The election of 1960, waged between two future Presidents – John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon – was one of the most dramatic in American history. These two young men (ages 43 and 47, respectively – the youngest pairing in American history) each put up a strong showing in November, making for the closest popular vote tally in any Presidential election.
Kennedy
John F. Kennedy was a U.S. Senator from Massachusetts upon entering the presidential race. He faced opposition for the Democratic nomination from his soon-to-be Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, and the two-time previous Presidential nominee, Adlai Stevenson II (not to be confused with his grandfather, the Adlai Stevenson who had served as Vice President under Grover Cleveland), but in the end, Kennedy won the nomination on the first ballot of the Los Angeles convention, thanks in part to the well-managed campaign by his brother, Robert Kennedy.
Nixon
It is thought by some historians that Dwight D. Eisenhower could have successfully run for a third term in office, had he not been barred from doing so by the 22nd amendment (the first president thus encumbered). Nevertheless, the Republican party needed a successor, and Eisenhower’s Vice President, Richard Nixon, seemed like a decent choice. He had been a successful congressman and senator from California during his career, and had always been known for being tough on Communism (the cold war was in full swing by this point, and communism was a major fear among Americans). Nixon won the nomination mostly unopposed (apart from a brief run by New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller). At the convention, Nixon named Henry Cabot Lodge as his Vice Presidential Candidate.
The Campaign
While the two candidates remained neck and neck throughout much of the campaign in the fall of 1960, it is said that the turning point came during the four debates between these two men. Kennedy is thought to have won these debates soundly, mostly due to the fact that these televised debates showed him looking clean-cut and handsome, while Nixon, who refused to wear stage makeup and had just begun to recover from a hospital stay due to a knee injury, looked tired, haggard and unshaven.
Another issue in the fall campaign was Kennedy’s affiliation with Roman Catholicism, which surely hurt him amongst some voters who held prejudices against the church.
In the end, both candidates had much going both for and against them, and the polling remained close right up until election day.
The Results
There has been much talk of the results of the 1960 election having been caused by corruption or voter fraud over the years – and there is even real evidence of this in some places, specifically in the state of Illinois, where Kennedy won by a mere 9,000 votes.
When the results came in, the closeness of the election was absolutely staggering. After all was said and done, Kennedy had indeed eked out a narrow victory over his opponent, winning 303 electoral votes over Nixon’s 219. This seems like a fairly decisive victory until one looks at the popular vote, in which Kennedy won by a mere 100,000 votes, out of more than 68,000,000 cast throughout the nation. It was the closest popular vote America had ever seen.
Indeed, the election of 1860 was quite dramatic, and surely served as an important turning point for the nation, especially considering all that the nation would be facing over the next couple decades, such as the War in Vietnam, the Civil Rights movement and the brutal assassination of the President.
It should be noted, in the end, that despite the many claims of suspicious events regarding this monumentally close election, which could have been turned around with the changing of just one or two states, Richard Nixon (despite advice from his counselors) absolutely refused to call for any recounts or investigations, under the pretense that such an action might cause a constitutional crisis.
There’s something decidedly respectable about that.
For further reading about the Nixon-Kennedy debates on Suite101, Click Here.
References:
“1960.” United States Presidential Elections.
“The Kennedy-Nixon Presidential Debates, 1960.” The Museum of Broadcast Communication.
“The Campaign of 1960.” JFK Presidential Library.
Isaac M. McPhee - Isaac McPhee was born as a human child in Mt. Vernon, WA, c. 1982; he currently resides in the bustling heart of New York City where he ...
