Cases in American Political Leadership: Nixon: 1960, 1962, and the Wilderness

Nonwhite

REMEMBER THE SYLLABUS:

Before each week's Thursday class, email me your reactions to that week's readings. In these emails, you may describe the overall theme of the readings, identify important information or concepts that you have learned, or raise questions or criticisms. These emails should be short -- 250 words maximum -- but they will provide me with a good sense of what you are getting out of the course readings

For Thursday:

Matthews, ch. 19
Nelson, ch. 2

Cold War -- for Nixon, both asset (kitchen debate) and liability (U2) -- keep in mind for 1962 gov race.

JFK v. Hoffa: "I’m not satisfied when I see men like Jimmy Hoffa – in charge of the largest union in the United States – still free.

Teamsters backed Nixon in 1968. Three years later, Nixon commuted Hoffa’s sentence.

GOP Nomination & campaign: later, compare and contrast with 1968

Rockefeller -- Compact of Fifth Avenue -- alienates the nascent right-wing
Henry Cabot Lodge -- foreign policy expert, reach to moderates.
Goldwater
Ike -- "If you give me a week..."
Nixon's acceptance speech:

"That is the great task of the next President of the United States and this will be a difficult task, difficult because at times our next President must tell the people not what they want to hear, but what they need to hear. Why, for example, it may be just as essential to the national interest to build a dam in India as in California."
Why travel to 50 states?

Why did JFK win? Do not focus too much on makeup or commercials. Unemployment rate by month:

Nov 1, 1960	6.10%
Oct 1, 1960	6.10%
Sep 1, 1960	5.50%
Aug 1, 1960	5.60%
Jul 1, 1960	5.50%
Jun 1, 1960	5.40%
May 1, 1960	5.10%
Apr 1, 1960	5.20%
Mar 1, 1960	5.40%
Feb 1, 1960	4.80%

JFK MLK, and the African American vote (see Matthews 120-121)

Religion

1956 1960

D R D R

Prot 37 63 38 62

Cath 51 49 78 22

Image result for 1960 election by county

Popular vote was pretty close in most states
Nixon concedes:

In our campaigns, no matter how hard fought they may be, no matter how close the election may turn out to be, those who lose accept the verdict, and support those who win. And I would like to add that, having served now in Government for 14 years, a period which began in the House just 14 years ago, almost to the day, which continued with 2 years in the Senate and 8 years as Vice President, as I complete that 14-year period it is indeed a very great honor to me to extend to my colleagues in the House and Senate on both sides of the aisle who have been elected; to extend to John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, who have been elected President and Vice President of the United States, my heartfelt best wishes, as all of you work in a cause that is bigger than any man’s ambition, greater than any party. It is the cause of freedom, of justice, and peace for all mankind.

Cold War: Ike's Farewell:

This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence-economic, political, even spiritual-is felt in every city, every state house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

Cuba and Cold War

Kennedy Politics

California

A member of the Brown family was on the California statewide ballot in 15 of the 18 midterm elections between 1946 and 2014.
Aide Stephen Hess on conspiracy theory, 1962 ed.:

Nixon’s opponent in the gubernatorial primary was Joseph Shell—a former USC football star, oil millionaire, and now the conservative minority leader in the California State Assembly. He had no chance of winning, but the third of the vote he would receive was a serious warning to someone of Nixon’s stature. The leading issue was Shell’s support by the ideologically extreme John Birch Society, whose founder, Robert Welch, had accused Eisenhower of being a “conscious agent of the Communist conspiracy.” Nixon repudiated Welch and the John Birch Society, as expected—but he also repudiated all candidates who would not repudiate the society, including two friends in Congress, John Rousselot and Edgar Hiestand, who represented heavily Republican districts—a move that further cut into his vote. (In his race for governor in 1966, Ronald Reagan would also oppose the John Birch Society, but—with more skill—he would tell other candidates they were on their own.) On one occasion Nixon was shaving just before we went out to dinner. He was in his office’s private bathroom, talking to me through the open door. “I could not look myself in the mirror if I support them,” he told me. I could see his image through the mirror and wondered for a moment if this was a set piece. No, he had no need to impress me. Nixon was reassuring Nixon. Even now I think it was the attack on Eisenhower that so bothered Nixon, though other politicians took it less seriously.