Two Profiles in Ambition

THURSDAY CLASS WILL BE ASYNCHRONOUS VIA ZOOM.

The Vice Presidency: Why were RN and JFK hall mates?

From Ike aide and Nixon biographer Stephen Hess:

Where the Vice President—or the vice presidency—fit in Eisenhower’s matrix has an antique feel as viewed through the experiences of more than a half-century. When Dick Cheney claimed in 2007 that he didn’t have to comply with an executive order on safeguarding classified information because his office was part of the legislature, it was greeted as a laugh-line by late night comedians. After all, wasn’t he the most powerful vice president in history? Yet Cheney’s contention would not have been risible to Eisenhower, who wrote in his memoirs, “The Vice President of the United States, with the constitutional duty of presiding over the Senate, is not legally a part of the Executive branch and is not subject to direction by the President.” He even included Vice President Nixon as part of a group coming to a White House meeting “from the Senate.” Since Eisenhower placed the vice presidency in the legislative branch, everything Nixon did for him he claimed was on “a volunteer basis.” He listed some of the tasks he asked Nixon to perform, such as being his personal representative abroad and chairing a committee to end discrimination in government contracting. Even though Nixon had been in both House and Senate, Eisenhower rarely employed him for cloakroom lobbying, a prominent job of subsequent vice presidents. Nixon did not have an office in the White House. He was housed at the Capitol, as was his staff, and their paychecks came from the Senate budget. He was often at the White House for meetings of the cabinet, national security council, and legislative leaders, but he was not a presence in the West Wing as is today’s vice president.

The VP did not have an office in the White House complex until LBJ served under JFK.

The VP did not have an official residence until the 1970s.

Nixon's roles:

• Hatchetman
• Backup in health crises

• Heart attack in 1955
• Stroke in 1957
• 1958 agreement - forerunner of 25th Amendment

Dienbienphu (Matthews, pp. 95)

The 1956 Election 

• JFK, HHH, and the VP race
• Ike leaves Nixon hanging

Foreign Policy

• 1956 Arab-Israeli War:  Nasser nationalized Suez Canal,
• Soviet invasion of Hungary
• 1957 Algeria (118-119)

Partisan Politics

• 1956
• 1957 and 1960 Civil Rights Acts
• 1958 election
• JFK, RFK v. Hoffa  (and the Pacino version)

Cold War

• 1957  Sputnik
• 1958  Caracas
• 1959  Kitchen Debate (p. 125)
• 1960   U-2

THE NOMINATION SYSTEM IN 1960 WAS DIFFERENT.

WHY WAS CATHOLICISM SUCH A BIG DEAL?

ROLE OF WEST VIRGINIA.