1960 Presidential Election

John F Kennedy

A former WWII naval officer, Kennedy entered the House of Representatives in 1947. He moved on to the Senate in 1953, defeating Nixon's 1960 running mate, Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. for the seat. In the Senate, Kennedy initially voted against Eisenhower's Civil Rights Act of 1957, but did support a weaker revised version of the bill. Kennedy also did not participate in the censuring of Senator McCarthy, who had strong ties to the Kennedy family and was popular with his constituents.

Fig. 1 - Kennedy Campaign Speech

1960 Democratic National Convention

A relatively crowded field fought for the Democratic nomination, but this was a time when many did not actively campaign in the primaries, waiting to pick up delegates at the convention instead. Despite party leaders' attempts to convince John F. Kennedy to accept the role of vice president due to his perceived youth and inexperience, the 43-year-old Massachusetts Senator with 13 years in Congress decided to continue running.

Kennedy entered the convention in the lead and was able to secure the nomination against the twice failed presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson and the man who would ultimately become his vice president, Lyndon Johnson. Although Johnson and Kennedy had significant clashes and the labor leaders backing Kennedy did not approve of Johnson, Kennedy chose Johnson to give him the support that he needed in Texas and throughout the South.

Richard Nixon

Similarly to Kennedy, Nixon entered the House in 1947. He moved on to the Senate in 1950 in a campaign where he insinuated that his opponent was a potential Communist. In 1952, he was selected as Dwight Eisenhower's Vice President. As Vice President, he did hold a number of responsibilities and made many important trips abroad, despite Eisenhower's continued downplaying of Nixon's influence. He also administrated when Eisenhower encountered health issues during his term.

Fig. 2 - 1960 Nixon Campaign Button

1960 Republican National Convention

The Republican nomination was much less in question than the Democratic one had been. In the 1952 Republican Convention, Dwight Eisenhower had won the nomination as a moderate against the conservative Robert Taft, partially by taking the more conservative Richard Nixon as a running mate. Therefore, in 1960, Nixon was the key candidate for election.

Nelson Rockefeller, a moderate, considered challenging Nixon but found that Republicans across the country strongly supported the Vice President. Nixon first looked to Rockefeller as his choice for vice president but was turned down, settling on United Nations ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge Jr.

1960 Presidential Election Issues

Religion

Kennedy's Catholic faith had been an issue of concern from the beginning, and it was hoped that naming the Protestant Lyndon Johnson as his running mate would help Kennedy carry the Protestant South.

Catholics had long faced discrimination in America based on views that Catholicism promoted collectivism counter to American individualism, even though the Catholic Church had played a major hand in promoting the Anti-Communism of the 1950s. Some Americans feared that a Catholic president would be more loyal to the Pope than to the United States, erasing the separation of Church and State.

It is important to understand that these fears are rooted in the more decentralized Protestant religion's suspicion of the Catholic Church, which is a centralized organization. Kennedy addressed the issue directly, promising that the Catholic Church would not have undue influence on policy under his administration.

Civil Rights

Both candidates sought to gain the favor of Martin Luther King Jr when he was arrested in a Georgia protest in October 1960, but it was Kennedy who succeeded. Nixon's appeal for Eisenhower to pardon King fell upon deaf ears. In contrast, Kennedy's calls to local politicians and King's family resulted in the King's freedom while comforting his family. This earned Kennedy the endorsement of King's father.

Fig. 3 - MLK and RFK

Experience

Despite the fact that Kennedy had served 13 years in Congress and was only a few years younger than Nixon, the issue of experience was a constant Republican talking point. Nixon was 48 years old to Kennedy's 43. While he had served eight years as Vice President, they both entered national politics the same year, 1947, as members of the House of Representatives.

Kennedy tried to turn the issue on its head by claiming that Nixon would be too stuck in his ways and not open to new ideas. Nixon's argument in favor of his experience was severely damaged when Dwight Eisenhower told a reporter that he could not think of an idea or piece of advice he had followed from Nixon during Nixon's Vice Presidency.

Cold War

Several specific Cold War issues came up during the campaign. The first was the fear of falling behind the USSR on technology that had been ignited when the USSR launched Sputnik, the first man-made satellite. Additionally, former US ally Cuba had recently gone through a Communist revolution and allied with the USSR.

With Americans seeing Sputnik blinking overhead and knowing that Communists were in power just off the coast of Florida, Kennedy expressed their fears by talking about a "missile gap". This was the concern that perhaps US defense technology had fallen behind that of the USSR during the Eisenhower administration.

However, Nixon did have one angle to work with against his opponent. Kennedy stated that two small islands off the coast of Communist China were not part of a treaty to aid the US-backed Chinese government in exile in Taiwan. Nixon used this to portray Kennedy as weak on Communism.

1960 First Televised Presidential Election Debate

When Eisenhower and Nixon ran for office in 1952, the Eisenhower campaign had revolutionized campaigning with their use of television ads. In 1960, that same medium would prove very detrimental to the Nixon campaign.

Fig. 4 - First Nixon Kenedy Debate

In the first ever televised debate, Nixon seemed tired from a long day of campaigning. He was thin from a recent hospital stay, his stubble and sweat under the bright studio lights were noticeable because he refused to wear makeup, and his suit blended into the background of the set. This contrasted starkly with the made up and rested Kennedy, which made Nixon appear sickly, small, and unwell.

As a result, many viewed Kennedy as the clear and confident winner of the debate. Nixon was better prepared for subsequent debates, and most viewers even felt he won the next two. However, the damage had already been done, as the first debate had a significantly larger viewership.

1960 Presidential Election Results

Kennedy may have defeated Nixon with a decisive 303 to 219 electoral votes, but the popular vote was an incredibly close 49.72% for Kennedy against 49.55% for Nixon. The polling had gone back and forth throughout the campaign. Initially, Nixon, running on the enormous popularity of Dwight Eisenhower, was the favorite. However, his television debate performance, Kennedy and Johnson's driven campaigning, and Eisenhower's inability to relate any specific administration success to Nixon, put Kennedy ahead.

The last-minute issue of disputed Chinese islands of Quemoy and Matsu allowed Nixon to pull forward for a tie going into election day. Southern Democrat Harry F Byrd, who opposed Civil Rights and desegregation, managed to win 15 electoral votes in the deep South.

Fig. 5 - 1960 Presidential Election Map