Joe Kennedy’s goal, encouraged by his background as a person belonged to the minority group, gave significant inf
luence toward his sons’ ideals in politics. To some extent, this influenced ideal became the basic vision of Joe
Kennedy Sr.’s kids, including Robert Kennedy, during their political career.
2. Robert Francis Kennedy’s Early Life
After their marriage, Joseph Patrick Kennedy and his wife, Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy stayed at their estate in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts. Here,
Robert Francis Kennedy was born on November 20, 1925. Soon after, he and his family moved to a new estate in New York. From his stubborn father and
numbers of siblings, Robert Kennedy learned how to be competitive. As Joseph Kennedy always taught his children to be the best of everything, he “laid down
strict rules of conduct: Never take second best; when the going gets tough, the tough
get goi
ng; passivity
is intolerable”
http:www.arlingtoncemetery.netrfk.htm. Competition became the every day view in the family. They competed in every single thing they did, such as sport,
mark in school, and knowledge. Discipline was also highly established in each of Kennedy kid.
It became a consequence that as one of Kennedy children, Robert Francis Kennedy could not be separated from his family competitiveness nature.
His effort was even tougher than his two older brothers, Joseph Patrick Kennedy
Jr. and John F. Kennedy. He affirmed in irony, “I was the seventh of nine children, and when you come from that far down you have to struggle to survive.”
A sister reminisced Robert Kennedy’s attempt to be considered as competitive as his other siblings, as well as to be
able to be “somebody” in his big family. This was well thought-out to be the single incident that seemed to typify both his
desire to please and his awkwardness.
One evening, hearing the call to dinner and determined not to trespass against his father’s well-known desire for promptness, Bobby came
running; he forgot the glass partition separating the living room and the dining area and crashed into it, and shards of falling glass cut him all
over his body. Collier and Horowitz, 1984: 73
Among the Kennedys, Robert Kennedy was characteristically unseen by most of his siblings. “Bobby was so much younger than Joe Junior and Jack John
F. Kennedy that no one expected much from him and as a result he had trouble determining what he should expect from himself” Collier and Horowitz, 1984:
72. Robert Kennedy found it hard to place himself in his family for two oldest Kennedy brothers, Joe Jr. and John, became their father’s favorite sons to
continue his dreams. He always wanted to be counted on, even among his sisters, but his clumsiness in addition to his shyness constantly put him away.
“Maybe my first impression of him was that we both were, in a way, misfits,” recalled boyhood friend David Hackett. “He was neither a
natural athlete nor a natural student nor a natural success with girls and he had no natural gift for popularity. Nothing came easily for him. What
he had was a set of handicaps and a fantastic determination to overcome
them.” Reitzes, David, 1998,
Revolutionar y Senator
, http:www.jfk- online.comrfk.html
Rose Kennedy, Robert Kennedy’s mother, recalled, “He was the smallest and thinnest, and we feared he might grow up puny and g
irlish” http:www.arlingtoncemetery.netrfk.htm. Joe Kennedy Sr. called him runt
while one of his older sisters counted him out when a family friend was praising the young Kennedys and Robert Kenned
y’s name came up. However, in responding this minor role, Robert Kennedy sustained in the competitiveness.
Not only were Roberts sisters tomboyish, but he was also prodded to competitiveness by his father and by Joseph Jr., who served as a
surrogate fath er to his siblings. “Joe taught me to sail, to swim, to play
football and baseball,” he remembered. … Although Robert as a youth was overshadowed by his older brothers, he displayed grim
determination to succeed. A classmate at Milton Academy, where he prepared for Harvard, said: It was much tougher in school for him than
the others
—socially, in football, with studies. Nonetheless, Robert kept up. http:www.arlingtoncemetery.netrfk.htm
As Robert Kennedy grew up then, finding his relationship with his older brother intensively developed and knowing what role in the family he now had, his father
believed in his capability of the only Kennedy brother who would “keep the Kennedys together in the futu
re.” Kennedy Sr. in Collier and Horowitz, 1984: 269 He would later become one of the most prominent men in the family, came
out from his shyness and clumsy attitudes into determining man who also wanted to hold the family legacy.
Catholicism was most likely strength Robert Kennedy had. His devoutness to this Irish family traditional religion was the toughest amid his
brothers and sisters as his mother “was interested in his religiousness and proud that he wanted to be an altar boy” Collier and Horowitz, 1984: 72. It was “his
piety which became his most distinguishing characteristic among his siblings” http:www.pbs.orgwgbhamexarchivestheme_bios_01.html.
Regardless of Joe Kenned y Sr.’s idealism of competitiveness and
discipline toward his family, he was willing to provide the best education for each of his children, including for Robert Kennedy. As abovementioned, Joe Kennedy
Sr. had granted each of his children with huge fortune to support their education in American prominent school and college. Robert Kennedy attended Catholic
Portsmouth Priory but then enrolled to Milton Academy, an eminent preparation school before he entered Harvard. However, Joe Kennedy and his wife built their
own education atmosphere at their own house, engaging their children in a discussion about history and world’s current issues.
Perhaps more important for his education was the Kennedy family dinner table, where his parents involved their children in discussions of
history and current affairs. “I can hardly remember a mealtime,” Robert Kennedy said, “when the conversation was not dominated by what
Franklin D. Roosevelt was doing or what was happening in the world.” http:www.rfkmemorial.orglifevisionbiography
In 1944, Robert Kennedy left the Milton Academy early to enter Harvard College. However, when the war broke, he enlisted his name in US
Navy. He started to serve the Navy as the apprentice seaman on the destroyer ship named after his oldest brother,
Joseph P. Kennedy Jr
. After about seven months serving on naval duty as a lieutenant, Robert Kennedy continued his study at
Harvard. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1948 but he could not afford high grade to be able to attend Harvard Law School, although at the same time he
owned a very strong work ethics. In September 1948, Robert Kennedy registered at the University of Virginia Law School which later respectably became
Kenned ys’ favorite university after Harvard. It was in 1951 Robert Kennedy
achieved his law degree from the university. Previously, in the middle of his study in June 1950, he married his
sister’s college friend, Ethel Skakel. From his marriage, Robert Kennedy would later brood eleven children, with one of them was born several months after his
death in June 1968. They are: Kathleen Hartington born 1951, Joseph Patrick III born 1952, Robert Francis Jr. born 1954, David Anthony born 1955, Mary
Courtney born 1956, Michael Lemoyne born 1958, Mary Kerry born 1959, Christopher George born 1963, Matthew Maxwell Taylor born 1965, Douglass
Harriman born 1967 and Rory Elizabeth born 1968. Robert Kennedy and his family settled in an estate widely known as Hickory Hill, near Washington D.C.,
in the state of Virginia.
3. Robert Francis Kennedy’s Political Career 1952-1968
