By Andrew Miller
The first thing you notice, on entering Robert F. Kennedy junior’s office at his home in Los Angeles, is a stuffed tiger. It was shot by Sukarno, the first president of Indonesia, whom the CIA reputedly tried to assassinate. As Kennedy tells it, his uncle, President John F. Kennedy, on learning that Sukarno was anti-American, said, “I’d be anti-American too, if the CIA tried to kill me.” Hearing of this, Sukarno “fell in love” with JFK and invited him to visit Indonesia. Kennedy’s father, Robert F. Kennedy senior, who in the early 1960s was the attorney-general in his brother’s administration, went instead and brought back the gift of the tiger. Soon afterwards Sukarno sent two live Komodo dragons that Bobby junior had requested (they wound up in a zoo).
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From the April 13th 2024 edition
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