Was Sargent Shriver ‘knifed’ by Kennedy?
Was Sargent Shriver ‘knifed’ by Kennedy?
A biography of Sargent Shriver published this month may not sit well with his Kennedy in-laws. The book, Sarge: The Life and Times of Sargent Shriver, by Scott Stossel, senior editor of The Atlantic magazine, suggests that Shriver offended many of those in the Kennedy circle by accepting President Johnson’s offer of ambassador to France, and not supporting the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy (D-N.Y.) when he challenged Johnson in 1968.
“Some of those close to RFK saw his decision as an insult to their candidate,” Stossel writes. “What’s more, Shriver, citing his diplomatic obligations, declined to work for the Kennedy campaign — even after Johnson withdrew from the race on March 21. To some in the Kennedy circle, this was an unforgivable violation of the family code.”
That’s the reason, Stossel asserts in an excerpt in Atlantic titled “Knifed,” that Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) refused to go along with the Democratic presidential nominee, Minnesota Sen. Hubert Humphrey, when he wanted Shriver to be his running mate after Kennedy refused to join HHH on the ticket.
Stossel quotes Kennedy as acknowledging, nearly 40 years later, that he was disappointed in Shriver, but insisting he did not blackball Shriver’s nomination for vice president.
