Jan. 18, 1964 | RFK Meets with President Sukarno

Jan. 18, 1964 - Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy left Japan for Korea today after a two-day visit in which moderate progress appeared to have been made in damping down the Malaysia crisis. Mr. Kennedy met in Tokyo twice with President Sukarno of Indonesia to express U.S. concern over the possibility that a major conflict might erupt in Southeast Asia. At the end of today’s meeting, he said he was encouraged that the three parties to the dispute — Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines — would “sit down at the conference table and work out their differences in a peaceful manner.” Mr. Kennedy addressed students at Waseda University in Tokyo later in the day and received a warm welcome. He eulogized his slain brother as a “leader of the young people of the world” and urged the students to carry on “the efforts and ideals” of the late President. The Attorney General is interrupting his special peacemaking mission for a one-day visit to South Korea where, he said, he wanted to visit some servicemen there. After short visits to Manila and the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur, he will go to Jakarta, the Indonesian capital, on Wednesday for further talks with President Sukarno. Mr. Kennedy said the chief purpose of his mission was “to take this controversy out of the jungle, out of the warfare that is now taking place, and put it around the conference table.” Speaking at Waseda University, where he was heckled by leftist students two years ago, the 38-year-old Mr. Kennedy told the warmly responding students: “I think you and I as young people have a special responsibility.”

Support this project at patreon.com/realtime1960s