one of the most infamous United States political rivalries from the last 100 years centers around the short-lived Kennedy Administration it's not about John F Kennedy and his Republican opponent Richard Nixon or any Republican for that matter in fact the Rivalry wasn't even about President Kennedy himself it involved his brother and his vice president vice president Lyndon B Johnson and Attorney General Robert F Kennedy shared a mutual hatred this might be obvious Enough by the nicknames each had for the other Kennedy called Johnson Uncle Rufus or Rufus cornpone in reference to his crude speech lumbering posture and lack of class Johnson called Kennedy a grandstanding runt and a snot-nosed kid for the good of the democratic party they kept the drama behind the scenes but to anyone around them it was no secret Kennedy was even gifted a voodoo doll of Johnson which he happily stabbed with pins at face value it might be easy to blame it on the dynamic Johnson had been Senate Majority Leader called the second most powerful man in the country in the days of Eisenhower and now he was vice president a notoriously useless role meanwhile Robert Kennedy who was nearly two decades younger was attorney general and the president's closest advisor seemingly for no good reason other than he was the president's brother but the hatred started much further back it might have even started all the way back in 1940 late that year President Franklin D Roosevelt fired Ambassador Joe Kennedy Robert's father 32 year old Congressman Johnson was with Roosevelt when he made the decision to fire quote that son of a Robert Kennedy was only 5 15 at the time but he no doubt heard the story passed around as Johnson loved retelling it for Kennedy it was a humiliating blow to the father he admired for Johnson it was a funny story of a rich snob getting his comeuppance it earned Johnson hatred from Young Kennedy and as Joe said of his own son once Bobby hates you you stayed hated 13 years later in 1953 they met for the first time in the Senate cafeteria young Kennedy was just working as an assistant to Senator Joseph McCarthy while entrenched in his political career Johnson had already been a Texas senator for four years and had just been elected Senate minority leader earlier that month biographer Robert Carro describes the scene as Johnson Bubsy and Reedy walked by McCarthy as was his custom jumped up to shake Johnson's hand calling him as senators were already starting to do leader and McCarthy's staffers also Rose except quite conspicuously for Bobby who sat unmoving with a look on the face that Bubsy described as a sort of glower Lyndon Johnson knew how to handle that situation moving around the table he extended his hand to McCarthy and those of the standing staffers and when he got to Bobby Kennedy stood there with his hand not exactly extended but in bubsy's words sort of half-raised looking down at Kennedy for a long moment Kennedy didn't move the glower had deepened into something more Bobby could really look hating Bubsy says and that was how he looked then he didn't want to get up but Johnson was kind of forcing him to and finally without looking Johnson in the eye he stood up and shook his hand when later asked what all the drama was about Johnson simply said it's about Roosevelt and father he knew exactly why Kennedy hated him but he probably never thought that a decade later he'd still be dealing with this thorn in his side at the 1960 Democratic National Convention John F Kennedy won the nomination and one of the defeated was Lyndon Johnson to Johnson this was ridiculous he was the Senate Majority Leader and one of the most powerful and skilled politicians in Washington yet he lost to someone he considered to be a political lightweight as Johnson saw it two things got Kennedy as far as he was daddy's money and his public appeal meaning good looks Charisma good speaking ability friendliness and likability all advantages which Johnson was well aware he never had in no small part Kennedy's Triumph was due to Western delegates swinging away from Johnson thanks to some politicking from Kennedy's brother Edward and his other brother Robert the Kennedys offered Johnson the role as running mate to balance the ticket Johnson accepted but wasn't happy at 51 with over two decades in politics he was playing second fiddle to some rich pretty boy this might explain the general animosity between the Kennedys and Johnson but it doesn't explain the exceptional animosity between LBJ and RFK in looking for an explanation anecdote upon anecdote can be brought up in 1956 Joe Kennedy secretly offered Johnson Financial backing to help him win the nomination if Johnson chose John Kennedy as his running mate Johnson turned him down Robert found this disrespectful in 1960 Johnson's campaign tried to make an issue out of Kennedy's Addison's disease which infuriated Robert and then there's the White House Dynamic of Johnson having to watch Robert with the president's year every single day while he struggled for the little time he got but ultimately the hatred between Kennedy and Johnson came down to personalities as Johnson's press secretary George Reedy put it did you ever see two dogs come into a room and all of the sudden the hair Rises on the back of their necks and there's this low growl that's the way they responded to each other the first time they met Kennedy was the third of four boys and the seventh of nine children smaller and weaker than his brothers he was sometimes teased but more often ignored perceiving young Robert as soft and compassionate their father also took little interest in him quiet and awkward by Nature Kennedy was the kind of kid who in his own words didn't mind being alone he liked United States history but otherwise wasn't too interested in school and wouldn't conform to fit in with social clicks so he mostly kept to himself however he he had a strong sense of virtue which pushed him out of his comfort zone he especially hated bullying and wanted to stop Injustice wherever he saw it because of this he began developing a harder Edge but what may have been an even greater motivator was the desire for attention from his father he began taking life more seriously and pushing himself more and more and it paid off by the time Robert was a young man his father described him as hard as Nails Johnson was almost the exact opposite he was the eldest child with three sisters and one brother at best he took his siblings for granted and at worst he bullied them when he was very young he admired his successful father but after his father lost his wealth Johnson felt humiliated and resented him to say Johnson was outgoing would be an understatement he always needed to be the center of attention and he'd stooped to any level to get the there whether that meant sucking up to Authority being loud and bombastic being cruel or if nothing else worked even humiliating himself the latter became all too common after his father went broke It ultimately sent him on a spiral of cruel and sometimes criminal and violent Behavior as a young adult but in the end this just led to more humiliation eventually there was one thing he desired more than just attention power and contrast to the heart as Nails Kennedy the college aged Johnson was becoming the perfect suck-up making good relations with popular students on campus literally sitting at the feet of professors doing anything to put him in the favor of people with power and make sure he'd never be on the bottom again their paths to power marked just how different they were Kennedy a crusading attorney fighting corruption communism and sometimes even his own allies in pursuit of his vision of justice and Johnson the consummate politician shaking the right hands learning how to read people getting on the good side of the most Adept politicians and figuring out how to use the system to utterly destroy anyone who got in his way for a stark comparison Kennedy resigned from McCarthy's committee after six months as he wasn't willing to conform with McCarthy's values or as he saw it lack thereof in contrast compromise was the name of the game for Lyndon Johnson he'd gotten so far by basically sucking up to every powerful figure around him and once he got power he used intimidation or flattery whichever worked to make sure the people beneath him compromised biographer Robert Carro elaborates there was Bobby's hatred for liars and his feeling that Lyndon Johnson lies all the time lies even when he doesn't have to AI there was his hatred for Yes Men And for those who wanted to be surrounded by yes men and Johnson's insistence on being surrounded by such men and insistence which Bobby was to say quote makes it very difficult unless you want to kiss his behind all the time he detested the politician's false bondomy and Johnson embodied that bonomy Kennedy hated Johnson so much that he even tried to stop him from accepting the vice presidential nomination at the 1960 Democratic National Convention the Kennedys did make the offer to Johnson but their speculation about their true intentions some believe that they thought Johnson was too prideful to actually accept the position thus the offer would be left as a sign of good faith a way to make sure a spiteful Johnson wouldn't be using his political sway against them surprisingly Johnson was open to the idea while John feelings about having Johnson actually accept the position our unknown Robert never came to terms with it three times in one day he tried to get Johnson to turn down the offer the first two times he met with Johnson's campaign officials the third he met alone with Johnson While most politicians shuddered at the thought of being locked alone in a room with Lyndon B Johnson Kennedy was practically breaking down the door to get inside no one knows what happened in that room that information died with both men what is known is that Johnson became John Kennedy's running mate and that Robert and Johnson continued hating each other and Robert Kennedy continued to be confrontational with Johnson he perhaps learned to pick his battles better and go along for the good of the party but during his brother's Administration he belittled and tormented Johnson or Uncle Rufus in every way he could and during Johnson's Administration he never showed the unconditional deference that Johnson wanted from everyone and a phone call from July 1964 Kennedy even outright accused Johnson of receiving reports on him Kennedy couldn't really argue with Johnson on many domestic issues as Johnson was honoring John's Legacy by taking on more liberal stances such as pushing through the Civil Rights bill in fact because of his unparalleled political skill Johnson was probably able to get more legislation passed than Kennedy ever could have there were social issues where he was at odds with Johnson's Administration however he really found his issue to legitimately oppose Johnson with the Vietnam War Johnson and Kennedy were just too different to ever get along and their one similarity each man's absolute need to have his own way guaranteed they'd be bitter Rivals even after John Kennedy assassination the shadow of Robert loomed over Johnson for the next five years as Johnson was well aware of Robert's tenacity and popularity and lived in Perpetual fear and some might say paranoia of being usurped in the 1968 election Robert's assassination that year left Johnson know better despite all of his accomplishments the public would always remember the Kennedy Brothers better though many historians have since been more positive towards Johnson public opinion of the time made him feel like a failed president he died in 1973 four years after leaving office still in the shadow of the Kennedys if one thing can be said for both Robert Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson it's that no matter how begrudgingly they recognized the capability of the other I can't stand the bastard Robert once said but he's the most formidable human being I've ever met for his 1960 campaign Johnson later admitted that he picked his campaign manager because he was the only man tough enough to handle Robert Kennedy if you enjoyed this video consider subscribing and donating on patreon donations from two to Fifteen dollars a month help towards more frequent uploads and help towards the frequency of more in-depth topics like this one patreon Link in the description below