The Presidential Election and the Aftermath - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 6 Words: 1905 Downloads: 6 Date added: 2019/10/30 Category Politics Essay Level High school Tags: Presidential Election Essay Did you like this example? The 1960 Election is one of the closest presidential elections in American history, and the winner did great things in office. John Fitzgerald Kennedy ran for the Democratic party, and Richard Milhous Nixon ran for the Republican party. This was an unprecedented election for a number of reasons, and there were many engaging facts about this election. Some of the information is very surprising and interesting. John Fitzgerald Kennedy was the democratic presidential candidate in the 1960 presidential election. John was born into an affluent family in Brookline, Massachusetts, on May 29, 1917. He was the second-oldest son of Rose and Joseph Kennedy and had eight other siblings. John was called Jack when he was growing up. He had serious health issues and had these problems for most of his life. John attended Harvard University for his college education and served in World War II as a lieutenant in the Navy after he graduated. While in the Navy, John’s ship was destroyed. He took his men to an island, and then swam out to try to find help. He was unsuccessful, but he went back to the island where they found some benign natives that helped rescue them. After World War II, John pursued a career in politics. He was in the House of Representatives from 1946 to 1952, and he became a Senator in 1952. He was becoming quite popular, and he was almost picked to run for Vice President in the 195 6 election. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "The Presidential Election and the Aftermath" essay for you Create order After this, he decided to run for the presidency in 1960. He started to campaign shortly afterwards. Unlike John Kennedy, Richard Milhous Nixon was born on January 9, 1913, into a poor family in Yorba Linda, California. Richard Nixon was the republican presidential candidate who would face Kennedy in the 1960 presidential election. Where Kennedy got his education at Harvard, Nixon attended Whittier College and then Duke University Law School. Similar to Kennedy, he also served in the Navy during World War II as an officer. Nixon also served in Congress like Kennedy. However, Richard Nixon had also served as Vice President under Dwight Eisenhower from 1952 to 1961. This led many to believe that Nixon was better fit for the presidency because he had more experience than Kennedy did. The 1960 Presidential Election was the first ever election to have televised debates. In fact, there was not only one debate, but four, which was an unprecedented number of debates for a presidential election in America. The first of these debates was on September 26, in Chicago, Illinois. The entire day, Nixon had been campaigning and was tired and sweaty. He was tired and recovering from the flu. He also refused to wear makeup. On the other hand, John Kennedy had an appealing, telegenic image. Kennedy wore a dark suit, which looked much better than Nixon’s gray suit. Kennedy also wore makeup and was taught how to sit and act during the debate. Trying to counter his lack of experience, Kennedy was very aggressive and talked about his time in Congress. Part of Kennedy’s opening statement was, â€Å"I don’t believe in big government, but I believe in effective government action.† This was an appealing statement to many Americans. Nixon said that the country struggled under Democrat Harry Truman, and that the Republican Dwight Eisenhower’s administration was much more successful. People that listened to the debate on the radio thought that it was about even, but people that saw the debate on television thought that Kennedy had easily won. The second and third debates were held on October 7 and October 13. The second debate was in Washington, D.C., and for the third Kennedy was in New York City and Nixon was in Hollywood. The main issue talked about in these two debates were two Taiwan-controlled islands off the coast of China. The question was whether the United States should try to defend these islands from Communism. Kennedy thought that the United States shouldn’t protect them, and that they shouldn’t go farther than Taiwan in the protection of countries from Communism. Nixon thought that the United States should defend the two islands. Nixon was much more aggressive and looked much better than he did in the first debate. For the third debate, Nixon rode and campaigned on Kennedy allowing the two islands to become Communist, and most of the debate was about these two islands. The fourth and final debate was held on October 21, in New York. This was a very important debate, as the race was very close at this point. This debate was mostly about Cuba and the Cold War. Kennedy wanted to support democratic anti-Castro forces that could help the United States overthrow Fidel Castro and Communism in Cuba. Many people agreed with Kennedy and thought that he looked better on the topic, so many people voted for Kennedy because of this issue. This was one of the closest election in the history of the United States. John Kennedy won, but only barely. Kennedy won the popular vote by about 117,000 votes, which was about 0.2%. The electoral vote was also won by Kennedy, who had 303 electoral votes, and Nixon only had 219. Nixon even won more states than Kennedy did, but Kennedy won the bigger states that are worth more electoral votes. Kennedy won for a multitude of reasons. People thought he looked much better than Nixon during the debates, and he was more professional. Historyhit.com says Kennedy was â€Å"equal in substance and superior in style† (Alex Browne, 2017). Many people thought that Kennedy’s lack of experience, health issues, and religion might impact his decisions as a president. Kennedy constantly countered these claims, saying that they wouldn’t alter his decisions. In the south, many people voted for Kennedy because of his running mate, Lyndon B. Johnson. Johnson was from Texas, and Texas was a key state that helped Kennedy win the electoral vote. Kennedy used his wealth to have an expensive campaign, which made his campaign look more professional and better than Nixon, who had a much smaller budget. Nixon also faced criticism over what he did as a vice president. Dwight Eisenhower was asked what his vice president accomplished in office, and Eisenhower said, â€Å"If you give me a week I might think of one.† This casted a bad image on Nixon, which helped Kennedy appeal to voters. After the election, many Nixon supporters questioned whether Kennedy had won some major states such as Texas and Illinois legally. Many wanted Nixon to investigate this, but Nixon said that it would look bad for the United States. However, Nixon still became president from 1969 to 1974, after Lyndon B. Johnson. He was the thirty-seventh president of the United States. On August 9, 1974, Nixon resigned because of the watergate scandal. His political career was now officially over. John Fitzgerald Kennedy becoming president brought a lot of firsts to the presidency. Kennedy was the first president who was catholic. During his campaign, he claimed he would not be a Catholic president, but a president who was Catholic. His campaigning obviously worked, as he became president. Kennedy was also the youngest president to ever be elected. However, he was the second-youngest president to serve, only slightly older than Theodore Roosevelt. When he started serving as president, he was forty-three years old. Kennedy became the first president born in the twentieth century. The previous president, Dwight Eisenhower, was born in 1890. Upon becoming president, John and his wife Jackie became the most popular couple in the country. They were glamorous together. Jackie Kennedy was something similar to a model, and was often featured on the cover on fashion magazines. If Jackie did something with her hair, or wore a new outfit, everybody changed their hair or wore that outfit. Everybody had to wear and do what Jackie was wearing and doing. One of Jackie Kennedy’s most famous outfits is a pink suit, a pink pillbox hat, and white gloves. Seeing this outfit automatically makes people think of Jackie Kennedy, especially the white gloves. Jackie Kennedy even wore this outfit the day her husband was shot and killed. John Kennedy was in a difficult position. Half of America had voted for him, but half had not wanted him to become president. Despite this, Kennedy’s inaugural address is very famous and inspiring. One of Kennedy’s greatest attributes was his ability to inspire people. Arguably Kennedy’s most inspiring quote was during his inaugural address, when he said, â€Å"Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.† Kennedy brought a more modern and young touch to the presidency. Although Kennedy was very well liked, the CIA did not like Kennedy after he criticized them because of the bay of pigs debacle. In office, Kennedy had many great accomplishments. One of these is preventing starting nuclear war with the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union was housing nuclear missiles in Cuba, where they could easily launch them on the United States. The United States also had missiles in Turkey and Italy, where they could attack the Soviet Union. Kennedy’s advisors told him to attack Cuba immediately, but Kennedy decided to be patient and withhold an attack. Instead, he put a quarantine around the island so that Soviet ships couldn’t get to Cuba. For thirteen days, the United States and the Soviet Union almost started a nuclear war. Finally, Soviet Union Premier Nikita Khrushchev finally turned around his ships and removed the missiles. The United States also removed their missiles. A nuclear war had been avoided. Another issue involving the Soviet Union was the space race. The Soviets were the first country to have a satellite and a man in space, and Kennedy wanted to catch up. His goal was to have a man land on the moon before 1970. One of his most famous quotes is, â€Å"We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.† This inspired NASA to start being more active. They started to recruit more and design bigger rockets. NASA also launched the Apollo, Mercury, and Gemini space programs. Kennedy’s words eventually led to Apollo 11 in 1969, which contained the first man on the moon. Kennedy was a supporter of civil rights, but he thought that he would lose the support of the southern states if he expressed his opinion. He decided to steer clear of this issue and avoid it for as long as possible. His vice president, Lyndon B. Johnson, was a huge civil rights advocate. When riots started at Mississippi University, Kennedy knew he needed to take action, and he sent troops to the university. On June 11, 1963, Kennedy made a televised address to the nation. He proposed a new civil rights bill to Congress, and made his opinion clear that he supported civil rights. After this, he knew he needed to make civil rights a priority in his future years as president. As you can see, the 1960 Presidential Election was important for a multitude of reasons. It was also very close, and as little as two states going to the opposite person would have changed the outcome. Even though Kennedy won, Nixon still had lots of supporters, as he became president in future years. This shows that the election contained two very well liked politicians who people thought could help America. The 1960 Election is and always will be one of the most famous elections in American history.