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daily nebraskan
Wednesday, november 5, 1980
Exciting Kennedy administration recalled in book
By Pat Higgins
Of Kennedys and Kings: Making Sense
of the 60s by Harris Wofford, I'arrar Press.
A'. Y. 1980.
Election Day 180 the leading candi
dates appear to be Apathy and Cyncism
and anyone hallway progressive-liberal is
feeling totally defeated.
However, it wasn't always this way, as
Harris Wofford describes in his excellent
new book of Of Kennedys and Kings: Mak-
7
ing Sense of the Sixties. This is a Wol lord's
personal recoiled ion of the Kennedy-Johnson
administrations and the civil rights
movement of the same era.
Wofford was a close friend of John and
Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King,
which enables him to give a very personal
view of those turbulent, exciting times.
Wofford was a lawyer with a conscience
who became involved in the embryonic
civil rights struggle of the late 1950's. The
movement's key leader was King, a Messi
anic preacher who advo
cated a Ghandi type of non-violent protest.
Wofford was quite impressed with this
stance as King and others were facing a lot
of violence-prone adversaries. King was fre
quently arrested at protests and Wofford
became one of his attorneys.
Branching out from the civil rights
movement, Wofford became involved in
John Kennedy's campaign for the White
House in 1960. Kennedy was able to win
the election more on his charismatic per
sonality rather than his sharp differences
on the issues.
Kennedy, as a good Democrat, paid lip
service to civil rights but, it was not a top
priority.
Wofford was appointed the special assist
ant for Civil Rights and from there prod
ded Kennedy for reform.
Tough and ruthless
Wofford was skeptical about Robert
Kennedy, who had been appointed Attorn
ey General. He had a reputation for being
tough, ruthless and totally committed to
the cause of John Kennedy. Wofford was
initially much more impressed by JFK and
his immense personal charm, but he quick
ly changed his opinion of Robert Kennedy.
Events in the South were forcing the Ken
nedy administration's hand as black
people (and white) began a scries of dem
onstrations asking for their constitutional
rights.
The local reactionary authorities con
doned violence conducted against
"""""" (1C demonstrators. The federal government
was, forced to intervene, and by doing so,
(SUIGW J'm a,K' Kbert Kennedy became heroes
to the civil rights movement. The Ken
nedy's administration then began pressing
for sweeping legislation that was eventually
passed under Lyndon Johnson.
King welcomed the Kennedy's as allies,
but he believed they were being political
ly expedient rather than true believers. An
interesting sidelight reported by Wofford is
the personal vendetta against King directed
by J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI. Among
the tactics employed by Hoover were illeg
al bugging, intimidation and blackmail, in
an attempt to discredit King in particular
and the civil rights movement in general.
Exercise authority
Robert Kennedy was the only attorney
general, from 1924 until Hoover's death in
1971, to attempt to excercise his legal
authority over Hoover and the FBI. Ken
nedy wanted Hoover to investigate oigan
icd crime rather than the laughable U.S.
Communist Party .
Hoover refused to cooperate with Ken-
AW
ncdy's orders and pursued his own policy
of disrupting the civil rights movement.
Andrew Young and Wofford believe that
the FBI had some sort of complicity in
King's assassination.
Wofford gives the Kennedy administra
tion credit for some progress in domestic
affairs and he believes that if John Ken
nedy would have been re-elected to a sec
ond term, there would have been a lot
more done. In foreign affairs, however, the
Kennedy's were cold warriors who viewed
the Viet Cong and Fidel Castro as personal
challenges.
Wofford claims that JFK was sending
the bare minimum of military aid to South
Vietnam until a diplomatic solution could
be reached.
Cuba, however, was the darkest moment
of the Kennedy administration. Alter the
Bay of Pigs fiasco, the CIA proceeded with
its Operation Mongoose, which was design
ed to kill Castro in cooperation with the
Mafia.
Guilt feelings
The assasination of John Kennedy
traumatized Robert Kennedy and plunged
him into guilt feelings that Wofford believ
ed stemmed from a sense of responsibility
for his brother's death. Wofford said Rob
ert Kennedy didn't believe the Warren Re
port and privately believed that either it
was a CIA-Mafii-anti-Castro Cubans plans
or else Castro's retaliation for the attempts
on his life.
Wofford said that these guilt feelings
profoundly changed Robert Kennedy for
the better. He grew as a human being and
became a more compassionate person. He
became senator from New York and was
the voice of the poor, black and youth.
He was a committed apostle for social
change and against the Vietnam war.
For Wofford, 1968 was the climatic
year. Johnson withdrew. King and Robert
Kennedy were assassinated and Richard
Nixon was elected president. Wofford said
the Chicago Convention was the death
knell for progressive reform in the political
system.
Wofford firmly believes that if Robert
Kennedy would have lived, he would have
become president and this country would
be a lot beiter off today.
Columnist laments passage of airfare bargains
By Robert Bauer
On Dec. 14, smack in the face of finals week, we all
should take a moment to mourn the passing of the biggest
airfare bargain in Nebraska history. On Dec. 14, Braniff
and Texas International will discontinue their promotion
al fare from Omaha to Dallas.
At $58 roundtrip, the fare is roughly one-third of the
regular coach ticket. That would be like paying $8.50 a
credit hour for tuition or 37 cents a gallon for gasoline.
It is, and as of Dec. 14, will be too good to be true.
Fortunately, you can still take advantage of the fare
until then. At $58, it might be cheaper to spend the week-
departures
be unlikely) you can buy the same ticket on Braniff for
$618.
This is a rock-bottom price for getting overseas. Be
ware, however, that the German government is cancelling
budget fares right and left and Denver may soon be wiped
off the map. Kansas City went this week and only Helmut
knows who will go next.
Lapse into mental disorder
I firmly believe that if a study on suicide were done,
airline reservationists would probably have the highest
rate of all occupations. The way airfares are changing
these days it is a wonder they can work eight hours with
out lapsing into some sort of mental disorder.
I asked one reservationist a fairly simple question and,
in the course of our conversation, the answer changed
four times. We would just get done going over one answer
and somebody would put a new memo tin her desk. Final
ly, I unplugged the phone in mid-sentence. I hope she
thinks we just got disconnected.
The memos that these people get can ically change
your airfare too. We talked with a lady at Bianif! and she
quoted us a ticket price of $534 for a certain flight. The
next day another lady told us we couldn't buv the ticket
(it was cancelled) and later that day another lady told us
we could buy the ticket lor $534, but only loi the next
two weeks.
We told her to put it down in writing and she did. The
next week when we checked up on the reservations
another lady told us the tickets weren't being offered any
more, but that because we had a written guarantee, we
could still purchase them.
The moral for all this? Don't take no for an answej and
when they do tell you yes, get it in blood.
end in Dallas with a friend (as a weary traveler, they might
even provide you with meals and entertainment) than to
hang around Lincoln.
The West German government is slowly making it
impossible for students to fly from Nebraska to Frank
furt for anything less than a king's ransom. They are doing
this by forcing airlines, like Braniff, to cancel their budget
fares to Germany.
Name the week
The budget fare is where you name the week you want
to travel and the airline names the specific day of the
week.
Budget fares (if you can find them) are incredibly
cheap. The budget fare out of Omaha (until it was discon
tinued) was a mere S584. The next cheapest ticket on that
same airline was over $800. It is enough to make you take
Helmut Schmidt's name in vain.
Some Nebraskans, for the time being, still have a way
out of this mess. If you are fortunate enough to live in the
panhandle, you can still get to Europe for $602. You do
this by purchasing a budget ticket on Delta out of Denver.
It's the first time living in the panhandle has made it
cheaper to fly anywhere. If Delta is sold out (which would
'Hamlet,' Shakespeare talk broadcast
A discussion about Shakespeare followed by the pres
entation of one of the Bard's most famous plays, is one
of the highlights next week on the Nebraska Educational
Network.
A leading historian of the Elizabethan age and author
of William Sfiakespearc: A Biography, A.L. Rouse, is feat
ured in a locally-produced special, "Shakespeare, die
Man" airing Monday at 7 p.m. on the Nebraska ETV Network.
Rouse, a fellow of All Souls College at Oxford Uni
versity in England, is interviewed by Robert Knoll. UNI
professor of English. During the 30-minute program.
Rouse talks about Shakespeare and his plays, as well as
the Elizabethean era. Rouse also presents his theories on
the identification of the "dark lady" of Shakespeare's
sonnets.
"Shakespeare, the Man" is a production of the cultural
affairs unit of University of Nebraska Television, with
Gene Bunge as producerdirector of the special.
Hamlet, Shakespeare's classic tragedy of treachery and
revenge opens the new season of "The Shakespeare
Neska ETV NeS M,U,Jy eWnin 8 " thc
Internationally-acclaimed actor Derek Jacovi stars as
the melancholy young prince of Denmark, a role consid
ered to be one of the greatest in English literature. Public
television viewers will remember Jacobi as the bumbiing
Lmporer in the title role of ". Claudius" and as the trag-ically-dethroned
King Richard on last season's presentat
ion of Rwhard II on 'The Shakespeare Plays."
n ThCma't "f ,,lc 3'- ,H)Ur Presentation also includes
filhW ?,mrfSer,r,ldC' hric Pr,er aS P,,,on,US anJ
Lalla Ward as Ophelia.
w7 will be repeated Sunday. November 16. at 10
