"My sense is that it is largely a story of interrupted promise," said Russell Riley, co-chairman of the Presidential Oral History Program at the Miller Center at the University of Virginia. "The elevation of Kennedy in the public mind is inextricably linked with the tragedy of his death. So much would have been possible had he lived." … Johnson's war on poverty was also deeply rooted in Kennedy's agenda, University of Virginia professor Larry Sabato said at a news conference last month promoting his new Kennedy book.