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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.
Textual folder
Papers of John F. Kennedy. Presidential Papers. National Security Files
JFKNSF-317-009
This folder contains summaries of meetings with President John F. Kennedy. Topics include the Pathet Lao and the threat of communism in Laos, nuclear weapons testing and disarmament, and Berlin. Also included in this folder is a memorandum of a conversation between President Kennedy, French Minister of Culture André Malraux, French Ambassador to the United States Hervé Alphand, and others discussing French resistance to the admittance of Great Britain into the Common Market, U.S. attitude towards nuclear weapons for France, and the U.S. presence in Europe.
Textual folder
Papers of John F. Kennedy. Presidential Papers. President's Office Files.
JFKPOF-116a-001
This folder contains material collected by the office of President John F. Kennedy's secretary, Evelyn Lincoln, concerning France. Materials included correspondence between President Kennedy and President of France Charles de Gaulle regarding the Congo, Laos, and Berlin. This folder contains some foreign language material.