak with journalist John Pilger, labor organizer Dolores Huerta and Professor David Emblidge.

[L. Coyote]

1. Just finished watching. Good show with some important info "several assassins"

[L. Coyote]

2. visibility kick

[MinM]

3. The Evolution of RFK

Thanks for posting this, L.C., I made a point of catching it this evening.

I was surprised to hear John Pilger think that Bobby would not have changed our course in Vietnam. Even the anti-war activist from the last segment of the show conceded that RFK was coming around on that issue and many others.

As this interview and this article in Vanity Fair allude to. The Bobby Kennedy of 1968 was far different than the Bobby Kennedy of 1963.

[L. Coyote]

4. RFK would have changed the corse in Vietnam. NIXON LIED

to get elected, and who knows what else, including killing Kennedy?
Nixon expanded the war. Kennedy would have kept his word, and his word was good, at least.