President Bobby Kennedy’s Cabinet?

Bomster

Banned
So I’ve been developing a Robert Kennedy presidency TL throughout this year, and although I have a good idea of what it would look like by reading Robert Kennedy and his Times by Arthur Schlesinger, and An American Melodrama by Lewis Chester, one thing I’m unsure about would be his cabinet. Who would Bobby Kennedy have most likely have chosen for his cabinet? Would he bring back people from JFK’s cabinet? Or would he bring a new diverse group of individuals dedicated to his ideals of helping the poor and ending the war?
 
Assuming he didn't get into his plane crash you are right! I wonder if chester Bowels would finally get state, as Rusk, had had enough.
Clifford might stay on at the Pentagon? I heard Kerner could avoid the scandal and get attorney General
 

Bomster

Banned
Assuming he didn't get into his plane crash you are right! I wonder if chester Bowels would finally get state, as Rusk, had had enough.
Clifford might stay on at the Pentagon? I heard Kerner could avoid the scandal and get attorney General
Yeah Rusk would probably be kept, especially if he was aligned with Kennedy in wanting to end the war. I wonder if Bobby Kennedy would have chosen any African Americans for cabinet as well. He was not pleased by the lack of African Americans in government positions.
 
Just before the California primary was held, Kennedy told his campaign aides that if he beat McCarthy he would offer him the SecState position in exchange for his eventual endorsement. I'm not sure if that would have worked given McCarthy's hatred of Kennedy, but then again it's not uncommon for the nominee to offer a fierce competitor the SecState position. (Think Lincoln in 1860, or Obama in 2008).
 

Bomster

Banned
Just before the California primary was held, Kennedy told his campaign aides that if he beat McCarthy he would offer him the SecState position in exchange for his eventual endorsement. I'm not sure if that would have worked given McCarthy's hatred of Kennedy, but then again it's not uncommon for the nominee to offer a fierce competitor the SecState position. (Think Lincoln in 1860, or Obama in 2008).
My POD has Bobby Kennedy announcing his campaign earlier, thus no McCarthy.
 
Who could be SecTreasury? Attorney General?

I can't think of anyone specific, but JFK's administration is a good starting point. I think that RFK would have appointed mostly well-educated liberal professionals with long careers in their respective fields, whether it be diplomacy or economics. One or two prominent liberal intellectuals might have been included as well. One can also expect more than a few appointees to have strong connections to the Kennedy family.

AG is one post that I know would have meant a lot to RFK personally (for obvious reasons). He certainly would have appointed someone with a strong commitment to civil rights.

That's a general idea of what his cabinet would have looked like. If I were the one writing a TL on this, I would research the major liberal intellectuals, economists, diplomats, academics, and politicians of the period and see if they had any connections with the Kennedys or RFK personally. Those that meet such criteria wouldn't be unlikely to serve in a second Kennedy Administration.
 
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What makes Reuther so controversial?

He's a mega-lefty is the impression I've always gotten. I don't know much about him beyond what's on his Wikipedia page, and a few mentions of him in relation to unions at large, but he's certainly not an uncontroversial nominee. A huge supporter of Civil Rights, he was closely involved with MLK the NAACP; and while that'd fit right into an RFK administration, it's certainly controversial for the times. He could possibly get through the process, as already stated, but it wouldn't be easy per se.
 

Bomster

Banned
Any African-Americans who could have been chosen for RFK’s cabinet? I’m thinking maybe John Lewis.
 
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Assuming he didn't get into his plane crash you are right! I wonder if chester Bowels would finally get state, as Rusk, had had enough.
Clifford might stay on at the Pentagon? I heard Kerner could avoid the scandal and get attorney General

No I don’t think Bowles as Bobby did not especially like him(as David Halberstam’s
classic THE BEST AND THE BRIGHTEST revealed, RFK considered Bowles mushy & weak). More likely @ State- despite being 77 in early 1969 IOTL- was I think Averell Harriman. Clifford staying on @ Defense though is possible- Clifford was an LBJ friend but he had also done some jobs for JFK(such as, per JFK's request, persuading United States Steel CEO Roger Blough not to raise steel prices in 1962)* so I don’t think he was PERSONNA NON GRATA in Bobby’s eyes.

*- JFK once cracked that Clifford never asked for any renumeration for his services: "All he asked in return was that we advertise his law firm on the backs of one-dollar bills." Quoted in Joseph
Goulden, THE SUPERLAWYERS, pp. 75-76 of the 1972, Dell paperback edition.
 
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Just before the California primary was held, Kennedy told his campaign aides that if he beat McCarthy he would offer him the SecState position in exchange for his eventual endorsement. I'm not sure if that would have worked given McCarthy's hatred of Kennedy, but then again it's not uncommon for the nominee to offer a fierce competitor the SecState position. (Think Lincoln in 1860, or Obama in 2008).


A good idea Amadeus! My only reservation is that McCarthy's dislike(I don’t think you’re wrong Amadeus in calling it downright hatred)of RFK was so strong* I really doubt if he would have consented to leave a fairly safe Senate seat to serve under him.

*- At the 1968 Democratic Convention he told Bobby son-in-law Steven Smith that while he was considering throwing his support to Edward Kennedy this is a step he never would have taken re Bobby. SEE Lewis Chester, Godfrey Hodgson, & Bruce Page, AN AMERICAN MELODRAMA, p. 639 of
the 1969, Dell paperback edition. A work by three British reporters on the 1968 US Presidental
election. I know this book is now a little old but nonetheless, I cannot recommend it highly enough.
 
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A good idea Amadeus! My only reservation is that McCarthy's dislike(I don’t think you’re wrong Amadeus in calling it downright hatred)of RFK was so strong* I really doubt if he would have consented to leave a fairly safe Senate seat to serve under him.

*- At the 1968 Democratic Convention he told Bobby son-in-law Steven Smith that while he was considering throwing his support to Edward Kennedy this is a step he never would have taken re Bobby. SEE Lewis Chester, Godfrey Hodgson, & Bruce Page, AN AMERICAN MELODRAMA, p. 639 of
the 1969, Dell paperback edition. A work by three British reporters on the 1968 US Presidental
election. I know this book is now a little old but nonetheless, I cannot recommend it highly enough.

As @Bomster pointed out earlier, the TL he is working on butterflies McCarthy's candidacy by having RFK accept Lowenstein's challenge instead and he jumps into the race in November 1967.

However, thanks for the book recommendation. It looks good and I'll get around to reading it at some point.
 
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