Tag David Halberstam

Robert F. Kennedy: What If?

Reg Spittle 1 Comment

What if Robert Kennedy had not been cut down by three bullets from an assassin’s gun?

What if he had overcome his inner doubts and had entered the 1968 presidential race earlier?

What if he had been elected president of the United States?

What if his brother John had not been assassinated? Would there have been a 16-year Kennedy brothers’ legacy in the White House?

In another masterful literary work by the late Pulitzer Prize winner, David Halberstam traces RFK’s personal and political life in The Unfinished Odyssey of Robert Kennedy.

Halberstam focuses on the 1968 campaign for the Democratic Party nomination. RFK brought experience as his brother’s campaign manager in the 1960 election and his role as attorney general under JFK and Lyndon B. Johnson.

Halberstam’s research uncovered intriguing background about the senator’s path to entering the race on March 16, 1968 against antiwar candidate Eugene McCarthy and incumbent Lyndon B. Johnson. Fifteen days later, LBJ shocked the world when he pulled out of the race for re-election. Vice President Hubert Humphrey eventually entered the race and won the nomination. Richard Nixon beat out Ronald Reagan for the Republican nomination.

I still vividly remember my brush with RFK a week before his death on June 6, 1968. Carrying two bags of groceries, I was walking to my family’s rented home on a quiet street in Oxnard, California when a roar of engines approached. I turned to see a man wave to me from the back seat of one of the slow-moving cars. I immediately recognized Robert Kennedy as he flashed his characteristic smile, expressive eyes, and thick head of hair. Arms full, I could not return the wave but I came within a gasp of dropping the groceries, waving, and running after the car. Kennedy had appeared at rallies in Ventura and Oxnard.

On the night of June 4, I listened to Kennedy’s California primary victory speech, my transistor radio pressed between my ear and my pillow. Just after midnight, I was jolted awake by what sounded like a series of firecrackers going off. Shrieks and cries followed as an announcer tried to make sense of the chaotic scene. RFK had been shot three times at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles after his speech and died the next day. Five others were shot and survived.

Just 16 years old, I was devastated.

Assassin Sirhan Sirhan, now 80, is still incarcerated; his death penalty sentence was reduced to life in prison.

RFK’s widow, Ethel, died Oct. 10, 2024 at 96. They had 11 children, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who ended his presidential campaign earlier in 2024 and endorsed Donald Trump. After meeting Sirhan in prison, RFK Jr. doubted the conviction and joined conspiracy theorists who believe there was a second shooter.

Media Powers Come to Life

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What if the Los Angeles Times had not tailored its coverage to promote Richard Nixon? Would Red-baiter Joseph McCarthy have been exposed without the work of Ed Murrow of CBS? And what if the Washington Post had not pursued the truth behind the Watergate break-in?

In The Powers That Be, David Halberstam weaves stories of intrigue about the rise of media giants in the mid-20th century to become powerful forces, not just vehicles that transported the news. History and journalism buffs will eagerly turn the story’s pages, and there are plenty of them. But it went fast for me. It was published in 1979 and I am embarrassed to admit I had not read it until recently, even though I was a newspaper journalist for many years.

Halberstam, winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 1964 for his Vietnam War coverage, focuses on personalities and companies while describing revelations that will make your jaw drop. The Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Time Magazine, and CBS News are his focus.

Halberstam, who as a New York Times reporter raised the ire of John F. Kennedy, was a prolific author. Other works include The Fifties and The Best and the Brightest, two I highly recommend. If you are a baseball fan, you will love The Teammates: A Portrait of a Friendship, about several members of the Boston Red Sox.

Halberstam’s life ended in 2007 at age 73 when a college student driving him to an interview turned into oncoming traffic. If only Halberstam had had the chance to write about the rise and influence of the internet, social media, cable TV, and the 24/7 news cycle. The Powers That Be 2 would be the talk of the nation.