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At his brother's request, Bobby Kennedy sits in on almost all meetings of the National Security Council. He refuses to sit at the table; he takes a chair close to the wall of the Cabinet room, behind and to the left of the President. He rarely speaks up at NSC meetings—but when he does, he is heard. After Cuba, Chester Bowles, who was sitting in for Absent State Secretary Rusk, delivered a position report on Cuba that was long on platitudes, short on concrete proposals. From his seat behind the President, Bobby protested. ''This is worthless. What can we do about Cuba? This doesn't tell us." For ten minutes the Attorney General tore the Bowles report to bits. When he was through, there was an awkward silence, broken only when the President changed the subject. Before the session's end. President Kennedy had assigned a task force under Assistant Defense Secretary Paul Nitze to draw up new proposals for U.S. policy toward Cuba.
The President does not always follow his brother's advice. Last August, Bobby and Ethel Kennedy spent three days in Africa during the independence anniversary celebration of the Ivory Coast. The trip was an opportunity to meet African leaders. Bobby became convinced that Ghana's left-leaning President Kwame Xkrumah was implacably hostile to the U.S.. and on his return he argued privately with the President against a proposed $133 million loan to Ghana for construction of a Volta River power project. When the issue came up at an NSC meeting, the President went around the table seeking opinions; he got mostly favorable replies. 'The Attorney General," he then said, "has not spoken. But I can feel the hot breath of his disapproval on the back of my neck." Despite Bobby's objection, the loan was approved.
"I'm Already Married." Last week, on his first morning in Tokyo. Bobby Kennedy rose early at his U.S. embassy quarters, gave three separate newspaper interviews, left the building at 8:15 a.m. for a round of official calls. He stopped at the home of Prime Minister Hayato Ikeda. discussed Berlin, Laos, Japanese-Korean relations. From Ikeda's residence, Kennedy moved on to the Foreign Office, the Ministry of Justice, the Diet, a couple of television studios, an embassy reception, a Bar Association tea and the Japanese Supreme Court.
That night, after a dinner given by Foreign Minister Kosaka. Kennedy went with a group of Japanese labor leaders to a sake shop off the Ginza, Tokyo's Gay White Way. "How do you like Japanese women?" asked one of the shop's customers. Said Kennedy: ''They're pretty. But I can't comment any more. I'm already married to an American woman." Kennedy, whose favorite beverage is a glass of milk chilled precisely 15 minutes in a freezer, was pressed to taste sake. Asked he: "Is it good for the health?" Replied the bartender: "It's the best medicine." Soon, the Japanese began serenading their guest with a folk song called The Coal Miners' Song ("Over the coal mines the moon has risen! But since the mine chimneys are so tall, certainly the moon must find it smoky"). Bobby responded with When Irish Eyes Are Smiling.