Stone's "Nixon" Movie: Four Bodies?

[A Man A Plan A Canal]

Hello, Straightdopers, AMAPAC here.

Watching Oliver Stone's "Nixon" movie. Nixon is musing about how when Robert Kennedy died, that was when he knew he'd be president. He says a few lines, something like "Kennedy's death paved the way, didn't it? Cleared a way for me, right through the wilderness." He pauses, and then he says "Over the bodies."

Then James Woods, playing Ehrlichman (I think), says "Two bodies."

Then we cut to a shot of Nixon, holding his drink and staring out of the window. He pauses, and then says "Four."

Okay, I get where two bodies come from: John Kennedy and Robert Kennedy. But who are the other two?

Thanks...AMAPAC.

[Bijou Drains]

Maybe one of them was Joe Kennedy Jr. who was killed in WW II.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_P._Kennedy,_Jr.

He was supposed to be the guy to run for president.

[Darth Sensitive]

Kopeche?

[Jonathan Chance]

Too late in the game.

King? King's death might have had Nixon thinking that there was an exploitable wedge for the South. Even had Civil Rights not done it the riots following King's assassination might have been considered to do so.

[Erdosain]

I haven't seen this movie in something like ten years. However, if I remember correctly, a huge theme of the movie was how guilty Tricky Dick felt about the death of his brother from TB or something like that. There are constant weird black and white flashbacks to his brother, or brothers, as I remember. That's at least one of the four bodies.

[middleman]

Erdosain is on the right track. From this review,

"Nixon tells H.R. Haldeman (James Woods) that he achieved high office over "four bodies" (he associates the dead Kennedys with his own lost brothers Arthur and Harold, the guilt for whose demise his mother regularly enforced)."

[Dave Ian]

4 bodies are JFK,RFK,Oswald and some one else...if u remember, halderman and eirlichmann discussing that nixon went pale everytime he heard of the bay of pigs code. Nixon had no role to play in anything but it somehow came to his knowledge and he was terrified by it, by the fact that, track 2 was his idea and it came back as a boomerang to jfk.nixon knew there was a conspiracy, but he hated to be associated with it because of his personal relationship with jfk was sour at that time.