'E&P' Editor on 'Witnessing' the RFK Assassination [View All]

When Bobby Kennedy was assassinated, I must have been one of the few people on the East Coast -- or practically anywhere in the U.S. -- still awake to watch it unfold. I was such a diehard Eugene McCarthy supporter (head of my campus Clean for Gene outfit) that I simply had to stay up until the last votes were counted in the tight California primary, even though all of the TV anchors had assured us that Kennedy was headed for a crucial victory.

I was still watching, unhappily, when Kennedy gave his victory speech past 3 a.m. in New York.

Kennedy was my senator but I had backed McCarthy early on and was one of the millions who resented RFK for horning in on the antiwar crusade only after Lyndon Johnson announced he would not stand for re-election. The word "opportunist" to describe Kennedy gained wide currency, and there was little doubting it (even some of his supporters admitted). However, many of the McCarthyites also came to admire his appeal to blacks, Chicanos and the poor and recognized that he would be a far stronger candidate in the fall -- if he (in tandem with McCarthy) could deny Hubert Humphrey the nomination, still an uphill battle.

In any event, I was watching the vote count to the bitter end -- and what happened in the wee hours of the morning remains vivid in my skull even after 40 years.

You've all seen the footage of RFK beaming and waving to the crowd at the Ambassador ballroom and saying, "On to Chicago," and then disappearing from the stage. Probably nearly everyone beyond the West Coast (and even most people out there) still watching clicked off their sets then. CBS and NBC had already ended coverage, and ABC was about to sign off.

But I stayed tuned, and I'll never forget the first suggestions of something amiss.

As I recall, the first evidence wasn't a news flash but simply a visual image of an injured body on a table and people standing around in distress, some sobbing, others with eyes in wide-eyed shock. I recall sitting straight up on the couch and pressing closer to the TV. What the hell was this? Then came word of a shooting, and with a Kennedy nearby, there could be little doubt of the target.


much more . . .
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003808156

The whole article brings back that day so very clearly.