Background
Kenneth Barnard Keating was born on May 18, 1900 in Lima, New York, United States, the son of Thomas Mosgrove Keating and Louise Barnard.
Kenneth Barnard Keating was born on May 18, 1900 in Lima, New York, United States, the son of Thomas Mosgrove Keating and Louise Barnard.
Keating attended Genesee Wesleyan Seminary in New York State, earned the degree of Bachelor of Arts from the University of Rochester in 1919, and graduated from Harvard University with the degree of Bachelor of Laws in 1923.
Keating went to Rochester in 1923 and established a thriving law practice as a member of the firm of Harris, Beach, Keating, Wilcox, Dale and Linowitz, with which he was affiliated until 1948. During World War II Keating served in the China-Burma-India theater, first as a colonel and later a brigadier general in the U. S. Army. Keating's long tenure in the political arena began in 1946 when he was elected as a Republican to the U. S. House of Representatives, where he served until 1958 representing first the Fortieth and later the Thirty-eighth New York districts. In 1958 Keating defeated Democrat Frank Hogan, the Manhattan district attorney, in the race for the United States Senate, despite union opposition brought on by his votes against several trade union bills. In the Senate Keating served on the Judiciary Committee and on the Joint Congressional Committee on Immigration. He remained a staunch supporter of civil rights and tended to be liberal on domestic issues. In 1960, Keating and seven other Republican senators proposed a voluntary federal-state health insurance program for people older than sixty-five. This plan, in which states would contract with private firms for coverage and subscribers would make payments based on income, was more liberal than the one proposed by the Kennedy administration. The plan finally adopted contained many of the Keating plan's basic features but required a means test and allowed each state to determine the type and extent of medical assistance it would provide.
Although Keating was one of John F. Kennedy's most consistent Republican supporters, he was critical of the administration's Cuba policy, accusing Kennedy of complacency in the face of Soviet military aid to Cuba. On October 10, 1962, he charged that Russia was installing offensive missiles on the island but refused to disclose the source of his information. It was not until October 14 that the Central Intelligence Agency obtained photographic evidence supporting his claim. One week later President Kennedy announced the U. S. blockade of Cuba. In 1964 Robert Kennedy announced that he would seek Keating's seat in the Senate. Keating responded by welcoming the newcomer to New York, saying that "as his senator I would be glad to furnish him a guidebook, road maps, and other useful literature about the Empire State which any sojourner would find helpful. " The hard-fought and, at times, stormy campaign ended on an almost comedic note. There had been frequent negotiations concerning a public meeting between the candidates but the two camps could never agree on a time and a place for the proposed debate. Finally, in a time-honored political ploy, Keating bought a half hour of television time for October 28. He announced that since Kennedy refused to appear, he would place an empty chair on the stage and direct his statements to it. The ploy backfired when Kennedy bought the following time slot for his own appearance. He arrived early and tried to enter the Keating sound stage saying that he was an invited guest. He was refused entry and the "debate" went on with an empty chair on-stage and Kennedy off-stage loudly demanding that he be allowed to participate. When the program ended, Keating had no desire to answer the waiting reporters' questions. In a classic Keystone Kops chase scene, he rushed out with aides overturning chairs and flower pots to delay the pursuing reporters. The evening was a disaster for Keating, and Kennedy won the Senate race by 800, 000 votes.
After this defeat, Keating joined the New York law firm of Royall, Koegel and Rogers and worked for immigration reform. In 1965 he became president of the American Immigration and Citizenship Conference, an organization that was working to end the national origins quota system. He was elected associate justice of the New York Court of Appeals in 1965 and served until 1969, when President Richard M. Nixon appointed him ambassador to India, a post he resigned in 1972. In 1973 he was appointed U. S. Ambassador to Israel, a position he held until his death in 1975. This last appointment was particularly appropriate because he had always been one of Israel's most ardent congressional supporters and was very popular with the American Jewish community. In 1955 he had urged the U. S. to allow Israel to purchase $50 million in "defensive arms" and in 1960, when the United Arab Republic was blockading shipments to Israel, he sponsored a pro-Israeli amendment to the foreign aid bill that would deny aid to countries that "wage economic warfare against other nations including such procedures as boycotts, blockades, and the restriction of the use of international waterways. " Secretary of State Henry Kissinger's trip to the Middle East in early 1975 to negotiate an agreement between Israel and Egypt concerning the Sinai prompted one correspondent to say that Ambassador Keating "never established a great rapport with the Israeli Government or people. " This observation is suspect in light of Prime Minister Golda Meir's statement that he was "a very good friend to Israel for many years, both in the U. S. Senate and in Israel itself. He was a man I liked and trusted and . I was grateful to him for his assistance and understanding. " Keating returned to the United States in April 1975 to participate in President Gerald Ford's reassessment of Mideast policy.
Keating was a member of the Republican party. As a congressman he voted for both the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan. He was a strong anti-Communist who opposed recognition of China and introduced a bill in 1958 written by Secretary of State John Foster Dulles that would have given the president the power to deny a passport to anyone who might be considered dangerous to U. S. security. He also lobbied for the legalization of the use of wiretaps by the Federal Bureau of Investigation to gather evidence against "gangsters" and "traitors. " He defended the Supreme Court's desegregation decisions when many congressmen hesitated to take a stand. He was a consistent and vigorous supporter of civil rights, supported a number of social welfare measures and in 1955 introduced a bill that would have given eighteen-year-olds the right to vote. He attempted to strengthen the 1960 civil rights bill by adding an amendment that would have provided "technical assistance to areas desegregating their schools. " He also proposed the Twenty-third Amendment to the Constitution, giving residents of the District of Columbia the right to vote in presidential elections.
In 1928 Keating married Louise Depuy. They had one child. Louise died in 1968, and in 1974 he married Mary Pitcairn Davis, the widow of one of his Harvard classmates.