Senator McCarthy was known during the 1950’s for his crusade to expose and root out communists who were working for the federal government. RFK, Sr. actually worked for McCarthy as an attorney with his Senate subcommittee; and was a strong anti-communist.
(The defect in the Kennedys’ perspective is that the incremental socialism historically advocated by the national Democrats ultimately leads to communism, as we have learned– which the Kennedy’s have claimed to oppose).
Many of us have come to the conclusion that McCarthy was precisely right for initiating this effort; and in fact, that it should have continued.
In any case, consider the following:
In 1952, shortly after graduating from UVA, (Robert F. Kennedy, Sr.) got one of his first jobs thanks to an old family friend, Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy. McCarthy, who had vacationed with the Kennedy family and even dated two of Bobby’s sisters, agreed to hire the young lawyer to work on his Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations examining possible communists infiltration of the U.S. government. Kennedy left six months later, after clashing with McCarthy’s brash young deputy, Roy Cohn.
Though both he and his brother John became increasingly disillusioned with McCarthy’s brutal tactics, neither brother completely disavowed him. In fact, Bobby Kennedy named McCarthy godfather to his first child, Kathleen, and when McCarthy was finally censured by the Senate in 1954, John Kennedy, ostensibly recuperating from back surgery, was the only Democrat not to vote in favor of the measure.
That is very interesting.
Once elected, JFK effectively turned anti-Cold-warrior, seeking to co-exist with Soviet Russia and avoid war. (You would never have predicted this from his attack on Nixon in the debates as too soft on Communism). And that was primarily what got him assassinated.
RFK secretly communicated with Kruschev that he thought it was a “large domestic right-wing conspiracy that killed JFK”, and that he should not give up on peace because RFK was going to run for president. (It would not do to mention the CIA by name, even in secret.)
I find that communication between RFK and Kruschev intriguing, Healey. I wonder about the time period and the context.
In December 1963, Wm. Walton conveyed a message from Robt. and Jacqueline Kennedy to the Soviet leader (who had initiated the secret communications with JFK, attempting to do so outside the view of the CIA): “There was a large conspiracy behind the Oswald rifle.” In their view “the President was felled by domestic opponents…the victim of a right-wing conspiracy.” Only exposed after the fall of Soviet Union in their records. Sited in JFK and the Unspeakable by James W. Douglas, the book RFK, jr recommends as the best on the JFK assassination.
Interestingly, Hoover’s FBI had the Soviet embassy bugged. And about 18 months after the assassination, he recorded that the KGB’s investigation led them to say to their Ambassador that LBJ had a big hand in it, and that therefore, they should learn all they could about LBJ. This was something they said secretly among themselves, not a propaganda thing, so no reason to doubt it especially.
Wow, it happened almost immediately after the assassination, and before our presence in Vietnam reached a head of steam. Of course, the opposition in Vietnam was helped by both the Soviet Union and Red China.
Forces similar to the US National Security State in the Soviet Union “retired” Kruschev a few months later, for similar reasons as the CIA did JFK but less violently.
Interesting… Amazing to learn of things that take place out of public view.