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Oral history
John F. Kennedy Oral History Collection
JFKOH-ROWK-05
In this interview Komer discusses working with McGeorge Bundy; the “inner circle” of the Bundy State Department; Komer’s major contacts; the intelligence system; the power and responsibilities of the State Department; how Bundy screened what President John F. Kennedy [JFK] would see; relations with other key officials; Robert F. Kennedy and foreign policy issues; the Bundy State Department and White House staff; the “little State Department” in the White House; the bureaucratic role of the State Department; U.S. foreign policy in Asia; relations with key U.S. Ambassadors; handling Arab-Israeli issues; domestic pressures of American-Jewish community on JFK; Arabists in the Kennedy Administration; working with Myer Feldman on Israeli issues; the United States, Saudi Arabia, and oil; filling the power vacuum left by the British; dealing with Congress on foreign aid matters; counterinsurgency; and looking back at programs during the Kennedy Administration, among other issues.
Photograph
White House Photographs
JFKWHP-ST-M9-5-61
Audience members at the presentation of the National Security Medal to Allen W. Dulles, retiring director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Seated in the first row (L-R): three unidentified women; Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara; Ethel Kennedy, wife of Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy; and the Attorney General. Seated in the second row (L-R): Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Lyman Lemnitzer and Commandant of the United States Marine Corps General David M. Shoup (wearing glasses). J. Edgar Hoover, Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is seated in the third row, to the right of General Lemnitzer. CIA headquarters, Langley, Virginia.