All language subtitles for Bobby.Kennedy.for.President.S01E02.1080p.WEB.x264-AMRAP_02

As soon as the first news came out that
President Kennedy was murdered, people

began to gather and stand, just stand.

It was much the same all across the
country, a wave of shock.

48 hours later, the man Dallas police
said shot the president, Lee Harvey

Oswald, was himself killed by Jack Ruby.

This bizarre sequence of double killings
raised great questions. Who actually

fired the shots that killed Kennedy?

Why did Ruby shoot Oswald?

Was there a conspiracy?

Were right -wingers involved?

Was it a Russian plot?

A Cuban plot?

It was a terrible terrible blow Bobby
certainly was a changed

man

Bobby

was under the terrible cloud of
depression.

He was shocked and wounded in a way that
no other person was. I mean, his whole

life was in the context of John Kennedy
at that point.

Their partnership was the future of the
country.

In fact, the world.

President Kennedy was murdered about two
and a half months after I went to work

at the Justice Department.

The scent in the building was, of
course, the deepest kind of loss.

And secondly, this not knowing what
Johnson was going to be about as

He was a southerner, and his record had
been thin on civil rights.

Then to realize that the man was
committed to civil rights.

We believe that all men are entitled to
the blessings of liberty.

Yet millions are being deprived of those
blessings.

Not because of their own failures, but
because of the color of their skin.

Resulting in historic legislation in the
middle of 1964.

The Civil Rights Act of 64, the Economic
Opportunity Act, which is the war on

poverty, also Medicaid, Medicare, and so
on.

Integration leader Martin Luther King
receives his pen, a gift he said he

cherish. Another group of pens is
reserved for the Kennedys, and the

General is entrusted with a half dozen.

Lyndon Johnson made that happen, and he
had not been president even for a year.

But that didn't take away from Robert
Kennedy's opinion about Lyndon Johnson.

That president was a gentleman and a
human being. This man is not.

He's mean, bitter, vicious, animal in
many ways.

I think he's got this other side of him
in his relationship with human beings,

which makes it very difficult unless you
want to kiss his behind all the time.

The conflict between Lyndon Johnson and
Robert Kennedy was not going to be

contained. Here suddenly was a new
government, and Bobby felt he was going

reduced to a bureaucratic role as
Attorney General with Johnson detuning

major litigations. I've seen what he can
do and what he's done in the last three

months, and the fact that he's able to
eat people up, and even people who are

considered rather strong figures.

Then he took a couple trips during those
months to Indonesia and to Poland.

Attorney General Robert Kennedy, with
his family, continues to enjoy riotous

receptions behind the Iron Curtain.

Hi,

General. How are you, Mr. President?
You're a world traveler. Have you worn

Well, no, not too bad. Gosh, that's
very, uh... It must have been exciting.

Well, you know, it just makes you feel
so good about it. You know, I just think

it's just a damn inspiring thing for the
United States.

Well, I'm sure glad you're back. Anybody
needs a little invigoration ought to

leave Washington.

Oh, boy, what a difference.

Bobby wanted to do something useful.

He knew that he was not going to stay as
Attorney General.

This is very, very ambitious.

Man, it's unbelievable, huh?

Mr. President, I just can't wrap my mind
around that kind of ambition.

I don't know how to understand it. I
don't either. There's a ruthlessness

it that just scares the hell out of me.

Well,

I've thought of my future over the
period of the last few months, and some

people from New York and elsewhere have
spoken to me about running in New York,

and it's a possibility that I'm
considering, as I'm considering many

possibilities, whether I'll...

teach or whether I'll write or whether
I'll go away for a period of time. I

haven't decided what I'm going to do
other than finishing as Attorney

Do you believe that it's better for a
true New Yorker to run for the Senate

for someone like yourself?

I think all things being equal, that it
would be better to have a citizen of the

state of New York, an individual who had
lived here for an extended period of

time, than somebody else.

Mr. Kennedy, would you tell us, sir,
have you made up your mind as to whether

run for the United States? I have
nothing to add other than what I've

Okay, okay.

What do you think of the informality of
New York news conferences compared to

Washington? Very good.

Very good? Very good. Good luck.

From the Democratic Convention in
Atlantic City, a roaring crowd cheered

Lyndon Baines Johnson was nominated by
acclamation.

And now, it is my privilege and honor to
introduce Robert Kennedy.

Thank you.

Mr. Cannon?

Just let it go for a little bit longer.

Robert Kennedy was one of the most
prominent, eminent Americans.

And he, I think, understood that he had
to use that influence and power.

New York State Republicans nominate
Senator Kenneth Keating. The New York

senatorial race has drawn national
interest, for opposing Mr. Keating is a

famous name.

Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, to
win the nomination on the first ballot.

There have been cries of carpetbaggers,
for Mr.

Kennedy took up residence in New York to
run for the office.

Attorney General Robert Kennedy, newly
announced candidate for the U .S. Senate

from New York, has leased this sprawling
Glen Cove mansion for a family home and

a base of political operations.

In relationship to your coming from out
of state, do you think that's all kind

of over with now?

Oh no, I think there'll always be
people.

who won't vote for Bobby because they
think he comes from Massachusetts.

But he spent the first 20 years of his
life here in New York, and he went to

schools in New York.

And he hasn't stopped paying taxes in
New York since he was five.

Sure, the Fulton Fish Market, what are
your impressions? Oh, they have a lot of

fish.

I understand Bobby took time out from
his duties as Attorney General to visit

the Fulton Fish Market and the Staten
Island Ferry. Of course, these are only

two of the thousands of scenic
attractions in New York.

They deserve to be high on any tourist
list.

When Robert Kennedy ran for the Senate,
I was in high school in New York.

I'm coming up the steps one morning at a
very popular subway stop.

And there's Robert Kennedy at the top of
the stairs.

And he shook my hand, and I was so
unimpressed. He was small.

He was gray. I mean, gray.

Gray skin.

His handshake was limp.

I said, oh, my God, he's nothing like
his brother. I was really like, oh, my

God. But his eyes, he fixed me with his
eyes. His eyes were hypnotic, a shade of

blue I'd never seen, and very sad.

I mean, he was the saddest.

I'd ever seen in my life.

Then he got on the top of a car, had to
speak. There were maybe 100 of us. The

question is that this is a question of
democracy, and it's going to be voted on

by the people of the city of New York.

And he was terrible.

He was high -pitched. He was stuttering.

He was nervous.

I left saying, oh, my God, he will never
amount to anything, ever, ever, ever.

That was my first impression.

If my opponent had his way, your work
area started again.

Your area would have lost.

I stumbled on them.

Taxes, school.

It took him a while to get into it.

People thought he was going to lose.

Delighted to be here. I thought if I was
coming back home, when I was there.

You know, as I was touring upstate, I
kept seeing these signs saying, go back

home.

A carpetbagger go home, and now here I
am.

One of the problems was he didn't really
have the juice flowing because he

didn't really have anything against
Keating particularly.

But then Keating attacked him for
something he was supposed to have done

Attorney General, handling some Nazi
assets in Switzerland.

I think if you can go through all of
these kind of charges that he's made

against me, that I'm crooked, that I'm
a...

Pro -Nazi, after my brother and brother
-in -law were killed, and the other

statements that he's made, that I'm a
liar, I stand on my record. I'm not

to get down in the gutter. So his juices
began to flow.

He repeated these charges. You've been
telling outright lies about him. He

wanted to discuss his record. Now I'm
discussing it.

And apparently he doesn't like that.

They pick out some nitpicking little
amendment.

He voted against federal aid to
education. I don't think that's

There are many instances where his
statements have been false.

He voted against it in 1961.

He voted against it in 1960. And he
voted against it in 1957.

It was untrue. It was false.

He voted against housing on 23 different
occasions.

I'm considerably annoyed.

We should be discussing education,
housing, medical assistance for elderly,

immigration. It's deteriorating into a
campaign of distortion.

Thank you, sir. Thank you.

I actually went to a couple of his
campaign stops, and he got better and

and better.

People talked about it afterward. He was
impossible to coach.

He was authentic. He hated to be
scripted. He hated to be managed.

He was just himself.

I'm against complacency, and I'm against
unemployment, and I'm against feeling

that we've gone far enough in this state
or in this country. I think that we can

do better. I think we've accomplished a
great deal, but we can do much, much

better.

And then he was at a thing with students
at Columbia University, and it just

woke him up.

Mr. Kennedy.

Many of us have been wondering whether
or not you were going to ever issue a

concise statement on your position in
regards to the McCarthy hearings and the

purges of Senator Joseph McCarthy.

I worked for the committee for
approximately six months.

I disagreed with what was happening on
the committee.

So I went to Senator McCarthy, and I
said that I disagreed with what they

doing, and I wasn't going to stay with
the committee any longer. And I left.

Then, in February of 1954, I was the one
that wrote the report on Senator

McCarthy and the Army -McCarthy
hearings. I wrote that report.

And so that's my record. I believe at a
rather young age I stood up on the

question of principle.

Mr. Kennedy, aren't you really using New
York State as a kind of jumping -off

place for your own presidential
ambitions?

First, let me say, I have really two
choices.

Over the period of the last ten months,
I could have retired.

My father has done very well, and I
could have lived off him.

Somebody outside said, are you going to
serve your whole six years?

I don't know where I'd go.

Frankly, I don't need the title.

Because I could be called general, I
understand, for the rest of my life.

And I don't need the money, and I don't
need the office space.

So I would just, I mean, frank as it is,
and maybe it's difficult to

understand in the state of New York, I'd
like to just be a good United States

Senator. I'd like to serve.

Mr. Kennedy, this pace, are you going to
keep this up for two months?

I'm going to work hard to win.

How do you think I can win otherwise?

How do you think you're going to enjoy
this?

Well, it's been pretty exciting so far.

President Johnson spent the day in New
York State, stressing the qualities and

attractions of senatorial candidate
Robert Kennedy, who was with him all the

way.

At times today, it seemed that Lyndon
Johnson, who helped John Kennedy to

election in 1960, was himself getting
some help from the Kennedy name and

In 45 days, he traveled over 15 ,000
miles to see the people of New York.

Some came just to see him. Many wanted
to shake his hand.

A few didn't want to let go.

George Bernard Shaw once said, some
people see things as they are and say,

I dream things that never were and say,
why not?

The voice of the people was heard in the
land.

An overwhelming mandate is handed to
Lyndon Baines Johnson, who becomes 36th

President of the United States. In New
York, Senator Keating couldn't overcome

the magic of the Kennedy name.

It was another sweep for the Kennedys in
Massachusetts.

Although confined to the hospital since
a plane crash earlier in the year,

Senator Edward M. Kennedy ran up a
victory of landslide proportions to join

brother Robert on the floor of the
Senate.

I told them to call you. I just listened
to the old man Keating brag on you.

Listen, I pulled you through up here.

Oh, it's just out of this world. And I
thought everything went better than we

had a right to expect.

Well, you did a great job.

We got a lot to be thankful for, Bobby.

Let's stay as close together as he'd
want us to. That'd be fine. That'd be

Mr. President. Ain't nobody going to
divide us. That's fine. That's fine. I'm

proud of you. Thanks very much. Thanks
for your help. Thank you for calling.

Ain't a hell of a difference.

Bye.

After the election, we did a couple of
films with him in New York.

He went around with a couple of his

kids singing Christmas carols in high
schools, and we just filmed him doing

At one point, I'm filming Kennedy, and
his eyes kind of glaze over.

And I thought, he's thinking about Jack.

That's it.

That's it.

I felt, I felt him torn.

I remember feeling it in the camera.

Look at your dog.

You've got to beat him before you get
smart.

Good morning. Good morning. At noon
today.

You coming out to lunch? Yes, I am.
How's the department?

Are you still Assistant Attorney
General?

Yeah.

Here's a Senator's message.

You look like a citizen.

Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

in the midst of the greatest upward
surge of economic well -being in the

of any nation.

We see so much affluence around us all
the time.

We have to have three cars. We have to
have all of this equipment that's

advertised on television.

I think that we should step back and
examine what we're trying to do and

we're trying to go.

The charismatic Malcolm X was scheduled
to deliver a major policy address here

at the Audubon Ballroom. I remember
hearing over my right shoulder the

He died for what he believed in.

In Vietnam, saturation bombing is being
stepped up.

Landing craft brought the first actual
ground combat fleet to enter the

We're marching today from Thelma to
Montgomery to dramatize to our nation

the world the hundreds and thousands of
Negro citizens of Alabama denied the

right to vote.

This is an unlawful assembly.

You are ordered to disperse. This march
will not continue.

rather down the highway into Alabama
than make a butchery of my pumpkin.

Yes, sir.

Whether it's the problem of the
violence, whether it's the problem of

whether it's the problem that we have in
Vietnam, we can do things. We can

accomplish things. We can make progress.

That's Bacon once wrote that it's left
only to God and to angels to be lookers

-on.

Robert Kennedy was a very unorthodox
senator.

He goes to the Senate floor.

He votes.

He goes to all of his committees.

The average Indian income is $1 ,500, 75
% below the national average.

He introduced bills.

It's desperately needed that we raise
the minimum wage to $1 .50 an hour here

the state.

We've been discussing federal
legislation, governing rifles, shotguns,

Handguns. An aftercare program for
narcotic addicts. To focus attention on

poisonous fumes inflicted on the people
who live in this area.

I was what's called a constituent case
aide. I would take phone calls from

distressed New Yorkers.

I get a phone call from a single mom
with two kids in Harlem.

My baby's toes are being gnawed on by
rats every night. They wake up

The rats are eating.

I'm like, I can't.

I can't believe this is happening.

She goes, Mr.

Kennedy is my only hope.

I would get the name of the
superintendent and the landlord.

I would call them up. This is William
Arnone. I'm calling on behalf of Senator

Robert F. Kennedy.

There are rats in Mrs. Smith's apartment
eating her children's toes.

What are you going to do about it? And I
would get the same answer. You mean

Robert Kennedy cares about Mrs. Smith's
kids?

Yes.

Invariably, I'd get a call the next day.

They have an exterminator. No more rats.

Thank God for Mr. Kennedy.

And at the same time, he goes to South
America.

And he

goes,

of course, to South Africa.

the racial inequality of apartheid in
South Africa.

Each time a man strikes out against
injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple

hope. It's really like there must be two
Robert Kennedy doppelgangers both

operating at the same time because it
couldn't be all done by one person.

We brought some drums, unfortunately,
the house full of children, and then I

think my wife went shopping and so on,
and I hate to think that she brought

that. He has an instinct to connect with
people and I went with him to so many

different places to talk to people and
listen to people and so I learned from

that and he learned from that.

One example was the grape strike in
California.

Spanish word for strike. It is used
because more than half the migrant

called a strike in the great vineyards
around Delano.

Cesar Chavez, a self -styled social
worker with an eighth grade education,

a revolutionary workers' movement.

It's a pleading for social change, for
social justice to the farm worker and

his cause.

and we were organizing farm workers
throughout the Central Valley of

The attitude that the growers had
towards workers was one of serfdom, just

step up from slavery, you might say.

Mr. Pena, how much do you earn a year?

Oh, about $2 ,500 a year.

Do you have any money in the bank?

None.

How much have you been getting for a
day's work?

Only $2.

$2 a day?

Yes.

Here for $20 a month.

Families of six and more live in one
-room sheds made of corrugated sheet

These are employers that don't even
provide their workers with a restroom,

a bathroom, with a toilet.

So we anticipated that there would
probably be a big strike.

We're fighting for everybody.

Not just Delano. In all the country of
the United States, not just Delano.

My children are not...

of course we were all committed to non
-violence but a lot of times we did have

to face violence on the part of the
growers they would come out with rifles

anything that matters and they would try
to run us down with their cars we

really couldn't pick it because the
police would come and they would put us

jail

In 1966, I got involved with Cesar
Chavez and Dolores Huerta and the Grape

Strike. And we convinced the
Agricultural Committee of the U .S.

hearing in Delano.

And Bob Kennedy was a member of that.

People had called me and said, would
Robert Kennedy go to California for

hearings? Because it would be very
helpful if he went.

So I walked into Kennedy's office, said
very little, and he said, fine.

And I thought to myself, fine.

Doesn't he want to know what's the issue
or something more?

So the day came, and we're on the plane
together, and he turns to me and he

says, Peter, why am I dragging my ass
all the way to California?

And I explained what it was, and he got
there, and he's just going top speed in

about 30 seconds.

It's not just a question of wages.

It's a question of housing.

It's a question of education.

It's a question of living conditions.

It's a basic question of hope for the
future.

And that's what this committee is
dedicated to try to do something about.

We're going to try to improve not just
your lives, but more importantly, the

lives of your children.

If I have reason to believe that there's
going to be a riot started and somebody

tells me, that there's going to be
trouble if you don't stop them, then

duty to stop them. And then you go out
and arrest them?

Absolutely. And charge them?

Charge them. What do you charge them
with?

Violating unlawful assemblage.

I think that that's the most
interesting. Who told you that they're

riot? The men right out in the field
that they were talking to said, if you

don't get them out of here, we're going
to cut their hearts out. So rather than

let them get cut,

You remove the cause.

You'll find no police brutality here.
You've had nobody say that we beat

or anything like that. This is not
Selma, Alabama.

Senator, could I finish just my question
here?

This is the most interesting concept, I
think, that you suddenly hear or talk

about the fact that somebody makes a
report about somebody's going to get out

order.

Perhaps violate the law and you go in
and arrest them. They haven't done

anything wrong.

How can you go arrest somebody if they
haven't violated the law?

They're ready to violate the law. In
other words...

But I suggest in the interim

period of time, in the luncheon period
of time, that the sheriff and the

district attorney read the Constitution
of the United States.

Afterwards, we were able to get Bob to
join us going through farmworker

looking at terrible housing and terrible
working conditions.

When the senator came out with us, he
had that gift of just being able to

connect with everybody.

Regardless of your station in life, you
know, you were just treated as another

human being.

Then Bob said, I understand there's a
picket line at the Giorgio Ranch. Where

it? He said, very close.

So we went out and picketed.

First time I ever was a politician
picking any place.

The workers out there saying, viva
Kennedy, Kennedy for Presidente.

Kennedy had never met Chavez, and they
just started to talk.

And they're both speaking rather
quietly.

And there's just a board amongst the
workers.

There's a lot of support among the
workers and a lot of support among the

community.

And this circle started around him, and
then it got to be two deep, three, four,

five, six, seven circles of people
around him. People in the back obviously

couldn't possibly hear what they were
saying to each other. I don't know what

they said, and I was standing right
there.

Everybody was just magnetized, just
mesmerized that

this was happening.

That was it.

They were bound together.

Any time after 2 .15?

Is that all right?

Fine. It won't take very long.

Good. Thanks, Senator.

Bye.

Robert Kennedy's inner senatorial office
somehow remains a place of calm in what

is otherwise a maelstrom.

Into his suite come more telephone calls
than any other office on Capitol Hill.

More constituents, more mail, more
invitations, more everything.

He keeps an almost daily touch with his
younger brother and senior colleague,

Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts.

I get a feeling that there's a
disillusionment in the United States,

concentration of Southeast Asia.

I think it's true. It's one of the
prices of Vietnam.

The senator has genuinely tried to stake
out new ground on basic public

policies. He has spoken out often on
Vietnam, and he has taken a minority

position.

Some importance with the administration
in connection with Vietnam.

Anti -war demonstrators protest U .S.
involvement in the

Vietnam War in mass marches, rallies,
and demonstrations.

Vietnam, why are we there?

We are there first because a friendly
nation has asked us for help.

against the communist aggression.

I used to get over to Vietnam once in a
while as chairman of the Asian Pacific

Affairs, and it was a terrible thing.

People forget that Johnson inherited the
war from the Kennedys when we started

with President Eisenhower. But then Jack
Kennedy, and I hate to say this, but he

was my man, my friend.

But he's the one that enlarged our
presence in Vietnam.

Johnson kept Kennedy's entire cabinet.

Same cabinet was around.

Same generals were around.

And so Bobby was caught up in that
little trap.

Bobby felt he couldn't just surrender
it.

Obviously, we have a commitment in
Vietnam that has to be... Captain, the

aggression has been committed by North
Vietnam and by the communists, and I

think we have to meet that aggression.

But as the war went on, increasingly, he
began to see that this was a disaster,

that this was not a war you could win.

I have serious reservations about the
bombing of North Vietnam.

I do not feel that it's accomplishing a
military purpose.

Now, Lyndon Johnson was determined that
he was going to win that war.

This will make it necessary to raise the
monthly draft call.

from 17 ,000 to 35 ,000 per month.

Robert Kennedy did not want to break
with Lyndon Johnson.

I think that if anybody was going to say
that the present situation in Vietnam

is just the responsibility of President
Johnson, I think it would be very, very

unfair. He inherited a situation.

But he came to the point where he had no
choice.

All of us are concerned about the
casualties, the death and suffering of

young men in South Vietnam.

We are concerned about the effects of
our military action on the people of

Vietnam.

I believe that there is a middle way,
that an end to the fighting and a

settlement can be achieved.

I think that you ought to spend some
time with your friend, Mr. Kennedy.

I think he's functioning in this Vietnam
field a little bit over time. He and

some of his duties are very much against
us. We are not in Vietnam.

To play the part of an avenging angel
pouring death and destruction on the

and the factory and the home of
thousands of Vietnamese.

Some will turn on their leaders and on
their country and on our own fighting

men. We end the bombing, we go to the
negotiating table.

Bobby says halt the bombardment and make
it clear that we'll negotiate or we

won't wait long.

But nowhere, anytime can he give you one
damn word from a noise.

That's misgivings about getting in a
debate with that little piss in, but

see you.

We will spend this year for the economic
development of South Vietnam $600

million.

But federal poverty assistance to the
same number of people in the

New York area will be less than one
sixth that amount.

The people of South Vietnam need this
assistance but so do the people of the

united states

when

we met for the first time Bobby would
ask people like me or other reporters to

show him around on a local level and
talk to people on the stoop.

I liked his compassion for people who
are not as well off as he is.

How do you feel about it, Senator? Well,
I think the fact is that instead of the

situation improving, the situation
actually across the country is getting

despite our federal programs.

There is more dilapidated housing, more
run -down housing now than there was in

1960 or 1955.

And there are still people who are very,
very poor and people unable to get jobs

and people who don't have a decent
education and very little hope for the

and children who are hungry.

He would never think of blaming people
for their own poverty the way some of

these swine today act about the poor.

There is today an alien land within our
own borders.

Another America.

A young college graduate who taught in a
ghetto school sums it up this way.

The books are junk, paint peels, the
cellar stinks, the teachers call you

nigger, and the window falls on your
head.

These other Americans, separated from
society, remind us of their presence.

only when the city explodes in the
desperate acts of defeated men.

How pushed around? How badly? In what
way?

In all kind of ways. Look around you,
people are picking on you.

They're stopping us on the street,
kicking in the door, taking down the

station and kicking your teeth in.

Well, there's so many people on the
street now. Oh, yeah.

Oh,

they've been doing it a long time.

Get your hands up, I said.

Drop that purse and get your hands up.
Get your hands up.

It's cold.

We face in our city the gravest domestic
crisis since the Civil War.

Four days of rioting, looting, and arson
rocked the city of Detroit.

Dissatisfaction with the welfare system
causes riots in the ghetto district of

Boston's Roxbury sector.

Rape riots rocked New Jersey's largest
city, Newark, for five consecutive days

and nights.

Sergeant, you've just recently returned
from Vietnam.

Could you tell us how it feels to have
to come from one zone of combat in a

foreign land to one in your own land?

Not a good feeling.

Not one I'm kind of proud of, but it's
the job, it's the duty.

They have to be done.

He thought the rioting wasn't a criminal
expression.

It was a question of an anguished
element of the country that had been so

treated and oppressed for 250 years.

It was a hunger.

There'd be millions and millions of
dollars spent on rockets sent overseas

other countries, and here in their own
country, you know, they're hungry,

they're out of jobs.

The situation, all the indications are
that it's not going to get better.

People are still in despair, and despite
the fact that you've locked so many of

these people up, it's not going to be
enough. You can't lock up everybody. You

can't imprison everybody.

The real problem with violence is that
we have never been violent. We have been

too nonviolent.

The people have a right. You're totally
justified in going out into the streets,

taking up arms, and dealing with that
situation.

Pillage, looting, murder, and arson have
nothing to do with civil rights.

We will not tolerate lawlessness.

But just as surely, just as clearly, it
is fruitless simply to quell the

explosions without attaching the roof.

And that's why I've suggested incentives
to do construction work.

housing in plums, and all sorts of
established factories and businesses

It therefore creates this partnership of
business and the private enterprise

system, which I think has never been
utilized before, and we've depended just

Washington, depended just on federal
funds, which has been a mistake.

Senator Robert Kennedy and his staff
have developed a new bipartisan program

aimed at breathing new life into the
Bedford -Stuyvesant ghetto called the

Bedford -Stuyvesant Corporation.

The Bed -Stuy program, it was very
controversial because he really believed

the federal government couldn't do it
all. He didn't like the culture of

dependency that was emerging from the
Great Society.

We don't want to destroy financially
every city in the United States. We're

going to have to get people off welfare.

Welfare is not the answer. It destroys
the individual and it destroys his

family. The only answer to that is to
find jobs for people, make jobs

for people.

You can't just tell people to go to work
if there are no jobs available.

But it was not easy because the local
community did not trust him.

In fact, an elected official called him
the blue -eyed white devil.

But you don't think it's an extension of
a kind of liberal colonialism?

Of course it is. We're living in a
colony, and every time these people feel

they want to do something for the black
community, then they...

come in here and do it themselves.

They didn't never come in and say to a
community organization or to the people

of the community, look, we would like to
do something for the community. How

best can we do it? And this is what has
got the black people fed up with the

whole society.

I remember the not great welcome Kennedy
had received by a lot of the Bedford

-Stuyvesant leadership who essentially
said to him, as I read in the newspaper,

that

Don't walk through our misery to a
headline.

The question is, to what extent have you
sought to involve the total community

of Bedford -Stuyvesant in this planning
process?

I think that to have any success in
Bedford -Stuyvesant is going to require

initiative and the imagination and the
courage of the people who live in the

community.

The corporation's first target was 400
four -story buildings that were in

various stages of death and decay.

My dealings with him, he was straight
up, straight at you, clear.

He was tough as nails.

Just the outreach that it took to
assemble the group of leaders,

design people, very high profile heads
of banks.

The renovation created jobs for 272
unskilled, unemployed residents, people

otherwise would have been on the
streets.

I congratulate the people a bit that
Stuyvesant.

We've been distressed by the divisions
that have taken place in the United

States between blacks and whites.

The fact is that we can work together.
The fact is that we can make a better

society. And the fact is that we will,
and we'll have a better America for the

next generation of Americans.

Thank you very much.

He made it very clear that he wanted
that office to do as much good

as possible, but that was not good
enough. He needed to know that in the

world, this is how these programs were
working or not working.

After two civil rights bills and the
third year of the poverty bill's

the situation of the Negro in
Mississippi is that he's poorer than he

has less housing, he's as badly
educated, he's almost in despair.

We face now a major, major crisis in the
Mississippi Delta.

We had a lot of problems going on in
Mississippi at the time, so when I got

invited to testify, I was very glad to
do it.

Here you have a number of people who've
never had any skills, who are basically

illiterate in large part, who have
little housing, absolutely no place to

jobs, and no hopes of getting any. I had
not been a Robert Kennedy fan because I

had remembered him first from the
McCarthy days.

Next. in the Justice Department and the
taping of Martin Luther King.

So my image of him was not very strong,
and obviously he was very much affected

by the loss of his brother, but my image
of him was still not so wonderfully

positive. Take one example of a woman in
Leflore County with six children,

absolutely no income. She has not
worked. She was cut off welfare, and we

illegally. But she simply cannot feed
her kids. Now, this problem has got to

faced. The single largest problem facing
all of us in Mississippi right now is

how can people eat during the winter.

This is an urgent situation which must
be looked into and which must be met.

And I asked him to go and see because
nobody was going to believe that people

were starving in America or malnourished
babies or bloated bellies in America.

And Kennedy was the first, along with
Joe Clark, to agree to come.

It was really a great breakthrough
because Robert Kennedy brought the

that was very important.

Senator Robert Kennedy, the rich man's
son, has come to Mississippi, the

state in the Union, to see the rural
side of poverty.

Senator, what do you make of the problem
of poverty in this poorest state?

I think that considering we have a gross
national product of some $700 billion

and that we spend $75 billion on
armaments.

You would think that we could be doing
more for those who are poor and

particularly for our children who have
nothing to do with being born into this

world but don't have enough to eat. And
what we have here, of course, is a

considerable amount of hunger. We have
the children with distended stomachs.

the fact is that we're not doing what we
should be doing in this country to deal

with this problem.

As we were walking from the one house to
the other, Robert Kennedy says to me,

I've been all over the world, and I've
never seen anything like this.

Robert Kennedy was not who I thought he
was going to be.

He was listening and learning.

He was also very curious.

He didn't talk a whole lot, but he would
ask a lot of questions.

Do you know anything about the poverty
program?

No.

You ever heard of HCR?

No.

Nice to see you.

And I was very moved by how he related
to children, the way in which he could

express emotions through touch.

And when he went into a place outside of
camera range and tried to get a

response out of a young baby with a
bloated belly.

It was filthy. It was dark and dank.

When he went outside in the sunshine, he
was clearly shaken.

That's when all of my questions
evaporated.

We connected, and I was very grateful
that he came, that he saw, that he

empathized, and I also was confident
that he would do something about it.

It was clear that he'd gone through a
transformation.

He went back to Washington and said,
you've got to get food down there.

It was totally shocking.

Robert Kennedy went home and had dinner
with his children, and he was so upset

about it, he banged his fist on the
table and said, you, and he pointed at

one of his children, you have to do
something about this. His children tell

that story to this day.

Rural poverty likes to hide in the
isolation of open space, the woods, the

hills.

Senator Kennedy is in the rural poverty
counties of eastern Kentucky.

This is Senator Kennedy's first trip to
this section of Kentucky.

He is, in a sense, fulfilling a mission
set by his brother shortly before the

assassination in 1963.

Do you have friends?

Do you like school?

What are you learning in school?

Do you know how to add?

Do you know how to add?

Do you know two plus three?

What is that?

Lyndon Johnson declared war on poverty
four years ago here in this same

Appalachian Hill country. But the
president has been preoccupied much of

time since with Vietnam, and the poverty
war is suffering from lack of funds and

waning interest in Congress.

So Robert Kennedy, in this tour of some
of the most depressing pockets of rural

poverty in America, is re -declaring the
war that Lyndon Johnson never finished.

We have a struggle that's taking place
in Southeast Asia and Vietnam that's

taking a great part of the resources of
this country.

And $30 billion.

Some of that money should be coming down
here into eastern Kentucky to deal with

the problems and find jobs for people.

How many children?

I raised nine children.

I only have one. My baby is going to be
11 years old.

He's home with me now.

I've got one son who's home with me
right now. I've not been for very long.

Do you have medical care for him?

No, I don't have anything for him. How
much do you pay for school lunch?

$0 .30 a day. So that would be about $6.

I don't think that it's acceptable.

As I said before, with the gross
national product that this country has,

the great amount of wealth that this
country has, that we still have people

can't find jobs. We still have children
who don't have enough to eat and don't

have clothes to wear. I think that's
unacceptable in the country.

Did you get to see the senator?

Yes, sir, I did. How did you feel about
it?

I was very pleased. I just got to lay my
hand on him.

He was...

Something, I mean, you don't see every
day around here.

Robert Kennedy, during those days, was
one of the few politicians that could go

into the heart of the Deep South and
Appalachia, where people were so poor.

He was a senator from New York.

But he became a political leader for all
Americans.

There is no apparent end in sight to the
Bobby phenomenon.

The weekly news magazines go to a cover
story.

Others splash Bobby's face, his family,
his fortune, and his brain trust.

He is a multi -plane public figure and
one of America's most controversial.

He radiates political power beyond all
reasonable measurements, primarily

because of what he might become,
President of the United States.

It was a constant conversation.

Those of us in the office, we were
split.

Some wanted him to run, some did not
want him to run.

Do you think about running for
president?

Does it occur to you?

Well, I suppose it occurs to every
little boy.

But you're not a little boy anymore.
That they can be president of the United

States. I went to Senator Kennedy
several times and said, you'd be the man

could make the greatest difference to
this country.

Ethel was for it.

Ethel was gung -ho.

Teddy was against it. A lot of people
were against it. Do you bring us any

word on his presidential candidacy?

Oh, no. I think in our family,

we've seen in recent years that fate has
a way of working itself on the

future of all of us.

There are a lot of us who are most
enthusiastic about the idea.

Senator, I guess I've never told you, I
really would like you to run.

No.

No.

The question was whether I'm running for
president and how much I'm going to win

by.

He came over behind me, put his hand on
my shoulder and said, I wish I could. I

wish I could. As long as President
Johnson has anything to say about it,

Kennedy will never go anywhere.

Senator, you and President Johnson had
some pretty stern disagreements. Do you

feel there is any way that the president
could abbreviate your political career,

sir? I don't think he'd probably be
interested in that.

I was even split. On the one hand, I
said, he has to.

The country was coming apart.

The nation's largest peace demonstration
was directed at the two principal

issues of the new left.

Repressive war abroad and racist poverty
at home.

He's our best hope.

to keep the country together.

We can hardly have the position
throughout the world that we want to

we must have, that we have this kind of
turmoil and chaos and bloodshed in our

own country. And we can do something
about it.

On the other hand, I did have this
foreboding that it doesn't feel right.

There's something wrong.

This is not going to end well.