1960 presidential
election
On January 2, 1960, Kennedy announced his candidacy for the
Democratic presidential nomination. Though some questioned Kennedy's age and
experience, his charisma and eloquence earned him numerous supporters. Many
Americans held anti-Catholic attitudes, but Kennedy's vocal support of the
separation of church and state helped defuse the situation. His religion also
helped him win a devoted following among many Catholic voters. Kennedy faced
several potential challengers for the Democratic nomination, including Senate
Majority Leader Lyndon B. Johnson, Adlai Stevenson II, and Senator Hubert
Humphrey.
Kennedy's presidential campaign was a family affair, funded
by his father and with his younger brother Robert, acting as his campaign
manager. John preferred Ivy League policy advisors, but unlike his father he
enjoyed the give and take of Massachusetts politics and built a largely Irish
team of campaigners, headed by Larry O'Brien and Kenneth O'Donnell. Kennedy
traveled extensively to build his support among Democratic elites and voters.
At the time, party officials controlled most of the delegates, but several
states also held primaries, and Kennedy sought to win several primaries to
boost his chances of winning the nomination. In his first major test, Kennedy
won the Wisconsin primary, effectively ending Humphrey's hopes of winning the
presidency. Nonetheless, Kennedy and Humphrey faced each other in a competitive
West Virginia primary in which Kennedy could not benefit from a Catholic bloc,
as he had in Wisconsin. Kennedy won the West Virginia primary, impressing many
in the party, but at the start of the 1960 Democratic National Convention, it
was unclear as to whether he would win the nomination.
When Kennedy entered the convention, he had the most
delegates, but not enough to ensure that he would win the nomination.
Stevenson—the 1952 and 1956 presidential nominee—remained very popular in the
party, while Johnson also hoped to win the nomination with the support from
party leaders. Kennedy's candidacy also faced opposition from former president
Harry S. Truman, who was concerned about Kennedy's lack of experience. Kennedy
knew that a second ballot could give the nomination to Johnson or someone else,
and his well-organized campaign was able to earn the support of just enough
delegates to win the presidential nomination on the first ballot.
Kennedy ignored the opposition of his brother, who wanted
him to choose labor leader Walter Reuther, and other liberal supporters when he
chose Johnson as his vice presidential nominee. He believed that the Texas
Senator could help him win support from the South. ] The choice infuriated many
in labor. AFL-CIO President George Meany called Johnson "the arch foe of
labor," while Illinois AFL-CIO President Reuben Soderstrom asserted
Kennedy had "made chumps out of leaders of the American labor
movement." In accepting the
presidential nomination, Kennedy gave his well-known "New Frontier"
speech, saying, "For the problems are not all solved and the battles are
not all won—and we stand today on the edge of a New Frontier. ... But the New
Frontier of which I speak is not a set of promises—it is a set of challenges.
It sums up not what I intend to offer the American people, but what I intend to
ask of them."
At the start of the fall general election campaign, Republican
nominee and incumbent vice president Richard Nixon held a six-point lead in the
polls. Major issues included how to get
the economy moving again, Kennedy's Roman Catholicism, the Cuban Revolution,
and whether the space and missile programs of the Soviet Union had surpassed
those of the U.S. To address fears that his being Catholic would impact his
decision-making, he famously told the Greater Houston Ministerial Association
on September 12, 1960: "I am not the Catholic candidate for president. I am
the Democratic Party candidate for president who also happens to be a Catholic.
I do not speak for my Church on public matters – and the Church does not speak
for me." Kennedy questioned
rhetorically whether one-quarter of Americans were relegated to second-class
citizenship just because they were Catholic, and once stated that "[n]o
one asked me my religion [serving the Navy] in the South Pacific".
Between September and October, Kennedy squared off against
Nixon in the first televised presidential debates in U.S. history. During these
programs, Nixon had an injured leg, "five o'clock shadow", and was
perspiring, making him look tense and uncomfortable. Conversely, Kennedy wore
makeup and appeared relaxed, which helped the large television audience to view
him as the winner. On average radio listeners thought that Nixon had won or that
the debates were a draw. The debates are
now considered a milestone in American political history—the point at which the
medium of television began to play a dominant role in politics.
Kennedy's campaign gained momentum after the first debate,
and he pulled slightly ahead of Nixon in most polls. On Election Day, Kennedy
defeated Nixon in one of the closest presidential elections of the 20th
century. In the national popular vote, by most accounts, Kennedy led Nixon by
just two-tenths of one percent (49.7% to 49.5%), while in the Electoral
College, he won 303 votes to Nixon's 219 (269 were needed to win). Fourteen electors from Mississippi and Alabama
refused to support Kennedy because of his support for the civil rights
movement; they voted for Senator Harry F. Byrd of Virginia, as did an elector
from Oklahoma. Kennedy became the
youngest person (43) ever elected to the presidency, though Theodore Roosevelt
was a year younger at 42 when he automatically assumed the office after William
McKinley's assassination in 1901.
Presidency
(1961–1963)
John F. Kennedy was sworn in as the 35th president at noon
on January 20, 1961. In his inaugural address, he spoke of the need for all
Americans to be active citizens, famously saying, "Ask not what your
country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country." He asked the
nations of the world to join together to fight what he called the "common
enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease, and war itself". He added:
"All this will
not be finished in the first one hundred days. Nor will it be finished in the
first one thousand days, nor in the life of this Administration, nor even
perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin." In closing, he
expanded on his desire for greater internationalism: "Finally, whether you
are citizens of America or citizens of the world ask of us here the same high
standards of strength and sacrifice which we ask of you."
The address reflected Kennedy's confidence that his
administration would chart a historically significant course in both domestic
policy and foreign affairs. The contrast between this optimistic vision and the
pressures of managing daily political realities at home and abroad would be one
of the main tensions running through the early years of his administration.
Kennedy brought to the White House a contrast in organization
compared to the decision-making structure of former-General Eisenhower, and he
wasted no time in scrapping Eisenhower's methods. Kennedy preferred the organizational structure
of a wheel with all the spokes leading to the president. He was ready and
willing to make the increased number of quick decisions required in such an
environment. He selected a mixture of experienced and inexperienced people to
serve in his cabinet. "We can learn our jobs together", he stated.
Much to the chagrin of his economic advisors, who wanted him
to reduce taxes, Kennedy quickly agreed to a balanced budget pledge. This was
needed in exchange for votes to expand the membership of the House Rules
Committee in order to give the Democrats a majority in setting the legislative
agenda. The president focused on
immediate and specific issues facing the administration and quickly voiced his
impatience with pondering of deeper meanings. Deputy National Security Advisor
Walt Whitman Rostow once began a diatribe about the growth of communism, and
Kennedy abruptly cut him off, asking, "What do you want me to do about
that today?"
Kennedy approved Defense Secretary Robert McNamara's
controversial decision to award the contract for the F-111 TFX (Tactical
Fighter Experimental) fighter-bomber to General Dynamics (the choice of the
civilian Defense department) over Boeing (the choice of the military). At the request of Senator Henry Jackson,
Senator John McClellan held 46 days of mostly closed-door hearings before the
Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations investigating the TFX contract from
February to November 1963.
During the summer of 1962, Kennedy had a secret taping
system set up in the White House, most likely to aid his future memoir. It
recorded many conversations with Kennedy and his Cabinet members, including
those in relation to the "Cuban Missile Crisis".
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