Robert Francis Kennedy

Robert Francis Kennedy, also commonly called by his nickname “Bobby”, was born on November 20, 1925 in Brookline, Massachusetts. Robert F. Kennedy was the seventh of nine children born to Ambassador Joseph P. Kennedy and Rose Kennedy. While growing up, Robert Kennedy was reported to be very combative, aggressive, and yet, emotional. Growing up in the Kennedy family you were expected to be very loyal to the family, and Robert was one of the most loyal of all the family members.

After graduating from high school at Milton Mass Academy, Robert Kennedy enrolled at the Ivy league Harvard University where he attended until he dropped out during World War II to enlist in the United States Navy. After the war was over, Robert Kennedy finished his education at Harvard University and graduated with his degree in 1948. While at Harvard, Robert Kennedy was a three year letterman for the Harvard University football team. After graduating from Harvard University, Robert Kennedy then enrolled into the law program at the University of Virginia law school where he graduate with a law degree in 1951.

Robert Kennedy had a very exorbitant career as both an attorney and politician. He started off his career by managing his brother John F. Kennedy’s successful campaign for Senate in 1952. Starting in 1953, Robert Kennedy then went to work as counsel for the Senate subcommittee investigating labor rackets that was headed by Senator Joseph McCarthy. He retained the counsel position until 1956.

In 1957, Robert Kennedy became the Chief Counsel of the Senate subcommittee and this is where he gained the reputation for being tough and fearless by exposing corruption in the Teamsters Union and led to the plight of convicting the leader of the Teamsters that was led by Jimmy Hoffa, and showed during the antagonistic argument that developed during Jimmy Hoffa’s testimony to the Senate subcommittee.

In 1959, Robert Kennedy left the Senate Subcommittee to manage his brother’s (John F. Kennedy) 1960 successful campaign for the Office of President of the United States. After his brother was elected and took office, Robert Kennedy was appointed as US Attorney General. When he was appointed there were a lot of charges of nepotism from his brother, but those charges quickly fell by the wayside due to the all of the great work and successful prosecutions that Robert Kennedy did for and during the fight of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960’s.

During Robert Kennedy’s reign as the Attorney General of the United States, he faced with his brother a lot of heated obstacles and issues. Some of the major issues included the Bay of Pigs invasion of 1961, The Cuban Missile Crisis which took place just 18 months after the Bay of Pigs, the escalating military presence and war in Vietnam, and the Civil Rights Movement. It has always been a well known fact that Robert Kennedy was his brothers most trusted and loyal advisor, of which he in all aspects out ranked the Vice President Lyndon Johnson and all other cabinet members and advisors.

On November 22, 1963 while traveling in a motorcade in Dallas, Texas. President John Kennedy was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald, supposedly from the top floor of the Texas Book Depository. After President John Kennedy passed away, his brother Robert Kennedy maintained his cabinet position of Attorney General for awhile under the now sworn in President Lyndon Johnson.

In September 1963 after leaving the Office of the Attorney General, he made a run for the United States Senate as the representative for New York. Despite the problems and tensions that remained between Robert Kennedy and President Johnson, the now sworn in President helped to campaign for Robert Kennedy to help him defeat Kenneth Keating’s attacks claiming that Robert Kennedy was just an arrogant, spoiled carpetbagger. These attacks went by the wayside as Robert Kennedy defeated him in the November 1964 election.

During Robert Kennedy’s three and a half years as a United States Senator, he worked hard on the civil rights movement and to help eliminate all types and forms of discrimination that plagued the United States at that time, especially in the South. While serving as a United States Senator, Robert Kennedy visited apartheid-ruled South Africa, worked to start the development of Bedford-Stuyvesant in New York. He also visited the Mississippi Delta to see the impact of the war on poverty, and this is what led to his change of stance to the current conflict that was going on in Vietnam.

During Robert Kennedy’s time as a United States Senator, he exuberantly