The Kennedy Half-Century (122 page)

91
. Shesol,
Mutual Contempt
, 422.

92
. “Memorandum of conference with Senator Robert Kennedy and Theodore C. Sorensen,” March 14, 1968, Clark Clifford Papers, Box 30, Folder 22, Library of Congress, Manuscripts Division, Washington, DC.

93
. Goodwin,
Johnson and the American Dream
, 343.

94
. “Memorandum of Conversation: The President, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, Theodore Sorensen, Charles Murphy, and W. W. Rostow, 10:00 A.M., April 3, 1968,” White House Famous Names Collection—RFK, Box 8, LBJA Famous Names: Kennedy, Robert F. 1968 Campaign, LBJ Library, Austin, Texas.

95
. Mark K. Updegrove,
Indomitable Will: LBJ in the Presidency
(New York: Crown Publishers, 2012), 272.

96
. RFK was shot at 12:15 A.M. on June 5; he died at 1:44 A.M. on June 6.

97
. George Reedy to LBJ, June 5, 1968, White House Famous Names Collection—RFK, Box 8, LBJA Famous Names: Kennedy, Robert F. Assassination of, LBJ Library Austin, Texas.

98
. Lyndon B. Johnson, “Address to the Nation Following the Attack on Senator Kennedy, June 5, 1968,” John T. Woolley and Gerhard Peters,
The American Presidency Project
[online], Santa Barbara, CA,
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=28908
 [accessed August 12, 2011].

99
. Ibid.

100
. Vincent Bzdek,
The Kennedy Legacy: Jack, Bobby and Ted and a Family Dream Fulfilled
(New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009), 141, 145–46.

101
. “Robert F. Kennedy Memorial,” Arlington National Cemetery website,
http://www.arlingtoncemetery.mil/visitor_information/Robert_F_Kennedy.html
 [accessed August 18, 2011]; Cy Egan and Joseph Mancini, “LBJ Declares Day of Mourning,”
New York Post
, June 6, 1968.

102
. Lyndon B. Johnson, “Remarks and Statement Upon Signing Order Establishing the National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence,” June 10, 1968, Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley,
The American Presidency Project
,
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=28913#axzzibtxNKybQ
 [accessed October 26, 2011].

103
. “Excerpts from the Firearms Statement by the National Commission on Violence,”
New York Times
, July 29, 1969; “Excerpts from National Panel’s Statement on Violence in TV Entertainment,”
New York Times
, September 25, 1969; “Excerpts from the Statement on Civil Disobedience by National Panel on Violence,”
New York Times
, December 9, 1969.

104
. RFK’s murder has evoked some of the same questions and conspiracy theories as JFK’s. See for instance, Lisa Pease, “The Other Kennedy Conspiracy,”
Salon
, November 21, 2011,
http://www.salon.com/2011/11/21/the_other_kennedy_conspiracy/
 [accessed November 22, 2011].

105
. “Sirhan’s Sentence Is Reduced to Life By California Court,”
New York Times
, June 17, 1972.

106
. James Randerson, “New Evidence Challenges Official Picture of Kennedy Shooting,”
The Guardian
, February 22, 2008,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/feb/22/kennedy.assassination
 [accessed October 27, 2011]. See also William Klaber and Philip H. Melanson,
Shadow Play
(New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1997); and Shane O’Sullivan,
Who Killed Bobby?
(New York: Sterling, 2008). “RFK Assassin Sirhan Sirhan’s Parole Rejected,”
Los Angeles Times
, March 2, 2011.

107
. See William F. Pepper,
Orders to Kill
(New York: Warner Books, 1995), Philip H. Melanson,
The Martin Luther King Assassination: New Revelations on the Conspiracy and Cover-up, 1968–91
(New York: Shapolsky, 1991), and Mark Lane and Dick Gregory,
Murder in Memphis
(New York: Thunder’s Mouth Press, 1993).

108
. Marguerite Oswald Telegram to Mary Sirhan, icollector.com,
http://www.icollector.com/Marguerite-Oswald-Telegram-to-Mary-Sirhan_i10433007
 [accessed October 27, 2011].

109
. Charles Guggenheim, the filmmaker, says that his RFK movie nearly caused a riot. See Guggenheim’s interview with Jim Lehrer:
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/media/biofilms/guggenheim.html
 [accessed December 6, 2011].

110
. Matthews,
Kennedy and Nixon
, 267.

111
. The Gun Control Act of 1968 is Public Law 90–618 (82 Stat. 1213). Lyndon B. Johnson, “Remarks Upon Signing the Gun Control Act of 1968,” October 22, 1968, Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley,
The American Presidency Project
,
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=29197
 [accessed October 27, 2011]; Dan Nowicki and Dennis Wagner, “Concern Over Safety, Rights Shape AZ’s Gunslinger Attitude,”
Arizona Republic
, July 11, 2011,
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2011/07/11/20110711arizona-guns-special-report-history.html
 [accessed August 18, 2011].

112
. The 1986 “Firearm Owners Protection Act” (Public Law No. 99–308) modified several elements of the Gun Control Act, relaxing certain restrictions on gun sellers at the request of the gun lobby while imposing stiffer penalties on individuals convicted of using a firearm while committing certain crimes. A related piece of legislation from the same year, the Law Enforcement Officers Protection Act, defined and outlawed so-called cop-killer bullets, or armor-piercing ammunition. The Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act of 1993 introduced the five-day waiting period for gun purchases and mandated that firearm sellers conduct background checks on unlicensed purchasers. The FBI was directed to establish within a four-year window a “National Instant Criminal Background Check System” for gun purchasers. Police background checks at licensed gun dealers are now standard, but they do not apply to the sizable portion of guns acquired at private sales and gun shows (the so-called gun show loophole). The Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 included a section labeled the “Public Safety and Recreational Firearms Use Protection Act,” typically referred to by the press as the assault weapons ban, which prohibited manufacture,
importation, and sale to civilian purchasers of semiautomatic weapons and guns with largecapacity ammunition feeds. The law further prohibited juvenile possession of or trade in firearms. The law expired in 2004 under “sunset” provisions.

113
. According to the Secret Service’s website, Congress responded to RFK’s assassination by authorizing “protection of major presidential and vice presidential candidates and nominees. (Public Law 90-331)” See
http://www.secretservice.gov/history.shtml
. See especially section 7 of the current code (Title 18, Part II, Chapter 203, Section 3056), which reads in full: “Under the direction of the Secretary of Homeland Security, the United States Secret Service is authorized to protect the following persons: (1) The president, the vice president (or other officer next in the order of succession to the office of president), the president-elect, and the vice president-elect (2) The immediate families of those individuals listed in paragraph (1). (3) Former presidents and their spouses for their lifetimes, except that protection of a spouse shall terminate in the event of remarriage unless the former president did not serve as president prior to January 1, 1997, in which case, former presidents and their spouses for a period of not more than ten years from the date a former president leaves office, except that (A) protection of a spouse shall terminate in the event of remarriage or the divorce from, or death of a former president; and (B) should the death of a president occur while in office or within one year after leaving office, the spouse shall receive protection for one year from the time of such death: Provided, That the Secretary of Homeland Security shall have the authority to direct the Secret Service to provide temporary protection for any of these individuals at anytime if the Secretary of Homeland Security or designee determines that information or conditions warrant such protection. (4) Children of a former president who are under 16 years of age for a period not to exceed ten years or upon the child becoming 16 years of age, whichever comes first. (5) Visiting heads of foreign states or foreign governments. (6) Other distinguished foreign visitors to the United States and official representatives of the United States performing special missions abroad when the president directs that such protection be provided. (7) Major presidential and vice presidential candidates and, within 120 days of the general presidential election, the spouses of such candidates. As used in this paragraph, the term “major presidential and vice presidential candidates” means those individuals identified as such by the Secretary of Homeland Security after consultation with an advisory committee consisting of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the minority leader of the House of Representatives, the majority and minority leaders of the Senate, and one additional member selected by the other members of the committee. The Committee shall not be subject to the Federal Advisory Committee Act (5 App. U.S.C. 2). (8) Former vice presidents, their spouses, and their children who are under 16 years of age, for a period of not more than six months after the date the former vice president leaves office. The Secretary of Homeland Security shall have the authority to direct the Secret Service to provide temporary protection for any of these individuals at any time thereafter if the Secretary of Homeland Security or designee determines that information or conditions warrant such protection. The protection authorized in paragraphs (2) through (8) may be declined.” “Powers, Authorities, and Duties of United States Secret Service,” Legal Information Institute, Cornell University Law School,
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/usc_sec_18_00003056—-ooo-.html
 [accessed November 9, 2011].

114
. Barbara A. Perry,
Jacqueline Kennedy: First Lady of the New Frontier
(Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2004), 197.

115
. Judy Klemesrud, “The Reaction Here Is Anger, Shock, and Dismay,”
New York Times
, October 19, 1968.

116
. “Many in Europe Shocked,”
New York Times
, October 19, 1968.

117
. Marie Smith, “5 Novembers Later: Thousands at Grave,”
Los Angeles Times
, November 23, 1968; “Rites Mark Tragic Date,” Gerald Bruno Papers, Box 7, Folder “JFK Assassination,” JFK Library, Boston, Massachusetts.

15. “TIN SOLDIERS AND NIXON COMING”: JFK’S REPUDIATION AND REVIVAL

1
. See “Smith, Howard K.: U.S. Journalist,” The Museum of Broadcast Communications,
http://www.museum.tv/eotvsection.php?entrycode=smithhoward
 [accessed December 13, 2011].

2
. See Christopher Matthews,
Kennedy and Nixon: The Rivalry That Shaped Postwar America
(New York: Simon and Schuster, 1996).

3
. See Susan Jacoby,
Alger Hiss and the Battle for History
(New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009); William Allen Jowitt,
The Strange Case of Alger Hiss
(London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1953); and Alistair Cooke,
A Generation on Trial: U.S.A. v. Alger Hiss
(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1950).

4
. Nixon turned forty eleven days before his inauguration in 1953.

5
. Two months before the election, the press accused Nixon of drawing money from a secret fund set up by corporate lobbyists. The “Checkers Speech” was the national television address given by the vice presidential candidate in September 1952, in which he answered charges about the alleged “secret fund” he had maintained to pay expenses. His appeal to the public was maudlin but worked wonders, as thousands of Americans telegraphed the Republican National Committee to demand that Eisenhower keep Nixon on the ticket. Ike did. See Stephen E. Ambrose,
Nixon: The Education of a Politician, 1913–62
(New York: Simon and Schuster, 1987), pp. 276–91.

6
. David Greenberg, “Was Nixon Robbed?”
Slate
, October 16, 2000,
http://www.slate,com/articles/news_and_politics/history_lesson/2000/10/was_nixon_robbed.single.html
 [accessed November 9, 2012].

7
. Former Nixon aide Stephen Hess, who was the first of the inner circle to see Nixon after the assassination, reported that Nixon was “very shaken.” Stephen E. Ambrose,
Nixon: The Triumph of a Politician, 1962–72
(New York: Simon and Schuster, 1989), 32; Matthews,
Kennedy and Nixon
, 239–40.

8
. Ambrose,
Triumph of a Politician
, 86.

9
. In September, Gallup had Nixon at 41%, Humphrey at 31%, and independent George Wallace at 20%, with 8% undecided. Conducted by the Gallup Organization, September 1-September 6, 1968 and based on 1,507 personal interviews. Sample: National Adult. [USGALLUP.68–767.R05B]. Gallup Poll (AIPO), Sept. 1968. iPOLL Databank, Roper Center for Public Opinion Research, University of Connecticut,
http://www.ropercenter.uconn.edu/data_access/ipoll/ipoll.html
 [accessed January 30, 2012].

10
. 
Guide to U.S. Elections
, vol. 1, 6th ed. (Washington, DC: CQ Press, 2010), 791, 881.