Robert F. Kennedy Robert Francis Kennedy (November 20, 1925 – June 6, 1968), also known as RFK, was an American politician and lawyer. He served as the 64th United States attorney general from January 1961 to September 1964, and as a U.S. senator from New Yo ...

's remarks at the University of Kansas were given on March 18, 1968. He spoke about student protests, the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...

, and the

gross national product The gross national income (GNI), previously known as gross national product (GNP), is the total amount of factor incomes earned by the residents of a country. It is equal to gross domestic product (GDP), plus factor incomes received from n ...

. At the time, Kennedy's words on the latter subject went relatively unnoticed, but they have since become famous.

Background

Kennedy had given his first campaign speech earlier that morning at

Kansas State University Kansas State University (KSU, Kansas State, or K-State) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university with its main campus in Manhattan, Kansas, United States. It was opened as the state's land-grant coll ...

before flying into Lawrence Municipal Airport to give his speech at the

University of Kansas The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States. Two branch campuses are in the Kansas City metropolitan area on the Kansas side: the university's medical school and hospital ...

. Classes were cancelled in advance of Kennedy's appearance.

The speech

The speech was delivered at 1:30 PM in Phog Allen Fieldhouse before 20,000 people. The arena itself was over capacity; the school had only 16,000 enrolled students, and many sat on the basketball court, leaving only a minimal amount of open space around the

lectern A lectern is a standing reading desk with a slanted top, on which documents or books are placed as support for reading aloud, as in a scripture reading, lecture, or sermon. A lectern is usually attached to a stand or affixed to some other form of ...

in the center. Shortly before the speech, Kennedy warned the student union, "Some of you may not like what you're going to hear in a few minutes, but it's what I believe; and if I'm elected president, it's what I'm going to do..."

Summary

Most of Kennedy's speech was given extemporaneously, with phrases from older speeches linking together sections from his remarks at KSU. He began on the subject of the

, calling for an end to the bombing campaign and negotiations with the

Viet Cong The Viet Cong (VC) was an epithet and umbrella term to refer to the communist-driven armed movement and united front organization in South Vietnam. It was formally organized as and led by the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam, and ...

. On the matter of student protests, he quoted

William Allen White William Allen White (February 10, 1868 – January 29, 1944) was an American newspaper editor, politician, author, and leader of the Progressive movement. Between 1896 and his death, White became a spokesman for Middle America (United States), ...

(a university alum), as he had in his earlier speech: These words surprised many members of the audience. He continued onto the matter of poverty, expressing his own feeling of horror at the conditions poor Americans faced: He continued, borrowing imagery from

Michael Harrington Edward Michael Harrington Jr. (February 24, 1928 – July 31, 1989) was an American democratic socialist. As a writer, he was best known as the author of '' The Other America'' (1962). Harrington was also a political activist, theorist, profess ...

's book, ''

The Other America ''The Other America: Poverty in the United States'' is a 1962 book by socialist writer Michael Harrington on the dire living conditions of the American poor. It was a muckraking-style exposé which spotlighted the entrenched poverty of 40–50 ...

'': Kennedy notably outlined why he thought the

was an insufficient measure of success. He emphasized the negative values it accounted for and the positive ones it ignored: Towards the end of his speech, he quoted

George Bernard Shaw George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from the 188 ...

: These words would become a centerpiece of Kennedy's presidential campaign, and he would repeat them on several occasions. Kennedy was interrupted 38 times during his speech for applause.

Aftermath

It took Kennedy 15 minutes to make it out of the arena to his car. He later departed on a flight for

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

Campaign staffer Jim Tolan would later say of the students' reception, "It was the first time I was ever scared with ennedy Those kids were out of control. He could have gotten hurt they liked him so much."

Legacy

At the time, Kennedy's criticism of the gross national product did not receive much attention, though it has since become famous, receiving significant coverage in the writings of economic critics. His words are credited as the beginning of the Beyond GDP movement. In an interview in 2008,

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...

said that Kennedy's University of Kansas oration was "one of the most beautiful of his speeches."

Notes

References

{{Robert F. Kennedy, state=expanded Speeches by Robert F. Kennedy 1968 in American politics University of Kansas 1968 speeches