760 Chapter 28 Collision Courses, Abroad and at Home: 1946–1960
boat. When the boat was sliced in two
by a Japanese destroyer, Kennedy
showed personal courage in rescuing
his men. Besides wealth, intelligence,
good looks, and charm, Kennedy had
the advantage of his Irish-Catholic
ancestry, a valuable asset in heavily
Catholic Massachusetts. After three
terms in the House, he moved on to
the Senate in 1952.
After his landslide reelection in
1958, only Kennedy’s religion
seemed to limit his political future.
(His relentless womanizing was not
the sort of topic that then attracted
journalistic attention.) No Catholic
had ever been elected president, and
the defeat of Alfred E. Smith in 1928
had convinced most students of poli-
tics (including Smith) that none ever
would be elected. Nevertheless,
influenced by Kennedy’s victories in
the Wisconsin and West Virginia pri-
maries—the latter establishing him as
an effective campaigner in a predominantly Protestant
region—the Democratic convention nominated him.
Kennedy had not been a particularly liberal con-
gressman. He was not involved in the civil rightsJohn F. Kennedy, comfortable and assured, was more telegenic than Richard M. Nixon in the
1960 debates.
he charged in 1950, “have made sure that the deck
is stacked on the Soviet side of the diplomatic
tables.” In 1947 he was an obscure young congress-
man from California; in 1950 he won a seat in the
Senate; two years later Eisenhower chose him as his
running mate.
Nixon projected an image of almost frantic
earnestness, yet he pursued a flexible course more
suggestive of calculation than sincerity. Reporters
generally had a low opinion of Nixon, and indepen-
dent voters seldom found him attractive. He was
always controversial, distrusted by liberals even
when he supported liberal measures. Yet often his
calculations were shrewd; he proved to be a formi-
dable politician.
The Democrats nominated Senator John F.
Kennedy of Massachusetts. His chief rival for the nomi-
nation, Lyndon B. Johnson of Texas, the Senate major-
ity leader, became his running mate. Kennedy was the
son of Joseph P. Kennedy, a wealthy businessman who
had served as ambassador to Great Britain under
Franklin Roosevelt. An indifferent student at Harvard,
Kennedy in his junior year—1939—traveled with his
father to Europe. When Hitler attacked Poland a few
months later, Kennedy had a topic for his senior thesis:
“Appeasement at Munich,” in which he chastised
British and American leaders in the 1920s and 1930s for
a lack of foresight and resolve. Published in 1940 as
Why England Slept, the book received favorable reviews
and was briefly a best seller. During World War II,
Kennedy served in the Pacific, captaining a torpedo
Democratic (Kennedy)
Republican (Nixon)
Independent (Byrd)1960ELECTORAL VOTE
TOTAL: 537POPULAR VOTE
TOTAL: 68,836,385MINOR
.7%
501,6432.75%
1556.5%
30340.75%
21949.7%
34,227,096
49.6%
34,107,646Election of 1960Like nearly all Democrats since the Compromise
of 1877, Kennedy carried most of the South. White Southerners
opposed the party of Lincoln, and few black Southerners had been
registered to vote.