Nixon at the War Memorial one week before he lost a razor thin election to JFK

Posted by [email protected] | Nov 1, 2017 | History | 0 |

[The War Memorial in downtown Rochester, Photo: David Kramer]

November 1st, 1960 In the scan “Vice” is missing from “President,” which Nixon did become in 1968

Democrat and Chronicle, 03 Nov 1960, Thu, METROPOLITAN EDITION, Page 1

In keeping with our Presidential Visits to Rochester Series,

Vice Presidential candidate Henry Cabot Lodge II with his wife campaigning in Rochester, Democrat and Chronicle, Thu, Oct 20, 1960 — page 1

in a charged moment during his campaign against Kennedy, on November 1st, 1960 — only one week before election day — Vice President Nixon spoke at a campaign rally at the War Memorial Auditorium to a full house.

Previously, on October 19th, Nixon’s Vice Presidential candidate Henry Cabot Lodge II, former UN Ambassador, spoke to 5,000 outside the Manger Hotel.

One day after Nixon’s November 1st visit, the Democratic Vice Presidential candidate Lyndon Baines Johnson and his wife Lady Bird would campaign in Rochester before tens of thousands also outside the Manger Hotel. Johnson criticized Nixon’s speech at the War Memorial.

Democrat and Chronicle, 02 Nov 1960, Wed, METROPOLITAN EDITION, Page 6

Democrat and Chronicle, 02 Nov 1960, Wed, METROPOLITAN EDITION, Page 7

Democrat and Chronicle, 02 Nov 1960, Wed, METROPOLITAN EDITION, Page 12

Rally for Vice Presidential Candidate Henry Cabot Lodge II outside the Manger Hotel Democrat and Chronicle, Thu, Oct 20, 1960 — page 1

In 1960, New York was still considered “in play,” having voted Eisenhower/Nixon in 1952 and 1956. In his speech, Nixon promised to win Monroe County. He did, but lost New York by 5 points — and also the closest presidential election in U.S history.

In Six Crises (1962), Nixon mentions the visit in his account of the frenzied last week of the campaign in which he lost the popular vote by .017%.

from Six Crises (1962) Courtesy Rush Rees Library, University of Rochester

Election of 1960. Red = Nixon; Blue = Kennedy. Nixon easily won Monroe County, but Nixon won New York, 52 – 47 %

In 1964, Nixon shrewdly stayed out off the Republican presidential race that LBJ won in a landslide. See “The Agony of the GOP”; The Cow Palace, July 1964 Nixon would triumphantly return to Rochester as President in 1971. See 45 years ago when President Nixon visited Rochester. And 3 days later when East High School erupted in racial violence

THE SERIES

The Presidential Visits Series in its entirety: James Monroe to Joseph Biden

About The Author

[email protected]

Welcome to Talker of the Town! My name is David Kramer. I have a Ph.D in English and teach at Keuka College. I am a former and still active Fellow at the Nazareth College Center for Public History and a Storyteller in Residence at the SmallMatters Institute. Over the years, I have taught at Monroe Community College, the Rochester Institute of Technology and St. John Fisher College. I have published numerous Guest Essays, Letters, Book Reviews and Opinion pieces in The New York Times, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, the Buffalo News, the Rochester Patriot, the Providence Journal, the Providence Business News, the Brown Alumni Magazine, the New London Day, the Boston Herald, the Messenger Post Newspapers, the Wedge, the Empty Closet, the CITY, Lake Affect Magazine and Brighton Connections. My poetry appears in The Criterion: An International Journal in English and Rundenalia and my academic writing in War, Literature and the Arts and Twentieth Century Literary Criticism. Starting in February 2013, I wrote for three Democratic and Chronicle blogs, "Make City Schools Better," "Unite Rochester," and the "Editorial Board." When my tenure at the D & C ended, I wanted to continue conversations first begun there. And start new ones. So we created this new space, Talker of the Town, where all are invited to join. I don’t like to say these posts are “mine.” Very few of them are the sole product of my sometimes overheated imagination. Instead, I call them partnerships and collaborations. Or as they say in education, “peer group work.” Talker of the Town might better be Talkers of the Town. The blog won’t thrive without your leads, text, pictures, ideas, facebook shares, tweets, comments and criticisms.