By: History.com Editors

1967

Bobby Kennedy proposes plan to end the war

History.com Editors

Published: November 16, 2009

Last Updated: January 31, 2025

Senator Robert Kennedy (D-New York) proposes a three-point plan to help end the war. The plan included suspension of the U.S. bombing of North Vietnam and the gradual withdrawal of U.S. and North Vietnamese troops from South Vietnam with replacement by an international force. Secretary of State Dean Rusk rejected Kennedy’s proposal because he believed that the North Vietnamese would never agree to withdraw their troops.

Robert F. Kennedy

Robert Kennedy was a powerful figure in Washington until his assassination in 1968.

Kennedy had been Attorney General under his brother, President John F. Kennedy. When the elder Kennedy was assassinated, Robert stayed on to serve his successor, Lyndon B. Johnson, but resigned his post in 1964 to run for the Senate. In the Senate, Kennedy initially continued to support U.S. efforts in Vietnam despite his growing apprehension about the war, especially the massive bombing of North Vietnam, because he was reluctant to disagree with the Johnson administration and its handling of the war. As racial strife and urban violence intensified along with mounting antiwar sentiment, however, Kennedy found it increasingly difficult to remain silent.

The presidential campaign of 1968 opened the door for him to act on his concern. Kennedy announced his intentions to run on March 16. When President Johnson announced that he would not seek re-election, Kennedy quickly emerged as a serious contender for the presidency. On June 4, 1968, he won the all-important California primary, thereby becoming his party’s front-runner. That night, after addressing his supporters at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, he was shot by Sirhan Sirhan. He died the following day at the age of 42.

Timeline

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1776

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1807

Congress abolishes the African slave trade

On March 2, 1807, the U.S. Congress passes an act to “prohibit the importation of slaves into any port or place within the jurisdiction of the United States…from any foreign kingdom, place, or country.” It would go into effect at the start of the following year. The first shipload of African captives to the British […]

1836

Texas declares independence

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1861

Texas secedes

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1904

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1917

Puerto Ricans become U.S. citizens, are recruited for war effort

Barely a month before the United States enters World War I, President Woodrow Wilson signs the Jones-Shafroth Act, granting U.S. citizenship to the inhabitants of Puerto Rico. Located about 1,000 miles southeast of Florida—and less than half that distance from the coast of South America—Puerto Rico was ceded to the U.S. by Spain in December […]

1929

President Coolidge signs the Jones Act, targeting bootleggers

The Jones Act, the last gasp of the Prohibition, is signed into law by President Calvin Coolidge. Since 1920 when the Eighteenth Amendment went into effect, the United States had banned the production, importation and sale of alcoholic beverages. But the laws had been ineffective at actually stopping the consumption of alcohol. The Jones Act […]

1943

The Battle of the Bismarck Sea begins

On March 2, 1943, the Battle of the Bismarck Sea begins when U.S. and Australian land-based planes launch an offensive against a convoy of Japanese ships in the western Pacific. One day earlier, U.S. reconnaissance planes spotted 16 Japanese ships en route to Lae and Salamaua in New Guinea. The Japanese were attempting to maintain […]

1944

More than 500 train passengers mysteriously suffocate

On March 2, 1944, a train stops in a tunnel near Salerno, Italy, and more than 500 people on board suffocate and die. The details of the incident, which occurred in the midst of World War II, were not revealed at the time and remain somewhat murky. Train Number 8017 left Salerno heading for the […]

1955

Fifteen-year-old Claudette Colvin refuses to give up her seat on a segregated bus

A full nine months before Rosa Parks‘s famous act of civil disobedience, 15-year-old Claudette Colvin is arrested on March 2, 1955 for refusing to give up her seat on a segregated Montgomery, Alabama bus.  Colvin was traveling home from school when the bus’ driver ordered her, along with three fellow Black students, to give up their row of seats to […]

EXPIRES APRIL 2023 -- Civil rights pioneer Claudette Colvin.

1962

Wilt Chamberlain scores 100 points

On March 2, 1962, Philadelphia Warriors center Wilt Chamberlain scores 100 points against the New York Knicks during a home game in Hershey, Pennsylvania. It was the first time that a professional basketball player had scored 100 points in a single contest; the previous record, 78, had been set by Chamberlain earlier in the season. […]

1966

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1969

Soviet Union and Chinese armed forces clash

In a dramatic confirmation of the growing rift between the two most powerful communist nations in the world, troops from the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China fire on each other at a border outpost on the Ussuri River in the eastern region of the USSR, north of Vladivostok. In the years following […]

1972

Pioneer 10 launched to Jupiter

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1978

Reports surface of grave robbers stealing Charlie Chaplin’s body

On March 2, 1978, news outlets report one of history’s most famous cases of body-snatching: Sometime in the middle of the previous night, two men had stolen the corpse of the revered film actor Sir Charles Chaplin from a cemetery in the Swiss village of Corsier-sur-Vevey, located in the hills above Lake Geneva, near Lausanne, […]

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Citation Information

Article title
Bobby Kennedy proposes plan to end the war
Website Name
History
Date Accessed
March 28, 2025
Publisher
A&E Television Networks
Last Updated
January 31, 2025
Original Published Date
November 16, 2009

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