(OOC: Original thread here: https://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=180985 stagnated because of ASB on my part and a lack of time. Hopefully this second incarnation will be better, planning to take this up to present day time and interest permitting.)
The twilight of the Eisenhower Presidency left the United States in the strongest position she had been in in nearly a generation. With a humming economy, a postwar populace settling back into normalcy, and a temporary if fragile peace in Southeast Asia, there was little reason for pessimism on the road ahead. Indeed, the renowned general had in the estimation of the public acquitted himself as well in peace as in war; to this day, no President has left office on such high approval as the one simply called Ike.
The decade to come would prove one of the most challenging and tumultuous in American history, but for the moment the American people would stay the course, blissfully unaware of the brewing storm of change that lay ahead
-From Happy Days: The 1950s Examined, Simon & Schulster Publishing, 1978
Everyone I've ever encountered says that the 1960 Republican National Convention was the smoothest they'd ever seen a convention run. What they don't realize is that 90% of the work was done beforehand. We knew that a convention when you have the incumbency, be it in person or in party, had to project unity of purpose first and foremost. We also knew that it was rarely in the character of politicians to agree on anything beyond the basics, so we set out to get as much of the heavy work out of the way as possible beforehand.
My first audience with Vice President Nixon was in 1959, as Ike was rounding the corner on his Presidency and we started to look to the future. Strange as it may seem now, Mr. Nixon was reluctant to run at first, but after a bit of convincing he came around right around the turn of the new year. With that settled, I and the rest of the Republican Party national staff began having regular audiences with not only Vice President Nixon but also President Eisenhower and other potential key supporters. In a way, we were campaigning before the campaign even started.
In short order we had most of the framework in place. President Eisenhower, despite his differences with his Vice President, agreed for the sake of the Party to give his endorsement and play up Nixon in foreign and domestic policy, focusing on things that would be unlikely to cause much controversy.
We began discussing Vice Presidents soon after, and by March we had a short list of names: Ambassador Lodge of Massachusetts, Governor Rockefeller of New York, Senator Dirksen of Illinois and Senator Goldwater of Arizona. Almost immediately we mutually agreed to discard Goldwater and Lodge. Barry Goldwater, we reasoned, was as likely to torpedo our campaign with his mouth as he was to help us with Southerners and conservatives. Lodge, of course, might have helped us to win Massachusetts, but we had other plans for him. In the end, we got Everett Dirksen; Vice President Nixon was disappointed at this at first, since he'd extended an invitation to Rockefeller, but we reasoned that Rockefeller could deliver us New York either way. Dirksen, meanwhile, would play well to compliment Nixon's civil rights record in Congress and gave us a better chance at swinging Illinois away from Mayor Daley's machine.
Just as we planned for and expected, the convention went off without a hitch. Rockefeller got up and threw his full support behind Nixon, Goldwater said his bit, and then we voted. To the outside observer, it was over as quickly as it had begun. To those of us working the Nixon campaign, it was just beginning."
-From Nixon as I Knew Him by Former Nixon Chief of Staff Leonard W. Hall, 1974
"My fellow Americans, I will not pretend that the world in which we live is not fraught with danger. Indeed, our world is as a volcano lying dormant: impressive to gaze upon, seemingly benign, but capable of terrible destruction. We have known the destructive capabilities of our world; the blood shed twice over in Europe within our lifetimes, the terrible fury of the atomic bomb, the naked aggression of the forces of international communism.
"My friends, ours is not a world in which men of our caliber are allowed time to acclimate before getting down to business. There is no training period for the office of the President of these United States. The situation at hand demands experience, proven leadership ability, and a willingness to do what is necessary to ensure the continuity of freedom in our world. These are the qualities I, Richard Milhous Nixon, bring to this table and to the American table. As your President, I will lead our nation out from the shadows of war, of strife and of uncertainty, and into a new and golden dawn. Thank you, and may God bless America."
-Excerpt from nomination speech of Richard M. Nixon
The twilight of the Eisenhower Presidency left the United States in the strongest position she had been in in nearly a generation. With a humming economy, a postwar populace settling back into normalcy, and a temporary if fragile peace in Southeast Asia, there was little reason for pessimism on the road ahead. Indeed, the renowned general had in the estimation of the public acquitted himself as well in peace as in war; to this day, no President has left office on such high approval as the one simply called Ike.
The decade to come would prove one of the most challenging and tumultuous in American history, but for the moment the American people would stay the course, blissfully unaware of the brewing storm of change that lay ahead
-From Happy Days: The 1950s Examined, Simon & Schulster Publishing, 1978
Everyone I've ever encountered says that the 1960 Republican National Convention was the smoothest they'd ever seen a convention run. What they don't realize is that 90% of the work was done beforehand. We knew that a convention when you have the incumbency, be it in person or in party, had to project unity of purpose first and foremost. We also knew that it was rarely in the character of politicians to agree on anything beyond the basics, so we set out to get as much of the heavy work out of the way as possible beforehand.
My first audience with Vice President Nixon was in 1959, as Ike was rounding the corner on his Presidency and we started to look to the future. Strange as it may seem now, Mr. Nixon was reluctant to run at first, but after a bit of convincing he came around right around the turn of the new year. With that settled, I and the rest of the Republican Party national staff began having regular audiences with not only Vice President Nixon but also President Eisenhower and other potential key supporters. In a way, we were campaigning before the campaign even started.
In short order we had most of the framework in place. President Eisenhower, despite his differences with his Vice President, agreed for the sake of the Party to give his endorsement and play up Nixon in foreign and domestic policy, focusing on things that would be unlikely to cause much controversy.
We began discussing Vice Presidents soon after, and by March we had a short list of names: Ambassador Lodge of Massachusetts, Governor Rockefeller of New York, Senator Dirksen of Illinois and Senator Goldwater of Arizona. Almost immediately we mutually agreed to discard Goldwater and Lodge. Barry Goldwater, we reasoned, was as likely to torpedo our campaign with his mouth as he was to help us with Southerners and conservatives. Lodge, of course, might have helped us to win Massachusetts, but we had other plans for him. In the end, we got Everett Dirksen; Vice President Nixon was disappointed at this at first, since he'd extended an invitation to Rockefeller, but we reasoned that Rockefeller could deliver us New York either way. Dirksen, meanwhile, would play well to compliment Nixon's civil rights record in Congress and gave us a better chance at swinging Illinois away from Mayor Daley's machine.
Just as we planned for and expected, the convention went off without a hitch. Rockefeller got up and threw his full support behind Nixon, Goldwater said his bit, and then we voted. To the outside observer, it was over as quickly as it had begun. To those of us working the Nixon campaign, it was just beginning."
-From Nixon as I Knew Him by Former Nixon Chief of Staff Leonard W. Hall, 1974
"My fellow Americans, I will not pretend that the world in which we live is not fraught with danger. Indeed, our world is as a volcano lying dormant: impressive to gaze upon, seemingly benign, but capable of terrible destruction. We have known the destructive capabilities of our world; the blood shed twice over in Europe within our lifetimes, the terrible fury of the atomic bomb, the naked aggression of the forces of international communism.
"My friends, ours is not a world in which men of our caliber are allowed time to acclimate before getting down to business. There is no training period for the office of the President of these United States. The situation at hand demands experience, proven leadership ability, and a willingness to do what is necessary to ensure the continuity of freedom in our world. These are the qualities I, Richard Milhous Nixon, bring to this table and to the American table. As your President, I will lead our nation out from the shadows of war, of strife and of uncertainty, and into a new and golden dawn. Thank you, and may God bless America."
-Excerpt from nomination speech of Richard M. Nixon
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