Luck of a Kennedy: The Assassination of RFK
On June 5, 1968, Robert F. Kennedy officially won both the South Dakota and California Democratic Party presidential primary races, putting him in second place in the race to replace Lyndon B. Johnson was the Democratic candidate for the presidency in 1968. He was experiencing a surge of support due to a moralistic anti-Vietnam War stance that was both novel and increasingly popular at the time, as well as the signature charisma that aided generations of Kennedy family members in obtaining political power. Kennedy gave an enthusiastic speech in the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, concluding with a heartfelt thanks to those working on his campaign, to roaring applause. Just moments after he stepped offstage and into the kitchen behind him, Kennedy and five others were shot. About one day after the shooting, Kennedy was pronounced dead.
Robert F. Kennedy moments after being shot in Los Angeles’ Ambassador Hotel
This assassination sent shockwaves through the Democratic Party. While RFK was not the favorite to come out of the primary victorious, he was a Kennedy, and therefore had a celebrity-esque status in the realm of politics with rabid and loyal supporters unlike many others. The shock of the event was further amplified by the fact that his brother, then-President John F. Kennedy, was famously assassinated just five years earlier. The Democrats were stunned, as this meant current Vice President Hubert Humphrey, a moderate who advocated for continuing the war in Vietnam and continuing the increasingly unpopular Lyndon B. Johnson legacy in other areas. The election that followed was nail-bitingly close; Humphrey lost California by about 3% of the vote, Illinois by about 3% of the vote, and Ohio by about 2.5% of the vote. If Humphrey had been able to take just two of these states, he would have won, but his failure paved the way for a Richard Nixon presidency, changing the course of American history forever. With a more charismatic, more openly anti-war candidate, perhaps Nixon’s infamous “southern strategy” would have failed, and the landscape of modern American politics may be entirely different.
Richard Nixon on the campaign trail
Nixon’s rise and the changes to the Republican and Democratic parties that would follow were not the only long-term changes that RFK’s assassination inspired. 1968 in general was a year of unexpected violence and turmoil—Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in April of 1968, and these two assassinations of prominent leaders prompted varied reactions from a scared public. While the “law and order” message of Richard Nixon was made more popular by the chaos, these times helped to expand United States security infrastructure. Before RFK’s death, Lyndon B. Johnson tried to set aside funds for protection of presidential candidates, but nothing ever came of them. After the assassination, the Secret Service’s jurisdiction was expanded to protect presidential and vice presidential candidates, including during primaries.
Much like the assassination of his brother, Robert F. Kennedy’s death has spawned numerous conspiracy theories, although they are less numerous and less believed by Americans. Easily the most prominent theory is that the man accused of killing the politician, Jordanian refugee Sirhan Sirhan, did not do the deed. This theory has been amplified by Kennedy’s son, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who demanded another investigation after meeting with Sirhan in prison to discuss the assassination. However, RFK Jr. lacks any credibility in this and many other matters, as he has repeatedly claimed that vaccines cause autism and that COVID-19 vaccines specifically will severely injure numerous people. Sirhan Sirhan is currently serving life in prison, and despite the attempts of RFK Jr. and others, it looks unlikely that this will change any time soon, as no evidence pointing to a second or alternative shooter has withstood scrutiny.