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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-AR6498-A
President John F. Kennedy and Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson attend a meeting of the President’s Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity in the Cabinet Room, White House, Washington, D.C. (L-R) Seated: Secretary of Commerce Luther Hodges; Secretary of Labor Arthur Goldberg; President Kennedy; Vice President Johnson. Those standing include President of Mechanics and Farmers Bank John H. Wheeler; Dean of the Washington National Cathedral (Cathedral Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul) in Washington, D.C. the Very Reverend Francis B. Sayre, Jr.; president of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) George Meany; Chairman of Kaiser Steel Corporation Edgar F. Kaiser; Chairman of the Civil Service Commission John W. Macy, Jr.; Director of the Social Action Department of the National Catholic Welfare Conference (NCWC) Monsignor George Gilmary Higgins; Chairman of Atomic Energy Commission Dr. Glenn Seaborg.
Photograph
White House Photographs
JFKWHP-KN-C17492
President John F. Kennedy and Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson attend a meeting of the President’s Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity in the Cabinet Room, White House, Washington, D.C. (L-R) President of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) George Meany; Secretary of Commerce Luther Hodges; Secretary of Labor Arthur Goldberg; President Kennedy; health activist Mary Woodward (Woodard) Lasker; Chairman of Atomic Energy Commission Dr. Glenn Seaborg (partially hidden behind Lasker); Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson; Deputy Secretary of Defense, Roswell Gilpatric.
Photograph
White House Photographs
JFKWHP-KN-C17491
President John F. Kennedy and Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson attend a meeting of the President’s Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity in the Cabinet Room, White House, Washington, D.C. (L-R) Seated: Secretary of Commerce Luther Hodges; Secretary of Labor Arthur Goldberg; President Kennedy; Vice President Johnson. Those standing include president of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) George Meany; Chairman of Kaiser Steel Corporation Edgar F. Kaiser; Chairman of the Civil Service Commission John W. Macy, Jr.; Director of the Social Action Department of the National Catholic Welfare Conference (NCWC) Monsignor George Gilmary Higgins; Chairman of Atomic Energy Commission Dr. Glenn Seaborg; Secretary of the Army Elvis J. Stahr.