American Values

It won’t have escaped your notice that Robert F Kennedy Jr has recently declared his intention to run for President on the Democratic ticket in 2024. If it has, this is due to radio silence on mainstream media sources, as was the case with this book and his more recent publication The Real Anthony Fauci, which has nevertheless sold more than 1 million copies. There has been no reference to or refutation of the evidential claims in this book, but rather hit pieces impugning RFK Jr’s character, disparagingly labelling him as a conspiracy theorist and anti-vaxxer. Just yesterday, an ABC interview redacted all his comments on COVID-19, vaccine safety and efficacy, maintaining that his claims were demonstrably false. So we have a situation where a US presidential candidate no longer enjoys free speech and is not able to argue his evidence-based case. Luckily, RFK Jr is made of strong stuff, and his family has been schooled in standing up for unpopular causes. His barnstorming launch speech was made without notes.

Subtitled ‘lessons I learned from my family’, the first two chapters are devoted to his grandparents. Joe Kennedy – with his sons and grandsons after him – understood that democracy at home was incompatible with imperialism abroad. He cautioned against ‘minding other people’s business on a global scale…. Worldwide meddling under the guise of benign interest.’ (p. 12) This has been a fundamental characteristic of post-war American foreign policy, haemorrhaging vast sums of money away from domestic development. He argued that ‘restraint in the use of power is the best way to preserve democratic governance and national greatness.’ He encouraged the development of both brains and backbone, questioning of authority and a social conscience. Grandma Rose was equally formidable as well as sporty and pious, advising her children to talk about issues and not themselves in interviews. She insisted on the highest standards, inspiring them with ‘champions of individual conscience over orthodoxy, and self-government over authoritarianism.’ (p. 47) His mother’s family the Shakels were adventurous and irreverent, with a huge zest for life; interestingly, they were close friends of Thomas Merton.

Of JFK, RFK Jr writes that he set himself to a higher purpose. If he went on holiday for eight days, he read eight books, and was consistently well-informed from early in his career. Growing up, RFK Jr and his siblings had to read for an hour a day and record in their daybooks three current events from the newspaper. They also had to memorise and recite poetry on Sunday evenings. It is one of the great tragedies of history that JFK and RFK were taken out by the CIA and related criminal interests. Imagine if JFK had been President for two terms until 1968, then RFK until 1976. One commentator remarked (p. 282) that we would not have seen the rise of Islamic fundamentalism or the global anger against the United States. They both argued for leadership by example: ‘We should perfect our union and model democracy for the nations of the world, not force it upon them.’ (p. 97) Both men made many enemies, RFK as Attorney General in his vigorous pursuit of criminal charges against vested interests (pp. 189 ff). During his first three years, he filed 673 indictments against organised crime, compared with only 22 during the Eisenhower years. JFK – like the UN’s Dag Hammarskjold who was also assassinated by the same crew – supported liberation movements and was both shocked and appalled by the assassination of Congo’s Patrice Lumumba very early in his presidency. This was a textbook example of covert intervention involving the assassination of national leaders and the overthrowing of governments, all cloaked in plausible deniability.

The events around Cuba are described in detail, and it is evident that the CIA lied to the President, and was consistently trying to force his hand, also to defend the interests of United Fruit (p. 125). Both Kennedy and Khrushchev were under intense pressure from their respective militaries (pp. 222-3) to engage with nuclear weapons, and were able to avoid doing so only through backdoor diplomacy – 26 secret letters were exchanged between the two men. JFK’s fundamental agenda was the pursuit of peace, for which he was prepared to take political risks. He was wary of American involvement in Vietnam, and sceptical of the communist domino theory. He did not want to engage in ‘a war for imperialism against nationalism and self-determination.’ Such wars, he warned, would ‘drain our Treasury and erode our moral leadership.’ These words have proved only too prophetic, with a sharp decline of trust in governments worldwide. JFK regarded pre-emptive war as immoral and against American values, while his military smouldered at what they saw as America’s greatest defeat. RFK writes that JFK understood the difference between leadership and bullying, and that people were looking to America for moral authority, security and inspiration. (p. 281)

JFK himself sensed that he might be assassinated, as he was on November 22 1963. I remember the announcement aged 11 by my housemaster doing his evening rounds. Khrushchev himself was devastated and RFK eventually stepped up to the plate, also schooling his children in gallantry and courage, ‘prepared to take risks and make sacrifices to accomplish something for humanity.’ (p. 295) Moral courage was the most admired quality, one which RFK Jr has exhibited on many occasions. RFK himself also spoke about the need for the US to perfect its democracy and serve as an inspiring template. Any exceptionalism ‘must be based on values, not on wealth or military power.’ (p. 305) In a speech in Jakarta, he said the following: ‘We believe that government exists for the individual and the individual is not a tool of the state. We in America believe that we should have a divergence of views. We believe that everyone has a right to express himself. We believe that your people have a right to speak out and give their views and ideas.’ (p. 319) This reflects the US Constitution, on which RFK Jr is basing his own campaign, and current state of affairs is increasingly intolerant of dissenting views, however well grounded.

Coming from behind, RFK was on track to become President when he too was assassinated, in the same year as Martin Luther King and Thomas Merton (see my review on this above). Many crowds booed him on arrival, only to cheer loudly as he left. One can see the same campaign issues in 2023 in a world that is even more divided and violent than in 1968. RFK Jr remarks that ‘we had been raised to live life fearlessly and fight for our principles without regard to personal danger.’ (p. 344) His relationship with his mother was tempestuous, but he has clearly inherited some of her irreverent and fighting spirit. She told her children that ‘we had to fight for a kind, moral world – for justice. We should be proud to endure ridicule, prison, and the loss of status and power in these moral adventures. We should never relent. “Kennedys never give up”, she chided us. “We have to die with our boots on!”’ RFK Jr himself has said that he is not a presidential candidate for ordinary times, but he believes that he is one with clarity of vision, moral courage and with the integrity and experience to take on the systemic corruption of Washington if media complicity, censorship and character assassination do not stop him in his tracks. American values? Let’s see them in action.