1968

In the middle of the night I was shaken awake by David Gartner, a personal aide to the vice president. And Dave said, "Humphrey says get up, Robert Kennedy's been shot." And I said, "David, that's a sick joke." He said, "No, no, Robert Kennedy's been shot."

So I got up and Humphrey was absolutely distraught, he was just absolutely beside himself with anxiety and concern. And we then received a phone call from Steve Smith and Pierre Salinger in California. They said, "There's a brain surgeon we trust in Boston. Could you arrange for a private plane to fly him to Los Angeles? Because Robert Kennedy's still alive and there's a possibility of saving him."

Humphrey called up the commanding general of the air force, who happened to be there at the academy. And Humphrey said, "Will you please dispatch this plane?" The general said, "I surely will."

Ten minutes later we received a call from an aide in the White House: President Johnson had canceled the plane because Humphrey had no authority to send it. The fact was, Johnson preferred Robert Kennedy dead.

It was one of the most heinous acts I've ever experienced in my life, and it all but broke Humphrey's heart.

--Ted Van Dyk
Aide to then Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey
From RFK: A Candid Biography Of Robert F. Kennedy by C. David Heymann, page 505.


Ted Van Dyk has been active in national policy and politics for more than 30 years. He began active military duty in 1957 as a U.S. Army intelligence analyst. His subsequent jobs have included Soviet specialist and intelligence analyst at the Pentagon; senior assistant to Vice President Hubert Humphrey and coordinator of foreign assistance programs in the Carter Administration, to name just a few. He also served as a senior political and policy advisor to seven Democratic presidential candidates. Since early 2001, he has been an editorial-page columnist for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and has continued writing periodically for national publications. http://www.com.washington.edu/program/alumni/notesoz.html