BEAUTIFUL MUSIC: NIXON ELECT
BY NORAVEA
"I uh...I called Mrs. King last night, and I believe what happened to her husband was...uh...a terrible thing for the colored community in this nation."
-Richard M. Nixon, October 27, 1960
"I understand from very reliable sources that Vice President Nixon served as a great force in making the release possible."
-Martin Luther King Jr.
*****
BY NORAVEA
"I uh...I called Mrs. King last night, and I believe what happened to her husband was...uh...a terrible thing for the colored community in this nation."
-Richard M. Nixon, October 27, 1960
"I understand from very reliable sources that Vice President Nixon served as a great force in making the release possible."
-Martin Luther King Jr.
*****
Despite an unforgettably poor performance by Vice President Richard Nixon during the first ever Presidential debates, the turning point came on the evening of October 27, 1960, when the Republican candidate called the wife of imprisoned civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., and even went to the point of announcing it to the public. While his opponent Senator John F. Kennedy also made a phone call, Nixon made the point of publicizing this overture to the African-American vote. Speaking at a press conference on October 27, Nixon informed the audience of his call to Coretta Scott King, and urged for her husband's release. With pressure now mounting from the sitting Vice President and potential future President, King was released from prison the next day, acknowledging that Nixon likely played a big part in his release. While the Kennedy campaign attempted to also take on the issue, Nixon's gesture completely leveled the playing field for election day.
While at his suite in the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, California, on November 8, 1960, Richard Nixon watched the results with his family. At first it was a virtual tie in both the electoral college and the popular vote, but as the night wore on, he began to steadily advance ahead of Senator Kennedy. By midnight, the New York Times called the race for the Vice President, but Nixon himself was hesitant and wanted to wait longer to declare a victory. By six o'clock the next morning, it was clear that the Vice President won the election. Senator Kennedy phoned the Vice President by seven o'clock to concede the race. At that point, the Vice President addressed a crowd of supporters at the hotel to declare his victory.
"We have made history tonight--not just for ourselves, but for all ages," Nixon declared to the crowd. "This is a victory for not just the American people, but a victory for the entire world!" The crowd was wild and his victory seemed to resonate with many Americans. Winning 295 electoral votes and 48.5% of the popular vote against Kennedy's 207 electoral votes and 48.3% of the popular vote, his victory was definitive and his popular vote margin was larger from what many expected. 35 electors from Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, and South Carolina however declared that they would not vote for either Nixon or Kennedy, but instead supported Harry F. Byrd, the Senator from Virginia.
The first step for President-elect Nixon to taking office was to create a cabinet. Wishing to create an easier transition between the Eisenhower-Nixon administrations, the President-elect selected a few major figures on the Eisenhower administration to continue on in his White House. As Vice President, he had worked with many members of the Eisenhower cabinet and formed close working relationships with them. On November 17, he announced that he was keeping on Secretary of State Christian A. Herter. Secretary of Labor James Mitchell, and Secretary of the Interior Fred Seaton were also kept on. Former Maryland Governor Theodore McKeldin meanwhile was announced as Attorney General on December 8, and on December 15, Nixon announced that James H. Douglas, the Deputy Secretary of Defense, would become his Secretary of Defense if he were nominated.
On January 17, 1961, just three days before Vice President Nixon was to become the 35th President of the United States, President Dwight D. Eisenhower gave his farewell address to the nation, where he spoke of the military industrial complex and other issues he feared would be dominant in the 1960s. It was the famous general's last attempt to guide police and to influence the issues before he left for private life. On January 20, 1961, Richard Milhous Nixon became the nation's 35th President on the steps of the United States Capitol, where he declared the "Dawn of a new era in American politics." He also vowed to oppose recognition of the People's Republic of China, and vowed to grow the American economy, saying that "The average American can make one contribution above all else to the effort against Communism. We must live lives that show those Communist nations that life under our way of life is the superior way of life."
The world forever changed the day Richard Nixon became President.
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