The Kennedy family's return after a series of tragedies

THE KENNEDY FAMILY'S RETURN AFTER A SERIES OF TRAGEDY

60 years after his uncle and then his father were assassinated with his presidential dream still unfulfilled, Robert F Kennedy Jr decided to regain his family's glory by announcing his candidacy for president.

The Kennedys are a famous American family with wealth and political power. After leaving their homeland of Ireland in the 1840s, the Kennedy family - starting with Patrick Joseph Kennedy (1858-1929) - built their future and became involved in the Democratic Party in Boston, USA.

With two generations later, the Kennedy name expanded its political reach to the national and world levels. Joseph P. Kennedy Sr, son of Patrick Joseph Kennedy, served as the US Ambassador to the UK before World War II. He married Rose Fitzgerald, daughter of the Mayor of Boston. They had nine children, including the late President John F Kennedy (JFK).

The Kennedy family has produced one president, one attorney general, four members of the House and Senate, and several other government officials.

Many people often compare the Kennedy family with other prestigious families such as the Bush and Adams families, considering them the most powerful families in American politics.

What the Kennedy family members did not anticipate, however, was tragedy.

SERIES OF TRAGEDY

The chain of tragedies began 80 years ago with the death at the age of 29 of US Navy pilot Joseph P. Kennedy Jr., the eldest son of the Kennedy family, when the plane he was piloting exploded during a secret bombing mission in Normandy, France, during World War II.

Four years later, on August 13, 1948, Kathleen Cavendish, the fourth Kennedy child, died in a plane crash in France at the age of 28.

The most famous member of the Kennedy family is the 35th President of the United States, John F Kennedy (JFK). He was assassinated at noon on November 22, 1963 in Dallas while sitting in an open car with First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy.

President John F Kennedy (JFK) was assassinated while riding in an open car with the First Lady on November 22, 1963 in Dallas (Photo: AP).

More than two hours after President JFK was assassinated, Vice President Lyndon Johnson was sworn in as the 36th president of the United States. He took the oath of office aboard Air Force One at Dallas Love Field as the plane prepared to return President JFK's body to Washington. The swearing-in marked the first time in U.S. history that this ceremony took place on Air Force One.

JFK died at the age of 46, after serving as president for only 2 years and 10 months. He left behind his 34-year-old wife, a 6-year-old daughter, and a 3-year-old son. The assassination occurred just months after his 2-day-old son died of infantile respiratory failure.

Less than five years after JFK's death, his younger brother, Senator Robert F Kennedy (RFK), 42, was shot in a Los Angeles hotel on June 5, 1968, after winning the California presidential primary. He died a day later from his injuries.

RFK was a young, intelligent, passionate and very determined politician. Many even considered him the only figure in American politics who could unite all social classes. He was especially loved by American minority communities, including immigrants and people of color, for his dedication and efforts to promote laws protecting civil rights.

After winning the California primaries, RFK was expected to be formally nominated as the Democratic candidate to run against Republican Richard Nixon for the White House. Supporters hoped that he would be a worthy successor to the Kennedy family tradition and could fulfill his brother's unfinished dreams if elected president of the United States. However, the assassination dashed these hopes.

After a series of family upheavals, Ted Kennedy, the youngest son of the Kennedy family, took on the responsibility of continuing the family tradition, continuing the presidential dream of his two late brothers. However, his career was almost ruined after being involved in a scandal related to a fatal driving incident. In 1971, he was not even elected to become the Democratic minority leader in the Senate. It was not until 1980 that he ran for president but failed to win the Democratic nomination.

Another tragedy of the Kennedy family is Rosemary Kennedy, JFK's sister. From a young age, Rosemary showed signs of intellectual disability.

Later, fearing that Rosemary's problems would hinder the family's political career, the Kennedys decided to perform a lobotomy on her. At the time, lobotomy was considered a cure for a wide range of mental problems.

However, the surgery failed, leaving 23-year-old Rosemary with the cognitive abilities of a two-year-old. She became dependent, requiring 24/7 care, speaking only a few words and unable to move her limbs flexibly. Rosemary lived the rest of her life secretly in a mental hospital. The Kennedys sought to hide her from political opponents.

The tragedy did not stop with the 9 children of the Kennedy family, but continued to haunt the next generation. In 1984, David Kennedy, son of Mr. RFK, died in a hotel room in Florida from a drug overdose. In 1997, another son of his died in a skiing accident at the age of 39. In 1999, John F Kennedy Jr (38 years old), son of the late President JFK, and his wife died when the light aircraft he was piloting crashed into the Atlantic Ocean.

Senator Ted Kennedy, JFK's brother, once asked the question: "Is there really a curse that haunts the Kennedy family members?"

Edward Klein, author of a book about the Kennedy family, also commented that almost every time a member of the Kennedy family was about to achieve their goals or ambitions, they would have to pay a very high price.

However, many people believe that there is no supernatural element in these cases and that it is not so rare for a large family to experience many tragedies. According to psychologist Melody Masi, similar tragedies may have happened to many other families but few people know about them because they are not as famous as the Kennedy family.

TWO MYSTERIOUS ASSASSINATIONS

The tragedy that most people are interested in is the assassination of the Kennedy brothers. To this day, 60 years since the assassination of the 35th President of the United States, the mystery still surrounds even though hundreds of thousands of documents have been declassified.

In connection with the JFK assassination, former Marine Lee Harvey Oswald was accused of using a sniper rifle to kill the head of government from a 6th floor window in a nearby building. However, Americans do not believe that Oswald alone could have killed the President.

Two days later, while on his way to prison, Oswald was shot dead by a bar owner named Jack Ruby. Jack Ruby was sentenced to death but died in prison. The case continued to be a dead end with mysteries that have yet to be satisfactorily solved.

Investigators have put forward dozens of theories about who was really behind the plot to kill JFK. Many believe that JFK's death was related to his decision during the Bay of Pigs invasion. In 1961, the Kennedy administration agreed to help Cuban exiles overthrow the Cuban government, but at the last minute, he withdrew support and refused to help. In addition, the push for reform and the purge of organized crime gangs may have also been the cause of the assassination.

Many people even hypothesize that JFK's assassination was caused by one or several US government agencies such as the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) or the Federal Reserve (FED). The motive may have come from the President's changes to limit the power of these agencies.

Mystery after mystery, while many people question who really assassinated JFK, many wonder what happened to his brain when it suddenly disappeared from the National Archives. Although his body was buried at Arlington National Cemetery, his brain has been missing since 1966.

Conspiracy theorists claim that JFK's brain holds the truth about his death. Officially, the autopsy showed that the President was shot twice, from above and from behind. This is consistent with the conclusion that Lee Harvey Oswald shot the President from the sixth floor of the Texas Book Depository. However, according to one conspiracy theory, JFK's brain shows the opposite, that the President was shot from the front, supporting the theory that there was another assassin besides Lee.

That may have been the reason the brain was stolen, but there are also opinions that the thief was none other than RFK, JFK's ill-fated younger brother. According to James Swanson, author of a book about JFK's assassination, RFK wanted to take the brain to "hide evidence of the true extent of President Kennedy's illness, or perhaps to hide evidence of the amount of medication the President was taking."

President Kennedy had many health problems that he kept hidden from the public. He also took a variety of medications, including painkillers, anti-anxiety drugs, stimulants, sleeping pills, and hormones for his dangerous adrenal insufficiency.

According to the US National Archives, to date, about 98% of documents related to the shocking 1963 assassination have been declassified, of which only 3% of the records have been edited in whole or in part, but people still cannot find answers to those mysteries.

President JFK's brother, Robert F Kennedy, was assassinated in 1968 during a celebration of his presidential primary victory in Los Angeles, California in 1968 (Photo: Politico).

The assassination of RFK's brother also contained many mysteries. The killer was identified as Sirhan Sirhan, 24 years old, a Palestinian. When the authorities searched his home, they found a diary with the words "RFK must die" written over and over again.

The investigation ended fairly quickly with the conclusion that Sirhan was the sole perpetrator of the case. Regarding the motive for the crime, according to the New York Times , the perpetrator later revealed that he believed RFK was involved in the oppression of Palestinians.

In court, Sirhan confessed to all his crimes. He was sentenced to death on March 3, 1969, but because California abolished the death penalty in 1972, Sirhan spent the rest of his sentence in prison.

However, some information that was later revealed has shown many suspicious points about the assassination. For example, at that time, up to 10 shots were fired, while Sirhan's gun only had an 8-round magazine. In addition, according to the autopsy, the wound on RFK's forehead originated from a bullet fired at very close range, apparently hitting him in the head. Meanwhile, witnesses at the scene said that, at the time of the crime, Sirhan was standing at least 1 meter away from Senator Kennedy.

BACK TO POLITICS

Nearly 60 years after RFK was assassinated while campaigning for president, his son, Robert F Kennedy Jr, has announced that he will run for the White House, marking the return of the Kennedy family to politics. This also means that he is the fourth member of the Kennedy family to enter the race. He will compete with incumbent President Joe Biden for the Democratic nomination.

Robert F Kennedy Jr. officially launched his 2024 presidential campaign at an event in Massachusetts on April 19. His campaign focuses on clean government, civil liberties, peace and economic recovery.

Mr. Robert F Kennedy Jr. announced his candidacy for US President in 2024 (Photo: AP).

In a Twitter post in February, he wrote: "If I run, my top priority will be ending the corrupt combination of government and business that has destroyed our economy, dislocated our middle class, polluted our landscapes and waters, poisoned our children, and robbed us of our values ​​and freedoms."

He pledged to "help as many Americans as possible forget whether they are Republicans or Democrats and just remember that they are Americans." Mr Kennedy also criticized the censorship of dissidents, saying it "not only goes against our most basic values, but is counterproductive in that it fuels polarization, alienation and anger."

On the economic front, he has taken a hard line on public debt and inflation, criticizing government borrowing to fund wars, bailouts and pandemic lockdowns.

Robert F Kennedy Jr. was born in 1954. His father was assassinated when he was 14. He studied environmental law, having studied at Harvard University and the London School of Economics. As a co-founder of an environmental law firm, Kennedy has won praise for campaigning on issues such as clean water and opposing the use of fossil fuels. He was once named one of the "heroes of the planet" by Time magazine.

However, his anti-vaccine stance has sparked a backlash, even from his own family members, who say his views are “tragic mistakes” and have “deadly consequences.”

Mr. Kennedy has long been involved in the anti-vaccine movement, efforts that have become more pronounced during the Covid-19 pandemic. He has at times used his family’s legacy in his anti-vaccine work, including occasionally using the image of the late President JFK.

Experts say Mr Kennedy's organisation has made false claims targeting groups vulnerable to vaccine distrust, including mothers and Black Americans.

Sky News commented that Robert F Kennedy Jr.'s campaign would have a hard time going very far. Meanwhile, Vanity news site cited a conspiracy theory that his campaign was mainly aimed at creating more challenges for Biden in the primary election.

Minh Phuong

According to Sky News, Fox News, AP, New York Times

05/03/2023

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/the-gioi/su-tro-lai-cua-gia-toc-kennedy-sau-chuoi-bi-kich-20230426222234382.htm