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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-214-006
This folder contains memoranda for the record of European Policy Review group meetings. Topics include United States military forces in Europe and within NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization), the European Economic Community (EEC) and France, a proposed multilateral nuclear force (MLF) within NATO, relations between France and Germany, and French President Charles de Gaulle.
Textual folder
Papers of John F. Kennedy. Presidential Papers. President's Office Files.
JFKPOF-080-012
This folder contains material collected by the office of President John F. Kennedy's secretary, Evelyn Lincoln, concerning the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS). Materials concern Department of Defense expenditures in relation to the balance of payments, a summary of a meeting between Chairman of the JCS Lyman L. Lemnitzer and President of France Charles De Gaulle, a speech by Lemnitzer, an evaluation of news articles by Joseph Alsop regarding the military build-up in East Germany, and agenda items for a meeting with the President.