Close
Not finding the information you're looking for? Please contact the Archives research staff.
Oral history
John F. Kennedy Oral History Collection
JFKOH-ROWK-05
In this interview Komer discusses working with McGeorge Bundy; the “inner circle” of the Bundy State Department; Komer’s major contacts; the intelligence system; the power and responsibilities of the State Department; how Bundy screened what President John F. Kennedy [JFK] would see; relations with other key officials; Robert F. Kennedy and foreign policy issues; the Bundy State Department and White House staff; the “little State Department” in the White House; the bureaucratic role of the State Department; U.S. foreign policy in Asia; relations with key U.S. Ambassadors; handling Arab-Israeli issues; domestic pressures of American-Jewish community on JFK; Arabists in the Kennedy Administration; working with Myer Feldman on Israeli issues; the United States, Saudi Arabia, and oil; filling the power vacuum left by the British; dealing with Congress on foreign aid matters; counterinsurgency; and looking back at programs during the Kennedy Administration, among other issues.
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-AR7203-B
President John F. Kennedy, First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, and others attend a diplomatic reception at the White House. Front row (L-R): President Kennedy; Mrs. Kennedy; Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson; Lady Bird Johnson; Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Earl Warren; Nina Warren, wife of Chief Justice Warren. Others (L-R): Ambassador of Nicaragua and Dean of the Diplomatic Corps, Dr. Guillermo Sevilla-Sacasa; Chief of Protocol, Angier Biddle Duke (behind Ambassador Sevilla-Sacasa); Military Aide to the President, General Chester V. Clifton (very back); Lillian Somoza de Sevilla-Sacasa, wife of the Nicaraguan Ambassador; Air Force Aide to the President, Brigadier General Godfrey T. McHugh (very back); Under Secretary of State, George Ball; unidentified woman (partially hidden); Presidential Adviser on African, Asian, and Latin-American Affairs, Chester B. Bowles; Naval Aide to the President, Captain Tazewell Shepard (in back); Dorothy Stebbins Bowles, wife of Mr. Bowles. Grand Staircase, Entrance Hall, White House, Washington, D.C.
Photograph
White House Photographs
JFKWHP-KN-C21466
President John F. Kennedy, First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, and others attend a diplomatic reception at the White House. Front row (L-R): President Kennedy; Mrs. Kennedy; Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson; Lady Bird Johnson; Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Earl Warren. Others (L-R): Ambassador of Nicaragua and Dean of the Diplomatic Corps, Dr. Guillermo Sevilla-Sacasa (behind Vice President Johnson, face partially hidden); Chief of Protocol, Angier Biddle Duke (behind Ambassador Sevilla-Sacasa); Military Aide to the President, General Chester V. Clifton; Lillian Somoza de Sevilla-Sacasa, wife of the Nicaraguan Ambassador (in front); Air Force Aide to the President, Brigadier General Godfrey T. McHugh (head turned, partially hidden); Presidential Adviser on African, Asian, and Latin-American Affairs, Chester B. Bowles; Under Secretary of State, George Ball; Dorothy Stebbins Bowles, wife of Mr. Bowles. Grand Staircase, Entrance Hall, White House, Washington, D.C.
Photograph
White House Photographs
JFKWHP-KN-C21465
President John F. Kennedy, First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, and others attend a diplomatic reception at the White House. Front row (L-R): President Kennedy; Mrs. Kennedy; Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson; Lady Bird Johnson; Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Earl Warren; Nina Warren, wife of Chief Justice Warren. Others (L-R): Ambassador of Nicaragua and Dean of the Diplomatic Corps, Dr. Guillermo Sevilla-Sacasa (behind Vice President Johnson, face partially hidden); Chief of Protocol, Angier Biddle Duke (behind Ambassador Sevilla-Sacasa); Lillian Somoza de Sevilla-Sacasa, wife of the Nicaraguan Ambassador; Military Aide to the President, General Chester V. Clifton (behind Mrs. Sevilla-Sacasa); Under Secretary of State, George Ball; Presidential Adviser on African, Asian, and Latin-American Affairs, Chester B. Bowles; Naval Aide to the President, Captain Tazewell Shepard (in back); Dorothy Stebbins Bowles, wife of Mr. Bowles (face obscured). Grand Staircase, Entrance Hall, White House, Washington, D.C.
Photograph
White House Photographs
JFKWHP-KN-C21464
President John F. Kennedy, First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, and others attend a diplomatic reception at the White House. Front row (L-R): President Kennedy; Mrs. Kennedy; Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson; Lady Bird Johnson; Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Earl Warren; Nina Warren, wife of Chief Justice Warren. Others (L-R): Ambassador of Nicaragua and Dean of the Diplomatic Corps, Dr. Guillermo Sevilla-Sacasa (behind and left of Vice President Johnson); Chief of Protocol, Angier Biddle Duke (face obscured); Lillian Somoza de Sevilla-Sacasa, wife of the Nicaraguan Ambassador; Military Aide to the President, General Chester V. Clifton (behind Mrs. Sevilla-Sacasa); Under Secretary of State, George Ball; Presidential Adviser on African, Asian, and Latin-American Affairs, Chester B. Bowles; Naval Aide to the President, Captain Tazewell Shepard (in back); Dorothy Stebbins Bowles, wife of Mr. Bowles (mostly hidden). Grand Staircase, Entrance Hall, White House, Washington, D.C.