A common government CYA technique...

First topic message reminder :

"A common government CYA technique... assert the outcome, then you have your team of investigators and experts fill in the details that eventually arrive at your desired outcome - no matter how ridiculous the details are."

Heard this recently on a video about another historical and highly controvertial event, but boy does it nail it. 

The cherry on top is that you then appoint a blue-ribbon commission to giver your investigators and experts the seal of approval for their work.

Roger Odisio wrote:The statement was made during a campaign stop at a college in California near the end of the '68 primary in that state, when a female student asked him if he would reopen the case of JFK's murder. He had avoided the topic in public, but this time he said yes.    
 
I'm pretty sure Junior had told the story during one of his many interviews of late.  But I had read about it long before that.  I haven't been able to find that source, but I'll keep looking.
 
In 2007, David Talbott, in Brothers, had told how RFK had conducted a secret investigation into  his brother's murder until he himself was killed.  He never believed the WC. Talbot said he had told aides he couldn't do anything about the murder, however, until he had the power of the White House behind him.
 

When he made the statement to the student, he was on the cusp of winning the California primary on his way to getting the '68 Democratic nomination (though Humphrey at the convention and Nixon in the election still stood in his way). He must have been a bit euphoric.  He let his guard down when the student asked him about the JFKA.   

G'day Roger,

I follow your posts with interest at the forum, always an interesting read, at least to me.
I'm curious though. I'm wanting to know the source for RFK's comment to the schoolgirl. If you do find it please do post it. Until it's found I guess it's just hearsay.

It was disingenuous for Truman to be shocked at CIA covert operations. After all, Truman signed the National Security Act of 1947, Truman’s National Security Council authorized covert operations in 1947 and the CIA’s Office of Policy Coordination was established in 1948 to manage covert operations.

Shocked is your word Lman, not mine.  It's clear to me that Truman was upset about the murder of JFK.  Upset enough to write an article in the Post advocating the elimination of what the covert operations he had approved had become. 
 
I suspect that when Dulles tried to convince Truman to retract his article, he used arguments similar to yours. C'mon Harry.  It's a dangerous world out there, as you know.  The CIA is just doing what you authorized it to do back in '47 (don't be disingenuous).  Btw, we had nothing to do with the JFKA, if that's what's got you stirred up.  The obvious falseness of that got nowhere with Truman.
 
Have you read his article?  https://ratical.org/ratville/JFK/Unspeakable/TrumanLimitCIA.html.   The title was Limit CIA Role to Intelligence and the whole point of it was a refutation of that argument.  Truman had created a monster and was trying to correct his mistake before it was too late. 
 
Think of it, if you wish, as a complement to Eisenhower's famous speech warning about the growth of the military industrial complex. Both were ignored by those in power.

I agree,Mick. There seems to be no corroboration of it. No audio or video footage of RFK saying. Nor a direct quote from RFK anywhere saying this. Just a claim by someone that he said it.

Off course that does not necessarily mean he did not say it. But as of now there is no evidence. Hope Roger will be able to find the source soon.

Here is an article from the Boston Globe, printed 2 days after the 50th anniversary of the murder. It turns out RFK's remarks were made on March 25, 1968, one week after entering the campaign, not near the end with a victory in California looming, as I had thought. He was speaking at San Fernando Valley State College, when confronted with students who didn't believe the WR and wanted to know what he was going to do about it. The discussion is at the end of the article  According to the authors there is a recording of the event.

https://www3.bostonglobe.com/metro/2013/11/24/his-brother-keeper-robert-kennedy-saw-conspiracy-jfk-assassination/TmZ0nfKsB34p69LWUBgsEJ/story.html?arc404=true.

The article mentions that Frank Mankiewicz, RFK's press secretary and close friend, was stunned that Kennedy would say in public that he would reopen the WC archives if he became president, after avoiding that all those years and implying the opposite.  Ever the politician, Kennedy followed his statement by saying he would not reopen the WR. He stood by it, whatever that means. Mankiewicz knew this was false by what Kennedy told him in private.  But there were votes on both sides of the issue.

Let me be clear. I didn't mention the story because I think it led to, or was a major factor in, RFK's murder.  I said, if his killers needed another reason to murder him (*they didn't*) this story was it.  They had every reason to expect Kennedy would come after them if he became president.  His almost 5 year long investigation into the JFKA almost certainly was not a secret to them.  They could not let him become president.

Here's another story for those who like that sort of thing.  Told by Larry King the long time talk show host.  He was driving Garrison to the airport in '67 or '68.  As Garrison got out of the car, he turned to King and said, they're going to kill Bobby too.

Thanks Roger. Btw the article is referring to the same incident in the video I posted. It is audio footage from  San Fernando Valley State College.

That is interesting, Vinny.
 
I don't remember where I first heard about the incident.  It could very well have been from the Boston Globe article, published 10 years ago.  But listening to the audio, things are a bit murkier than I thought.
 
First, my characterization that RFK said he would reopen the JFKA was wrong.  He never said that.  
 
The Globe article: "To the specific question about whether he would open the Warren Commission archives, Bobby said that, if it were in his power, yes, he would, 'at the appropriate time.”'
 
RFK didn't exactly say that either.  His answer was passive tense--there was no "I will".  There was no "yes" to the question of whether *he* would open the archives.  After emphasizing there was nobody more interested in who was responsible for his brother's death than he, he simply said I'm sure the archives will be opened at the appropriate time. That drew applause, perhaps leaving the impression, as the Globe article indicated, that he had said he would open the archives as president, when he was more circumspect.
 
Be he prefaced that with saying he had seen everything in the Archives and he stood behind the Warren Report.  He would not reopen the case.
 
We now know from Mankiewicz and from the research of Talbot and others, that statement was a lie.  A lie he felt he had to tell publicly because he rightly reasoned he could not get to the bottom of the murder without the power of the presidency behind him.
 
Also, the encounter with the students was at the beginning of his campaign.  McCarthy had already captured young voters' antiwar zeal.  McCarthy was his first hurdle to get the nomination. When pressed like that he had to give his audience something to hang on to.
 
A bit of perspective.  24 years later, Congress unanimously passed the JFKA Act that established (1) the Review Board to search for JFK records not in the Archives and (2) the JFKA Records Collection to house them in NARA *so that individuals can research for themselves what happened that day*.  Rather than rely on (an untrustworthy) government to tell them.
 
The Democrats controlled both houses of Congress in 1969. He could have easily done that at a time when most of the participants were still alive. I'm pretty sure he would have done much more than that had he made it to the White House.
 
Bottom line.  The college incident was not some turning point. Thanks for helping me to clarify that, at least in my own mind.
 

Winning the California primary moving him close to the nomination, was.  Now he had to go and his killers were ready.

Besides RFK Jr., has any other member of the Kennedy family expressed interest in re-investigating either of the Kennedy assassinations?

I have a hard time seeing how the Kennedy family could believe that there was deep state (I hate that term!) plot to kill JFK and, to prevent exposure, RFK, and still participate in national politics. Ted Kennedy ran for president in 1980, but his campaign sank after he gave a rambling answer to a reporter asking him why he wanted to be president. And this was against Carter, who was unpopular at the time.

Roger Odisio wrote:Here is an article from the Boston Globe, printed 2 days after the 50th anniversary of the murder. It turns out RFK's remarks were made on March 25, 1968, one week after entering the campaign, not near the end with a victory in California looming, as I had thought. He was speaking at San Fernando Valley State College, when confronted with students who didn't believe the WR and wanted to know what he was going to do about it. The discussion is at the end of the article  According to the authors there is a recording of the event.

https://www3.bostonglobe.com/metro/2013/11/24/his-brother-keeper-robert-kennedy-saw-conspiracy-jfk-assassination/TmZ0nfKsB34p69LWUBgsEJ/story.html?arc404=true.

The article mentions that Frank Mankiewicz, RFK's press secretary and close friend, was stunned that Kennedy would say in public that he would reopen the WC archives if he became president, after avoiding that all those years and implying the opposite.  Ever the politician, Kennedy followed his statement by saying he would not reopen the WR. He stood by it, whatever that means. Mankiewicz knew this was false by what Kennedy told him in private.  But there were votes on both sides of the issue.

Let me be clear. I didn't mention the story because I think it led to, or was a major factor in, RFK's murder.  I said, if his killers needed another reason to murder him (*they didn't*) this story was it.  They had every reason to expect Kennedy would come after them if he became president.  His almost 5 year long investigation into the JFKA almost certainly was not a secret to them.  They could not let him become president.

Here's another story for those who like that sort of thing.  Told by Larry King the long time talk show host.  He was driving Garrison to the airport in '67 or '68.  As Garrison got out of the car, he turned to King and said, they're going to kill Bobby too.

Thanks Roger.

That's what I meant, Roger. He never publicly said that he was reopening is brother's murder case. He claimed that he believed the Warren Report regardless of what he may have privately believed. Same with the other brother Ted.