There probably have been hundreds of books written about the Kennedy family, especially those in Bobby's generation. Despite these many biographies, the family has remained largely protective of their privacy and have managed to manipulate what information has become public. This is especially true of President John Kennedy and his wife, Jackie. Now we have a book, that given the past failed attempts to present a well-rounded portrait of a Kennedy, that is startling in its honesty. Larry Tye did a massive amount of research on this biography and was given access to material in the Kennedy library that had previously been sealed. I believe he has presented an accurate rendering of the man and his impact on the government policies of his short lifetime.
This is the first biography I have read of Bobby Kennedy though I have always been curious about him. Somehow he seemed more human and interesting than the other members of his family, with the possible exception of Teddy Kennedy. Having lived through the Kennedy years when the country was more naive and Washington, DC was a glamorous world apart, it is difficult to believe the Kennedy brothers were as young as they were when they were assassinated. Bobby was not yet 43; he was 35 when he was made Attorney General, and 38 when elected Senator from New York. He only served three and a half years. Yet, for all that, he had an outsized impact on the country during that time.
During his time in office, Kennedy had the reputation of being cold, calculating and capable of fierce hatred and fierce loyalty. He did not waver. He had many enemies and he took no quarter. It is said that of all the children he was the most like his father, Joe. He was ruthless when on a mission, and the picture of his being a liberal thinker that has stuck to him only came late in his life. For many more years he was a conservative and close friend of Joseph McCarthy. He relentlessly worked for McCarthy, going after organized crime, labor unions, and communism. Contrary to what he posited in his book "Thirteen Days," he was an instigator in the failed invasion of Cuba and assassination attempts on Fidel Castro's life. He was a chauvinist, hated homosexuals, embodied all the macho posturing of the age, and had no interest in bettering the plight of the Blacks until the end of his life. He was mean spirited to Lyndon Johnson whom he considered a yahoo and resented his assuming the presidency.
So what happened to him to make an about-face. The tragedy of his family had a large effect on him, and he went into a depression after Jack died. When he came out of his black period, he began a journey across the country that changed him forever. For the first time, he saw real poverty close up, real injustice to the migrant workers and the Blacks. He was humbly moved by live on the Mississippi Delta. He began to work with Cesar Chavez and Martin Luther King to try to better conditions in these communities.
It would be easy to just feel distaste for Bobby Kennedy, and though he remains a difficult man to understand, the latter years of his life and his martyrdom make him a more sympathetic character. He had a genuine feeling for the poor and children. He was a natural speaker and was sensitive to the mood of the country which was in a state of flux over war, race relations, and unrest on college campuses. He ran on a platform of ending the hated war in Vietnam. Kennedy was an intense man, there was no half way in play or work. He worked like an old time politician with back room deals, a style he learned from his father. Yet he was aware of the impact of t.v. and was a brilliant campaigner.
If you would like a different more complete look at Bobby Kennedy, one that is not whitewashed, then I recommend that you read this book. It is well written and contains a reliable history of the Kennedy era. I highly recommend it for all readers.
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