Of Kennedys and Kings: Making Sense of the Sixties Book

When former public servant and college president Harris Wofford soundly defeated former governor and US Attorney General Dick Thornburgh for the US Senate in a 1991 special Pennsylvania election, it made national and international news, but few Pennsylvanians or Americans recognised Wofford's name. Yet Wofford had been a special assistant to President John F. Kennedy and was one of the founders of the Peace Corps. During the decade of struggle from Montgomery to Memphis, he was an advisor to Martin Luther King, Jr. With independent views of his own, Harris Wofford was witness from within the White House to the bright and the dark side of the Kennedy administration. Focusing on how the politics and ideas came together to shape critical decisions, Wofford's memoir captures the personal drama of the Kennedys and Martin Luther King, Jr, as their characters were tempered and tested. "Of Kennedys and Kings" not only makes sense of the 60s, but gives us a glimpse into the issues closest to the heart of one of America's newest US Senators. One of the early commentators to reflect deeply on the JFK assassination conspiracy theories, Wofford also follows the chain of events that led from the Bay of Pigs to Vietnam, assembles facts about the CIA-Mafia plots to assassinate Castro, and was one of the first to explore J. Edgar Hoover's vendetta against Martin Luther King, Jr, and the Kennedys. He recounts the civil rights story from the beginning of civil disobedience with the Montgomery bus boycott to the murders of Martin Luther King, Jr, and Robert Kennedy. He provides an inside account of the birth of the Peace Corps as a novel anti-bureaucratic agency, and of the war on poverty and its displacement by the war in Indochina. Wofford's reflections shed light on the 60s and on the dramatic domestic and international politics of the era. "Of Kennedys and Kings" aims to provide a timely reminder of what can be accomplished with leaders who are, with all their human failings, committed to public service and responsible political action.Read More