exactly. what could have been? in this case, not much. whatever he accomplishes is probably revoked out of existence the moment he leaves office, by a republican.
@@robertosso5210I say he might've because he has similar policy to LBJ who almost won except we was anti Vietnam war which I believe would've granted him a good sum more votes + he was very popular with minorities
One of the best gifts I have received was a picture of my Grandparents with Robert when he was campaigning in Indiana. It’s sad to think of what could have been, things would have been so different. Rest In Peace Robert.
He saved Indianapolis from suffering from the riots that stuck practically ever other major American city by giving an incredible speech the night Dr. King was assassinated
I remember seeing my father watch something similar to this in the mid 90s and wiping tears from his face. To young to understand he'd just smile when I asked what was wrong and he just said he was an amazing man that was taken away too soon. Now that I am a man and understand who RFK was I understand and wish we all could have seen what he would have accomplished.
A topic discussed many times with my friends. I firmly believe that this country and this world would have been a drastically different place…for the better.
Robert would’ve made his brother even prouder of him. Mr. John F Kennedy and Robert Kennedy’s relationship was so amazing! I miss them both even though I wasn’t even alive during that time. I look up to them both very much.
I read it somewhere that in those days; blacks , Latinos, Asian Americans as well as native American communities had the slogan "Bobby's white but alright" plastered in their neighborhood. I think that speaks enough about the united stand that people had about him. RIP RFK, our lost president.
The murders of the Kennedys were tragedies whose consequences we still live with today. Neither were saints, but they were better than anything we have had since. Bobby's association with Joe McCarthy was the biggest stain on his reputation, but he was able to put that behind him.
You're correct about RFK's association with McCarthy, but it was the Bay of Pigs fiasco (a CIA plan) that was a greater stain on RFK's legacy. Bobby organized the operation *WITHOUT* getting the military involved in the upfront planning and logistics, and he then sold the *efficacy* of the operation to older brother Jack. It was Bobby's show, and it was Bay of Pigs that resulted in the Soviets placing missiles in Cuba that brought the world to the brink of destruction in Oct/1962.
@@jamesanthony5681 Bay of Pigs was a plan from the Eisenhower administration. JFK signed an executive order that would’ve had America out of Vietnam in 1965, but he died a few weeks later and LBJ cancelled the order.
@@relievedbigfoot4640 it doesn't matter in whose administration the plan originated. Eisenhower thought BOP (a CIA plan) was a ludicrous plan and never went ahead with the operation. Smart man, Ike. RFK organized BOP and JFK greenlighted the joint Military-CIA operation.. It went ahead in April 1961, and ended in disaster. JFK could have signed 100 executive orders to get out of Vietnam, however, they were not going to get out of Vietnam, especially since: (1) JFK placed 16,000 military in the country *AND* (2) the assassination of Diem (American sanctioned coup) in early Nov 1963. They were stuck and it would have been impossible to get out. .
exactly. Pretty much everyone knows the Fed Govt killed both Kennedys. But we don't do anything about it. Instead, just sit back and take it. There should've been a citizen uprising, years ago. Well, it's never too late. This scamdemic is as good as any reason to get it started.
@@xman777b True, the CIA even killed the people who went against the official story of JFK murder. All they had to do as make them look like accidents or suicides, and the American people just look the other way and say that it's just a coincidence. This is our way of saying, "they're not coming after me." We don't understand that they will eventually come for us. Freedom isn't really free without some bloodshed. If Americans don't act and act fast, the communist will overcome us all.
Was 13 had worked for Bobby at Wilshire office in Los Angeles, my dad took me to Ambassador Hotel. We were in second ballroom down stairs for hours waiting for Bobby to come see us down stairs. We heard what sounded like Those big Television Camera lights exploding. Then a Staffer Ran on stage and ask was a Doctor in the Audience. The rest is "Sad" History...
Good Lord Frederick..at 13..I then 8..what awful history you were forced to withness..but my God to think you were there.."when the crusisified Bobby" is remarable..excuse my emotion,but adored the man all my life, a moral compass!..truely believe the best President the USA denied by self interested powerful..Others!?... your personal story,makes it all so real almost 54 yrs later..You witnessed very sad history as a boy...so wish you well.Warm wishes John Co.Tipperary Ireland..It's said Voltaire said " History is only a fable,Men have agreed upon".. but your young awful experience,puts pay to that!
If anyone doubts that Bobby Kennedy would have been one of the greatest American Presidents of all time, you need only play them the “Tiny Little Ripple Of Hope” speech. Easily one of the most amazing and sincere speeches ever given. A rousing and call to the proverbial arms for the lower and and middle classes. A 70% tax rate on those making more than $200,000 a year. Can you imagine?
RFK is a hero to me. This is exactly the president we need. Someone like him could save this country. God bless his soul. It's a real tragedy. He would have made America so much stronger.
As someone who remembers 1968, I often thought of what-if myself. I see my favorite Justice William Brennan as Chief, not Burger-brains, and Arthur Goldberg back on the Court. Therefore, I also see many of our eroded rights upheld, less coddling crooked cops, and so on.
you can rest easy with the what ifs. the dose of reality is that no Democrat was gonna beat Nixon in 1968. not because of Nixon but because George Wallace would have split the democrat vote. Bobby wasn't gonna beat Wallace in those southern states either.
He went after the wrong people and renigged on the seal . They were supposed to leave the wiseguys alone after gianccana got jfk elected. Mess with the bull ... you get the horns
Rosemary Kennedy (john and roberts sister) labotomised aged 22 on the wishes of their father, for being promiscuous, and an embarrassment to the family and thier political aspirations. After this procedure she regressed to someone with the intellect of a 2 year old, and needed full time care for the rest of her life, until her death in 2005
@@donna25871 same family of go-getters. Worked an operated to achieve singular aims. Institutionalized in a way. Yes we can always say "ok we cannot choose our family", and are pretty much stuck with them including anything they do which is unpleasant. I'm just interjecting with something which some would find interesting, and abhorrent, to contrast the popular view of the Kennedy's. History is glossed over massively as you may also be aware.
Most authorized biographies agree that Rose Marie had intellectual disabilities from an early age due to having been held in her mother's birth canal as she was trying to crown. Rose Marie developed slower both physically and intellectually than her elder siblings. As far as the lobotomy, it was because she was growing increasingly aggressive and violent. Her allegedly sneaking out at night was just one factor the family considered.
It's interesting that in speaking about Joseph Kennedy, they neglected to mention the millions he made in bootlegging, I admire Bobby Kennedy for a lot of reasons but lost some respect for him for only deciding to take on LBJ after McCarthy did so well in New Hampshire. I don't buy the claim that he had decided to run before that.
anything like how in 2016 who ran on the Dem side? Hillary and who? Bernie wasn't known and no one knows the other 2-3 that ran. Why? SHE was promised the nomination. Proof is 2020, how many Dems ran?
@@dennistedder3384 Because he believed in good things. He got killed in the same way all the leftist leaders did at that time. Then we got Nixon and the Southern Strategy and the working class divided along race lines. The late sixties were a crossroads where this country could have gone on an entirely better trajectory. It tried to do so, but was violently redirected when the left's leaders all got their brains blown out in public. Funny how that happened.
People talk about all the time how Johnson quit because of Vietnam but the truth is he knew the men in his family died early and he didn’t want to put the nation through that. He died in 1973 god only knows how much shorter if he ran again,
There's also the theory that Kennedy paid Johnson off not to run. That way he didn't have to campaign against an incumbent like Ted vs. Jimmy Carter in 1980 or Hillary vs. Obama in 2012. Johnson certainly had his price, and the Kennedys could certainly afford it.
My parents were all dressed up to go vote. My Gramma decided not to go..I was 9 .I hugged my Grammy..Why aren't you voting? She said I'm done they always kill the good one"🙁😷
I grew up just assuming RFK's victory in California would have gotten him in but as an adult I have read that LBJ and his party leaders still controlled the nomination that year???
My old man is a gut conservative, but he loved Bobby Kennedy, probably because of his reputation for toughness... he was the last chance we had to unite the country and that misguided Sirhan Sirhan took the opportunity away
I was a menopause baby, both my parents lived through the Great Depression & WWII. My dad fought in WWII. He was in the U.S. Army Airforce . My mom sewed military uniforms. Coming from large families, several of my uncles also served. One uncle died in Normandy. FDR was an excellent president. By the time I was ten, I knew more about U.S. Government than most people do today. Most truly great men are also deeply flawed. JFK, LBJ, MLK, RFK were all truly great men. Bill Clinton also. All my family, old enough to vote were excited to vote for RFK. My mama cried when JFK was assassinated. We have all wondered what the U.S. had become our President.
LBJ being a truly great man is the furthest thing from the truth. He arranged for the murder of many people who stood in his way of becoming President. The man had his own sister murdered because her lifestyle was an embarrassment to him. He blackmailed JFK in order to become V.P. He hated JFK for many reasons and wanted him gone. LBJ was about to go to jail for many illegal activities. If he became President that would all go away. LBJ was one of the front men in the planning of the assassination of JFK and the cover up that followed.
To say the Nixon years are associated with continuing the war in Vietnam is historically ignorant. Nixon was the President who ended the war in Vietnam.
@@natureandphysics403 No, it was Nixon who ended US military involvement in the war in Vietnam. Ford was President when Congress cut off funding to the South Vietnam government.
Yeah. Imagine Bobby Kennedy having two terms from 1968-1976, then Ted Kennedy from 1976-1984. And Democrats controlled congress during all of those years so who knows how much they could have accomplished. We could be so far ahead as a country right now compared to where we really are. It’s sad to think about.
Song: by Marvin Gaye: genius.com/Marvin-gaye-abraham-martin-and-john-lyrics Click at the bottom to listen to song. [Verse 1] Has anyone here seen my old friend Abraham? Can you tell me where he's gone? Oh, he freed a lot of people But it seems the good die young, yeah I just looked around and he was gone [Verse 2] Has anyone here seen my old friend John? Can you tell me where he's gone? You know, he freed a lot of people But it seems the good die young, yeah I just looked around and he was gone [Verse 3] Has anybody here seen my old friend Martin? Can you tell me where he's gone? He freed a lot of people But it seems the good die young, yeah I just looked around and he was gone [Verse 4] Has anybody here seen my friend Bobby? Can you tell me where he's gone? You know, he freed a lot of people But the good, they die young, yeah I just looked around and he was gone Oh I, just looked around and they were gone Abe Lincoln, John Kennedy, Martin L. King, Bobby Kennedy Several singers recorded the song, but Gaye's was the most remarkable. I remember one version, I don't know which one, before verse 4 about Bobby was added, the verse was something like "There's my old friend Bobby, just walkin' across the hill" and so on, the implication that Bobby was suddenly gone, following the others.
Yeah. JFK,RFK,Malcom X and MLK we’re all influential ppl. They shaped what is to be civil rights and many other things. They will still be soully missed. But my generation will only know them through stories being told by other ppl, Textbooks, documentaries, family members that knew them. If are any left. It’s a sad state of affairs. We’re living on fringed element times and COVID19 times as well. Atleast we have Pres Biden.👈🏻Ppl like him remember All those who I mentioned before.
@@mike197714 You're funny: JFK was killed by a Left-Wing Marxist; RFK was killed by a Left-wing Anti-Semitic Palestinian; Malcolm was killed by his own people; and only MLK was killed by a racist. But thank God we have Left-Wing Biden, who would sympathize and welcome these killers into te modern Democratic party.
I was born in 1969. Watching this, with tears and a real sense of loss. I do believe Robert Kennedy would have made a legacy as one of America’s finest Presidents. Thank you Timeline for airing this excellent documentary. Thank you Robert Kennedy for caring for all of humanity. 💜💙🙏🏾💚💛🇺🇸🦅🔔⚔️🌎🌍🌏🕊🇺🇸💫💜🕊
Sometimes people say "Everybody loves you when you're dead." And while Bobby had plenty of flaws and wouldn't have been perfect, he might be one of the few people that was even more loved when he was alive.
I was privileged to see Bobby twice in my life. When I was 16 he came to speak at my high school. That was 1966. He was campaigning for the US representive in my district. I loved politics. Later got a political science degree from Indiana University. I left the speech early to figure out where he would leave the school. There was a short cut thru the boys locker room to the out side that many didnt use. I waited at that outside door. I was the first there. I lucked out. He came thru the door and shook my hand. I was so close to him it is easy to see how someone could take his life. After that night I became a fan for life. I was so devastated with his dead. I lost my girlfriend of a year the next day. I am to this day not sure what I felt the saddest about. He was a great man. As his brother said. Saw suffering and tried to heal it. Saw war and tried to stop it. In my mind the whole world would have been better if he had lived. He was a great man. A man I tried to model my life after. Having compassion for those less fortunate than myself.
Thank you for sharing your story, Sir. I was born in '96 and it is a pleasure to hear a story about Bobby as a young fan. I hope you're safe and doing well whenever you are, Sir. Take care ♥️
If RKF had live...the USA would have pulled out of Vietnam..no.Nixon..no Watergate. But we' ll never know. RFK was a rich priveledged white man who understood and felt the anguish of poor and minority Americans.
Anything is possible in our imaginations...unless we can find and access an alternate universe where RFK did live and become President (which, may actually be possible one day) we just cannot assume anything.
Which was a big deal at the time actually, it was used against RFK. Many Americans didn't want a dynasty in America especially when a lot of Americans still remember FDR being a four-term president.
No Kennedy dynasty. The Kennedy brothers vastly overrated except in the empty minds of the idolizers for whom the Kennedy Crime Family were "AMERICAN ROYALTY." OH PLEASE.
@@Jonathanalankieffer Yet we almost got 4 consecutive Bush Sr. Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, & Hillary Clinton presidencies. FDR earned his cred with the American people & his voting coalitions won electoral landslides, but yeah I agree 4 terms is too much for a president. Congress should also have term limits imho. Public service should not be an avenue to becoming a career politician.
If Robert Kennedy had lived, I believe he would have been one of our best presidents. He had a good head on his shoulders and believed what he taked about.
Never know. I still remember waking up finding out he was killed. I still have photo of him with my cousin and then rest of us when he came to campaign for my cousin
Did you learn of the shooting 24 hours earlier when you woke up? News people apologized for being repetitious in informing of the shooting, because many people were waking up at the time. The next day, I learned of the death when I heard "NBC News will continue its coverage of the death of Senator Kennedy". Much later I heard that Robert Kennedy was brain damaged by the shooting and thus it was already seen that he would not be able to continue campaign. In 1999, JFK Jr.'s airplane going missing was a story developing overnight, and what I tuned in displayed a message on the screen to handle the waking-up problem.
I am in the UK and I remember the day Bobby Kennedy was assassinated, I was absolutely numb. He was all for civil rights and those less fortunate. R.I.P. Bobby Kennedy.
@@Courtneybenson907 so sad what happened I’m Canadian and still wonder what it coulda been like. That’s awesome that your family helped in the press that part of his team was definitely stellar!!
What a wonderful man and an awesome legacy left behind. Breaks my heart every time I think of his and Jack's death. If he would've been President unity wouldn't just be a dream and a hope but a reality! RIP RFK
The difference between Robert and his brother John was that during his brother's presidency Robert went and visited black communities in the south that were living in abject poverty and this totally changed him in the fact that it's so touched and broke his soul to see that this was going on in such a rich country
It was because RFK understood the pain and suffering of the African American people as he was the outsider in his family. He knew what it was like to be treated differently.
@@that_dude_tk7327 to be a good leader means you care for those that are less fortunate than you and you make the right choices and not the most popular ones
In a RFK administration, I think we would have a shorter Vietnam, maybe even a shorter Cold War, earlier end to Civil Rights, a happier America, a better president than his brother, but we never know
Fine doc. It just had next to nothing to do with the question asked in the title. And in the description. Three times. I mean, I probably would've clicked on a doc about RFK's life and career. No need to disguise it as an alternate history video.
Failed to mention , that the Kennedy's made their fortune from bootlegging. Not from the " stock market" Based documentary. And, JFK was a horrible president. Failed bay of pigs, Almost caused ww3 and human extinction.
@@votewaldo9876 in actuality a small portion of Joe Kennedy's fortune was made from bootlegging. Maybe like 2% at best. But detractors like yourself make it sound like 100% of JPK's fortune was made from bootlegging and ONLY, bootlegging, and that is false. Joe Kennedy would have been just as wealthy had he not sold a single drop of whiskey.
They were warm blooded Irish Celts who acted with their hearts.....This completely alien, to the cold blooded, ETERNAL ANGLO.....The Celtic warm blooded humanity of JFK and RFK, put the Anglo beast into panic. They quickly got rid of both men and MLK.
They were in politics to help their fellow human beings. They wanted to do something about poverty and disease... And they definitely had the wit and the brains to have made a difference
@@mariemiller8740 lol and the Kennedy idolizers still think that the Kennedy dynasty would have saved the world. Idiots still believe in their rich elite politician overlords. The Kennedy Crime Family was expert at pulling the right levers on the DemocRATic political machine.
@@catherinehazur7336 his last speech got him killed at least he came out and warned people. And Robert Kennedy was a good guy but you believe what you want.
AMEN, finally a comment with a little reality, instead of the coulda, woulda, shoulda’s - How easy it is to immortalise the dead - next week on Fantasy Island ...
This is the last time I will ever watch anything from this channel. There's nothing wrong with a documentary about RFK but don't try to trick an audience into watching with a clickbait title that has little to do with the actual content of the episode.
Joseph Kennedy Senior.....made his money in the stock market ....yeah sure, had nothing to do with bootlegging during Prohibition. One of presenters was spot-on, describing Joe Sr as a 'sort of godfather'
Well, actually JK, Sr. made his cash in bootlegging, he invested it in the stock market and cashed out just before the crash - when stocks hit bottom a couple of years later he bought back in.
Joe Kennedy was an outsider.An irish catholic,as opposed to the WASP society who for the most part, inherited their fortunes. Kennedy became wealthy from the ground up. Its popular to knock a man like this. To assume he somehow cheated to get his position. Even if he was bootlegging during prohibition, anyone who consumed the alcohol is also guilty. He soon used the money to build a real estate empire, was smart enough to pull out of the stock market before the crash, and raised a son to be president. He played the WASP'S at their own game and wiped the floor with them. That generated hate, accusations, and of course jealousy. Now,a few generations down the line, you sit in judgement. He made some very smart moves, yet all you can do is look for something he cheated on. Where is the evidence he was a bootlegger?
Joe Kennedy graduated from Harvard with a degree in economics. In 1919, when Prohibition was passed, he joined Hayden, Stone & Co., the largest securities firm in New England. During Prohibition, he did very well in the stock market and invested his earnings in the film industry. The whole bootlegging meme originated inside the 1960 Nixon campaign. Puzzlingly, it remains an opinion chique, especially on the left. I guess it makes you look smart.
Some of us wonder how things would have played out re: Eugene McCarthy. He and RFK opposed the Vietnam War, but there was concern that dividing such opposition would end up giving party control to a different faction.
He would have won 1964 for sure and then would it be possible that Bobby would have won 1968 and 1972, or maybe 1972 and 1976???... Then we could have gone straight to Reagan in 1980, bypassing Nixon and especially the evil Johnson completely! What totally different outcomes we would have had!!! I’ve wondered about what could have been the result quite a few times!
I absolutely agreed with you. JFK could earned his second term in office in 1964. RFK could won his presidency in 1968 and get reelected in 1972. During their administration, JFK would let the young voters the right to vote and have better opportunities to work so they could save some money to pursue their education.
35. John F. Kennedy 1961-1969 36. Robert F. Kennedy 1969-1977 37. James E. Carter 1977-1981 38. Ronald W. Reagan 1981-1989 39. George H.W. Bush 1989-1993 40. William J. Clinton 1993-2001 41. John McCain 2001-2009 42. Barack H. Obama 2009-2017 43. Joseph R. Biden 2017-2025 44. Kamala D. Harris 2025-
@@ignaciomarquez6062 I highly disagree with you, especially the scary part about Kamala. If you think Biden will last until he’s 86, I think you’re wrong. We’ve never even had a president who was in his 80s before. I don’t think it’s possible for, especially Biden, from the way he is now, to last that long. The only thing I agree with about your timeline is that it Robert Kennedy would have been president when you say, we could have avoided Johnson and our involvement in the Vietnam war! Also, if the Kennedy’s were presidents now, in our day and age, they would not have the radical views and policies that Biden is signing off on today!!
My turn to play "What If." See above. What if JFK had not turned in to Daley Plaza and survived that trip to Texas. Bobby stays on as Attorney General and does not run for the Senate in '64-in NY State. He does not get a 17 minute standing ovation at the Democratic Convention in 1964 and spends a 2nd term playing Kennedy family bulldog and also the guy who smooths over Jack's peccadilloes. When eventually it becomes time for a Kennedy to run for President again (please don't suggest 1968 that's too soon) the family turns to Teddy in the mid 1970s; by then a veteran US Senator in the majority.
Back in the mid to late 60’s I was an RFK advocate and dissolute when he was assassinated. I idolized his older brother and was emotional to this day when JFK was assassinated. Back in 1960 I met by accident Rose Kennedy and wept bitterly seeing her mourn her second son. I was 10 years old in 1960 and 18 in 1968.
@@ryujinxyyeji yes, with over 30 yrs aerospace quality experience, 9 yrs marine corps experience and a political grassroots activist for human rights, civil liberties and educational improvements. Writing my stories here with my Thai wife who is a well trained Thai lawyer in Korat, Thailand...going to return sometime in late 2021 or early 2022 to the states.
If he had won in 68,he would have opened up the assassination Case of his brother again, and nailed the culprits CIA and its assets like Mafia and Texan Oil Barons and LBJ.But Nixon had to win and If RFK won it would have been JFK 2.0 which the Cold War Machine couldn't digest.
@@hashimawan2433 I walked the site years later while between duty stations. I came to the conclusion that the statistical odds of where Oswald was and the shots hit there had to be at least one or two other better positions to make those shots. Thus he couldn’t have been a lone shooter. Besides Oswald when in the Corps never scored above marksman on the range. Marksman is the lowest rank of shooter in the corps. Rankings are Marksman, Sharpshooter and Expert.
If Bobby Kennedy would have lived we black folks would our Reparations by now. He would have been the greatest President we ever had. I'm crying as I write this message RIP.
We are on a precipice. To choose to bring into a reality such a vision that would forever change the life of humanity or to fold to forces of evil which will destroy even the ability to have that vision. America has never been isolated in its effect on the world. The times of these two brothers were watched with wonder and hope and then finally mourned. A hideous, heinous force which today must be finally dismantled and destroyed. My prayers are for the vision to shine on all nations.
I really love Bobbie Kennedy, I was 8 when I heard on the radio that he was dead. I love reading about his life. I once read that John Kennedy seemed soft hearted but he was tough, Robert Kennedy acted tough but inside he had a soft heart. I think he was his mother's favourite.
