Robert F. Kennedy, in full Robert Francis Kennedy, (born November 20, 1925, Brookline, Massachusetts, U.S.—died June 6, 1968, Los Angeles, California), U.S. attorney general and adviser during the administration of his brother Pres. John F. Kennedy (1961–63) and later a U.S. senator (1965–68). He was assassinated while campaigning for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination in 1968. Robert interrupted his studies at Harvard University to serve in the U.S. Navy during World War II but returned to the university and graduated in 1948. After receiving a law degree from the University of Virginia Law School in 1951, he began his political career in Massachusetts the next year with the management of his brother John’s successful campaign for the U.S. Senate. Robert first came into national prominence in 1953, when he was an assistant counsel to the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, headed by Joseph R. McCarthy (he resigned in mid-1953 but returned in 1954 as counsel to the Democratic minority). In 1957 he was chief counsel to the Senate select committee conducting investigations into labour racketeering, which led to his long-standing feud with James R. Hoffa of the Teamsters Union. Kennedy resigned from the committee staff in 1960 to conduct his brother’s campaign for the U.S. presidency. After John won the election, he appointed (1961) Robert attorney general in his cabinet.
