10 Fascinating Facts and Theories You Don’t Know About the Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy

10 Fascinating Facts and Theories You Don’t Know About the Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy

Patrick Lynch - March 7, 2018

10 Fascinating Facts and Theories You Don’t Know About the Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy
Martin Luther King Jr. – Time Magazine

8 – The Assassination Was the Latest Event in What Had Been a Traumatic Year in the United States

More than one political commentator has written that the murder of RFK led to a ‘nervous breakdown’ in the United States. It was unquestionably a shattering blow that came just over two months after another tragedy; the assassination of the great civil rights leader, Martin Luther King Jr., who had been gunned down by James Earl Ray in Memphis, Tennessee on April 4, 1968. The death of the preacher who begged for peaceful protest was too much for his supporters, and in the aftermath, riots erupted in several American cities including Detroit and Chicago.

With the assassination of RFK coming so soon afterward, the country’s sense of self-doubt deepened as its confidence was eroded. It began to feel as if violence had taken a firm hold in American society. Instead of being able to march down a peaceful road to progression, the people found the way to prosperity and tolerance barred by fanatics, racists, anarchists, and madmen. One of the greatest assets possessed by American society, a sense of optimism, was being sorely tested.

While there is no doubt that the murder of Kennedy would have rocked America to its core at any time, the fact it happened so quickly after the death of King was a blow that almost crippled the nation. In simple terms, both Kennedy and King were men who had shown a genuine commitment to change within the system. Instead of being successful in their efforts, both had been cut down in cold blood in rapid succession. While the 1960s had started with hope, the decade ended with cynicism replacing optimism as it became clear that ‘change’ was impossible without taking drastic measures.

Much has been written about what would have happened if RFK had not been murdered in Los Angeles on that terrible day in 1968. It has been suggested that he would have won the presidency which meant that American troops would have been withdrawn from Vietnam much earlier. It also means there would have been no President Nixon, no Watergate and no Nixon Shock, a series of economic measures that had a profound effect on the United States, and the world. However, is it certain that Kennedy would have become president had he lived?

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