DBWI: No Secretary of State Richard Nixon

So I just finished reading Carl Bernstein's biography of the career of Richard Nixon. What intrigued me was that in 1956, President Eisenhower was this close to keep the 43 year old Vice President on the ticket. Instead, Nixon agreed to serve as Secretary of Defense during Ike's second term.

When Nelson Rockefeller was elected President in 1960, he picked Nixon as Secretary of State. In his eight years on the job, Nixon was able to negotiate the removal of Soviet missiles with his Russian counterpart Andrei Gromyko (in exchange for removing missiles from Turkey), convinced President Rockefeller to approve air cover for the Bay of Pigs invasion, lobbied European leaders to impose trade sanctions on Rhodesia and paved the way for Rockefeller to make his historic visit to China in 1968.

Many Republicans wanted Nixon to run for President in 1968. Sensing that the country was ready for a change after 16 years of Republicans in the White House, he declined.

The Democrats were ready to take back the White House and Senator John F. Kennedy was the favorite to win the nomination going into the convention in Chicago. But after suffering a heart attack following his victory in the California primaries, there was no way JFK could run. With the help of Richard Daley, Kennedy's delegates went to his brother New York Governor Robert F. Kennedy.

With his running mate, Senator A. Willis Robertson of Virginia, RFK would win a landslide victory over the Romney/Bush and Wallace/Chandler tickets and serve from 1969-1977.

Nixon would win the 1968 Nobel Peace Prize.

Suppose Nixon stayed as Vice President in Ike's second term. If he had been the 1960 GOP nominee, would he have been elected POTUS over JFK? And would he have been as successful as Rockefeller had he been elected President? Or if he did run for President in 1968, would he have won as well?
 
I assume Nixon would win in 1960 if he had been the vp from 56-60. The country was prosperous, Eisenhower was popular and there wasn't anything the Democratic Party could pull. On the other hand, Nixon never looked good on camera, I never really found out why. And 1960 was the year the televised debates really took off. Nixon might not have managed to look as good versus Johnson as Rockefeller did.

As to 1968, Nixon's victory was doubtful, which is why he didn't run. He had the laurels to rest on, and no real reason to become president. If he ran in 1968 he would be remembered as the man who lost the Whitehouse in 1972, if he won, and if not he would be remembered as the loser of 1968. Basically, the best option he had was to not run.
 
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