Speeches & Texts
As prepared for delivery.
The 50th Anniversary of the Election of John F. Kennedy
Berlin (Museum THE KENNEDYS), November 8, 2010
Ambassador Philip D. Murphy
Professor Etges, Kathy Alberts, es ist mir ein Vergnügen, heute mit Ihnen hier im Museum The Kennedys zu sein. Wir sind hier zusammengekommen, um über Wahlen zu sprechen. Nicht über die Zwischenwahlen, die letzte Woche in den Vereinigten Staaten stattgefunden haben, auch nicht über die Präsidentschaftswahl vor zwei Jahren, als Präsident Obama gewählt wurde. Es geht um eine andere Wahl, der allerdings mancher eine tief greifende Wirkung auf diese beiden Wahlen zuspricht.
[Professor Etges, Kathy Alberts, it is a pleasure to join you tonight here at the Museum The Kennedys. We are here to speak about elections – not about the U.S. midterm elections that took place last week or even about the election of President Obama two years ago, but about another election that some say had a profound effect on both.]
November 8, 1960. Exactly fifty years ago today, John F. Kennedy was elected President of the United States of America. On this day, at about this time of the evening, Senator Kennedy was with his team at the Kennedy family vacation compound on Cape Cod, on the Massachusetts coast. His brother, Bobby Kennedy, his campaign manager, was monitoring the results as they came in – and tallying the electoral votes that would decide the election. The scales were tipping in the direction of the young Senator. Would Richard Nixon concede or wait for the final results in some of the big states that were still too close to call? States like Michigan, Pennsylvania, Illinois, not to mention California, Nixon’s home state. Late into the night, the young Senator stayed with the team, but one by one the team members, including the Senator, went to bed and left Bobby Kennedy manning the phones. John F. Kennedy woke up the next morning as President-elect. He was the first President born in the twentieth century; at 43, he was the youngest elected president; and the only Catholic.
Years later, Ted Kennedy recalled that long night when his brother went to bed still not certain that he had won. According to Teddy, this is how his brother learned the results -- from his three-year old daughter, Caroline, who woke him up by jumping on his bed, shouting, "Good morning, Mr. President." Another source said that Theodore Sorenson, his special assistant and speechwriter – who just recently passed away -- went up to the candidate’s bedroom and told him that he had carried California and the election. Whichever version is closer to the truth, John F. Kennedy had been elected President, in one of the closest elections in the history of the United States. The popular vote margin over Nixon was a fraction under 120,000 votes, out of a total of nearly 69 million votes cast; but his success in many urban and industrial states gave him a clear majority of 303 to 219 in the Electoral College vote.
There is much that can be said about President Kennedy and his legacy but that is a topic for another day. Professor Etges and I are here today to talk about the Kennedy election campaign. It was exceptional for many reasons.
Anybody who is familiar with American politics knows that the story of a presidential campaign starts long before the official nomination of a candidate and that once the official campaign starts, it is a constant flow of locations, events, people – and speeches, lots of speeches. Nevertheless, I would like to focus my remarks on just one day in the campaign: the 15th of July 1960, the day that Senator John F. Kennedy accepted the nomination of the Democratic Party for president of the United States of America.
Some say that 1960 represented the last time that there was true drama in a Democratic convention. Since 1960 the outcomes of the conventions have been known in advance. But when the Democrats met at the Los Angeles Sports Arena in July 1960, conventions still made real decisions. There were fewer primaries and more "smoke-filled rooms" then, but Kennedy was the first presidential candidate to make such solid gains on the nomination in advance of the convention via the primaries. A solid victory in the primary in overwhelmingly Protestant West Virginia launched him toward a first ballot victory at the convention.
There were other aspects of the Los Angeles convention that made it exceptional. In 1960, more than any other city in the United States, Los Angeles symbolized the future. It was a young city. The most important industries were the movies and television. In 1950, on1y 11% of American homes had television; by 1960, the number had jumped to 88%. Like a premonition of the historic televised debates that some say were a deciding factor in the race between Kennedy and Nixon, the television industry used the convention to demonstrate new possibilities. For the first time, viewers experienced instant replay and split screen shots. The speakers used teleprompters. It was the first time that giant 3 x 5 meter screens were used so that everybody at the huge convention center could see what was happening on the podium. At prior conventions, crucial decisions had been announced to meet newspaper deadlines. Now key moments were played live on national television.
What was life like in 1960? What were Americans thinking? The tensions of the Cold War and the standoff with the Soviet Union were not only a fact of life in Germany. In May 1960, an American surveillance plane had been shot down over Soviet territory and its pilot captured. The resulting crisis led to the cancellation of President Eisenhower's planned trip to Moscow and the collapse of the Paris summit meeting with Soviet Premier Khrushchev. Just before the convention opened, in early July, the Soviets downed another American plane; this time, however, the plane had been many miles outside of Soviet territory. Discussion was rife at the Democratic convention of an alleged "missile gap" that threatened U.S. national security. Public opinion polls revealed that more than half the American people thought war with the Soviet Union was inevitable. In Cuba, the revolutionary regime of Fidel Castro had become economically and militarily dependent on the Soviet Union, heightening fears of communist subversion in the Western Hemisphere. In 1957, the Soviets had launched "Sputnik," the first manmade satellite to orbit the earth. American political and educational leaders warned that the nation was falling behind the communist countries in science and technology. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recalls as a young girl being stirred by President Eisenhower’s assertion that education would help us win the Cold War. She took it to heart and although she really didn’t like mathematics, she figured she had to study it for her country.
The Republicans pointed to the peace and prosperity of President Eisenhower’s administration. As Secretary Clinton recalls, Eisenhower was immensely popular. Nixon assured the voters that he would maintain American prestige, leadership and military strength. The 47-year-old Vice President, Richard M. Nixon, slated as the Republican candidate, emphasized his experience. He promised to keep America safe in the Cold War. He – and others – argued that Kennedy was too young and inexperienced to handle the job.
Another underlying issue was one of one of race and religion. Kennedy was seeking to become the first Roman Catholic in the White House. That was as dramatic a first in 1960 as in 2008 when a black man, Barack Obama, ran for President.
Kennedy spoke to all those issues – his youth, his religion and the need for a changing of the guard – when he accepted his party's presidential nomination at the Democratic Convention in Los Angeles on the 15th of July, 1960. He asked his audience not to vote on the basis of personal characteristics. He proclaimed the need for change, saying that he was part of a new generation, not blinded by the hates and fears and rivalries of an old era.
Kennedy's inaugural address has overshadowed his acceptance speech at the Los Angeles Coliseum, but it was at the convention that he coined the phrase that has defined his presidency ever since. "The problems are not all solved, and the battles are not all won," he said, "and we stand today on the edge of a New Frontier, the frontier of the 1960s. It was the first time he referred to the New Frontier and it became the label for his administration's domestic and foreign programs. It was a pledge that Democrats were not going to engage in the usual politics. Instead, he emphasized the themes of service, sacrifice and self-discipline, all consistent with the idea of a frontier. Those listening to the young Massachusetts senator were hearing the first tones of his famous lines six months later, "Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country."
It was the start of the Kennedy legacy – a legacy that has affected generations of Americans and Europeans, including myself. But that as I said earlier, is a topic for another day.