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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 folder
White House Photographs
JFKWHP-1962-02-20-F
AR16, ST08, KN12
Photograph
White House Photographs
JFKWHP-KN-C20221
Mezzo-soprano opera singer Grace Bumbry greets Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare Abraham Ribicoff (right) and his wife Ruth Ribicoff following Ms. Bumbry's performance at a dinner in honor of Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, Speaker of the House of Representatives John W. McCormack, and Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren. President John F. Kennedy looks on from left; others in the audience include: Speaker McCormack; Nina Warren, wife of Chief Justice Warren; Vice President Johnson; Harriet McCormack, wife of Speaker McCormack; Chief Justice Warren; Administrator of the Federal Aviation Agency Najeeb Halaby; Secretary of Commerce Luther Hodges; and Secretary of Labor Arthur J. Goldberg. East Room, White House, Washington, D.C.
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-AR6862-A
Cabinet meeting. At table (clockwise from bottom left): Frederick C. Belen, Assistant Postmaster General; Vice President Lyndon Johnson; Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara; Charles S. Murphy, Under Secretary of Agriculture (mostly hidden); Secretary of Labor Arthur J. Goldberg; Abraham Ribicoff, Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare; Secretary of Commerce Luther H. Hodges; Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy; Secretary of State Dean Rusk; President John F. Kennedy; Secretary of the Treasury C. Douglas Dillon; Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall. Seated at back right of room (L – R): Unidentified man; Najeeb Halaby, Administrator of the Federal Aviation Agency; Walter Heller, Chairman of Council of Economic Advisers. Cabinet Room, White House, Washington, D.C.
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.