Wilderness Years on Video

 NIXON COULD REALLY PLAY THE PIANO:

In Foreign Affairs (see Matthews 256-257), Nixon deliberately sends a signal to Beijing:

Taking the long view, we simply cannot afford to leave China forever outside the family of nations, there to nurture its fantasies, cherish its hates and threaten its neighbors. There is no place on this small planet for a billion of its potentially most able people to live in angry isolation. But we could go disastrously wrong if, in pursuing this long- range goal, we failed in the short range to read the lessons of history.

RN:  THE COMEBACK KID

Garment recalls that RN was using the law firm as a political headquarters.

 If diversity was what he wanted, diversity was what he got. When it came to Nixon's speechwriters, his balancing act worked pretty well. One of the first staffers to join the group was Pat Buchanan, who arrived shortly after Nixon settled into the firm's offices at 20 Broad Street. Buchanan joined Rose Woods in the small office adjoining Nixon's and started to do all of the nascent campaign's routine political writing—letters, speeches, articles, memos to possible political allies. He was to become one-third of the presidential speechwriting team.

 Buchanan hailed from a Father Coughlin—style, America First family in Washington, D.C. He had been an editorial writer before joining the campaign and could talk about one subject while simultaneously writing about another, pausing in conversation only to rip pages of perfect copy out of his machine. He was quick-tempered and sometimes a bully but a cheerful and witty one.

1964:  Goldwater recites Harry Jaffa line while RN sits next to Barry, Jr.:

Riots (Nelson 46-47)

Early 1960s

 For Thursday:

• Matthews,  ch. 19
• Nelson, ch. 2

1960

• Goldwater 1960: "Let's grow up, conservatives" 
• What if: an interactive map
• 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.

Cuba and Cold War

• The legacy of the Bay of Pigs:  Matthews follows up.
• Cuba and the Watergate burglars
• Fallout Shelters and The Missiles of October

Kennedy Politics

• Using the IRS
• WH taping system
• Changing economy:  steel

California

• California and the Brown Family
• 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 She

 

ll’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.

Vietnam

• JFK and the Diem coup
• Impact on RN:  Vietnam War and the Pentagon Papers

11/22/63

• Conspiracy theory
• Impact on elections
• Presidential election
• Senate race in Texas

The Counting of the Electoral Votes, 1961

 

 

On January 6, 1961, after the official counting of the electoral votes in a joint session of Congress, Vice President Richard Nixon announced the election of his 1960 opponent, John F. Kennedy.

Mr. Speaker, since this is an unprecedented situation, I would like to ask permission to impose upon the time of the Members of this Congress to make a statement which in itself is somewhat unprecedented.

I promise to be brief. I shall be guided by the 1-minute rule of the House rather than the unlimited time rule that prevails in the Senate.

This is the first time in 100 years that a candidate for the Presidency announced the result of an election in which he was defeated and announced the victory of his opponent. I do not think we could have a more striking and eloquent example of the stability of our constitutional system and of the proud tradition. of the American people of developing, respecting, and honoring institutions of self-government.

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.

It is in that spirit that I now declare that John F. Kennedy has been elected President of the United States, and Lyndon B. Johnson Vice President of the United States.

Members of the Congress, the purpose for which the joint session of the two Houses of Congress has been called pursuant to Senate Concurrent Resolution 1, having been accomplished, the Chair declares the joint session dissolved.

1962

 

Nixon, A "Self-Confessed 'Paranoiac'"

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/02/09/george-shultz-reagan-nixon-reputation-467804

I've been meaning to post this POLITICO article about Nixon and George Shultz.  The article, titled "How George Shultz Escaped Two Scandal-Plagued Administrations Unscathed," reveals telling details about Nixon's White House.  Importantly, though, the article mentions Nixon's being a "self-confessed 'paranoiac'" and links a New York Times article from 1977 addressing that confession.  Nixon apparently once "defiantly" said that "'paranoia for peace isn't that bad.'"  His vindictive paranoia often manifested as covert intel-gathering missions about his enemies.  I wouldn't argue that paranoia is very presidential, but Nixon apparently thought otherwise (then again, this is a post-presidency confession).

Thus far, Matthews hasn't used the word "paranoid" to describe Nixon once.  Nixon did call himself "wary," though, writing that "'I had the wisdom and wariness of someone who had been burned by the power of the Kennedys and their money...'" (quoted in Matthews).  I wonder, then, whether Nixon reverted to such paranoid intel-gathering tactics because he felt at a disadvantage financially, and those tactics stuck. 

1960

For Tuesday, Matthews 15-18, Nelson ch. 1.

Debate transcripts here

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

• 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."
• Compare & contrast with 1968 speech
• Why travel to 50 states?

The Debates

• First debate restricted to "internal" matters -- were they?
• USSR -- obsession with US prestige and overestimates of Sov strength.
• Nixon's reponse -- me-too and defensive.  WHY???
• Defending Ike 
• Lack of ideology
• Who focused on party?  Look at party id data
• Appearance

Why did RN look so bad?

Why did JFK look so good?

Dogs that did not bark 

• Crime
• Abortion
• Supreme Court

The Cuba issue 

Why did JFK win?

Economy, time for a change

But don't 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)

		1952	1956	1960	1964	1968
White	R	57	59	51	41	47
	D	43	41	49	59	38
Nonwhite	R	21	39	32	6	13
	D	79	61	68	94	87

Religion

         1956                     1960

      D            R            D            R

Prot        37          63          38          62         

Cath       51          49          78          22

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.

The 1960 Campaign

WATCH THE FIRST 15 MINUTES OR SO OF THE FIRST DEBATE:



CLICK THIS LINK:
NIXON ARGUES AGAINST THE CUBA INVASION THAT HE ACTUALLY SUPPORTS


And a deeply ironic moment: