This blog serves my Nixon course (Claremont McKenna College Government 124A) for the fall of 2022
About This Blog
I shall post videos, graphs, news stories, and other material. We shall use some of this material in class, and you may review the rest at your convenience. You will all receive invitations to post to the blog. I encourage you to use the blog in these ways:
·To post questions or comments;
·To follow up on class discussions;
·To post relevant news items or videos.
There are only two major limitations: no coarse language, and no derogatory comments about people at the Claremont Colleges.
As Matthews explains, Nixon did not look his best because of his recent hospitalization.
JFK looked good -- in fact, he looked much better than he had in the early 1960s.
Why? He was taking cortisone for his Addison's Disease. So his illness forcedhim him take a medication that filled out his face and made him look much healthier than he was.
Watch the first 10 minutes of the first debate.
Note how JFK reframed domestic policies as Cold War issues
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." Think about that: a presidential candidate called for the imprisonment of a specific individual.
Teamsters backed Nixon in 1960 and 1968.As president, Nixon commuted Hoffa’s sentence.
FOURTH DEBATE. JFK called for arming anti-Castro Cubans. Nixon thought that JFK knew about the CIA's plan to do just that. To protect the secrecy of the plan, Nixon argued against it in the debate.
By taking sides against his own position, Nixon proved to be prophetic. He predicted what would happen at the Bay of Pigs
Dogs that did not bark, or issues that never came up in the debates:
Crime
Abortion
Supreme Court
And a deeply ironic moment:
A Nixon ad:
A Kennedy ad (notice a difference from Nixon?)
Ike throws an interception:
The Hispanic vote was growing, and the Spanish-speaking Mrs. Kennedy made a spot:
Remember the scene in Blackkklansman where an elderly man recalled the history of lynching? That was singer-actor Harry Belafonte. In 1960, a very young Belafonte made a spot for JFK
Eleanor Roosevelt was still alive. Her endorsement got people's attention: after all, it was only 15 years after FDR's death.
Lest anyone miss the point, Henry Fonda drove it home:
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