Rise Of Kennedy Brothers

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30809, 22 July 1965, Page 17

Rise Of Kennedy Brothers

(From FRANK OLIVER. Special N.Z P.A. Correspondent.) WASHINGTON, July 21. The American press just now has two concurrent but not apparently connected hobbies. One is the continued wave of criticism of President .Johnson and the other the rise of the Kennedy brothers. The criticism of the President prefers to call itself “concern,” and “uneasiness ” His hectic activity, says one writer, gives “ground for concern” which springs from living “in a delicate world under the direction of a leader capable of excess." It is also written that power excites him, as does success, and that he is subject to selfintoxication. BIG PUBLICITY An anonymous associate is] quoted by the “Washington Post” as saying: “He's thoughtless and thoughtful, cruel and compassionate, simple and immensely complicated. I didn't know anyone who doesn’t feel ambivalently about him.” This was called a “defensive explanation” of him. One writer says the real source of uneasiness about the man

is his “capacity for immoderation.” Such words come not from carping critics of the right. Some of the most respected

journalists of the day have been expressing their uneasiness about the President. The enormous publicity that is being achieved by the frothers Kennedy, Senators Robert and Edward, is coincidental to all this and apparently without connexion. They are looked on as “coming” men, destined to wield political power and thus designed

to clash at some time with President Johnson. Some months ago a commentator who must be described as extremely well informed wrote: “Make no doubt about it, those Kennedy boys have established a new oower axis here. There is Bobby, aged 39. the brownhaired moody one. There is Teddy, aged 33, the darkhaired genial one, and behind ■them there is Jack who scattered star-dust over the other two.” It is sa'd they have a feud with the President. It is said there is a rift. A cartoonist in Texas this last week-end showed Johnson and Humphrey strolling together followed by two walking shoes, one marked Bobby, the other Ted and. ’ooking over his shoulder. Johnson is saying to the VicePresident: “They're like martinis. I can take one but two start sneaking up on me.” ‘Collision Course’ A commentator in the ‘Washington Post” says “Political salons here crackle with mounting suspicion that a Lyndon Johnson-Bobby Kennedy showdown may explode at the 1968 Democratic national convention.” This is because although there is no open enmity between the men they seem to be on a collision cou.se. politically speaking. Already there is discussion of that convention, which is still three years away. Some here think Bobby Kennedy may then make a run for the Vice-Presidency against Hubert Humphrey. He almost got that at the emotion-packed convention at Atlantic City. Only astute nolitical management, behind the scenes by Mr Johnson seems to have prevented it and put Humphrey in. Politicians here are even discussing the possibility that Bobby might even pit himself against Mr Johnson for the Presidential nomination. That seems a wild assumption but as a Massachusetts politician said recently: “The Kennedy’s have always operated on the theory that audacity is the secret of political success.” Thus there are two Kennedy entries in the Presidential futurity stakes. The brothers are young. They will still be young in 1972. They have an ardent following which seems destined to

grow. They have ambition and tenacity and they are going to be increasingly prominent in their party and its councils. It is a known thing that there is not any great love lost between Lyndon and Bobby. A clash some time or other does seem inevitable. As one writer puts it: “The driving ambition that activates this entire family is one of the remarkable phenomena of our time. “Tragedy and disaster can slow them down but any interruption means merely a temporary change of pace." There are those, knowledgeable in politics, however, who

think that young Teddy may overtake his brother for temperamental reasons. Young and inexperienced as he is in the Senate he has already proved more than once that he is a very able parliamentarian and he seems to have the temperament and the spell-binding voice of his brother John.