<P> In 1953 at Kennedy's urging McCarthy hired Robert Kennedy (age 27) as a senior staff member of the Senate's investigations subcommittee, which McCarthy chaired . In 1954, when the Senate was threatening to condemn McCarthy, Senator John Kennedy faced a dilemma . "How could I demand that Joe McCarthy be censured for things he did when my own brother was on his staff?" asked JFK . </P> <P> By 1954 Robert F. Kennedy and McCarthy's chief aide Roy Cohn had had a falling out, and Robert no longer worked for McCarthy . John Kennedy had a speech drafted calling for the censure of McCarthy but he never delivered it . When the Senate voted to censure McCarthy on December 2, 1954, Senator Kennedy was in the hospital and never indicated how he would cast his vote . Joe Kennedy strongly supported McCarthy to the end . </P> <P> Kennedy wanted his eldest son, Joe Jr., to become president, but after Joe Jr.'s death in August 1944, he became determined to make his second son, John, president . </P> <P> Kennedy was consigned to the political shadows after his remarks during World War II ("Democracy is finished"), and he remained an intensely controversial figure among U.S. citizens because of his suspect business credentials, his Roman Catholicism, his opposition to Roosevelt's foreign policy, and his support for Joseph McCarthy . As a result, his presence in John F. Kennedy's presidential campaign had to be downplayed . </P>

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