Speculation on Republican Challengers in 1964
With the year 1963 well under way and the mid-terms behind them, Republicans now looked toward the 1964 elections with a great deal of optimism.
Recent events had made Kennedy appear vulnerable – his approval rating was now slipping into the low 60% range, from as high as 80% from when the death of Khrushchev was announced.
Thus, Republicans remained hopeful that they could capitalize on this momentum to make gains in down ballot races and even potentially win the Presidency itself in 1964.
There was no question as to who the front runner was based on polling – Governor Richard Nixon was far ahead of any other candidate, with almost 50% of Republican voters favoring the incumbent governor. However, Nixon was adamant that he would refuse to run for President in 1964.
The person with the second highest poll numbers was another figure he said he would not be in contention for the Presidency – Former General Curtis LeMay, who polled at 21% following his publicized dismissal and criticisms of Kennedy.
In third was a man who had not ruled himself out – Governor of New York Nelson Rockefeller, fresh of a successful re-election, polled at 13%. Rockefeller was considered the standard bearer of the moderate faction of the party and had significant cross-party appeal.
And finally, Barry Goldwater came in 4th place at 10%. Goldwater was the darling of the conservative faction, though many feared he would be considered too much of ideological extremist to compete in a national campaign. Still, he had a dedicated, passionate following that would serve him well in a primary or a general election. However, there could be no question that Curtis LeMay had quickly endeared himself to the conservative faction and was absorbing Goldwater’s oxygen, so to speak.
What was left of the vote was splintered among minor candidates. However, the fact that two strongest candidates had effectively taken themselves out of the primary before it began left a void that could be filled by theoretically any Republican.
As such, these two popular figures – LeMay and Nixon – could be looked at as kingmakers. Whoever could secure the nomination of at least one of them during the primary season would surely see a major boost in the polls.
LeMay in particular began receiving a lot of calls from Republican politicians, seeking to massage his ego, seek his views on issues, and generally try and go about building rapport with the General.
Suddenly, Curtis LeMay was the most sought-after figure in Republican politics.
A survivor
Of the 20 American held by the LALF, none received as much media publicity during or after their time in captivity as John McCain.
McCain was born into a family of prominent sailors and had made a name for himself as a daring (some would say reckless) pilot in Cuba. Compared to that, Panama should have been easy.
But it was anything but easy. Since being shot down and dragged away by members of Che’s militia, every day McCain lived through was pure hell.
During the crash, McCain had been knocked out. By the time he woke up, he had been dragged away from the wreckage of his Skyraider.
Despite his injuries, he was made to walk for hours at a time through the jungle, despite the nauseous, dizzying haze that had surely been the result of a concussion.
The next few weeks had been a blur – being chained up in one shack for what he could only presume was a day or two, before being shoved in the trunk of a car with a bag over his head.
McCain had staged an escape attempt while in transit. He had managed to loosen his restraints and force open the rusted lid of the trunk before rolling out.
“They should’ve used better quality rope”, McCain would often say, both in public and private, when recounting the event.
However, during his attempt to roll out of the trunk, he landed badly and wounded his left arm and shoulder. The pain was so excruciating. Even at the time McCain was sure he had broken it.
He could hardly get to his feet before his captors reversed, got out the car and tackled him back down to the ground. He remembered being beaten severely, and the hopelessness he felt as the bag was placed back over is head.
When he got to his new makeshift prison in the cellar attached to a slightly more put together cabin another run-down shack, they took a hammer to both of his legs to make sure he never tried escaping again.
It would not be long before they began to ask him questions in broken English, asking for information on American tactics and weaponry.
McCain gave them only one thing – his name, his rank, and his serial number.
However, these were not soldiers bound to the Geneva Convention. They would beat and torture McCain on a near daily basis.
Even when it was clear that McCain would give them nothing, they continued. Eventually, McCain could only surmise that they must have grown to enjoy torturing him.
It was as though McCain symbolized the American invader, and his half dozen captors were using the young Navy pilot to act out their revenge fantasies.
Beyond the regular beatings, McCain was given only the barest scraps of food and water to live on.
As the months went by, McCain’s condition deteriorated.
After a while, a local doctor from a nearby village would occasionally be brought to deliver to the most rudimentary of care so that McCain might stave off death for another few days.
This was not an act of mercy – they were simply doing what they could to stretch out what had clearly become a sick form of entertainment to them.
Towards the end of his time in captivity, McCain was barely cognizant of the world around him. Time itself had no meaning, days and nights slipped by everything was a blur.
The only thing that differentiated one moment from the next was pain – long stretched of constant, sustained aching broken up by intense periods of searing, brutal agony as his captors practiced their newest and most sadistic torture method.
McCain was not even consciousness when a team of Army Rangers dispatched his captors with the clinical proficiency they were known for. The firefight ended less than 20 seconds after it began, with all of McCain’s six torturers’ dead.
Such a quick death was too good for any of them. Not after what they had done to him.
By the time McCain regained consciousness, he was aboard the Huey. He was too weak to even speak and thank the men who had rescued him. But in time, he would personally thank every single one of them.
McCain would later recount that his time on the Huey was when he felt the closest to death during his almost ten-month ordeal.
For the entire time he had been a captive, McCain had survived on pure stubbornness – he would not let his captors break him. His pride had driven his survival, he had to outlast the monsters who made his life a living nightmare. With that goal completed, McCain felt his strength begin to dwindle as the desire that had fueled him was now sated.
John McCain would not die a captive.
And as fate would have it, he would live to see the United States again. As his consciousness faded, he was sure he was about to meet his maker. Instead, he awoke in a military hospital.
In his best-selling recount of his time in captivity, entitled ‘299 Days’, McCain would write:
“I had been born in on a US military base in Panama, and I was prepared to die in Panama. But I would not allow myself to be beaten by those animals. They could break my bones, but I wouldn’t let them break my spirit. I told myself I would not die in the basement of some shack in the middle of a foreign jungle.
I hung on for as long as possible and gave my captors nothing except my name, rank and serial number. It was what I had been taught.
In the end, I survived, and they didn’t. So, I suppose my training did serve me well, even if I wasn’t much of a cadet.”
The story of John McCain would be told and retold by the man himself in interviews, speeches, and memoirs, and by others in documentaries, TV shows, films and more.
When he returned to the United States, President Kennedy personally awarded him with several military honors.
As a result of service in Latin America, McCain would receive the Silver Star, two Legion of Merits, Distinguished Flying Cross, three Bronze Star Medals, two Purple Hearts, two Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medals, and the Prisoner of War Medal, among others.
McCain often found humor in his situation, joking that hell “was probably a lot like a Colombian basement”.
He would live with a number of disabilities, including a limp and limited mobility in his left arm for the remainder of his life.
But he had been through hell and emerged, not unscathed, but alive.
An update on Vietnam
By mid-March, Ambassador Hillsman’s report to the White House had presented a clearer picture of the current state of South Vietnam, following the decision to break up the Diem brothers and take a firmer hand in shaping the policy of the country.
The modified Strategic Hamlet Program was showing considerable promise – locals were responding well to militia training and the decision to modify existing communities to fit the program rather than force Vietnamese farmers to move away had clearly been the right one.
There was another benefit to this program – Ambassador Hillsman and General Abrams had developed strict codes of conduct for military advisors to follow when interacting with Vietnamese locals.
It was vitally important in the eyes of both men that the average South Vietnamese should have a positive view of the American soldiers who would be operating in their communities. Advisors were encouraged to build amicable relationships with residents in Strategic Hamlets and report any American serviceman acting improperly toward locals.
This strategy of winning “Hearts and Minds”, Hillsman and Abrams believed, would prove central to the continued survival of South Vietnam. President Kennedy agreed and had managed to convince Secretary Nitze and the Department of Defense to go along with it.
However, despite successes, relations with Diem had not improved to any significant degree – he resented the US for forcing his brother away and for imposing upon his leadership. But increased funds for the US to carry out land reform and other domestic agenda items had proved to quiet discontent among Diem and his loyalists.
Hillsman had to exercise clever workarounds to address some of Diem’s more extreme decisions. When Diem refused to arm certain military units because he feared they would organize a coup against him, Hillsman designated those units the role of testing the AR-15 and gave them the weapon directly.
Such workarounds hurt relations between the US and Diem, but were viewed as necessary to ensure the security of South Vietnam.
It was a difficult balancing act – trying to guide South Vietnam in the right direction while also trying not to alienate South Vietnamese leadership or its citizens, but Hillsman felt current US policy, while not perfect, was moving in the right direction.
The military aspect of US involvement in South Vietnam proved stable. By now, America’s fighting forces were very familiar with guerrilla warfare and the advice and training given to ARVN troops had begun to craft them into an even more effective fighting force.
In January, the battle of Battle of Ap Bac resulted in a stalemate with about 40 killed on both sides, including one American advisor.
However, February saw a much more favorable outcome for the South Vietnam, with a string of victories in the Mekong Delta that forced Viet Cong forces to leave the battlefield with far more casualties on their side.
As long the money kept flowing and the military victories allowed Diem to spread propaganda, the current arrangement could work.
Both militarily and politically, it appeared that South Vietnam was holding its ground against the North.
But still, Kennedy recognized that the North and South were effectively in a stalemate, and the situation could rapidly shift. He did not want the US dragged deeper into another costly military conflict after the debacle in Latin America.
A negotiated ceasefire between North and South Vietnam was the only path Kennedy saw to avoid the risk of another costly war.
As such, Kennedy hoped that the ideal set out in his 1963 State of the Union address, a global summit to ease conflict and establish a lasting era of peace in the modern would, would come to fruition.
