American Values: Lessons I Learned from My Family by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

American Values: Lessons I Learned from My Family Reviews

• 
  Carol Jones-Campbell

  Robert Francis "Bobby" Kennedy (November 20, 1925 – June 6, 1968) was an American politician and lawyer who served as the 64th United States Attorney General from January 1961 to September 1964, and as a U.S. Senator from New York from January 1965 until his assassination in June 1968. Kennedy was a member of the Democratic Party and is often seen as an icon of modern American liberalism.
  
  Kennedy was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, the seventh child of Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. and Rose Kennedy. After serving in the U.S. Naval Reserve as a seaman apprentice from 1944 to 1946, Kennedy returned to Harvard University and graduated in 1948. He received his law degree from the University of Virginia and was admitted to the Massachusetts bar in 1951. He began his political career the following year as the manager for his brother John's successful campaign for the U.S. Senate. Prior to entering public office himself, he worked as a correspondent for The Boston Post and 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 corrupt practices of the union and authored The Enemy Within, a book about corruption in organized labor.
  
  Kennedy resigned from the committee to conduct his brother's campaign in the 1960 presidential election. He was appointed United States Attorney General after the successful election and served as the closest advisor to the President from 1961 to 1963. His tenure is best known for its advocacy for the civil rights movement, the fight against organized crime and the Mafia, and involvement in U.S. foreign policy related to Cuba. After his brother's assassination, he remained in office in the Johnson Administration for several months. He left to run for the United States Senate from New York in 1964 and defeated Republican incumbent Kenneth Keating. In office, Kennedy opposed racial discrimination and U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. He was an advocate for issues related to human rights and social justice and formed relationships with Martin Luther King Jr. and Cesar Chavez.
  
  In 1968, Kennedy was a leading candidate for the Democratic nomination for the presidency; he appealed especially to poor, African American, Hispanic, Catholic and young voters. He had defeated Senator Eugene McCarthy in the California and South Dakota presidential primaries. Shortly after midnight on June 5, 1968, Kennedy was mortally wounded by Sirhan Sirhan, a 24-year-old Palestinian, because he had advocated American support for Israel following the 1967 Six-Day War. Kennedy died the following day and Sirhan was sentenced to life imprisonment. As with the assassination of his brother, Robert Kennedy's assassination has been the subject of widespread analysis and numerous conspiracy theories.
  
  Early life
  Robert Francis Kennedy was born on November 20, 1925, in Brookline, Massachusetts, the seventh child of businessman/politician Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. and philanthropist/socialite Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy. His older brothers were Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. and John F. "Jack" Kennedy, who was elected the 35th President of the United States in 1960. His younger brother was longtime United States Senator Edward M. "Ted" Kennedy. All four of his grandparents were children of Irish immigrants.
  
  His father was a wealthy businessman and a leading Irish figure in the Democratic Party. After he stepped down as ambassador to the United Kingdom in 1940, Joe Sr. focused his attention on his oldest son, Joseph Jr., expecting that he would enter politics and be elected president. He also urged the younger children to examine and discuss current events in order to propel them to public service. After Joseph Jr. was killed during World War II, the senior Kennedy's hopes fell on his second son, John, to become president. Joseph Sr. had the money and connections to play a central role in the family's political ambitions.
  
  The Kennedy family at Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, in 1931 with Robert on the bottom left in a jacket Kennedy's older brother John was often bedridden by illness and, as a result, became a voracious reader. Although he made little effort to get to know his younger brother during his childhood, John would take him for walks and regale him with the stories of heroes and adventures he had read. One of their favorite authors was John Buchan, who wrote The Thirty-Nine Steps, which influenced both Robert and John. John sometimes referred to Robert as "Black Robert" due to his prudishness and disposition.
  
  Unlike his older brothers, Kennedy took to heart their mother Rose's agenda for everything to have "a purpose," which included visiting historic sites during family outings, visits to the church during morning walks, and games used to expand vocabulary and math skills.[10] He described his position in the family hierarchy by saying, "When you come from that far down, you have to struggle to survive." As the boys were growing up, he tried frequently to get his older brothers' attention, but was seldom successful.
  
  In September 1927, the Kennedy family moved to Riverdale, Bronx, New York, and two years later, they relocated 5 miles (8.0 km) northeast to Bronxville, a small town in suburban Westchester County. During his childhood, Kennedy spent summers and early autumns with his family at their home (rented in 1926, then purchased in 1929) in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, and Christmas and Easter holidays at their winter retreat in Palm Beach, Florida, later purchased in 1933.
  
  He attended Riverdale Country School—a private school for boys—from kindergarten through second grade. He then attended Bronxville Public School in lower Westchester County from third through fifth grade. He repeated the third grade.[14] A teacher at Bronxville reflected that he was "a regular boy". She added, "It seemed hard for him to finish his work sometimes. But he was only ten after all."[11][15] He then attended Riverdale Country School for the sixth grade. Kennedy would later recall that during childhood he was "going to different schools, always having to make new friends, and that I was very awkward...[a]nd I was pretty quiet most of the time. And I didn't mind being alone."[16] He developed an interest in American history. He also decorated his bedroom with pictures of U.S. presidents and filled his bookshelves with volumes on the American Civil War. He also became an avid stamp collector and once received a handwritten letter from Franklin Roosevelt, who was also a philatelist.
  
  In March 1938, Kennedy sailed to London with his mother and four youngest siblings to join his father who had begun serving as Ambassador to the United Kingdom. He attended the private Gibbs School for Boys in London for seventh grade. In April 1939, he gave his first public speech at the placing of a cornerstone for a youth club in England. According to embassy and newspaper reports, his statements were pencilled in his own hand and were delivered in a "calm and confident" manner. Bobby returned to the United States just before the outbreak of World War II in Europe.
  
  One of his first relationships was with a girl named Piedy Bailey. The pair was photographed together when he walked her home after chapel on a Sunday night. Bailey was fond of him and remembered him as being "very appealing". She recalled him being funny, "separate, larky; outside the cliques; private all the time". Soon after he transferred to Milton, he pressed his father to allow him to enlist, as he wanted to catch up to his brothers who were both serving in the military. Kennedy had arrived at Milton unfamiliar with his peers and made little attempt to know the names of his classmates; he called most of the other boys "fella" instead. For this, he was nicknamed "Fella". Most of the school's students had come in eighth or ninth grade and cliques had already been formed. Despite this, his schoolmates would later say the school had no prejudice. He had an early sense of virtue; he disliked dirty jokes and bullying, once stepping in when an upperclassman tried bothering a younger student. The headmaster at Milton would later summarize that he was a "very intelligent boy, quiet and shy, but not outstanding, and he left no special mark on Milton".
  
  This was a most inspiring book. I've been very attracted to read and learn of the Kennedy's over the last 5-10 years. They are an amazing family. I haven't always approved of their lifestyle and their relationships, but they still are an amazing family in their own way. Highly Recommend.
• 
  Dave Scrip

  I enjoyed this book. It was well written and honest. Despite some editing errors it was honest and cleared up some disinformation that has disparaged the legacy of JFK and RFK.
• 
  Claire Sherman

  Fantastic history book!!!
  
  One of the best books I have had the pleasure to read this year. This book should be taught in schools.
• 
  Socraticgadfly

  This may be the most mendacious book I've ever read. (Now, I don't read true wingnuts' political books, and I do no more than grok conspiracy theory ones, so, I've cut some avenues off. Still.)
  
  I'm going to start with and focus on Vietnam and Dallas, given that they are the center of the Camelot mythos, which is itself bullshit, and then to Cuba.
  
  (Some of this comes from an actually very good new bio of Bobby,
  Bobby Kennedy: The Making of a Liberal Icon.)
  
  First, Dallas. Without directly saying he believes in a conspiracy (why not, Robert, after that loony antivaxxer screed you wrote a decade ago), he clearly does. He mentions CIA connections in Dallas being plenty (there's a subset of CIA conspiracy theories
  around Mayor Cabell and his brother, the military-industrial complex in Dallas being plenty, the Klan and racism, and throws in mob angles, too.
  
  Well, Junior Boy? The CIA recruited from early on heavily at Ivy League schools. You know, the ones in New England, including near Boston. Military industrial complex? Raytheon, General Electric and plenty of other folks in Boston today and their predecessors were there 50-60 years ago. Maybe the Klan didn't march in Boston, but racism? Ask Bill Russell about some of your fellow Boston Irish Catholics. Or look for an anti-Semitic bone or two in your old granddad with his "sheenies" and "kikes" comments. The mob? Boston was and is plenty mobbed up. And with Irish, not Italians. Whitey Bulger, anybody? Or some of your grandpa's anti-Semitic comments
  
  That's finis to that smear job on Dallas.
  
  Nam? Bobby claims the old claim that Jack would have withdrawn by the end of 1965.
  
  Nope. First, as Rick Perlstein, Noam Chomsky and others have noted, that claim was aspirational only. And, if necessary to get your dad elected in 1968, had Jack been alive and in office (his poll numbers were sinking throughout 1963), he would have sent new troops over.
  
  Second, how does Jack's known infatuation with Special Forces/Green Berets square with his absolute peace-loving.
  
  Third, he's very publicly on record as late as August 1963 in articulating his belief in the domino theory, including worrying about more dominoes falling on his watch.
  
  Bobby said the same in 1962, telling press in Saigon:
  "We are going to win in Vietnam. We will remain here until we do win."
  
  Then, there's the even bigger lies of RFK Jr about who we were fighting.
  
  Page 324, he claims the North Vietnamese Army had 20,000 troops in South Vietnam in 1968, supplemented by a "few thousand" Viet Cong. He uses this claim to justify how bad South Vietnam was. Reality? NVA had 130K at Tet along with 160K VC. Overall in 1968, NVA + VC had 400K troops in South Vietnam.
  
  So, Bobby Jr has lied by a factor of 20-fold, or else allowed himself to be misinformed by a factor of 20-fold.
  
  The reality is that the Pentagon was talking about war expansion possibilities at the time Jack was shot. How much of the details Jack knew, we don't know, but he surely knew the general outlines. When LBJ got his Tonkin Gulf green light, he had those expansion plans all at the ready.
  
  But there's other mendacity here.
  
  Ditto for Jack's knowledge of Operation Mongoose against Castro. He didn't know, and didn't want to know, and didn't need to know, details of every CIA plot against Fidel. But the idea? And that it was being developed. Of course he knew. And Bobby was totally hands on, but Bobby Jr. doesn't discuss this at all.
  
  Bobby also speculated about the U.S. committing a false flag event at Guantanamo, as an excuse to invade Cuba.
  
  Speaking of ... At the start of the Cuban Missile Crisis, Bobby was a hawk — enough of a hawk to be willing to support an invasion. Later, in his "Thirteen Days" book, he overrated McNamara (ignoring that Mac also supported invasion at the start) and totally dissed Dean Rusk to the point of mendacity at the level of his son in this book. The JFK White House tapes also reveal that Bobby was continuing to look at Mongoose stuff before and after the Missile Crisis. His actions afterword violated at least the spirit, if not the letter, of the no-invasion pledge to Khrushchev.
  
  Bobby Jr., in cases like this, where there's too much public info that he and other Camelot mythicists can't explain away, just try to talk around it.
  
  Ditto on LBJ. He can't totally slime him, so he slimes Dallas and tries to claim the Vietnam War was being fought against minimal opposition, even though that, too, is publicly refutable. He undercounts LBJ's activity in the ExComm during the Missile Crisis, and also doesn't tell us that LBJ never knew about the "Trollope option," the pulling of US missiles from Turkey. Had Johnson known this, he might have been less hawkish on Nam, thinking that Jack had been that nuanced and compromising on Cuba.
  
  And, I haven't even mentioned other things about the "peace-loving" Jack that Bobby Jr. omitted, like him lying about a missile gap he knew didn't exist.
  
  Basically, it seems like Junior Boy's stance is that he figures he can throw whatever he wants at a wall and get away with it on Camelot true believers accepting it.
• 
  Barry Martin Vass

  History, particularly political history, is often hard to absorb simply because of all the hired rhetoric used to spin the story/characters this way and that according to the needs of the writers. If you read multiple accounts of the same story, sometimes you're left wondering what actually happened and why. American Values isn't like that. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is the third child of former Attorney General Bobby Kennedy and the nephew of former President John F. Kennedy; he is also an environmental attorney and activist. Besides writing about the Kennedy family, he is also writing about the Cold War Era from the late 1940's to about 1975. Here's an example of how the Kennedy children were raised: "Uncle Jack's best friend, Lem Billings, a frequent visitor at the house, told me how Grandpa (Joseph Kennedy) often took extreme positions to incite his offspring - boys and girls - to argue and defend their points of view. Describing those dinner table dialectics, my dad (Robert F. Kennedy) wrote about Grandpa, "My father has believed we could think and decide things for ourselves.... There were disagreements, sometimes violent, on politics, economics, the future of the country, the world." Grandpa wanted his children's minds unshackled by ideology. He groomed them to question authority, and to be beholden to nothing but the enlightened open minds God gave them." Which goes a long way in explaining the Kennedy mystique and the impact they had on the political world as well as the military-industrial complex. This book takes the reader through JFK's tough 1960 general election to become the first (and only) Irish Catholic President, as well as some of his early trials and tribulations: the Peace Corps, the Bay of Pigs fiasco, the Cuban Missile Crisis, his constant sparring with the CIA (Between 1947 and 1989, the CIA, without ANY oversight, would initiate seventy-two coup d'etats - the equivalent of one-third of the world's governments.) Couple this with the military-industrial complex's desire to fight any war - even nuclear - simply because they had the weapons and believed they could "win", and you get some idea of what the Kennedys were up against. Author Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has an intimate grasp of the players and details in this story, and he tells this in chilling detail. Not to be missed!
• 
  Hello

  This is a loving insightful portrayal of a unique family and their contributions to the US and the world as well as the Kennedy family. I am a Canadian who was born in the 1960s so I came to this book with out a lot of background information. During my reading of this book, I put it aside and read Larry Tye's biography of RFK which I found more clariying in terms of actual historical events. However, when I went back to this book, I realise how much I enjoyed RFK Jr's writing, the tales of his family. I also have fallen in love with both RFK and his inimitable wife Ethel. As a parent, there was so much here for me to ruminate on. I appreciate the author's candid storytelling and enjoyed his beautiful writing style. I borrowed this book from the library but I will be purchasing it so I can share it with my family and friends. If you're looking for gossip and salacious dirt, you won't find it in this book. I honestly am not interested in those details as I don't believe anyone is without issues or skeletons. But this book showcases something I believe is lacking right now in our media and society - a certain moral dignity and integrity. I hope others will read it and enjoy it as much as I did.
• 
  Meghan Brown

  I really enjoyed this book. It was so interesting to get his Perspective I’ve on so many different people in his family, not just the Kennedys. It is also so amazing to see how ahead of their time both JFK and RFK were in terms of ideals and priorities. I would definitely recommend this book to others. It was a very interesting read and very quick moving.
• 
  A.J. Jr.

  I enjoyed reading this book. It probably helps that I'm five years younger than he is, so I remember the events of the 1960s and the spirit of that age. I can't say I totally agree with his assessment of politics and ideologies---both past and present---but I certainly appreciate his perspective. I can't help but be dismayed at what has become of our nation.
• 
  J R

  This should be required reading for all young students and adults. The world would be a much better place if the Kennedy’s had not been assassinated.
  
  Thanks RFK Jr for sharing the Kennedy family history.
  
  
• 
  Alice Oakey

  Compelling account, from his perspective of his family’s history and influence.
• 
  Amy

  An interesting perspective in the Kennedy canon. There is an obvious bias, but that gives you a perspective into the family narrative of certain events in US history.
• 
  John Anderson

  As Bobby Jr. and I are about the same age I grew up with this. I learned some things, certainly got some insights and depth on some events, and I was surprised by many of the periphery players. Part propaganda, part revisionist history, part soap opera but all a great American story. Perhaps it is just my age but from 1960 to 1970 I think American culture changed drastically. Many of the events in this book were the catalyst for that change. If Jack had lived... if Bobby had been nominated... what if?
  As a conservative, this narrative changes the tone somewhat on my shade of red. Recommended for the timeline and backstories alone, blues might enjoy it even more.
  
  Pet Peeve: Please, please, please have audiobooks narrated by natives/locals. While it is peevish of me, pronouncing local towns incorrectly (Charleston for Charlestown, Barn Stable for Barnstable..) demonstrates that the producer/production company did not think hard about who the target audience for this book might be. Serious lack of attention to detail.
• 
  Lisa

  #113 of 120 books pledged to read during 2019
• 
  Jane

  If you want to learn the true story of the Kennedy family, do not read this book. It is one of the most ridiculous things I’ve ever read.
• 
  Kim Freitas

  Ok
• 
  Jerry Rose

  Life according to Robert F Kennedy, Jr.
  
  The Kennedy's are a rich part of American History. This biography dives into their illustrious lives. Handsome, intelligent, wealthiest family in America, the Kennedy's are fascinating. Democracy is built on values not wealth and power.-what JFK meant to the world - that there are more pressing issues than wealth and war (305). The irony of Bobby Kennedy's social justice platform while the 20th richest family in the US(355). Grandpa Joe, owner of White Horse Scotch and Dimpled Pinch at the end of Prohibition, became an adviser to FDR. He brought his kids into public service with political discussions at every dinner.
  
  Highlights in this book include descriptions of money in politics. How businesses pay to play in government. Contracts hammered out with gov assistance drive machine politics. Puppet dictators of the CIA run shadow governments in Laos and Vietnam. JFK limited CIA funding; did Jack get on the CIA's bad side. Sabotage and infiltration run amuck in intelligence. South American natural resources and labor are funnelled into the US economy. Privatized corporations like Dole's pineapples and Texaco's coal and oil plants at Guantanamo Bay employ thousands of the highest connected Cubanos. Post WWII US remains an example of democratic values as colonialism was banished in the world. Accepting meritocracy in the Kennedys embodied are free ideas.
  
  So has begun my dive into cold war era literature, yet again. This time I approach it from a historical perspective rather than that of science fiction. What was the greatest stimulus for doomsday alien literature also has political mystique.
  
  I am poised in the best position of my young life. I find time to read at this job that pays me $2,000/week. While I act in "deviant workplace behavior", Pacifica Hospital lauds me for being their most dedicated worker, having worked 9 12-hour days in a row and 15 of 17 12-hour days worked later that month. Am I conning them? or is the system built to be conned? Is work so easy that when unsupervised, I can read 8 hours in a shift, and still perform my ER Tech duties? Are all entry levels jobs so easy? If so, I need more of a challenge. I am too conscientious for this level of healthcare. No drugs, video games, nor television has made this possible. I have a single goal in focus, to catch up to those peers who are ahead of me. They say if you are the smartest of your friend group, you need new friends. I took this heart. As its hard to find other fun $100k/year salary earners 26 yo, I have no friends. Those that can make me better, and are my age, are too busy to associate with me, as I them.
• 
  Darcy

  Rfk Jr. is truly one of my heroes. His bravery and courage is absolutely unparalleled in my heart. He is the voice for mothers and hurting children at the hands of careless and greedy for profit companies. The protector of the environment. One of the few willing to stand up tall for the truth on some of the most polarizing topics of our time—5g and poison in our food, rivers, and vaccines. Calling for more safety when the standard narrative is ‘nothing to see here.’ While this book doesn’t focus on any of that, it encompasses the history of his family and him in it. Reading this book helped me understand how his family and family history helped him be so courageous. It helped me appreciate where his bravery came from, most of which I never knew the more detailed history of the Kennedy family beyond the points we learn in school. I am amazed at the family life of the Kennedys and their legacy. This is a fascinating book that sheds lights on the timeframe of the 60s where we devastatingly lost so many of the greats: JFK, RFK, Martin Luther King Jr. The forces that were at work during that time period. It makes one realize that the big things to conquer are everywhere and always and we will always need a David to take down Goliath. To me, Rfk jr. is the David we all need right now.
• 
  Chrisann Justice

  I had an unusual childhood. Raised in many different countries, homeschooled from eighth grade onward and raised without a T.V., I was mostly isolated from popular culture and worldwide historical events. It was a peaceful and nourishing way to be raised, as my focus was very mostly on my family and a few select friends. I loved to read and read voraciously but there were many things that I didn't know, that my school attending, T.V. watching peers in the U.S. knew. For instance, I went to college in the eighties having no clue who Michael Jackson was. I had never heard of him. I knew about John F. Kennedy. I had taken history courses and wasn't that clueless. I knew that he had been assassinated, but I didn't know much more than that. This week I finished reading, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s book, "American Values: Lessons I Learned from my Family" and I am so grateful to have this in depth view into his family, including a deeper appreciation for his uncle John F. Kennedy. I learned so much history, but more importantly, I gained even greater respect for him and the work he is doing to help protect our environment and health.
• 
  Adam

  After reading this book by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., I am proud to say I learned many things about this very interesting family that I might have not had the chance to read or learn about anywhere else. Kennedy’s book gives a great glimpse into the Kennedy Family’s actual life during the time around the assassinations of JFK and RFK, but also what it was really like for the family and their perspective of all these fascinating events and some of their private life. I think this a great and very fascinating book for anyone who is interested in the Kennedys and a first hand account of a Kennedy during the 1960s and beyond.
• 
  Mitchell

  The book was a wonderful reminder of where my political values came from. I was a young adult in the 60s, a product of Catholic schools. My parents were conservative although the Kennedy glamour turned my mother's head --Jackie Kennedy's classic style of dressing. Plus my mother was a sucker for Broadway musicals -- such as Camelot. But she had no problem turning to Nancy Reagan Red. Me, I'm still a Kennedy liberal, a true progressive type liberal, not a phoney corporate Democratic liberal.
• 
  John Dembeck

  An interesting read from an "insider" perspective of the Kennedy family. RFK Jr does a decent job of avoiding the work being a political one, and portrays the humanness of a family with great dedication to the country.
• 
  Nicole Shepard

  Good, a little long-winded, but otherwise good.