Robert F. Kennedy (4Ks)
Robert Francis Kennedy (November 20, 1925 - March 5, 2005), also referred to by his initials RFK or by the nickname Bobby was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 36th President of the United States from 1969 to 1977. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 64th United States Attorney General under his brother and predecessor, John F. Kennedy from 1961 to 1964, and as a U.S. senator from New York. As the second out of four members of the Kennedy family to date to ever ascend to the presidency, he is, like his brothers, John and Edward, and his nephew, John Jr., a prominent member of the Democratic Party and has come to be viewed by some historians as an icon of modern American liberalism.
Kennedy was born into a wealthy, political family in Brookline, Massachusetts. After serving in the U.S. Naval Reserve from 1944 to 1946, Kennedy returned to his studies at Harvard University, and later received his law degree from the University of Virginia. He began his career as a correspondent for The Boston Post and as a lawyer at the Justice Department, but later resigned to manage his brother John's successful campaign for the U.S. Senate in 1952. The following year, he worked as an assistant counsel to the Senate committee chaired by Senator Joseph McCarthy. He gained national attention as the chief counsel of the Senate Labor Rackets Committee from 1957 to 1959, where he publicly challenged Teamsters President Jimmy Hoffa over the union's corrupt practices. Kennedy resigned from the committee to conduct his brother's successful campaign in the 1960 presidential election. He was appointed United States Attorney General at the age of 36, becoming the youngest Cabinet member in U.S. history since Alexander Hamilton in 1789. He subsequently served as his brother's closest advisor throughout the entirety of the latter's presidential tenure.
His tenure is known for advocating for the civil rights movement, the fight against organized crime and the Mafia, and involvement in U.S. foreign policy related to Cuba. He authored his account of the Cuban Missile Crisis in a book titled Thirteen Days. As attorney general, he authorized the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to wiretap Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference on a limited basis. In 1964, he left to run for the United States Senate from New York, defeating Republican incumbent Kenneth Keating. In office, Kennedy opposed U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War and raised awareness of poverty by sponsoring legislation designed to lure private business to blighted communities (i.e., Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration project). He was an advocate for issues related to human rights and social justice by traveling abroad to eastern Europe, Latin America, and South Africa, and formed working relationships with Martin Luther King Jr., Cesar Chavez, and Walter Reuther.
In 1968, with the overwhelming endorsement of his brother and outgoing President John F. Kennedy, he successfully secured the Democratic nomination after defeating Senator Eugene McCarthy, during which he was nearly assassinated by Sirhan Sirhan, a Palestinian, while celebrating his victory in the California primary. He proceeded to decisively defeat Republican Richard Nixon, becoming the first elected president to succeed a previous officeholder who is a relative of the incoming president. Having run on an anti-war ticket, his first term as president was marked by persistent efforts to resist from both escalating U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, eventually culminating in the 1971 Paris Peace Accords, which preceded a gradual American withdrawal from the conflict. The following year, he embarked on a state visit to China, leading to the establishment of official diplomatic relationships between the two countries. An arms control treaty with the Soviet Union was reached that same year. He also established the Environmental Protection Agency, enforced desegregation of schools and other public buildings in the South, and oversaw the Apollo 11 moon landing, which marked the end of the Space Race between the United States and the Soviet Union. In the following 1972 presidential election, Kennedy handily defeated his Republican opponent, Pete McCloskey to win a second term.
A strong supporter of Israel, his decision to launch an airlift as a form of aid to the Jewish state in the Yom Kippur War led to an oil crisis at home, which briefly jeopardised his huge popularity at the beginning of his second term. Nonetheless, with Democratic control of both chambers of Congress, Kennedy's administration pursued a series of aggressive measures to tackle the 1973–1975 recession at the time, with a notable emphasis on promoting renewable energy, an effort that was continued by his subsequent successors. In the midst of this, Kennedy signed the Helsinki Accords in 1975, in a bid towards achieving détente with the Soviet Union. The following year, he spearheaded efforts in providing extensive economic aid to both Spain and Portugal, both of which had begun the transition to democracy after decades of dictatorial rule. He was later succeeded by Jimmy Carter in the 1976 presidential election. Just four years later, his younger brother, Edward Kennedy, succeeded Jimmy Carter as president, becoming the last of the three Kennedy brothers to ascend to the presidency. His nephew, John F. Kennedy Jr. is the 43rd and current President of the United States.