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'''Robert Francis Kennedy''' (1925-1968) was a younger brother of President [[John F. Kennedy]]. Robert, also known as "Bobby" Kennedy or RFK, served as [[Attorney General]] during his brother's presidency. Robert was considered one of John's closest advisers. He was a strong supporter of [[Civil Rights]] issues and was primarily known for his fighting of [[Organized crime]].
Robert Kennedy started his legal career in the Criminal Division of the [[Department of Justice]] in 1951. In 1953, he served with Roy Cohn as counsel to Senator Joseph McCarthy's Committee on Government Operations and Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. He became nationally known for his anti-Mob activities while working as chief counsel of the Senate Select Committee on Improper Activities in the Labor or Management Field, a post which he left in 1960 to work on his brother's presidential campaign. After the election, John Kennedy appointed him to be Attorney General. At 36, he was the youngest man to serve in this position.
=Wiretap =FBI wiretapping of Martin Luther King==As Attorney General, Kennedy was alarmed by Federal Bureau of Investigation reports that two of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s closest advisers, [[Stanley Levison]] and [[Hunter Pitts O'Dell|Hunter Pitts "Jack" O'Dell]], were secret operatives of the Communist Party's underground "apparatus."
As On June 16, 1963, Attorney General, Robert Kennedy was alarmed by FBI reports in 1962 that two raised “the possibility of the Reverend Dreffecting technical coverage on ... Martin Luther King, Jr.'s closest advisers” according to a memo by FBI Assistant Director Courtney Evans, Stanley Levison and Hunter Pitts "Jack" O'Dell, were actually secret operatives in charge of the Communist Party's underground "apparatusSpecial Investigative Division:{{cquote|I told the AG that ." In 1952.. in so far as Dr. King was concerned, it was obvious from the reports that he was in a travel status practically all the time, brothers Jack and Morris Childsit was, two highly placed Communists who had been close therefore, doubtful that a technical surveillance on his office or home would be very productive. I also raised the question as to Levison since the 1940s, had repercussions if it should ever become FBI informantsknown that such a surveillance had been put on Dr. They kept the FBI informed of Levison's secret activities on behalf King.The AG said this did not concern him at all, that in view of the CPUSA from 1952 possible Communist influence in the racial situation, he thought it advisable to 1956have as complete coverage as possible. I told him, when Bayard Rustin, who had joined under the Communist Party two decades earliercircumstances, introduced Martin Luther King that we would check into the matter to Levisonsee if coverage was feasible, who quickly became King's "most influential white counselor." Thenand, in June 1957if so, would submit an FBI memo reported that a redacted source -- either Jack or Morris Childs -- "stated that Stanley Levison is now a CP member with no official title, who performs his CP work through mass organization activityappropriate recommendation to him."<ref>David J. GarrowUnited States Senate, "[httphttps://wwwia600408.theatlanticus.com/magazine/archive.org/200217/07items/the-fbi-and-martin-luther-kingfinalreportofsel03unit/302537/ The FBI finalreportofsel03unit_bw.pdf Supplementary Detailed Staff Reports on Intelligence Activities and Martin Luther Kingthe Rights of Americans, Book III]. Final Report of the Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities. (United States Government Printing Office," ''The Atlantic''1976), July/August 2002p. 101</ref>}}
In 1962On October 10, 1963, the Attorney General authorized the FBI learned of Levisonto wiretap MLK Jr's association with King. On January 8, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover informed Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy that Levison was both "phone on a close adviser" trial basis due to suspicion that Dr. King and "a member of the Communist Party, Ustill had associates who were Communists.S.A."<ref>Richard SeveroDavid J. Garrow, "[http://www.nytimestheatlantic.com/1983magazine/10archive/222002/us07/drthe-kingfbi-and-communismmartin-noluther-link-ever-produced.html Dr. king/302537/ The FBI and Martin Luther King and Communism: No Link Ever Produced]," ''The New York TimesAtlantic'', October 22, 1983<July/ref> On March 6, the Attorney General ordered the FBI to wiretap Levison's phone, and some of his conversations with King were intercepted.<ref>Patrick J. Sloyan, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=q01ABAAAQBAJ The Politics of Deception: JFK's Secret Decisions on Vietnam, Civil Rights, and Cuba]'', (Macmillan, 2015) ISBN 1250030609, p. 154August 2002</ref> RFK later privately acknowledged to journalist Anthony Lewis:
{{cquote|I asked the FBI to make an intensive investigation of Martin Luther King ... to see who his companions were and, also, to see what other activities he was involved in. This is also the reason that President Kennedy and I and the Department of Justice were so reserved about him, which I'm sure he felt. We never wanted to get close to him just because of these contacts and connections that he had, which we felt were damaging to the civil rights movement and because we were so intimately involved in the struggle for civil rights, it also damaged us. It damaged what we were trying to do.<ref>John Meroney, "[http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2011/11/what-really-happened-between-j-edgar-hoover-and-mlk-jr/248319/ What Really Happened Between J. Edgar Hoover and MLK Jr.]," ''The Atlantic'', November 11, 2011</ref>}}
In June 1963, JFK met with King in the Rose Garden, warning him that Levison This surveillance was a "Kremlin agent," later continued and telling King to get rid of him. King looked the President in the eye and promised he would. But King merely pretended to break off contact with Levison while actually continuing to confer with him through intermediaries. On June 16, Attorney General Robert Kennedy had FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover through bureau agents wiretap King's telephones, including the one in the preacher's Atlanta office. In October 1963, Kennedy allowed the FBI to wiretap MLK Jr's phone again on a trial basis due to suspicion that Dr. King still had associates which were Communist; this was later expanded during [[Lyndon B. Johnson]]'s presidency.<ref>[http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=16500 Why Martin Luther King Was Republican, Human Events, August 16, 2006]</ref><ref>Herst, Burton (2007). ''Bobby and J. Edger''. pp. 372–74</ref>
==Senate==
Robert stayed on after his brother's assassination, resigning in September 1964. He then ran a successful campaign for [[United States Senate|Senate]], and took office as Senator from [[New York]] in early 1965. Kennedy ran for [[President of the United States]] as a [[Democrat]] in the 1968 election, but was assassinated just months before.
==Assassination==
Robert Kennedy was assassinated by [[Sirhan Sirhan]] on June 6, 1968 while running for the [[Democratic Party]] nomination for [[President of the United States]] against his principal opponent, Senator [[Eugene McCarthy]] of [[Minnesota]]. It is believed that Sirhan Sirhan carried out the assassination because of Kennedy's strong support for [[Israel]]. Neither Kennedy nor McCarthy won the party nomination; instead the party choice fell on Vice President [[Hubert Humphrey]], also of Minnesota, who prevailed among delegates without entering a single primary contest following the withdrawal on March 31, 1968, of U.S. President [[Lyndon B. Johnson]]. Humphrey went on to be defeated for the presidency by Republican [[Richard M. Nixon]] in 1968.
==References==
