The Original RFK: The Killing Of Robert Kennedy

🚨 THIS IS THE THIRD EPISODE OF OUR SEASON ON AMERICA IN 1968 🚨

FULL PLAYLIST HERE:    • America in 1968  

FIRST EPISODE IN THE SEASON HERE:    • The Last Time A President Was Forced ...  

Join this channel to get access to perks:
   / @restishistorypod  

00:00 Kennedy talking about his brother’s death
04:02 Kennedy as the lost leader
04:50 Kennedy’s backstory
09:25 The Kennedy-Johnson rivalry
11:45 Bobby Kennedy as a senator
13:55 Was he happy?
15:05 His campaign strategy
20:03 His shifting position on Vietnam
22:00 The beginning of the '68 campaign
23:05 He announces his campaign
26:00 RFK vs Hubert Humphrey
29:03 Eugene McCarthy vs RFK
31:10 Dominic’s archival discovery
32:05 RFK’s uphill struggle
40:10 The Oregon primary
41:55 The California primary
54:40 The shooting
1:03:40 Could Kennedy have won?

“What we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the United States is not hatred; what we need in the United States is not violence and lawlessness, but is love, and wisdom, and compassion toward one another”

As Attorney General during JFK’s presidency, Bobby had often played second fiddle to his older brother. But by 1968, Robert F. Kennedy had become a distinct political leader dedicated to social justice. In March he declared he would run in the primaries to become the Democratic presidential candidate. He galvanised support amongst marginalised communities, young people, and anti-war voters, and in the immediate aftermath of Martin Luther King’s assassination, he gave an emotional impromptu speech to a predominantly Black crowd, mentioning his own brother’s assassination for the first time in public. On the evening of June 4th, it was announced that Bobby had won the California primary. With bleeding palms from shaking so many hands along the campaign trail, he gave a victory speech to a crowded room of supporters in the Ambassador Hotel. But the joy was to come crashing down as tragedy struck the Kennedy family once more…

Listen as Dominic and Tom discuss another of 1968’s American assassinations, and the build up to the moment when Bobby Kennedy died in the arms of a seventeen-year-old kitchen busboy.

Twitter:
@TheRestHistory
@holland_tom
@dcsandbrook

Producer: Theo Young-Smith
Assistant Producer: Tabby Syrett
Video Editor: Jack Meek
Social Producer: Harry Balden
Executive Producers: Jack Davenport + Tony Pastor