Abraham Ribicoff was born
in New Britain, Connecticut, on 9th April, 1910. Ribicoff's parents
were Jewish parents from Poland.
Ribicoff obtained degrees
from New York University and the University of Chicago in 1933. Ribicoff,
a member of the Democratic Party,
served two terms as a representative to the Connecticut House of Representatives
(1938-1942). He also served two terms as a police court judge in Hartford,
Connecticut.
In 1948 Ribicoff was elected
to the US House of Representatives. Although he was defeated in his
1952 bid for the US Senate, he was elected Governor of Connecticut
and served two terms (1955-61).
Ribicoff was a supporter
of John
F. Kennedy and
in 1961 was appointed as Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare.
In this post he advocated programs such as Medicare, Youth Fitness
and Equal Employment Opportunity. A few months after resigning from
the Cabinet in 1962, he was elected to the Senate, and then reelected
in 1968 and 1974. In the Senate, Ribicoff promoted consumer protection
legislation, pollution controls and aid to cities.
Ribicoff was concerned
by corruption in Congress. For example, the Suite
8F Group
also did very well out of the escalation of the Vietnam
War. They formed a new company called RMK-BRJ to obtain these
contracts. This included Halliburton who took over Brown & Root
in 1962. These contracts included building jet runways, dredging channels
for ships, hospitals, prisons, communications facilities, and building
American bases from Da Nang to Saigon. RMK-BRJ did 97% of the construction
work in Vietnam. The other 3% went to local Vietnamese contractors.
Between 1965 and 1972 Brown & Root (Halliburton) alone obtained
revenues of $380 million from its work in Vietnam. Ribicoff attempted
to expose this scandal. He claimed that millions was being paid in
kickbacks. An investigation by the General Accounting Office discovered
that by 1967 RMK-BRJ had “lost” $120 million. However, GAO
never managed to identify the people obtaining these kickbacks.
While in the Senate he
served on the committees on Government Operations and on Governmental
Affairs. In 1968 Ribicoff created great controversy by accusing Chicago
Mayor Richard Daley of using "Gestapo" tactics at the Democratic
National Convention. An opponent of the Vietnam
War, Ribicoff supported George McGovern
during his presidential campaign.
In 1981, Ribicoff retired
from the Senate and took a position as special counsel to the New
York law firm of Kaye, Scholer, Fierman, Hays & Handler.
Abraham Ribicoff died in
New York City on 22nd February, 1998
and was interned at Cornwall Cemetery, Connecticut.
Open
Debate on the Kennedy Assassination
(1)
Christopher Dodd, Tribute
to Senator Abraham Ribicoff (23rd February, 1998)
Even when he himself was not touched by the sting of discrimination,
he acted to do what was right. In 1956, a young Senator from Massachusetts
was mentioned as a possible Vice Presidential candidate. Ironically,
many Catholics, mindful of the discrimination that still existed
against them, questioned whether America was ready for an Irish
Catholic in the White House after what had occurred to Alfred Smith
in 1928.
Abe Ribicoff,
speaking to the Irish Catholic leadership of the Democratic Party,
took exception.
I never
thought [he said] I'd see the day when a man of the Jewish faith
had to plead before a group of Irish Catholics about allowing another
Irish Catholic to be nominated for the position (of Vice President).
In no small
measure, Mr. President, it was Abe Ribicoff's faith - faith in his
country and faith in a candidate that propelled John Kennedy to
the Presidency just a few years later.
Once again,
Mr. President, in 1976, questions were raised about whether a southern
Governor and a born-again Baptist believer could serve as President
of the United States. Without a moment's hesitation, this Connecticut
Yankee said yes. Judge the man, judge his ideas, but do not judge
his personal faith.
Abe Ribicoff
lived most of his professional life at the highest, most austere
and auspicious levels. He knew his share of Governors, of Senators,
of Presidents. But lest we forget, Mr. President, he also knew struggle.
He knew hardship growing up among the shops and mills of New Britain,
CT. And he knew discrimination and he knew defeat, having lost his
first campaign in the Senate by a slim margin.
But even
as he rose to the very top of public life, he never forgot about
those that he served. He knew that all principles are in the end
empty letters and hollow rhetoric if they are not connected to people's
lives. The instrument of Government, the laws of the land mean little
if they do not help ordinary citizens surmount obstacles and obtain
their noblest aspirations.
At a time
when Medicare was described as 'socialism,' Abe Ribicoff knew that
it embodied the obligation of a compassionate society to care for
its elderly. When some called civil rights laws an affront to 'States
rights,' he knew that they could make the promise of equal justice
a reality for millions of Americans. When others said that a Governor
and a Senator should not spend his time fussing about highway safety,
he knew that a tough approach to speeding and drunk driving would
save lives and spare families immeasurable grief and sorrow.
(2)
Martin Weil, Abraham
Ribicoff, Washington Post (23rd
February, 1998)
Work as a teenager
in a zipper and buckle factory and as a salesman of those products
helped earn him the reputation of a self-made man. In more than
40 years in public life, which included stints as police court judge
and state assembly member, he probably held as many titles as any
U.S. public figure.
During this
time, he built a reputation as an individualist who was guided by
principle and at the same time as a practitioner of politics who
knew the importance of balancing competing interests. One of his
favorite phrases was said to be "the integrity of compromise."
One of the
memorable and electrifying acts of his career came in 1968, when
he took the podium at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago
to speak for George McGovern, who was campaigning for the party's
presidential nomination. The convention was held amid turbulent
Vietnam War protests.
The uproar
seemed to spread to the convention floor as Ribicoff spoke for McGovern,
and on national television he stared directly down at Chicago Mayor
Richard J. Daley and accused him of Gestapo-like tactics in suppressing
the protest. Daley shouted back angrily from the floor, and the
convention erupted in clamor. Ribicoff calmly held his ground in
a moment of high drama...
Former Connecticut
governor Lowell P. Weicker Jr., who served with Ribicoff in the
Senate, lauded him as a man of courage who was never afraid to go
out on a limb for what he believed. "Abe Ribicoff did what
he thought was right, and the devil take the consequences,"
Weicker said.
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