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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-341-001
This file contains a draft and copies of National Security Action Memoranda number 241 (NSAM 241) titled, “Report on French Gaseous Diffusion Plant,” to Secretary of State Dean Rusk, Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) John McCone, and Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) Glenn T. Seaborg from McGeorge Bundy, Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs. Also included are memoranda on the potential involvement of Germany in the gaseous diffusion plant, and a report in response to NSAM 241.
Textual folder
Papers of John F. Kennedy. Presidential Papers. National Security Files
JFKNSF-336-004
This file contains a copy of National Security Action Memoranda number 148 (NSAM 148) titled, "Guidance on U.S. Nuclear Assistance to France," to Secretary of State Dean Rusk, Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara, and Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) Glenn T. Seaborg from McGeorge Bundy, Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs.