TIME: Almanac of the 20th Century

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<text> <title> (1960s) Be Kind to Kennedys </title> <history>TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1960s Highlights</history> <article> <source>Time Magazine</source> <hdr> THE PRESS Be Kind to Kennedys January 2, 1961 </hdr> <body> As a Democrat, John Fitzgerald Kennedy was pleasantly surprised by how well the press--often scorned by critics as "the one-party press"--treated him during the campaign. The nation's newspapers followed his intricate Cabinet-picking maneuvering with interest and general approval. Last week the press's friendly attitude was meeting its severest test yet: the appointment of Brother Bobby, 35, as U.S. Attorney General. $3 Word. Papers such as Jock Whitney's New York Herald Tribune warned Jack Kennedy beforehand not to do it. If Bobby wants to be a politician, said the Trib, let him run for office and earn his place. The San Francisco Chronicle enjoined the President-elect against even mentioning Bobby's name as a trial balloon: "The press and the public would be justified in shooting it down in flames." But when he appointed Bobby anyway, the outcries that Jack Kennedy himself anticipated were less than violent. The charge of nepotism--defined by the New York Daily News as "a $3 word which means getting good jobs for one's relatives"--did not quite apply to a young millionaire who did not need the money. But was he qualified? Political Pundit Walter Lippmann, 71, an unqualified admirer of the new President (and favored with a private home visit by Jack Kennedy after the election), thought it was all plain as can be: Bobby "was named because he had been the successful manager of the campaign. It would have been unprecedented if Robert Kennedy had been excluded from the Cabinet because he is the President's brother." The New York Times, while ponderously disapproving, scarcely mentioned the family connection: "Let us willingly grant that Robert Kennedy is tough, able, alert, hard-hitting and single-mindedly devoted to his older brother's interest. But these are qualities that entitle him to an important position in the White House as confidant or adviser of the President, not as chief legal officer of the U.S." The Detroit News challenged the choice "not because he is the President-elect's brother, but because he lacks either administrative or legal experience." Dear Old Brother. Here and there were unreservedly hostile voices. The Tampa Tribune stiffly declared that "a President doesn't appoint a member of his family to the Cabinet," and the Chicago Tribune, in an editorial entitled "Dear Old Brother of Mine," pointedly quoted Woodrow Wilson's letter refusing to appoint his brother Joseph as postmaster in Nashville, Tenn. ("It would be a very serious mistake both for you and for me"). Bobby had defenders too ("There is no doubt," said the Denver Post, "of Robert Kennedy's competence or zeal to do his job"), and even conservative Columnist David Lawrence, swallowing hard, was not as outraged as expected: "Whether the appointment was wise politically...will be discussed pro and con for some time to come." Asked the Boston Record: "Why anticipate controversy? Bob Kennedy is not a controversy until and unless he botches his duties--an eventuality that would be most un- Kennedylike." The press might still have its misgivings about Kennedy family planning, but so far is plainly determined to give the President-elect the benefit of every doubt. No. 2, May 5, 1961 In his office at the Justice Department late one night last week, Attorney General Robert Kennedy, tie loose and hair tousled, slumped back in his chair and propped a foot up on his desk. "Let's see," he joked, "What am I doing? I've got so many jobs I can't remember." Bobby Kennedy's confusion was understandable enough. What his jobs, both official and unofficial, really added up to was a place second only to the President as the most powerful figure in the U.S. Government. Throughout the week, Robert Francis Kennedy spent his mornings and afternoons as a member of a four-man panel, headed by retired Army General Maxwell D. Taylor, that the President had appointed to find out just where the CIA went wrong in planning the Cuba invasion, and to recommend changes in the nation's intelligence system. When not digging among the Cuba- invasion ruins, Bobby Kennedy was at the White House, serving as the President's closest counselor. It was usually late in the afternoon before Bobby got out to the Justice Department to carry out his tasks as Attorney General. Deputy Attorney General Byron ("Whizzer") White was wearily trying to take as much routine work as possible off Bobby's shoulders, but there were many decisions that only the boss could make, and he worked late night after night. Bobby Kennedy's crowded new schedule pointed up the most important administrative result of the Cuba disaster: with John Kennedy appointed in the performance of Government and military professionals, his brother had emerged as a sort of Administration strong man. There is no title for the job, and there may never be one, but Bobby Kennedy is much closer to being an Assistant President than Sherman Adams ever was under Dwight Eisenhower. What Bobby's official post is going to be is still undecided. The President has offered him the job of heading the CIA; but Bobby has balked at that. He feels that the post is too sensitive for a President to assign to his brother, and that the appointment would bring outcries of protest. Bobby tried to talk up Max Taylor as the man for the job, but Taylor insists that he does not want it. In any event, Bobby Kennedy realizes that Allen Dulles has to go, making way for a younger man who can give the CIA a thorough overhauling. But the Kennedy brothers are not angry with Allen Dulles. Indeed, as a man, Dulles emerged from the Cuba fiasco with high personal honors. Shortly before the invasion, he urged a bigger air strike to knock out Cuban planes on the ground before the invaders landed, but he was overruled at the insistence of Secretary of State Dean Rusk. When the invasion flopped, Dulles took full blame for the CIA's part in the failure, never mentioned that he had argued for a bigger air strike. "Dulles is a man," says Bobby admiringly. Bobby himself wants to stay on as Attorney General. He has some tasks cut out for himself that he cares deeply about: battling big-time organized crime, combatting juvenile delinquency, pushing for desegregation, and investigating the operations of Teamster Boss Jimmy Hoffa, his longtime enemy. But much as Bobby wants to stay at the Justice Department, he will take on whatever job his brother asks him to do. And he will bring to it the prestige that goes with being the New Frontier's No. 2 man. FOREIGN RELATIONS, Mission to Africa, August 18, 1961 As U.S. Attorney General and as ace political troubleshooter for the New Frontier, Robert Francis Kennedy, 35, has been far more conspicuous for his tough mind, razored tongue and tireless energies than for his diplomatic techniques. Yet last week Bobby turned up in morning coat in the Ivory Coast Republic on Africa's western bulge--and scored a nice diplomatic success. President John Kennedy had dispatched Brother Bobby to the Ivory Coast as a gesture of friendship to one of Africa's most European-minded rulers: President Felix Houphouet-Boigny. The Ivory Coast was celebrating its first anniversary of independence after more than a century of French rule. Arriving in Abidjan, capital of the New Mexico-sized nation of coffee and cocoa plantations, Attorney General Kennedy was met at an airport reception with red carpet and tribal dances. Manfully (since he facetiously says that it took him eight years to complete second-year French in school), Bobby Kennedy delivered a graceful speech in French. (He was helped by phonetic notes on words like "ann-day-pon-dons" and "Hoo-fwet Bwa-nyee.") Prized Possession. At the first chance, Bobby and wife Ethel, the sprightly mother of seven, ducked away from the protocol circuit to tour the Ivory Coast's back-country villages with the same nice-to-see-you smile and handshake that had served his brother Jack so well in the 1960 campaign wilds of West Virginia. Bobby enthusiastically applauded a tribal stilts dancer, was offered another village's prized possession-- a bottle of Johnnie Walker Red Label. Cried Bobby: "Vive la Cote d'Ivoire!" Replied a tribesman in perfect English: "Very good!" Then Bobby and Ethel Kennedy returned to join the representatives of 49 other nations for the two days of ceremonial dancing and feasting in Abidjan, where a brand-new presidential palace gleamed in marble glory above cool fountains and wide terraces. There, G. Mennen ("Soapy") Williams, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, made some sort of diplomatic fashion history by appearing in cutaway coat and green polka-dot bow tie. There, too, Bobby announced the U.S. gift to Houphouet-Boigny of a beige, two-engined Aero Commander plane. (The Ivory Coast's President is scared of flying, but he appreciated the sentiment.) Bobby, Ethel and their entourage watched bare- breasted girls performing a "Dance of Joy" under eucalyptus trees, saw a three-hour parade that included 2,000 extra men drafted into the Ivory Coast army just for the occasion. At dinner, the guests sat on gold chairs, ate to the luxurious clatter of gold knives and forks, listened to Chopin on hi-fi. Problems & Progress. But it was at a potentially damaging press conference before critical African reporters that Attorney General Bobby Kennedy scored most clearly. Asked a badgering (but inevitable) question about the "inhuman and intolerable conditions of the Negro" in the U.S. South, Bobby forthrightly admitted that problems exist, but the "most important thing is that the U.S. Government and the vast majority of the people are trying to do something about it." He noted that Negroes "hold important posts in government; there are Negro ambassadors around the world, Negro judges, mayors, representatives in the U.N. We are making progress. But monsieur, we will continue to have problems." </body> </article> </text>