The Last Campaign: Robert F. Kennedy and 82 Days That Inspired America
By Thurston Clarke
Product Description
The definitive account of Robert Kennedy’s exhilarating and tragic 1968 campaign for president—a revelatory history that is especially resonant now
After John F. Kennedy’s assassination, Robert Kennedy—formerly Jack’s no-holds-barred political warrior—almost lost hope. He was haunted by his brother’s murder, and by the nation’s seeming inabilities to solve its problems of race, poverty, and the war in Vietnam. Bobby sensed the country’s pain, and when he announced that he was running for president, the country united behind his hopes. Over the action-packed eighty-two days of his campaign, Americans were inspired by Kennedy’s promise to lead them toward a better time. And after an assassin’s bullet stopped this last great stirring public figure of the 1960s, crowds lined up along the country’s railroad tracks to say goodbye to Bobby.
With new research, interviews, and an intimate sense of Kennedy, Thurston Clarke provides an absorbing historical narrative that goes right to the heart of America’s deepest despairs—and most fiercely held dreams—and tells us more than we had understood before about this complicated man and the heightened personal, racial, political, and national dramas of his times.
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #117 in Books
- Published on: 2008-05-27
- Released on: 2008-05-27
- Number of items: 1
- Binding: Hardcover
- 336 pages
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Amazon Best of the Month, June 2008: When Senator Robert F. Kennedy entered the presidential race during the chaotic year of 1968, anarchy appeared to be gathering on the horizon. America was coming to grips with an unwinnable war in Vietnam and unacceptable social policies at home. The Last Campaign examines Kennedy’s bold (and tragically shortened) efforts to awaken his country’s social conscience and moral sensibility. In contrast to the cocksure attitude of Thirteen Days (RFK’s own 1962 memoir of the Cuban Missile Crisis), Thurston Clarke reveals a very human politician who often trembled at the podium and scanned crowds for an assassin’s glare. Though motivated to serve by an unwavering desire to help the poor and oppressed, Kennedy also lived with a deep fear that his life would be cut short by violence. “I’m afraid there are guns between me and the White House,” he prophetically remarked during the spring of ’68. Yet The Last Campaign chooses not to explore what could have been. Instead, Clarke focuses on what is certain: for an 82-day period, Kennedy “convinced millions of Americans that he was a good man, perhaps a great man.” –Dave Callanan
Exclusive Q&A with Author Thurston Clarke
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Amazon.com: He was a Presidential candidate for less than 100 days – why does the name Bobby Kennedy continue to resonate today?
Clarke: The fact that he was the brother of a beloved and martyred president, and that he was also assassinated are of course important factors. But I think Bobby Kennedy continues to be relevant because he tackled issues such as race, poverty, and an ill-advised and unpopular war that remain relevant. And not only did he address these issues but he addressed them with an honesty and passion that no other president or politician has equaled since 1968.
Amazon.com: Despite his own fears, Kennedy made himself dangerously accessible to crowds. Was this an act of defiance or conviction?
Clarke: It was both defiance and conviction.
Speaking of President Johnson’s bubble-topped, bulletproof limousine, he told a reporter, “I’ll tell you one thing: if I’m elected President, you won’t find me riding around in any of those God-damned cars. We can’t have that kind of country, where the President is afraid to go among the people.” When his aides (who were worried about his safety throughout the campaign) urged him to spend more time campaigning from television studios and less time plunging into crowds, he told them, “There are so many people who hate me that I’ve got to let the people who love me see me.” Kennedy also knew that crowds revived him-“like a couple of drinks,” according to aide Fred Dutton-and that letting people see him in person was the best way to prove that his reputation for being “ruthless” was unmerited.
Amazon.com: Hypothetical questions achingly surround Bobby Kennedy and his legacy. Did any single “What if?” occupy your thoughts as you researched this book? Kennedy campaigning in Los Angeles during 1968
Clarke: Several “What ifs” haunted me.
Kennedy had wanted to avoid going to the Ambassador Hotel on the evening of June 4, 1968 and instead watch the returns at the home of John Frankenheimer. The networks, however, protested that they needed him at the hotel for interviews and wanted to cover the victory celebration live if he won. Kennedy caved in and went to the hotel.
Kennedy always went through the crowd in a ballroom or auditorium after speaking, and became angry with aides who tried to hustle him out a back door. But on the night of his assassination, he broke his own rule and went through the hotel pantry where Sirhan Sirhan was waiting.
And what if he had won the nomination and become president? I doubt that there would have been riots at the Democratic convention in Chicago that year — riots that helped elect Richard Nixon to the presidency and that have proven to be an albatross around the neck of Democrats for forty years. A President Robert Kennedy would have withdrawn America from Vietnam soon and there would be fewer names on the Vietnam wall. There would have been no bombing of Cambodia, Kent State, or Watergate, and so on, and so on.
Amazon.com: Kennedy’s campaign strategy was fraught with risk, as one observer remarked that “he kept hammering away at the plight of the poor when there was more chance for political loss than gain.” Had Bobby simply had enough with politics as usual?
Clarke: Kennedy’s obsession with the plight of America’s poor was more the result of his own personal experiences than any rejection of politics as usual. He had held a starving child in his arms in Mississippi. He had visited the appalling schools on Indian reservations where students learned nothing about their own culture and history. He had tramped through tenements in Brooklyn and come upon a girl whose face had been disfigured by rat bites. He believed that he had a responsibility to educate the American people about these conditions.
During a flight on his chartered campaign plane he told Sylvia Wright of Life magazine, “. . . for every two or three days that you waste time making speeches at rallies full of noise and balloons, there’s usually a chance every two or three days . . . where you get a chance to teach people something; and to tell them something that they don’t know because they don’t have the chance to get around like I do, to take them some place vicariously that they haven’t been, to show them a ghetto, or an Indian reservation.” And it was moments like these, Kennedy told Wright, that made a political campaign, despite all its banalities and indignities, “worth it.”
Amazon.com: In your opinion, will we ever see another Bobby Kennedy? Have we become too jaded to embrace a candidate like RFK or has campaigning simply become political theater?
Clarke: One of the aides who scheduled many of Kennedy’s appearances that spring, told me, “What he did was not really that mystical. All it requires is someone who knows himself, and has some courage.”
Review
“A stunning, heartbreaking book, a reminder–which we badly need these days–of just how noble public life can be. Robert Kennedy’s brief, passionate 1968 presidential campaign set a standard of courage and candor and sheer gorgeous language that is unlikely ever to be equaled. This is a book worthy of the man and that moment, an honorable and unforgettable piece of work. The Last Campaign should be required reading for anyone seeking public office, and for the rest of us, too.”—Joe Klein
“The Last Campaign is a great read, an evocative and engaging reminder of the glory and the tragedy of Bobby Kennedy’s run for the presidency in 1968. Thurston Clarke’s keen eye for the telling detail and his fast-paced narrative make The Last Campaign a must-have for any student of American politics.”—Tom Brokaw
“The Last Campaign is a triumphant look at Robert F. Kennedy’s heartfelt plunge into the poverty underbelly of America. The reader can’t help but be moved at how deeply Kennedy cared about the underclass. Thurston Clarke has written a smart political book which actually inspires.”—Douglas Brinkley
“The Last Campaign is a magnificent account of the final months in the life of a man who changed so many of us, and the brilliantly told story of a campaign that broke our hearts.”—E.J. Dionne, author of Souled Out: Reclaiming Faith and Politics After the Religious Right
“Tremendously moving….Clarke compellingly recreates this “huge, joyous adventure”….Kennedy’s gradual but determined evolution into a fearless, formidable, winning candidate makes stupendous reading. The hope he inspired….still proves instructive and pertinent, especially in this election year. Generous without being slavish, beautifully capturing Kennedy’s passion and dignity.”—Kirkus (starred review)
“…revealing as an iconic portrait of the passionate, turbulent zeitgeist of the 1960s.”—Publisher’s Weekly
“I’ll be shocked if I read a more devastatingly beautiful book than Thurston Clarke’s The Last Campaign… this year…. Robert F. Kennedy’s moral imagination shines in this book, so brightly, so compassionately, so full of literature and light and sacrifice, that it will haunt many readers who had hoped matters of war, poverty and inequality might have been solved 40 years ago.”—The Austin American-Statesman
“. . .The Last Campaign, a beautifully written and emotionally powerful examination of Robert F. Kennedy’s 1968 presidential campaign. . . Thurston Clarke has built The Last Campaign on an incredible amount of research, both archival and through hundreds of interviews with those who knew Kennedy best. The result is a vivid, intimate, historical portrait of a candidate who knew how to speak to an electorate amid troubled times. . . Clarke’s book will break your heart but it may also relieve your cynicism, reminding all of us that candidates need not pander to succeed.”—The Christian Science Monitor
“. . .The Last Campaign succeeds in framing a picture within a picture of a seminal year that reverberates to this day.”—St. Louis Post-Dispatch
“. . .very well written and offers a ringside seat on tumultuous times.”—Mike Barry
“Clarke’s findings help to explain the divisions that have riven this nation for a generation. Heed this book, therefore, for the ideals and resentments that dominated that election are starkly similar to the ones facing today’s voters.”—The Miami Herald
“Mr. Clarke advances at a sprightly pace, has a keen eye for detail and captures not only the externals but the fascinating inner dynamics of the contest…. Captures [Kennedy’s] transformation with skill, showing R.F.K. emerging, page by page, into a brilliant and utterly iconoclastic politician over those short months on the trail.”—Ted Widmer, The New York Observer
“The images from “The Last Campaign,” Thurston Clarke’s powerful account of Robert F. Kennedy’s campaign for the presidency…impel themselves on the reader, touching chords of memory and sorrow.”—Michael Kenney, The Boston Globe
“A vivid portrait of a politician coming to a moral reckoning.”—David Ulin, The Los Angeles Times Book Review
“A ride inside the spinning bubble of [Kennedy’s] frenzied, idealistic, doomed campaign. [Clarke’s] discussion of the politics of class and race—the “backlash whites” in Indiana, the affluent antiwar voters in Oregon—proves remarkably topical, as is the moral challenge of Kennedy’s speeches on poverty.”—The New Yorker
“Clarke’s stirring narrative takes readers back to the late 1960s, that idealistic, hopeful—then tragic—time in history.”—Times-Picayune
“. . . an exhilarating read. . . passionate retelling.”—Gilbert Cruz, TIME
“. . . Clarke comes away with a focused, unique and worthy discovery of what happened during those two and a half months.”—J. Taylor Rushing, The Hill, TheHill.com
“. . . a fine addition to the Kennedy canon.”—Todd Leopold, CNN.com
“Well-reported and well-written.”—The Dallas Morning News, Steve Weinberg
“. . . takes a detailed and fascinating look at the period. . . “—Greg Morano, Hartford Courant
About the Author
Thurston Clarke has written eleven widely acclaimed works of fiction and nonfiction, including three New York Times Notable Books. His Pearl Harbor Ghosts was the basis of a CBS documentary, and his bestselling Lost Hero, a biography of Raoul Wallenberg, was made into an award-winning NBC miniseries. His articles have appeared in Vanity Fair, The New York Times, The Washington Post and many other publications. He is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and other awards and lives with his wife and three daughters in upstate New York.
Customer Reviews
to tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world… 
Thurston Clarke has written one of the most emotionally charged and inspiring books I have ever read. I was 9 years old when RFK was assassinated, much too young to understand the ramifications. I do remember my older sister sobbing uncontrollably, and just repeating, they killed him, they killed him. RFK’s Last Campaign was his legacy and he knew it, he knew the day would come that he would be assasinated yet he strove to raise all of us up. Up to a higher standard of caring for each other and raising the conciousness of this nation up. RFK asked, I dream of things that never were, and ask why not? He gave and he gave until he had no more to give and then he rested and got back to work. A couragous leader who was different because he spoke as to what he truly believed and he truly believed what he spoke. Rarely have I ever felt so much emotion while reading a book, RFK’s soul and spirit are truly captured in this gem of a book. It made me think hard about what I can do to be a better person and examine my own moral courage. RFK defined moral courage and we can only ask ourselves, what if RFK had been president?
“What if” — The question still haunts us today
I was born in 1970 so don’t have first hand perspective of the 60s or RFKs presidential campaign. However, I’ve always been fascinated by the decade, one of the most tumultuous, calamitous and important decades in our country’s history. While many figures loom large over the 60s, one can make the case that the two figures who loom largest over that decade are MLK and RFK. They carried the hope and promise that JFK ushered in with his presidency until the latter part of the decade and their assassinations slammed shut that optimism a mere two months apart.
Clarke does a masterful job capturing the gestalt of the time pitch perfectly and the impact of RFKs presidential campaign through the course of those 82 days. To start, one must realize the difference in presidential elections today vs. this time period. The primaries were not nearly as important as they are today. The political machine still dominated the party selection process and Kennedy faced near insurmountable challenges as he entered the race from the Democratic party establishment. He recognized that he had to basically hit a home run in the remaining primaries to convince delegates to turn their support to him because of popular support of Democratic votes. May of the establishment viewed him as “ruthless” and “opportunistic” and we see how this was reinforced after McCarthy’s surprise showing in New Hampshire and Kennedy’s decision to jump in the race soon after that. I found Clarke’s account of Kennedy’s announcement and first speech at Kansas State moving. Today, politicians stump speeches are carefully crafted, crowds controlled to ensure no hostile questions and control so tight to prevent any extemporaneous occurrence that might spread like wildfire across the internet. Kansas State was not that environment and Kennedy demonstrated the traits and attributes during that night that would make his improbable run to the Presidency become an almost certain nomination as he won the California primary (and started to convince the party machine that he should be the Democratic nominee).
Clarke captures all the inherent contradictions of RFK — his strengths, weaknesses — and one gets a close personal “ride” through the whirlwind campaign trail. We see an RFK haunted by JFK’s assassination and the realization that the same fate might befall him. (Clarke shares moments of balloons popping or other similar situations that caused RFK to recoil as if a gun was shot) We witness Kennedy’s disdain for public speaking, comfort with the poor and under-privileged, moral conviction about race and poverty as central campaign themes, in spite of the advice of his advisers. We relive his campaign and amazing victory in Indiana – including the night of April 4th in Indianapolis when he stood in front of an African-American crowd in the inner city (a place the police refused to go to provide him protection that night) and probably was as big a reason Indianapolis was spared the riots that broke out across almost all other major American cities.
I wish this book didn’t end – then again, that is much similar to the legacy that RFK left and especially his presidential campaign. We are left wondering what if to many questions – knowing that if RFK had lived, certainly the course of the following months of 1968 would have been different, maybe even the next four or eight years. Hope and optimism would give way to despair and disillusionment – more violence and death in Southeast Asia and at Kent State, Watergate – and we are forced to relive those 82 days and only imagine “What if”.
Align your expectations
So long as you realize up front that this book is something of a manifesto, a plea for another Bobby Kennedy (the author definitely sees parallels with the 1968 and the 2008 election . . . perhaps seeing Obama as the heir-apparent to RFK?), then you’ll enjoy it. The author makes no pretense about his admiration for RFK and his desire to see another one like him.
But it is a mistake just to write this book off as another Kennedy tribute. First of all, it is well-written and readable. The book flows very well and keeps you interested throughout. It provides a pretty detailed chronicle of the campaign and does a good job of showing the evolution of RFK and his campaign advisers over time.
Secondly, this book is as much about a longing for a certain style of campaigning as it is about a person. Hence the book’s subtitle–82 days that inspired America. Sadly, I think, for the author, he had to use the words “inspired” rather than “changed,” because in many ways, politics has gone on its usual path (or gotten worse) despite what he views as the one modern-day example of elevated political discourse and real human concern. I personally have always been fascinated by Bobby Kennedy. I was born after he was already dead, but he interests me because he seems to be impossible to pin down ideologically. I find that it unusual (though not strange) that he is a liberal icon. I tend to be in cautious agreement with the author about Kennedy, and thought this book was well-done and worthwhile, both for those who still long for RFK and those who don’t. It strikes me that all politicians would benefit from trying to understand what it was about RFK’s campaign that captured the imagination of so many people. This book is a step forward in that regard.
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