A Common Good: The Friendship Of Robert F. Kennedy And Kenneth P. O'donnell
InA Common Good: The Friendship of Robert F. Kennedy and Kenneth P. O'Donnell, Helen O'Donnell pays tribute to her father Kenneth and his lifelong friend Bobby Kennedy. Kenneth O'Donnell met Bobby Kennedy at Harvard right after World War II, and the men remained fast friends for the rest of their lives, playing football together, working side by side on political campaigns, and striving to change the world. O'Donnell was a masterful organizer and a forthright political operator, skills that came in handy on many a campaign trail. He helped John F. Kennedy through several elections and finally served as his gatekeeper in the White House, the man who decided who got access to the president and when they got it. He came to be called "the Cobra" in the White House because of the fierce way he guarded the president's time. O'Donnell writes that her father was also involved in many policy decisions, and that despite their different socioeconomic backgrounds, the Kennedy and O'Donnell families were close. Because of O'Donnell's family connections and her access to the normally closed Kennedy archives, this book contains lots of behind-the-scenes information about the Kennedy campaigns and the intersecting lives of the two families. The untimely deaths of John F. Kennedy and Bobby Kennedy shattered Kenneth O'Donnell. He took to drinking, staged two unsuccessful campaigns for governor of Massachusetts, and died young. At its heart, this is a very sad book about a man who lost his best friend and then didn't know what to do with himself.--Jill Marquis