September 25, 2018 • 32 mins
A collection of the best Robert F. Kennedy stories and speeches that didn't make it into the show, featuring speechwriter Adam Walinsky, special assistant William vanden Heuvel and campaign coordinator Steve Isenberg.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
How did you come to work with Senator Kennedy? So
first I met him. I was an Office of Legal Counsel,
which does high level legal work for the White House
and the Attorney General. This is Adam Lensky. In the
spring of nineteen sixty three, he was just beginning a
(00:22):
career at the Office of Legal Counsel under the Attorney
General Robert F. Kennedy, and I got an assignment. There
was a guy named aj Musty. Aj Musty was a
great peace crusader, and he was in his eighties, and
(00:46):
he announced that he was going to lead a march,
a peace march from Washington to Guantanamo. So he was
going to walk from Washington all the way to Florida
with a few followers, and then they were going to
(01:07):
get on a boat and go to Guantanamo, and they
were going to say we should have peace between the
United States and Cuba. But this was the middle of
the Cold War. Cuba was an enemy, and so the
Justice Department decided to seek an injunction to try to
stop Musty from going on his protest, and I was
(01:28):
given the papers to review. The papers have to be
personally signed by the Attorney General, so in this case,
they had to be signed by Robert F. Kennedy. And
he said, let me get this straight. There's an eighty
year old man wants to walk all the way down
(01:52):
to Florida and then go to Cuba because he says
it'll help bring peace, and you want me to sign
a piece of paper that says we're not going to
let him do that. He said, fuck it, I'm not
going to sign that paper and just threw it back
to me and that was the end of it. And
(02:16):
I was just stunned. I was just stunned. I couldn't
I just I couldn't believe it. I thought that was
the most wonderful thing I'd ever heard. Today, on this
bonus episode, we're gonna feature some of the best Robert
Kennedy stories and speeches that we couldn't fit into the show.
(02:39):
I think we have to be angry enough of the
injustices that still exist within our own country and all
around the world to speak out and do something about them.
I'm Zaxter Pontier. You're listening to the RFK tapes and
(03:02):
how did you meet Robert Kennedy. Well, I knew the
Kennedy family of in the fifties. I think the first
time I met Robert Kennedy that was nineteen fifty six.
This is William vanden Huvel. He was special assistant to
Robert Kennedy and a close friend of the Kennedy family.
In nineteen sixty four at the DNC, there's that famous
(03:24):
thing where Bobby introduces the film about Oh Yeah, JFK.
Can you tell me about that? That was an Atlantic city.
That was a Democratic National Convention. On August twenty seventh,
nineteen sixty four, just nine months after President John F.
Kennedy's assassination, Robert Kennedy introduced a tribute to his brother,
(03:46):
But as he came in to the hall, there was
a twenty three minute ovation. I was the most extraordinary
thing to witness people literally crying. It was the first
(04:07):
real opportunity that those who had worked in the political
era of the Kennedy's had to say how much grief
they carried with them. My misk maybe he can get
them the chairman. I first want to thank all of
(04:30):
you for all that you did for President John F.
Kennedy not only had his own principles or his own ideas,
but he had the strength of the Democratic Party. So
then when he became president, he wanted to do something
for the mentally ill, for those who were not covered
by social security, for those who were not receiving an
(04:52):
adequate minimum wave, for those who did not have adequate housing,
or are fellow citizens who are not quite who are
difficulty living in this society. Through all this he dedicated himself.
It was a beautiful speech, and he quoted Shakespeare the
things that you don't hear anymore in polite taste. Shakespeare
(05:15):
said in Romeo, and who he act when he shall die,
Take him and cut him out in little stars, and
he shall make the face of heaven so fond that
all the world will be in love with night, and
pay no worship to the garish sun. But I realized,
as an individual, and really realized that as an individual,
(05:46):
and even more important for a political party and for
the country, that we conscious look to the pot, we
must look to the future. I think it was the
single most gratifying expression that I had ever seen by
(06:15):
a political body, in this case of convention, for someone
that was not candidate or whatever, that was something else.
And what do you think it meant for him personally? Well,
I think he was reassured that the heart and soul
(06:35):
of the Democratic Party was still Kennedy. And I mean
everybody just assumed he was going to be a candidate
for president. And four years later, Senator Robert Kennedy was
a candidate for president. The very first major speech of
(06:56):
the campaign, it was in Kansas at Kansas State University.
By now, Adam Willinski was one of Kennedy's speech writers
and they were working on the first major speech of
the campaign. It was to be given on March eighteenth,
nineteen sixty eight, and there was one subject that Kennedy
knew he needed to address, the Vietnam War. He said, now,
(07:17):
you know, he said, I was in those meetings. I
was there in those discussions, and so we're going to
talk about that. I've got to go in there and
make sure they know that I'm not trying to hide
from that I was part of it. And so that's
how we started the speech. Let me begin this discussion.
(07:42):
But they know, both personal and public, I was involved
in many of the early decisions on Vietnam, decisions which
helped set us on our present path. But passed Rah
There's no excuse for its own perpetration, as in sophocle Ease.
(08:02):
All men make mistakes, but a good man yields when
he knows his course is wrong, and he repairs the evil.
The only thing he said is pride. So then he
goes on and he speaks. And it was a good speech.
(08:24):
It was a really tough speech, and it said the
things that had to be said. You know, he talks
about the fact. You may remember there was a there
was a village there was full of of you know,
Viet Cong and heir cav you know, blew them out.
An American commander said, it became necessary to destroy the
(08:48):
town in order to save it. Where does it end
if it becomes necessary to destroy all of South Vietnams
in order to quote to say anyway, will we here
in the United States? Will we do that too? Is
that what we are? Is that what we fan for?
(09:08):
I can't believe that's true. And we are danged to
ourself to tell me. He was really he really had him.
He could feel that, you know, you're if you're if
you're speaking, if you can't feel the audience, or you
(09:29):
should be in another line of work. He could feel
his audience. So I come here today to this great
university to for your health. Our country is in danger,
not just from foreign enemies, but abobo from our own
misguided policy. There is a contest on not for the
(09:51):
rule of America, but for the heart of America. So
I ask for your health in the city and the
homes of this stay in the town going on it bomb,
contributing your concern and your action, warning on the danger
of what we are doing, and the promise and the
(10:11):
promise of what we can do in the future. I
for your health, you know. When he got to the
end of it and said, you know, you give me
your hand, your give me your help, and we will
(10:31):
have a new a new life to guide him and
I played you, if you give me your help, if
you give me your hand, then I will work with
you and we will have a new America. Thank you
very hid. They were just going nuts. He understood how
(10:59):
a real political figure should act. He understood what it
meant to ask other people to follow him and to
listen to him. And that was the same human being
(11:22):
that would go out in the migrant labor camps and
upstate New York or the you know shacks and rural
Mississippi or whatever it was, or the guy who could
go out, as you know, and talk to a big
crowd of black people from a ghetto in Indianapolis. When
(11:50):
Martin Luther King was assassinated on April fourth, ninety eight
in Indianapolis, Robert Kennedy gave one of his most famous speeches.
Adam Willinsky was there, but he's the first to admit
that he didn't write a word of it. I had
(12:10):
written some stuff on a scratch pad. I was elsewhere,
and you know, we were driving me to get frantically,
to get me to meet him at the where the
speech was going to be given so I could give
these pathetic pieces of paper to him. He didn't need him.
He just brushed him aside because he knew in his
(12:32):
head what he was going to do. It was dark,
It was really dark. There weren't a lot of street lights.
The crowd was just a large, indistinct mass of people.
(12:52):
And they didn't know about this. They didn't know that
Martin Luther King had been shot killed, had no idea,
and we didn't know, but we could suspect that there
were a lot of people in that crowd who would
brought chains, they'd brought gasoline cans. There were guns in there.
(13:16):
There was a lot of stuff there and the potential
and it wasn't as if there hadn't been I mean,
the country by that time had been through a lot
of riots. You know. The then mayor of Indianapolis was
threatening to have fire hoses out and you know, and
(13:39):
fire trucks and everything to keep Robert Kennedy from going
there and speaking, because he was so afraid that that
would lead to violence. Right there was a question whether
he was going to go on. Never was in his mind.
(14:01):
There's a there's a flatbed truck which had been parked
there as a platform because there's no platform, and there's
just a bunch of people milling around. It was. There
was a lot of confusion and people didn't know. So
you can hear him on the tape saying do they
(14:22):
know and he gets told, no, they don't know. Ladies
and gentlemen, I'm only going to talk to you just
for a minute or so this evening because I have
(14:42):
some very sad news for all of you. You know,
He started out saying, I have some very sad news
for you and for all those who you know who
love peace in this country and around the world, and
people who love peace all over the world, and that
(15:02):
is that Martin Luther King was shot and was killed
tonight in Memphis. The news made its way through the crowd.
The people at the back of the crowd were still celebrating,
(15:23):
so you didn't know. You could just sort of see
and feel the news making its way, and you could
kind of feel people coming to grips with it. Martin
Luther King dedicated his life to love and to justice
(15:44):
between fellow human beings. He died in the cause of
that effort. In this difficult day, and this a difficult
time for the United States, perhaps well to ask what
kind of a nation we are, in what direction we
(16:05):
want to move in. For those of you who are
black and are attempted to be filled with hatred and
mistrust of the injustice of such an act against all
white people, I would only say that I can also
(16:27):
feel in my own heart the same kind of feeling.
I had a member of my family killed, but he
was killed by a white man, and you hear him
talking to them about what his own loss meant to him,
(16:49):
how he had felt after his brother was killed, which
he had never talked about before. We have to make
an effort in the United States. We have to make
an effort to understand, to get beyond, or go beyond,
these rather difficult times. And that was where he quoted Escus.
(17:11):
My favorite poet was ess and he once wrote, even
in our sleep, pain which cannot forget, falls drop by
drop upon the heart, until in our own despair against
our will comes wisdom through the awful grace of God.
(17:37):
Until in our despair against our will comes wisdom through
the awful grace of God. Now there isn't They're not
(17:59):
only an American politician. I don't know if there's a
human being who at that moment, with that crowd could
have reached back into his memory and into his own
heart and come up with those words. And that's why
(18:27):
he was irreplaceable, coming up with your help. We can
(18:51):
win here in Argon? Did we win here in Argon?
We're the one to win in California? Where we win
in Chicago. Campaign goes to Oregon, just so I can
get some levels to breakfast. Uh onion Bagel. This is
(19:18):
Steve Eisenberg. In nineteen sixty eight, he was working for
the office of the Mayor of New York City, but
he wanted to work on Robert Kennedy's presidential campaign. So
he talked to his boss, who talked to the mayor,
who talked to Kennedy's close aid, William Vandenhouval. Vanenhouval told him,
tell the kid, you know, get on, get on the
next plane to Portland. You know, I really have a
(19:43):
fucking idea what I'm getting into, and I fly to Portland.
Kennedy was campaigning in the Oregon primary. Once Eisenberg landed
in Portland, he met up with another Kennedy aide named
John Douglas. He brought me into a room which she
was covered in maps, and John Douglas looked up and said,
(20:04):
do we have a county open? And it turned out
that they had just out of side of Portland, a
small county with no one running it, nothing, And in
two minutes that was my county. Eisenberg became the coordinator
of the Kennedy campaign for Columbia County in the northwest
corner of Oregon. Well, how do I do this? I mean,
(20:27):
I really had no idea. He was given a few
hundred bucks and told the setup shop in a town
called Saint Helen's. It is a really tiny town and
as you came off the highway to turn into Saint Helens.
There was a building that just had an empty office.
I saw how much is the rent? And he goes,
(20:47):
like thirty dollars a week or so. It was like
I take it and it was perfect. Now I've got
an office just starting to get telephones. Where am I
going to get people to come into this headquarters? So
I go, I got to do this over the radio.
(21:09):
Eisenberg went to the local radio station to put out
a call for volunteers. And I say who I am,
and that I'm opening this headquarters. And I say where
this is, and we really would like volunteers, and the
guy goes, well, doesn't matter how old they are, so
I don't care. That day after school suddenly like fifteen
(21:33):
kids about twelve years old come in. Eisenberg called his
young workforce the Kennedy Action Corps. So I tell them,
go buy a zillion index cards, and every index card
cut out the name of a registered Democrat from the roles.
(21:55):
Get the phone number, and then okay, here's you gotta do. Guy.
I'll be cut this out, pace this and I want
you to make a call, and I'm going to show
you how to make a call. I mean, you just
guess it this stuff. And I started to really drive
around the county. I went into some of the places
(22:17):
where the unions were very heavy. They're into manufacturing and
the rest of it. And I started to really get
a feel for something, which was that you know, as
in so many states, and we know you've got the
big city in Portland, but you have the rest of
the state. And now we'll come to the Senamore punchline.
(22:38):
I bump into John Douglas again. John Douglas was the
Kennedy aide who had given Eisenberg's county and key says,
how's it going and everything? And I told him and
he just sounds great. I said, you know, I really
think Senator Kennedy needs to get out of Portland more.
And you know, he goes, well, okay, come to the
(23:03):
Benson Hotel four o'clock this afternoon. So I do. This
is the kind of thing you never forget. They take
me upstairs and suddenly we're in the bedroom of Senator
Kennedy and Kennedy is sitting on the bed with his
you know, just got his shoes off. Kenny looks over
(23:26):
and goes, so you're the guy that wants to ruin
my afternoon tomorrow, so I don't get a nap, I said, yes, sir.
He said, well, make the case for going there. I said, well,
at President Kennedy had campaigned here, and I promise I'm
going to give you a great crowd. And he just
looked up and said, I'll see you tomorrow. Now. I mean,
(23:50):
I was like so hyped up. I go right to
the radio station. I go, attention, attention, Columbia County and sir,
rounding areas. Tomorrow afternoon, Senator Robert F. Kennedy will be here.
In Saint Helen's Kennedy Action Corps report immediately after school
(24:13):
the next afternoon, Eisenberg told the Kennedy Action Corps what
to do when they saw the motor Kaid driving through town.
I go, here's what I want you to do. You've
all got your bicycles, I said. As the car comes,
you know, down we go. I want you to be
on the corner. Get all of you up there, you know,
be waving. As soon as it goes past. You ride
your bicycle two more blocks market and then run up
(24:37):
to amazing. They love this. I then, God bless they're
a moving crowd for me exactly. You see this paper
and I want to see if this is the one.
I mean, you could take a look at this. You know,
(24:57):
these yellow sheets, they're fifty years old. This is local
local high school. Now here it is. Here's the picture
in the paper, right done as fast as they could
get it out, pictures of you know, you look at
the Look at the crowd here in front of this
(25:18):
city hall where he's speaking. Here I am right here.
Here's Bobby and here's the headline, Childhood Dream r F
Cave pays Saint Helen's visit. What brought Kennedy to this
smallish town this late in a perhaps crucial campaign every
(25:39):
vote could count. Of course, this aside, does Bobby Kennedy
know that his late brother campaigned in Saint Helens? Steve Eisenberg,
I loaned to the Kennedy organization, says he doesn't know.
It was purely a personal decision. It was just too
good good. I want to spend a lot of time
in Oregon. I believe even that Oregon is at key
(26:01):
stake form. I think it's a key stake for what
happens in the future of the United States. The fact
is that None of these problems are easy. The problem
of Vietnam is not easy. The problem of our great
divisions within our country is not easy. The emphasism it's
not easy, but by fact is that I believe we
can do better. There's a lot that needs to there's
a lot that we can do. I ask for your health,
(26:32):
I ask for your assistance, and I think we can
turn this country around. Thank you very much. I have
a simpty following telegram who Senator Eugene McCarthy, My sincerious
congratulations to you and to your dedicated supporters on your
(26:56):
victory here in Oregon. That's the first election of Kennedy ever.
Law lost the UH in Oregon. Kennedy lost the Democratic
primary in Oregon, but Eisenberg's hard work didn't go unnoticed.
That night, about two thirty in the morning, my phone
rang and a voice said, Steve, this is Bob Kennedy.
(27:20):
We lost tonight, but four counties one and one was yours.
He said, And I have a memory like an elephant.
Good night, come back, Brail, come back. It will come out.
(27:41):
At his stunning loss that Jean McCarthy and Oregon, it
will take a very big win a spectacular win and Donna.
We had a badly shattered Kennedy in it. Listen, we
could go on forever, spe Adam Wilensky. I mean, I
(28:02):
know that there are stories that here are things that
were really almost so wonderful as to make them hard
to describe. Here's a picture over there that's Robert Kennedy,
(28:22):
and you know, after one of the things he'd seen
somewhere and he's thinking about it, and you can see
he used to really get troubled. He would lose sleep.
He would lie there at night thinking about these people
who were in trouble here or suffering. There were these
(28:43):
you know, the kids getting the napalm on them in Vietnam,
were the ones who didn't have enough to eat in
West Virginia or whatever it was. Those were the kinds
of things that really really troubled him. And then he
would find he couldn't get to sleep. Politicians today, you
(29:06):
think any of them are losing sleep over what's happening
or might be happening to my grandchildren. You got to
be dreaming. It makes you realize how stunningly fortunate you
were to get to work with and for Robert F.
(29:31):
Kennedy and how dreadfully unfortunate it's been that the country
has not had him since that night in Los Angeles
(29:51):
very well said one, two, three, four Perham. The Night
(30:25):
Watchman I Stand Crimetown is me, Zack Stewart Pontier and
Mark Smirling. The RFK Tapes is made in partnership with
Cadence thirteen. For bonus content, check out our website at
RFK tapes dot com. They'll be closing up the Hotel
Willow Boardings. This episode was produced by Ula Kalpa and
(30:47):
Kevin Shephard. Our senior producer is Austin Mitchell, editing by
Mark Smirling's fact checking by Jennifer Blackman. This episode was
mixed by Ernie Introdet. Music by Kenny Qusiak, additional music
by John Quciako When the Count. Our title track is
(31:08):
Maria Tambien by Krungben. Our credit track this week is
Ambassador Hotel by Gabriel Kahane. Better get it through that
head that they will be back tomorrow and agrees me
to tell you like the Ambassadors. No Guy music supervision
by Josh Kessler and Dylan Bostick at Heavy Duty Projects.
(31:32):
Archival footage courtesy of the California State Archives and the
JFK Presidential Library. Archival research by Brennan Reese. Our website
is designed by Kurt Courtney. Thanks to Emily Wiedemann, Green
Card Pictures, Alessandro Santoro, Peter Edelman, Chris Eisenberg, Michael Schwartz,
(31:53):
Murray Richtel, and the team at Caden's Thirteen. If you
like the RFKA Tapes, please consider leaving us a rating
and review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen. It
really helps others find out about the show. You can
find us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at the RFK Tapes.
Thanks as We're back next week with another new bonus
(32:16):
episode as No
How did you come to work with Senator Kennedy? So
first I met him. I was an Office of Legal Counsel,
which does high level legal work for the White House
and the Attorney General. This is Adam Lensky. In the
spring of nineteen sixty three, he was just beginning a
(00:22):
career at the Office of Legal Counsel under the Attorney
General Robert F. Kennedy, and I got an assignment. There
was a guy named aj Musty. Aj Musty was a
great peace crusader, and he was in his eighties, and
(00:46):
he announced that he was going to lead a march,
a peace march from Washington to Guantanamo. So he was
going to walk from Washington all the way to Florida
with a few followers, and then they were going to
(01:07):
get on a boat and go to Guantanamo, and they
were going to say we should have peace between the
United States and Cuba. But this was the middle of
the Cold War. Cuba was an enemy, and so the
Justice Department decided to seek an injunction to try to
stop Musty from going on his protest, and I was
(01:28):
given the papers to review. The papers have to be
personally signed by the Attorney General, so in this case,
they had to be signed by Robert F. Kennedy. And
he said, let me get this straight. There's an eighty
year old man wants to walk all the way down
(01:52):
to Florida and then go to Cuba because he says
it'll help bring peace, and you want me to sign
a piece of paper that says we're not going to
let him do that. He said, fuck it, I'm not
going to sign that paper and just threw it back
to me and that was the end of it. And
(02:16):
I was just stunned. I was just stunned. I couldn't
I just I couldn't believe it. I thought that was
the most wonderful thing I'd ever heard. Today, on this
bonus episode, we're gonna feature some of the best Robert
Kennedy stories and speeches that we couldn't fit into the show.
(02:39):
I think we have to be angry enough of the
injustices that still exist within our own country and all
around the world to speak out and do something about them.
I'm Zaxter Pontier. You're listening to the RFK tapes and
(03:02):
how did you meet Robert Kennedy. Well, I knew the
Kennedy family of in the fifties. I think the first
time I met Robert Kennedy that was nineteen fifty six.
This is William vanden Huvel. He was special assistant to
Robert Kennedy and a close friend of the Kennedy family.
In nineteen sixty four at the DNC, there's that famous
(03:24):
thing where Bobby introduces the film about Oh Yeah, JFK.
Can you tell me about that? That was an Atlantic city.
That was a Democratic National Convention. On August twenty seventh,
nineteen sixty four, just nine months after President John F.
Kennedy's assassination, Robert Kennedy introduced a tribute to his brother,
(03:46):
But as he came in to the hall, there was
a twenty three minute ovation. I was the most extraordinary
thing to witness people literally crying. It was the first
(04:07):
real opportunity that those who had worked in the political
era of the Kennedy's had to say how much grief
they carried with them. My misk maybe he can get
them the chairman. I first want to thank all of
(04:30):
you for all that you did for President John F.
Kennedy not only had his own principles or his own ideas,
but he had the strength of the Democratic Party. So
then when he became president, he wanted to do something
for the mentally ill, for those who were not covered
by social security, for those who were not receiving an
(04:52):
adequate minimum wave, for those who did not have adequate housing,
or are fellow citizens who are not quite who are
difficulty living in this society. Through all this he dedicated himself.
It was a beautiful speech, and he quoted Shakespeare the
things that you don't hear anymore in polite taste. Shakespeare
(05:15):
said in Romeo, and who he act when he shall die,
Take him and cut him out in little stars, and
he shall make the face of heaven so fond that
all the world will be in love with night, and
pay no worship to the garish sun. But I realized,
as an individual, and really realized that as an individual,
(05:46):
and even more important for a political party and for
the country, that we conscious look to the pot, we
must look to the future. I think it was the
single most gratifying expression that I had ever seen by
(06:15):
a political body, in this case of convention, for someone
that was not candidate or whatever, that was something else.
And what do you think it meant for him personally? Well,
I think he was reassured that the heart and soul
(06:35):
of the Democratic Party was still Kennedy. And I mean
everybody just assumed he was going to be a candidate
for president. And four years later, Senator Robert Kennedy was
a candidate for president. The very first major speech of
(06:56):
the campaign, it was in Kansas at Kansas State University.
By now, Adam Willinski was one of Kennedy's speech writers
and they were working on the first major speech of
the campaign. It was to be given on March eighteenth,
nineteen sixty eight, and there was one subject that Kennedy
knew he needed to address, the Vietnam War. He said, now,
(07:17):
you know, he said, I was in those meetings. I
was there in those discussions, and so we're going to
talk about that. I've got to go in there and
make sure they know that I'm not trying to hide
from that I was part of it. And so that's
how we started the speech. Let me begin this discussion.
(07:42):
But they know, both personal and public, I was involved
in many of the early decisions on Vietnam, decisions which
helped set us on our present path. But passed Rah
There's no excuse for its own perpetration, as in sophocle Ease.
(08:02):
All men make mistakes, but a good man yields when
he knows his course is wrong, and he repairs the evil.
The only thing he said is pride. So then he
goes on and he speaks. And it was a good speech.
(08:24):
It was a really tough speech, and it said the
things that had to be said. You know, he talks
about the fact. You may remember there was a there
was a village there was full of of you know,
Viet Cong and heir cav you know, blew them out.
An American commander said, it became necessary to destroy the
(08:48):
town in order to save it. Where does it end
if it becomes necessary to destroy all of South Vietnams
in order to quote to say anyway, will we here
in the United States? Will we do that too? Is
that what we are? Is that what we fan for?
(09:08):
I can't believe that's true. And we are danged to
ourself to tell me. He was really he really had him.
He could feel that, you know, you're if you're if
you're speaking, if you can't feel the audience, or you
(09:29):
should be in another line of work. He could feel
his audience. So I come here today to this great
university to for your health. Our country is in danger,
not just from foreign enemies, but abobo from our own
misguided policy. There is a contest on not for the
(09:51):
rule of America, but for the heart of America. So
I ask for your health in the city and the
homes of this stay in the town going on it bomb,
contributing your concern and your action, warning on the danger
of what we are doing, and the promise and the
(10:11):
promise of what we can do in the future. I
for your health, you know. When he got to the
end of it and said, you know, you give me
your hand, your give me your help, and we will
(10:31):
have a new a new life to guide him and
I played you, if you give me your help, if
you give me your hand, then I will work with
you and we will have a new America. Thank you
very hid. They were just going nuts. He understood how
(10:59):
a real political figure should act. He understood what it
meant to ask other people to follow him and to
listen to him. And that was the same human being
(11:22):
that would go out in the migrant labor camps and
upstate New York or the you know shacks and rural
Mississippi or whatever it was, or the guy who could
go out, as you know, and talk to a big
crowd of black people from a ghetto in Indianapolis. When
(11:50):
Martin Luther King was assassinated on April fourth, ninety eight
in Indianapolis, Robert Kennedy gave one of his most famous speeches.
Adam Willinsky was there, but he's the first to admit
that he didn't write a word of it. I had
(12:10):
written some stuff on a scratch pad. I was elsewhere,
and you know, we were driving me to get frantically,
to get me to meet him at the where the
speech was going to be given so I could give
these pathetic pieces of paper to him. He didn't need him.
He just brushed him aside because he knew in his
(12:32):
head what he was going to do. It was dark,
It was really dark. There weren't a lot of street lights.
The crowd was just a large, indistinct mass of people.
(12:52):
And they didn't know about this. They didn't know that
Martin Luther King had been shot killed, had no idea,
and we didn't know, but we could suspect that there
were a lot of people in that crowd who would
brought chains, they'd brought gasoline cans. There were guns in there.
(13:16):
There was a lot of stuff there and the potential
and it wasn't as if there hadn't been I mean,
the country by that time had been through a lot
of riots. You know. The then mayor of Indianapolis was
threatening to have fire hoses out and you know, and
(13:39):
fire trucks and everything to keep Robert Kennedy from going
there and speaking, because he was so afraid that that
would lead to violence. Right there was a question whether
he was going to go on. Never was in his mind.
(14:01):
There's a there's a flatbed truck which had been parked
there as a platform because there's no platform, and there's
just a bunch of people milling around. It was. There
was a lot of confusion and people didn't know. So
you can hear him on the tape saying do they
(14:22):
know and he gets told, no, they don't know. Ladies
and gentlemen, I'm only going to talk to you just
for a minute or so this evening because I have
(14:42):
some very sad news for all of you. You know,
He started out saying, I have some very sad news
for you and for all those who you know who
love peace in this country and around the world, and
people who love peace all over the world, and that
(15:02):
is that Martin Luther King was shot and was killed
tonight in Memphis. The news made its way through the crowd.
The people at the back of the crowd were still celebrating,
(15:23):
so you didn't know. You could just sort of see
and feel the news making its way, and you could
kind of feel people coming to grips with it. Martin
Luther King dedicated his life to love and to justice
(15:44):
between fellow human beings. He died in the cause of
that effort. In this difficult day, and this a difficult
time for the United States, perhaps well to ask what
kind of a nation we are, in what direction we
(16:05):
want to move in. For those of you who are
black and are attempted to be filled with hatred and
mistrust of the injustice of such an act against all
white people, I would only say that I can also
(16:27):
feel in my own heart the same kind of feeling.
I had a member of my family killed, but he
was killed by a white man, and you hear him
talking to them about what his own loss meant to him,
(16:49):
how he had felt after his brother was killed, which
he had never talked about before. We have to make
an effort in the United States. We have to make
an effort to understand, to get beyond, or go beyond,
these rather difficult times. And that was where he quoted Escus.
(17:11):
My favorite poet was ess and he once wrote, even
in our sleep, pain which cannot forget, falls drop by
drop upon the heart, until in our own despair against
our will comes wisdom through the awful grace of God.
(17:37):
Until in our despair against our will comes wisdom through
the awful grace of God. Now there isn't They're not
(17:59):
only an American politician. I don't know if there's a
human being who at that moment, with that crowd could
have reached back into his memory and into his own
heart and come up with those words. And that's why
(18:27):
he was irreplaceable, coming up with your help. We can
(18:51):
win here in Argon? Did we win here in Argon?
We're the one to win in California? Where we win
in Chicago. Campaign goes to Oregon, just so I can
get some levels to breakfast. Uh onion Bagel. This is
(19:18):
Steve Eisenberg. In nineteen sixty eight, he was working for
the office of the Mayor of New York City, but
he wanted to work on Robert Kennedy's presidential campaign. So
he talked to his boss, who talked to the mayor,
who talked to Kennedy's close aid, William Vandenhouval. Vanenhouval told him,
tell the kid, you know, get on, get on the
next plane to Portland. You know, I really have a
(19:43):
fucking idea what I'm getting into, and I fly to Portland.
Kennedy was campaigning in the Oregon primary. Once Eisenberg landed
in Portland, he met up with another Kennedy aide named
John Douglas. He brought me into a room which she
was covered in maps, and John Douglas looked up and said,
(20:04):
do we have a county open? And it turned out
that they had just out of side of Portland, a
small county with no one running it, nothing, And in
two minutes that was my county. Eisenberg became the coordinator
of the Kennedy campaign for Columbia County in the northwest
corner of Oregon. Well, how do I do this? I mean,
(20:27):
I really had no idea. He was given a few
hundred bucks and told the setup shop in a town
called Saint Helen's. It is a really tiny town and
as you came off the highway to turn into Saint Helens.
There was a building that just had an empty office.
I saw how much is the rent? And he goes,
(20:47):
like thirty dollars a week or so. It was like
I take it and it was perfect. Now I've got
an office just starting to get telephones. Where am I
going to get people to come into this headquarters? So
I go, I got to do this over the radio.
(21:09):
Eisenberg went to the local radio station to put out
a call for volunteers. And I say who I am,
and that I'm opening this headquarters. And I say where
this is, and we really would like volunteers, and the
guy goes, well, doesn't matter how old they are, so
I don't care. That day after school suddenly like fifteen
(21:33):
kids about twelve years old come in. Eisenberg called his
young workforce the Kennedy Action Corps. So I tell them,
go buy a zillion index cards, and every index card
cut out the name of a registered Democrat from the roles.
(21:55):
Get the phone number, and then okay, here's you gotta do. Guy.
I'll be cut this out, pace this and I want
you to make a call, and I'm going to show
you how to make a call. I mean, you just
guess it this stuff. And I started to really drive
around the county. I went into some of the places
(22:17):
where the unions were very heavy. They're into manufacturing and
the rest of it. And I started to really get
a feel for something, which was that you know, as
in so many states, and we know you've got the
big city in Portland, but you have the rest of
the state. And now we'll come to the Senamore punchline.
(22:38):
I bump into John Douglas again. John Douglas was the
Kennedy aide who had given Eisenberg's county and key says,
how's it going and everything? And I told him and
he just sounds great. I said, you know, I really
think Senator Kennedy needs to get out of Portland more.
And you know, he goes, well, okay, come to the
(23:03):
Benson Hotel four o'clock this afternoon. So I do. This
is the kind of thing you never forget. They take
me upstairs and suddenly we're in the bedroom of Senator
Kennedy and Kennedy is sitting on the bed with his
you know, just got his shoes off. Kenny looks over
(23:26):
and goes, so you're the guy that wants to ruin
my afternoon tomorrow, so I don't get a nap, I said, yes, sir.
He said, well, make the case for going there. I said, well,
at President Kennedy had campaigned here, and I promise I'm
going to give you a great crowd. And he just
looked up and said, I'll see you tomorrow. Now. I mean,
(23:50):
I was like so hyped up. I go right to
the radio station. I go, attention, attention, Columbia County and sir,
rounding areas. Tomorrow afternoon, Senator Robert F. Kennedy will be here.
In Saint Helen's Kennedy Action Corps report immediately after school
(24:13):
the next afternoon, Eisenberg told the Kennedy Action Corps what
to do when they saw the motor Kaid driving through town.
I go, here's what I want you to do. You've
all got your bicycles, I said. As the car comes,
you know, down we go. I want you to be
on the corner. Get all of you up there, you know,
be waving. As soon as it goes past. You ride
your bicycle two more blocks market and then run up
(24:37):
to amazing. They love this. I then, God bless they're
a moving crowd for me exactly. You see this paper
and I want to see if this is the one.
I mean, you could take a look at this. You know,
(24:57):
these yellow sheets, they're fifty years old. This is local
local high school. Now here it is. Here's the picture
in the paper, right done as fast as they could
get it out, pictures of you know, you look at
the Look at the crowd here in front of this
(25:18):
city hall where he's speaking. Here I am right here.
Here's Bobby and here's the headline, Childhood Dream r F
Cave pays Saint Helen's visit. What brought Kennedy to this
smallish town this late in a perhaps crucial campaign every
(25:39):
vote could count. Of course, this aside, does Bobby Kennedy
know that his late brother campaigned in Saint Helens? Steve Eisenberg,
I loaned to the Kennedy organization, says he doesn't know.
It was purely a personal decision. It was just too
good good. I want to spend a lot of time
in Oregon. I believe even that Oregon is at key
(26:01):
stake form. I think it's a key stake for what
happens in the future of the United States. The fact
is that None of these problems are easy. The problem
of Vietnam is not easy. The problem of our great
divisions within our country is not easy. The emphasism it's
not easy, but by fact is that I believe we
can do better. There's a lot that needs to there's
a lot that we can do. I ask for your health,
(26:32):
I ask for your assistance, and I think we can
turn this country around. Thank you very much. I have
a simpty following telegram who Senator Eugene McCarthy, My sincerious
congratulations to you and to your dedicated supporters on your
(26:56):
victory here in Oregon. That's the first election of Kennedy ever.
Law lost the UH in Oregon. Kennedy lost the Democratic
primary in Oregon, but Eisenberg's hard work didn't go unnoticed.
That night, about two thirty in the morning, my phone
rang and a voice said, Steve, this is Bob Kennedy.
(27:20):
We lost tonight, but four counties one and one was yours.
He said, And I have a memory like an elephant.
Good night, come back, Brail, come back. It will come out.
(27:41):
At his stunning loss that Jean McCarthy and Oregon, it
will take a very big win a spectacular win and Donna.
We had a badly shattered Kennedy in it. Listen, we
could go on forever, spe Adam Wilensky. I mean, I
(28:02):
know that there are stories that here are things that
were really almost so wonderful as to make them hard
to describe. Here's a picture over there that's Robert Kennedy,
(28:22):
and you know, after one of the things he'd seen
somewhere and he's thinking about it, and you can see
he used to really get troubled. He would lose sleep.
He would lie there at night thinking about these people
who were in trouble here or suffering. There were these
(28:43):
you know, the kids getting the napalm on them in Vietnam,
were the ones who didn't have enough to eat in
West Virginia or whatever it was. Those were the kinds
of things that really really troubled him. And then he
would find he couldn't get to sleep. Politicians today, you
(29:06):
think any of them are losing sleep over what's happening
or might be happening to my grandchildren. You got to
be dreaming. It makes you realize how stunningly fortunate you
were to get to work with and for Robert F.
(29:31):
Kennedy and how dreadfully unfortunate it's been that the country
has not had him since that night in Los Angeles
(29:51):
very well said one, two, three, four Perham. The Night
(30:25):
Watchman I Stand Crimetown is me, Zack Stewart Pontier and
Mark Smirling. The RFK Tapes is made in partnership with
Cadence thirteen. For bonus content, check out our website at
RFK tapes dot com. They'll be closing up the Hotel
Willow Boardings. This episode was produced by Ula Kalpa and
(30:47):
Kevin Shephard. Our senior producer is Austin Mitchell, editing by
Mark Smirling's fact checking by Jennifer Blackman. This episode was
mixed by Ernie Introdet. Music by Kenny Qusiak, additional music
by John Quciako When the Count. Our title track is
(31:08):
Maria Tambien by Krungben. Our credit track this week is
Ambassador Hotel by Gabriel Kahane. Better get it through that
head that they will be back tomorrow and agrees me
to tell you like the Ambassadors. No Guy music supervision
by Josh Kessler and Dylan Bostick at Heavy Duty Projects.
(31:32):
Archival footage courtesy of the California State Archives and the
JFK Presidential Library. Archival research by Brennan Reese. Our website
is designed by Kurt Courtney. Thanks to Emily Wiedemann, Green
Card Pictures, Alessandro Santoro, Peter Edelman, Chris Eisenberg, Michael Schwartz,
(31:53):
Murray Richtel, and the team at Caden's Thirteen. If you
like the RFKA Tapes, please consider leaving us a rating
and review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen. It
really helps others find out about the show. You can
find us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at the RFK Tapes.
Thanks as We're back next week with another new bonus
(32:16):
episode as No
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