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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-1962-04-14-C
KN15
Photograph
White House Photographs
JFKWHP-KN-C21134
President John F. Kennedy (bottom left, wearing sunglasses), Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Shahanshah of Iran (left of President Kennedy), and other distinguished guests watch a demonstration of the Short Airfield for Tactical Support (SATS) at Bogue Field, Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, North Carolina. The Shahanshah, in the United States on a state visit, joined the President in North Carolina to inspect the U.S. Atlantic Fleet. Those pictured include: Admiral Robert L. Dennison, Commander in Chief of the Atlantic Command (CINCLANT), Commander in Chief of the U.S. Atlantic Fleet, and Supreme Allied Commander, Atlantic (SACLANT); Senator Richard B. Russell (Georgia); Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara; Commandant of the United States Marine Corps General David M. Shoup; Congressman Carl Vinson (Georgia); Chief of Staff of the United States Army General George H. Decker; Ambassador of Peru Fernando Berckemeyer; Chief of Protocol Angier Biddle Duke; Lieutenant General Robert B. Luckey, Commanding General, Fleet Marine Force, Atlantic; Major General Richard C. Mangrum, Commanding General, Second Marine Aircraft Wing; Naval Aide to the President Captain Tazewell Shepard, Jr.; Assistant Secretary of the Treasury James A. Reed; Under Secretary of the Navy Paul B. “Red” Fay; White House Secret Service agent Gerald A. “Jerry” Behn; Air Force Aide to the President Brigadier General Godfrey T. McHugh; Special Assistant to the President Kenneth P. O’Donnell; Special Assistant to the President Dave Powers; Deputy Secretary of Defense Roswell Gilpatric; and Director of the Bureau of the Budget David E. Bell.