Local television news footage of New York Sen. Robert F. Kennedy at a Sigma Delta Chi (now Society of Professional Journalists) dinner, Ramada Inn, Tualatin, Ore., April 17, 1968. The clip shows his arrival and the conclusion of his speech.
THE COST TO WIN
At the time, Kennedy was a candidate for the presidential nomination of the Democratic party.
His late entrance into the race and his challenge to the renomination of Lyndon B. Johnson, the incumbent president of his own party, meant that Kennedy's only hope of success lay in pressuring the party establishment by building popular support, which included heavy campaigning thruout the country and winning as many state primaries as possible.
At the hotel, a newspaper reporter noted, "The audience was unaware of Kennedy's arrival until he was near the front of the small banquet room. The senator jokingly started clapping his hands [00:07] which alerted everyone of his presence. 'I get the feeling this isn't a Democratic rally,' he said. A few people shook his hand as he passed on the way to the speaker's table, but most of those present were there to get a news story" (Tom Morrow, "U. S. must withdrawal without surrender -- RFK," The Bulletin [Bend, Ore.], April 18, 1968, p. 1).
Kennedy, the reporter observed, arrived "After a long day of speech-making up and down the Oregon coast," including at Eugene and Medford. He "appeared tired and made only a short speech" to the over 100 "newsmen" present (Ibid.; Ernest B. Furgurson, "Kenned Finds U. S. Prestige Cut/Deplores Cost of War And Sacrifice At Home," The Sun [Baltimore, Md.], April 18, 1968, p. A1 [coast stops]).
THE ART OF PEACE
Kennedy spoke on "the art of peace," which was a revision of his first major foreign policy address as a candidate, delivered four days earlier at Charleston, W. Va.
The original speech was an unwieldy fusion of the recommendations of Kennedy's older Cold War advisers and his younger "New Politics" staff. "You ought to introduce your speech writers to each another," a reporter quipped to Kennedy. The Tualatin version mostly jettisoned the former (David Halberstam, "The Unfinished Odyssey of Robert Kennedy" [New York: Bantam, 1968], pp. 99-100).
"There are two clear, inescapable reasons why American influence and prestige have seriously undermined our international position," Kennedy declared, "--our overcommitment in Vietnam and our undercommitment at home" (news release, Robert F. Kennedy Senate Papers, Speeches 1965-68, box 4, John F. Kennedy Library, Boston).
In fact, these were the two reasons why Kennedy felt compelled to challenge the president:
Firstly, because of the U. S.'s escalating, but doomed, military support of the corrupt South Vietnam government against the nationalist Vietcong insurgents and their Communist North Vietnamese backers.
Secondly, because of the economic inequality and "racial" polarization at home, both of which were fueling violent uprisings thruout "black" America, including at Washington, D. C., after the April 4 assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Three days later, Kennedy and his wife, Ethel, toured the charred, smoldering ruins of Northwest Washington.
CORE CONCERNS
Two weeks after Kennedy entered the race, preceded by fellow peace candidate Minnesota Sen. Eugene J. McCarthy, who nearly defeated Johnson in the New Hampshire primary on March 13, the president withdrew from seeking renomination -- thus removing himself and the war as the senators' main targets.
However, this freed Kennedy to refocus on his core concerns. These included alleviating poverty, particularly among "black," Hispanic, indigenous and rural "white" Americans, and comprehensively "regenerating" and empowering the mostly black and Hispanic inner-city slums. Kennedy thought that both could be accomplished by incentivizing private industry to work with government to facilitate "self-sufficiency" and "self-determination."
Kennedy also hoped to encourage "racial" reconciliation thru honest, constructive dialog and make U. S. foreign policy, particularly in the developing world, reflect America's values rather than its military might.
TO SEEK A NEWER WORLD
Kennedy concluded his Tualatin speech with a quote from "Ulysses" (1:23), the epic 1883 blank verse poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, which he adapted as the title of his last book, "To Seek a Newer World," the previous November. Researched and written by Kennedy aides Peter B. Edelman and Adam Walinksy, an updated and expanded edition was published in April 1968.
Kennedy would beat McCarthy in the Indiana primary on May 7 and the Nebraska primary on May 14, but lose to him at Oregon on May 28. On June 5, shortly after Kennedy won the critically important California primary, he was mortally wounded and died the following day.
The complete text of Kennedy's Tualatin speech is in Norman MacAfee, ed., "The Gospel According to RFK: Why It Matters Now" (Boulder, Colo.: Westview-Perseus, 2004), pp. 97-104.
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Democratic convention highlights 1964by historycomestolife1,963 views
Amazing. See how it went instead.
TrueScandinavia 3 months ago
Why did the evil win over the fight of this good man who waged it alone, solely on his moral courage and with no political support, for the sake of the people?
I always say, the history itself misses our beloved Bobby as his death is a hole unrepairable and a worst twist in the journey of time. Had his powerful vision reached the seat of presidency, none of the trouble, and I mean not even a single major trouble that we see in America and through its action around the world, we would have had.
sidrahsiddiqui 4 months ago