Robert F. Kennedy

NAME CLASS DATE

BIOGRAPHY

Robert F. Kennedy

Regarding his stand against an air strike during the Cuban Missile Crisis, Robert F. Kennedy said, “I did not believe the President of the United States could order

such a military operation. . All our heritage and our ideals would be repugnant to such a sneak military attack.” Acting on the basis of heritage and ideals illustrates why Robert Kennedy was sometimes called “the conscience of the administration.”

As you read the passage below,think about the influences in Robert F Kennedy’slife that formed his idealism and strong social conscience.

Robert F. Kennedy was born in Massachusetts kids have never had a glass of milk.” Later, he in 1925, into a family of great wealth and power. would comment on his awakening: ‘I found out He was the seventh of nine children and the third something I never knew. I found out that my son. As a child, he was small for his age, slow in world was not the real world.” school, and not very athletic. One of his classmates When his brother named him Attorney later said, “Nothing came easily for him. What he General,Kennedy’seducation continued, as the had was a set of handicaps and a fantastic deter struggle of minorities for equality gained momen mination to overcome them. The handicaps made tum. He spearheaded the Justice Department’s him redouble his effort.” His teachers noted that efforts to end segregation and gain full voting rights he had a deep religious faith and concern for others. for African Americans. He also became aware of After graduating from law school in 1951, injustices suffered by Native Americans, Hispanics, Kennedy joined the Justice Department in Washing and Mexican Americans. “I never saw a change in ton, D.C., and became an assistant counsel to the his character,” remarked one of his colleagues. “But McCarthy committee investigating Communists in I did see a change in his view of the world.” government. Later, he became counsel to a Senate Kennedy left the Justice Department a few committee investigating improper activities in the months after his brother’s assassination. In 1964 labor and management field, a committee of which he was elected as a U.S. senator from New York. his brother, Senator John F. Kennedy, was a mem From that base, he became a spokesman for the ber. In 1960, when Senator Kennedy decided to nation’s underprivileged minorities. In 1968 he run for President, Robert resigned from the com sought the Democratic nomination for President. mittee to run his brother’s campaign. In his speeches calling for social justice, he often Robert Kennedy’s travels during the 1960 ended with this quote: “Some men see things as campaign opened his eyes to the poverty and they are and say ‘Why?’ I dream of things that injustice he had never known in his privileged never were and say ‘Why not?” world. In Appalachia, in West Virginia, he blurted Robert Kennedy’s life was cut short by an in disbelief “Can you believe it? Some of these assassin’s bullet in June 1968.

1. What childhood difficulties did Robert F. Kennedy have to overcome? 2. Why was he so amazed by the poverty and injustice he encountered during the 1960 presidential campaign? d 3. Determining Relevance How might Kennedy’s childhood struggles, deep religious I faith, and education in poverty and injustice have influenced the development of his social idealism? C) 0C 0 0

Chapter 28 Survey Edition Biography • 9 Chapter 18 Modern American History Edition NAME CLASS DATE

/ Dr. Frances Kelsey

C H In September 1960, as John F. Kennedy was campaigning for the presidency, A another p American was settling into her new job in Washington, D.C. Dr. Frances T Kelsey had just joined the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), where she was E to evaluate applications from pharmaceutical companies seeking licenses to R market new drugs. An application had just reached her desk for a drug already 28 popular in Europe—thalidomide.

As you read, consider how Dr. Kelseywas able toprevent a national tragedy.

Shesaw her duty in sternly simple terms, and by findings about the drug. “I was bothered by she carried it out.” That is how an American news the fact that thalidomide would not put a horse to paper would describe Dr. Frances Kelsey’s most sleep,” she said, “It was a very unusual kind of noteworthy accomplishment. Carrying out her drug and we had no idea how it worked.” duties well had always been her hallmark. Born Dr. Kelsey denied approval of the drug and in Vancouver, Canada, in 1914, Frances Oldham ordered the pharmaceutical company to provide was a dedicated student with a keen interest in more information on how thalidomide worked. scientific studies. After receiving a Master of Science Then she saw a disturbing letter in a British degree from McGill University in Montreal, she medical journal. It warned doctors to be on the enrolled at the University of Chicago where she lookout for harmful side effects of thalidomide. earned a Ph.D. in pharmacology. Her particular Meanwhile, defenders of the drug pressured the interest was how the body reacts to drugs. FDA to approve it. They attacked Dr. Kelsey as an After marrying another pharmacologist in 1943, unreasonable, hairsplitting bureaucrat, but still Dr. Kelsey entered medical school and earned an she resisted. M.D. In 1952, the Kelseys moved to South Dakota, Then, in November 1961, a doctor in Germany where Frances Kelsey started a medical practice. linked thalidomide to severe birth deformities, When her husband was transferred to Washington, Babies whose mothers had taken the drug were D.C., Frances Kelsey’s knowledge of medicine being born with no legs, deformed internal organs, and pharmacology made her a perfect candidate and flipper-like hands attached to their shoulders. for ajob at the Food and Drug Administration. Eventually 10,000 such babies would be born. On September 8, 1960, the application for Now a grateful nation honored the once- thalidomide reached Dr. Kelsey’s desk: she had scorned Dr. Kelsey. President Kennedy presented just sixty days in which to evaluate it. Thalidomide her with the Distinguished Civilian Service Medal, was already a widely prescribed sleeping pill in the highest award a federal employee can receive, Europe, and its approval in the United States for “her high ability and steadfast confidence in seemed automatic. But Dr. Kelsey was troubled her professional decision.”

1. (a) Why was Dr. Frances Kelsey particularly well prepared for her FDA job? (b) Why was she so skeptical about thalidomide? 2. Predicting Consequences Had thalidomide been approved, how might its use have affected public health and the leputation of the FDA?