The Unfinished Odyssey of Robert Kennedy

About this book

The Pulitzer prize-winning newsmans analysis of Kennedys ideological journey toward "increasing radicalism" and a personal account of his subsequent successes (and single major defeat) along the campaign trail. Halberstam shows how Kennedy in his role as "leader of the honorable opposition in the Democratic party" became the caustic critic of the administrations ghetto policies as well as a more cautious critic of its Vietnam policy placing himself at "the exact median point of American idealism and American power." It is a fascinating story of realpolitik (the Kennedy staff wanted Mayor Daleys backing in Chicago) played for radical aims but Halberstam demonstrates his thesis that Kennedy was the rare politician who surpassed his image. The Kennedy backers were a coalition of old eggheads youngish radicals (Allard Lowenstein was a major booster and a radicalizer of the candidate) veterans like Larry OBrien and--possibly--because he was the first candidate to visit them and make demands for them--the ghetto residents. Kennedy was a crucial bridge to the New Politics which was like the country "in transition politically." Halberstam mourns him.