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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
White House Photographs
JFKWHP-AR6441-C
Meeting with the President’s Advisory Committee on Labor Management. Seated, L-R: President of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, George Meany; Publisher of the Atlanta Constitution newspaper, Ralph E. McGill; unidentified man; Secretary of Commerce, Luther Hodges; Secretary of Labor, Arthur Goldberg; President John F. Kennedy; President of the Brotherhood of Railway and Steamship Clerks, Freight Handlers, Express and Station Employees, George M. Harrison; Chairman and President of Burlington Industries, Inc., J. Spencer Love; Chairman of the Board of Directors of Ford Motor Company, Henry Ford II. Standing, L-R: Professor of Labor Relations in the Wharton School of Finance at the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. George W. Taylor; unidentified; Chairman of the Board of Directors of Inland Steel Company, Joseph L. Block; President of the International Business Machines (IBM) Corporation, Thomas J. Watson, Jr.; President of Reynolds Metal Company, Richard S. Reynolds, Jr.; President of the International Ladies Garment Workers’ Union, David Dubinsky; Editor and Publisher of Business Week Magazine, Elliott V. Bell; President of the International Union of United Automobile, Aircraft, and Agricultural Implement Workers of America, Walter P. Reuther; President of the National Bureau of Economic Research, Dr. Arthur Burns; unidentified man. Also included in the President’s schedule: David L. Cole, of Cole, Morrill, and Berman; Chairman of the Board of Directors of the United States Lines Company, John M. Franklin. Cabinet Room, White House, Washington, D.C.
Photograph
White House Photographs
JFKWHP-AR6441-A
Meeting with the President’s Advisory Committee on Labor Management. Seated, L-R: Unidentified man; Secretary of Commerce, Luther Hodges; Secretary of Labor, Arthur Goldberg; President John F. Kennedy. Standing, L-R: Professor of Labor Relations in the Wharton School of Finance at the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. George W. Taylor; unidentified; Chairman of the Board of Directors of Inland Steel Company, Joseph L. Block; President of the International Business Machines (IBM) Corporation, Thomas J. Watson, Jr.; President of Reynolds Metal Company, Richard S. Reynolds, Jr.; President of the International Ladies Garment Workers’ Union, David Dubinsky. Cabinet Room, White House, Washington, D.C.