Interview on Kennedy Book

The Indiana University Press Blog features an interview with me about my book Robert F. Kennedy and the 1968 Indiana Primary.

The interview includes a frequent question I receive when talking about the book, namely, what would an RFK administration would have been like if he had lived and won the 1968 general election against Richard Nixon? I always point out that Kennedy faced an uphill battle to win the Democratic nomination that year from Vice President Hubert Humphrey. A different perspective is offered by Mitchell J. Freedman, author of the book A Disturbance of Fate, which is an alternative history where Kennedy narrowly misses being assassinated by Sirhan Sirhan and goes on to win the 1968 election.

In addition to the IU Press Blog interview, I will be speaking about my RFK book at 7 p.m. on Monday, August 25, at the Hancock County Public Library, 900 W McKenzie Road, Greenfield, Indiana. The program is free and open to the public. For more information, call the library at (317) 462-5141.

"One Shot" Book Talk at Lake County Library

On February 19, 1944, a young photographer from Gary, Indiana, John A. Bushemi, landed with American troops on Eniwetok in the Pacific Theater. Bushemi was there covering the invasion for Yank magazine. Shrapnel from Japanese shells hit and mortally wounded the photographer. As navy surgeons frantically attempted to save Bushemi’s life, the photographer gave his epitaph, telling his friend, “Be sure to get those pictures back to the office.”

At 2 p.m. on Saturday, August 2, I will be at the Lake County Public Library, 1919 West 81st Avenue, Merrillville, Indiana, to talk about Bushemi's life and work and to sign copies of my book "One Shot": The World War II Photography of John A. Bushemi.

“One Shot” features Bushemi’s work, from his early days photographing soldiers training at the Field Artillery Replacement Center at Fort Bragg in North Carolina to his frontline assignments among the grizzled American forces who engaged in the bitter fighting against the Japanese. Assigned to Yank, the weekly magazine written by and for enlisted men, Bushemi specialized in “photography from a rifle’s length vantage point,” according to his colleague Merle Miller.

For more information on the program, contact the Lake County Public Library at (219) 769-3541.

Book Signing at Bicentennial

In honor of the community of Charlestown, Indiana's bicentennial, I will be one of several Hoosier authors signing copies of my books at an Indiana Author booth sponsored by Cardinal Publishers Group. I will be signing copies of some of my most recent books, including Robert F. Kennedy and the 1968 Indiana Primary, from 3:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, June 28, at Charlestown Greenway Park.

Established in 1808, Charlestown served as the county seat of Clark County from 1811 to 1878, before the seat was moved to Jeffersonville.

The schedule of events for the Charlestown celebration includes arts and crafts booths, food vendors, a 5K road race, a parade and float contest, a pioneer village display, and a number of performances by musical groups.

Marking RFK's Death

The fortieth anniversary of Robert Kennedy's death has prompted numerous articles in the media, including an interview with me in my old college newspaper, the Indiana Daily Student. I also was interviewed by Ralph Hipp of WIBW television in Topeka, Kansas, about RFK's legacy.

Also of interest is David Greenberg's assessment on Slate of how Kennedy's death, and Eugene McCarthy's reaction to the loss of his bitter rival, crippled the Democractic Party in the 1968 general election. Greenberg notes the following: "Kennedy's death, of course, did not leave McCarthy alone in the race. All along, many party regulars had preferred Vice President Hubert Humphrey, who announced his candidacy in April but sat out the primaries, instead building his delegate base in states without primaries—which back then constituted a majority."

It's a point I always try to bring up when I'm asked by journalists what would an RFK presidency have been like? Even Kennedy's own advisers believed that RFK had only a 50-50 chance of capturing the nomination from Humphrey at the August 1968 convention in Chicago.

Talking privately with Richard Goodwin after squeaking by McCarthy in the California primary, Kennedy said while he and McCarthy were battling one another, Humphrey had been picking up delegate after delegate around the country. Kennedy did not want to have to spend his time the next few weeks campaigning on every street corner in New York in hopes of winning the primary there. “I’ve got to spend that time going to the states, talking to delegates before it’s too late,” Kennedy stressed to Goodwin. “My only chance is to chase Hubert’s ass all over the country. Maybe he’ll fold.”

Lecture on Apollo 1 Tragedy

On Friday, January 27, 1967, the National Aeronautics and Space Agency engaged in yet another step on its long journey of meeting late President John F. Kennedy’s goal announced six years earlier of landing a man on the moon before the end of the decade.

On that day, three American astronauts participated in simulated countdown of the Apollo spacecraft at the Kennedy Space Center’s Pad 34. At one o’clock in the afternoon astronauts Roger Chaffee, a rookie and the youngest person ever selected to join the astronaut corps; Ed White, the first American to walk in space; and Hoosier native Gus Grissom, the first American to fly in space twice; entered the Apollo command module, built by North American Aviation. They never made it out alive.

The tragic events of the Apollo 1 disaster will be explored in my talk "Tragedy at Pad 34: Gus Grissom and the Apollo 1Fire," to be given at 10 a.m. on Thursday, June 12, at the Highland Branch of the Lake County Public Library, 2841 Jewett St., in Highland, Indiana.

In addition to talking about the fire that took the life of the three American astronauts, I will be autographing copies of my biography of Grissom, born and raised in Mitchell, Indiana. The book was the second volume in the Indiana Historical Society Press's Indiana Biography Series.

For more information on the program, contact the Highland library branch by calling
(219) 838-2394.

Upcoming Events for RFK book

I will be talking about and signing copies of my new book Robert F. Kennedy and the 1968 Indiana Primary at two events in June.

At 1 p.m. on Saturday, June 7, I will be in the Bard Room at the Morrisson-Reeves Library in Richmond, Indiana. The library is located at 80 North 6th Street in Richmond. The event is free and open to the public. For information, call the library at (765) 966-8291.

At 2:30 p.m. on Sunday, June 8, I will be at Barnes and Noble Booksellers Store at 4601 Grape Road in Mishawaka, Indiana, my hometown, for a booksigning. The store is located three blocks south of University Park Mall. For more information, contact the store at (574) 277-9482.

To learn more about Robert F. Kennedy and the 1968 Indiana Primary, here are some helpful links:

* The book's listing at Indiana University Press.

* An interview with me about the book with the Bedford Times-Mail.

* An excerpt from the book published by the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette.

* Listen to a radio interview with me by David Johnson of Bloomington's WFIU.

RFK Book Set for April Release

Robert F. Kennedy and the 1968 Indiana Primary, to be released by Indiana University Press in April 2004 and written by Ray E. Boomhower, marks an important anniversary in the political and social history of Indiana and the nation.

On April 4, 1968, Robert F. Kennedy, U.S. senator from New York, appeared in Muncie, Indiana, as part of his campaign for the Indiana Democratic presidential primary to be voted on in May. In the primary, he faced opposition from Indiana governor Roger Branigin and fellow U.S. Senator Eugene McCarthy, who had shocked President Lyndon Johnson by capturing more than 40 percent of the vote in the New Hampshire primary.

As Kennedy prepared to leave Muncie for a short flight to Indianapolis to appear at another rally, he learned that African American civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. had been shot outside his hotel in Memphis, Tennessee. Before his plane landed in Indianapolis, Kennedy heard news that King had died.

Despite warnings from Indianapolis police that they could not guarantee his safety, and brushing off concerns from his own staff, Kennedy decided to proceed with plans to address an outdoor rally to be held in the heart of the city’s African American community at the Broadway Christian Center’s outdoor basketball court on Seventeenth and Broadway streets.


On that cold and windy evening, he broke the news of King’s death to a crowd that had been anticipating a typically raucous political event. Before the now stunned and disbelieving audience of black and white voters, he gave an impassioned, extemporaneous six-minute speech on the need for compassion in the face of violence that has gone down as one of the great speeches in American political history. To help explain the terrible tragedy, Kennedy called upon the words of Aeschylus, the Greek tragedian who had comforted him following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Robert Kennedy told the crowd: “My favorite poet was Aeschylus. He once wrote: ‘Even in our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God.’”

The news of King’s death had sparked outrage and violence across the country. Riots had broken out in more than a hundred cities and approximately 75,000 National Guard and federal troops were called out to maintain some semblance of order. Thanks, in no small part to Kennedy’s calming words, the streets of Indianapolis remained quiet; there were no riots in the Circle City.

Robert F. Kennnedy and the 1968 Indiana Primary marks the 40th anniversary of Kennedy’s Indianapolis speech, explains what brought him to Indiana that day, and explores the characters and events of the 1968 Indiana Democratic presidential primary. The eyes of the nation had turned to the Hoosier State in the spring of 1968 as Kennedy decided to run for president against incumbent and fellow Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson and had selected the nineteenth state’s presidential primary as the first test for his campaign.

In addition to Kennedy’s masterful speech, the Indiana presidential primary brought together some fascinating Hoosier political figures. Branigin, the state’s popular governor, had initially agreed to run as a stand-in for President Johnson in the primary. With Johnson’s decision to withdraw from the race, Branigin decided to remain in the primary as a favorite-son candidate. The governor had the firm support of Eugene Pulliam, the powerful owner and publisher of the Indianapolis Star. Pulliam did whatever he could to aid Branigin during the primary.

Also, both the Kennedy and McCarthy campaigns had Hoosiers working as key advisers. Jeremy Larner, a McCarthy speechwriter, had grown up in Indiana. Kennedy himself relied heavily upon the advice of John Bartlow Martin, who had grown up in Indianapolis and worked for the Indianapolis Times. Martin, a freelance journalist who made his living writing for such popular magazines of the day as Look and Collier’s, had worked on a number of Democratic presidential efforts, including those of Adlai Stevenson and John F. Kennedy. Martin offered sage advice to Robert Kennedy on the best way to reach out to voters in Indiana.