History from 1945-Present Discussion week 2

Post-World War II Domestic Issue: The Truman -Eisenhower -Kennedy Year s, from Sage American

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Post-World War II Domestic Issues

The Truman-Eisenhower-Kennedy Years

Post World War II America saw changes in everyday life scarcely imaginable in the 1930s. The military

requirements of war had generated enormous advances in technology, medicine, communications and

the implements of war. Medicines such as penicillin, antibiotics and techniques for the treating of injuries

and diseases were greatly stimulated by the demands of warfare and its impact upon civilian

populations. The research that went into the development of the atomic bomb also produced

information about the phenomenon of radiation and how it applied to such things as x -ray technology.

The first jet aircraft were developed by Germany during the Second World War, and all -purpose vehicle s

such as the famous Jeep (general purpose vehicle) fostered advances in automotive design. Radar and

other sophisticated technology devices had uses that would later be applicable in the civilian arena for

civil air control. Methods developed by companies such as Kaiser advanced the technology necessary for

building ships of all sorts. The Kaiser -Permanente health plan was created by that corporation in the

World War Two era.

The Legacy of World War II

As typified by the mythical figure of Rosie the Rivete r, the roles of American women had changed

dramatically during the world war. Approximately 800,000 women served in the Armed Forces in a

variety of capacities. For the 13 million men who served, the military experience was also eye opening:

farm boys, city dwellers, college students, businessmen, teachers, musicians, artists, laborers and skilled

technicians serving together —not to mention an unparalleled mixing of racial and ethnic groups, and

men from different geographic areas —brought new perspectives t o the men who served in the armed

forces during the World War II era.

The difficulty was that when those men returned, they had changed, often drastically, and so had the

women they had left behind. The younger soldiers and sailors had gone off as boys of 18 and returned

as old men of 21. The girls had gone to work in factories, businesses, USOs and Red Cross or other

patriotic agencies and were now independent -minded women, not necessarily ready to resume the

status quo. The end of the war was indeed a tim e for celebration, and the returning GIs were treated as

heroes. But getting back to a “normal” life was difficult. Many men and women who had married during

whirlwind courtships of weeks or even days before the men left discovered that their spouses were

strangers; the person they remembered had changed. The result of all these changes was that marriage,

birth and divorce rates all rose dramatically in the postwar years.

Domestic Issues and the Cold War. Nothing happens in a vacuum in the real world. In po st-World War II

America, Cold War issues and domestic issues overlapped significantly. As citizens of the most powerful

nation in the world, the people of the United States were not ready to reembrace the posture of prewar

isolationism; indeed, most Americ ans probably felt that the United States had a responsibility to help

order things in the rest of the world. Programs like the Marshall Plan, which provided massive economic

0014 aid to the recovery of the devastated nations of Europe, was a measure of that sense of responsibility.

The development of the interstate highway system, a project that had an enormous effects on the

domestic lives of Americans, was nevertheless justified in part by national security needs. The space

race, which began with the launching of the Soviet satellite Sputnik, might be viewed as a domestic

initiative. Yet part of the motivation for the massive effort to conquer space was clearly the fact that, as

one political figure put it, “I do not want to sleep at night under the light of a Russian moon.”

The civil rights movement was perhaps the most significant and important domestic development in

post -World War II America, at least until the end of the 20th century. Yet even that issue was propelled

to a certain extent by concerns about h ow segregation in American society might be used against us in

the competition among nations. It was difficult for Amerficans to point fingers at nations that ruled their

citizens with an iron fist while millions of Americans lacked full freedom at home.

E conomic issues certainly resonated with respect to the international position of America. President

Eisenhower's warning in his farewell address of the “military -industrial complex” illustrated the fact that

our industries, and the research being down in o ur universities, were focused heavily on the

development of weapons and tools for the waging of war. American movies and television, created

primarily for domestic consumption, nevertheless provided a window on American society to the rest of

the world, and that view did not always portray America in a favorable light. Indeed, one recent

Secretary of Defense pointed out that a certain American international spy drama might well have

unfortunate propaganda uses for America's enemies.

The treatment of Cold Wa r issues and domestic issues will, therefore, require some back -and -forth.

Where appropriate, links will be provided to issues that straddle historic events in both the international

and domestic arenas.

The Postwar Economy. Another thing that was obviousl y true after the war was that the Depression was

over. Massive government spending during the war —twice as much as in all of America’s prior history

combined— had ended unemployment and created tens of thousands of new jobs for men and women.

Dust bowl farmers who had arrived in California destitute in the 1930s had found jobs in aircraft and

ship building plants and were well off by 1943. Soldiers with families sent their paychecks home; there

was little to spend them on in many places where they were stati oned. Instead those paychecks went

into savings accounts because their wives were working and also had little on which to spend the extra

income: no appliances, no new cars, and very few luxury items, for industry had devoted its full

attention to the war effort.

The post -war era was a time of economic boom. Soldiers returned with hundreds of dollars in back pay,

and wives who had been working had been able to save because there were few luxuries on which to

spend income. Many consumer products had been mos tly unavailable; companies that had made

appliances had been building the implements of war. American labor had prospered; by 1945 union

membership was at almost 15 million, over 35% of the nonagricultural labor force, an all- time high. In

1946 President T ruman recommended measures to Congress designed to help the economy recover.

With the huge demand for consumer goods and new homes, anti -inflation measures were instituted to

0015 keep the overheating economy under control. Life did not return to what it had been in 1940—it took

off in exciting and often confusing new directions.

Fears that the returning GIs would cause economic hardships did not materialize, for the need to shift

the economy back to peacetime production demanded a lot of labor. Although local c onflicts occurred

over hiring priorities and preferences for veterans, there was plenty of work to go around. Americans

spent, but not wildly, for memories of the Depression returned as those of the war began to fade.

Though the economy boomed, it did not get out of control, and fear of another depression gradually

waned. The postwar agonies historically faced by many nations —rampant inflation, rioting, labor

disorders —were not completely absent in the U.S. from 1945 -1955, but they did not rise above

manage able proportions. For one thing, the demands of the Cold War and other factors kept

government spending at high levels, and the demand for consumer goods and new homes kept the

economy moving upward. Americans had never had it so good. They knew it and were proud, feeling

they had earned it.

The Truman Years, 1945 -1950

One of the great American films of all time, “The Best Years of Our Lives” (1947), explores the

readjustments that had to be made by returning veterans. The ex- Army master sergeant who goes back

to his position as a banker views loan applications from his fellow ex -servicemen very differently from

the bank officials who had stayed behind. The sailor who returns with metal hooks instead of the hands

he lost in a shipboard fire discovers that his family has even more trouble adjusting to his injury than he

had in adjusting to the mechanical devices. The former Army Air Corps bomber pilot discovers that the

skills required in leading 10 men in a complex machine over enemy territory do not translate readily into

the postwar workplace. He also discovers that his bride, whom he had known for only days before his

departure, is a total stranger; he can’t wait to get out of uniform, but she wants to parade him around in

it to show him off to her friends .

The Best Years of Our Lives , directed by William Wyler, starred Fredric March, Myrna Loy, and Dana

Andrews. Harold Russell played the part of a sailor who had lost his hands. The film won 7 Academy

Awards, including a special Oscar for Harold Russell, whose handicap was real.

I was nine years old when the war ended, but the memories remain vivid. My best friend and I each lost a

brother. In the village of Pleasantville, New York, where I lived, every year on Memorial Day a parade

began and ended at the village plaza near the railroad station. A scroll of honor had been erected there

with the names of all the young men from Pleasantville who had served in the war. Next to the name of

each one killed was a gold star. As part of the ceremony ending the parade , the names of all those who

had died were read over a loudspeaker. While I do not recall the names or numbers, I remember vividly

the weeping of many of the people in the crowd, for everyone in the village knew at least one person

who had been killed.

Loo king back, it is hard to imagine how many things we now take for granted were different in 1945. To

mail a first -class letter cost three cents; air mail was extra. Practically no homes had a television set;

even by 1949 less than 3% of residences had one. There were no pushbutton or dial telephones; you

0016 would pick up the receiver and wait until an operator, inevitably female, said, “Number, please?”—and

you gave her the number. You had to ask for a special operator for long- distance. A significant

percentag e of farm homes were still without electricity or indoor plumbing; appliances such as

refrigerators and washing machines and dryers were luxuries which many working -class families could

not yet afford.

As virtually no automobiles had been manufactured from 1943 to 1945 because the auto companies

were busy building tanks, jeeps, 5 -ton trucks and military aircraft, the old 1940 and 41 models were

brought out again until designs could be revamped. The Singer company went back to making sewing

machines instead of machine guns, and silk was once again used for stockings instead of parachutes.

Butter, sugar, meat and gasoline were no longer rationed. People took their old cars down off the blocks

where they had sat during the war because of tire and gasoline ratio ning, and the top half of headlights

no longer had to be painted black for air defense.

The Housing Boom . The critical need for the returning men starting families was housing. University

campuses provide an interesting glimpse of how different effects of the war came together. The GI Bill

of Rights, which included provisions for college tuition assistance, as well as job training and help with

home loans, helped create a new phenomenon. Veterans who might never have thought about going to

college decided t hat it was worth a try, since Uncle Sam was footing part of the bill. Men who chose to

attend college on the GI Bill did not necessarily delay marriage, as they had postponed their lives long

enough while at war. They often delayed having children so that their wives could work, but they were

still families, and around the fringes of college campuses makeshift structures such as tin Quonset huts,

old military barracks or other temporary buildings were converted into cheap apartments. The married

college stu dent—until 1945 an oddity for the most part —was now a fixture on the campus.

Elsewhere the demand for housing was equally strong, and thousands of young families were willing to

move into new suburban communities such as Levittown, Long Island, (left) wher e prefabricated houses

were constructed from one set of plans in row after row, even to the placing of a single tree in the same

place in every yard. Some social critics found such communities appalling in their sameness. But the

occupants, who perhaps remembered growing up in the Depression 1930s, found that paint, do -it -

yourself landscaping and other improvements could create some sense of personal identity. All the

same, cartoonists and song writers had fun with this “ticky -tacky” life style.

The Age of the Automobile .

One extra that did not come with suburban houses but which was often indispensable to this new

suburban way of life was the automobile. In the immediate postwar years, Ford, GM, Chrysler, Kaiser,

Studebaker, Hudson, Packard and the other manufacturers retooled their plants from making trucks,

tanks and jeeps. They dusted off prewar designs and began producing cars that looked very much like

1939 and 1940 models. But within two or three years newer, sleeker, more streamlined and modern

designs appeared, and the automobile age took off. Cars and gasoline were cheap —in fact the gas war

became a roadside feature in the 1950s, as did the drive -in restaurant with curbside service, the drive -in

movie theater, and a new form of temporary lodging, the motel. At first few new cars had air-

0017 conditioning, fancy radios or automatic transmissions, which through the 1950s were often expensive

extras. But they were bright, shiny and colorful, and when the interstate highway system was begun

under President Eisenhower in the 1950s, they would take you almost anywhere in unprecedented

comfort and speed.

American labor had also prospered during World War II. By 1945 union membership was at almost 15

million, over 35% of the nonagricultural labor force, an all-time high. In 1946 President Truman

recommended measures to Congress designed to help the economy recover. With the huge demand for

consumer goods and new homes, anti -inflation measures were instituted to keep the overheating

economy under control. Th is attempt was made despite the fact that the Office of Price Administration,

which had kept a lid on inflation during the war, was abolished in 1947. Life did not return to what it had

been in 1940, it took off in exciting and often confusing new directio ns.

As Franklin Roosevelt’s successor, President Harry Truman faced enormous challenges. Truman had not

even wanted to be vice president, and when he received the shocking news of the president’s death

from Eleanor Roosevelt at the White House, his first words were, “Mrs. Roosevelt what can we do for

you?” Maintaining her composure, the president’s widow answered, “No, Harry, what can we do for

you? For you are the one in trouble now.”

Truman initially promised to carry on with Franklin Roosevelt’s policies , but he eventually designed his

own legislative program. Although President Truman did succeed in overseeing a reasonably orderly

transition to a healthy peacetime economy, his ambitious political program ran into difficulty with the

Republican Congress elected in 1946. Opponents of Roosevelt’s New Deal had used the war to get rid of

many of Roosevelt’s measures, and conservative Democrats and Republicans were not prepared for a

second new deal.

By 1947 the Armed Forces had been reduced to a size of 1.5 mi llion, and the discharged veterans were

eager to take advantage of the GI Bill. Veterans were entitled to financial support for education and

vocational training, medical treatment, unemployment and loans for building houses or starting

businesses. They we re eager to marry and start families, and by 1946 the well- known baby-boom was

underway; the birth rate in 1946 was 20% higher than in 1940 and continued at a high rate until the

1960s.

President Truman made significant advances in the area of civil rights . Because Congress was not

prepared for major civil rights legislation, President Truman used the power of his office to desegregate

the Armed Forces and forbid racial segregation in government employment. (See Executive Order 9981,

Appendix.)

With a strong labor flexing its muscle, and with the huge demand for consumer goods, the American

economy was vibrant. But workers were in a position to make demands, and they did. President Truman

was at the center of the struggle between labor and management, and in order to strengthen his

position with labor, a natural Democratic constituency, he vetoed the controversial Taft -Hartley Act of

1947. It was called by some the “slave labor act” because it was seen as unfriendly to labor and unions.

Truman’s veto was overridden, and the act banned the closed shop (union only shop.) It also prohibited

0018 union contributions to political campaigns, required union leaders to swear that they were not

Communists, and included other stern measures.

Despite conflict between Presiden t Truman and the Republican Congress, much was accomplished in the

postwar years. The National Security Act of 1947 revised the Armed Forces, creating the Department of

Defense, a separate United States Air Force and the new National Security Council. In addition the law

made the Joint Chiefs of Staff a permanent entity and established the Central Intelligence Agency, an

outgrowth of the wartime Office of Strategic Services, or OSS, to coordinate intelligence gathering

activity. In 1951, in a reaction again st the extended term of Franklin Roosevelt, Congress passed and the

states ratified the 22nd Amendment, which limited all presidents after Truman to two terms.

The 1948 Election. The 1948 presidential election was one of the most memorable in American history.

The Republican candidate, Governor Thomas Dewey of New York, had gained fame for his anti -crime

work and had run against Roosevelt in 1944. Because of Harry Truman’s support for civil rights, including

the integration of the Armed Forces and the United States Civil Service, a number of Southern

Democrats left the Democratic Party. They nominated South Carolina Governor J. Strom Thurmond on a

States’ Rights Democratic ticket; they were called the “Dixiecrats.” Meanwhile the left wing of the

Democratic Party nominated Henry A. Wallace on a Progressive Party ticket. Those two defections from

the Democratic ranks seemed to doom President Truman's chances for reelection.

By mid- September the polls were predicting a sure victory for Governor Dewey, and taking the polls

seriously Dewey conducted a lethargic campaign, assuming that he had the election in hand. President

Truman, however, went on a whistle-stop campaign by train in which he covered 31,000 miles and made

speeches all along the way. He criticized t he “do-nothing Congress,” and people in the audience yelled,

“Give 'em hell, Harry!” The President responded, “I don't give them hell —I just tell the truth and they

think it's hell!” His supporters would roar with laughter and applause. Post -election analy ses later

showed that Truman was closing the gap rapidly in the last few days before the election. Without the

assistance of modern computers, however, the pollsters were unable to keep up with the changes. Thus

on election night everyone still assumed tha t Governor Dewey could rest easy.

In one of the most famous journalistic gaffes in American political history, the Chicago Tribune came out

with its famous headline, “Dewey defeats Truman.” The next morning a victorious Harry Truman held up

the paper grinning broadly —he had won 49% of the vote and had achieved a 303 to 189 margin in the

Electoral College. Harry Truman had won his second term and was president in his own right. The blunt,

plain -spoken Missourian, who had a famous sign on his desk —“The Buck S tops Here”—would serve four

more years.

In 1949, President Truman, inspired by his stunning upset victory in the election, introduced a new

legislative agenda, which he called the “Fair Deal.” It sought to take up where the New Deal had left off

and includ ed repeal of the Taft -Hartley Act, raising the minimum wage and expanding social security.

Conservatives, however, feeling that they had seen government programs advance more than far

enough under Roosevelt, gave lukewarm support at best to Truman’s ideas, although some bills were

passed. Congress had also passed the 22nd Amendment, which was ratified in 1951. Although it did not

0019 apply to President Truman, his election in 1948 was the fifth straight Democratic victory. Had he chosen

to run again in 1952, he probably would have met the same fate as Adlai Stevenson, who lost in a

landslide to World War II hero General Dwight Eisenhower.

For more on the political career of Harry Truman see David McCullough, Truman (New York: Simon &

Schuster, 1992) and Harry S Truman, Memoirs of Harry S. Truman: 1945 Year of Decisions (New York:

Doubleday, 1955) & Years of Trial and Hope, 1946 -1952 (New York: Doubleday, 1956). See

also Truman (1995), starring Gary Sinise & Diana Scarwid, directed by Frank Pierson, based on

McCul lough's book.

The 1950s: The Eisenhower Years

The 1950s were a decade of both stability and change. Inflation was tamed even as the economy

continued to grow; for example government workers and military personnel received no pay raises from

1955 to 1963 be cause inflation remained at near zero. The civil rights revolution in the South got started

in 1954 and 55 with the Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka and the

Montgomery bus boycott begun by the courageous Rosa Parks. For most of middle America, however,

the 1950s were a time of flashier cars, the expansion of television, the rise of rock 'n roll, mass

production, the accelerated movement to suburbia, and a rising but strangely dissatisfied middle class.

Underneath the somewhat tranquil exterior of American society the beat generation brought a foretaste

of the rebellious 1960s.

General Dwight D. Eisenhower was elected president in 1952. He was nominated over conservative

Senator Robert Taft of Ohio following a lively contest at the Republican convention. He selected as his

vice president Senator Richard Nixon of California. By election day it was clear that everyone liked Ike,

and he was elected in a landslide. Eisenhower was better prepared for the Presidency than many

imagined, for in his job as Supreme Allied Commander in Europe during the war he had had to deal with

both political and military matters. But that experience did not quite prepare him for all the political

machinations of Washington. (See Dwight D. Eisenhower, Crusade in Europe , New York: Doubleday,

1949.)

Along with the civil rights turmoil in the South that increased during the 1950s, an undercurrent of fear

and anxiety persisted because of the nuclear arms race. With the growing threat from the Soviet Union,

the military was enlarged, and military spending helped stimulate the economy. One project begun by

President Eisenhower as a national defense measure was the creation of the interstate highway system.

Within a decade Americans could drive almost literally from coast to coast without encountering a stop

light. American life became ever more focused on the automobile. Although a significant number of

families still did not own a car, and few families had two cars, the automobile had become a necessity

rather than a luxury for most Americans.

By the mid 1950s the Depression years seemed far away. Most Americans were enjoying a standard of

living that was unprecedented. Not all of the economic news was good, however. Americans had

benefited in the immediate postwar years because their industrial facilities had been untouched by the

war. But as the European nations built new factories to rep lace the ones that had been bombed out,

001A American industries faced obsolescence. As farming methods continued to improve, farmers were able

to produce more and more, driving the prices of agricultural goods down. The federal government

initiated various price supports to prop up farm commodities. The struggles of American farmers never

seemed to cease, from the Populist era through the twenties and the Depression and into the late 20th

century.

Suburban life centered around the family, and most Americans fel t that life was pretty good. However,

an undercurrent of frustration persisted. One tale about the apparent sameness of the suburbs had a

man getting off his commuter train, walking absently toward his home, accidentally walking a block too

far, entering a house that seemed to be just like his own, to be greeted by a wife who seemed familiar.

Only after the couple had sat down to dinner and started to talk did everyone realize that the man had

arrived at the wrong house. Sloan Wilson’s novel, The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit , and the film of the

same name starring Gregory Peck reveal the pressures of 1950s conformity and the haunting memories

of the Second World War. Although the modern feminist movement had not yet begun, its seeds were

being planted among bright, educated women who were finding that being a housewife and mother

were not always fulfilling. (The recent AMC TV series Mad Men covers the same era and has won awards

for historic authenticity.)

Although he had suffered a heart attack in 1955, Pres ident Eisenhower felt fit and competent to run for

reelection in 1956, and he won by another landslide. Recognizing that that many people still “liked Ike,”

the Democrats decided to stay with their 1952 candidate, Governor Adlai Stevenson. The rather dull

Democratic convention suddenly came to life when Stevenson announced that he would not designate

his own candidate for vice president, but opened the nomination to the convention. A lively contest

ensued, pitting Senator Estes Kefauver and others against the young Senator John F. Kennedy of

Massachusetts. Although Kefauver won, Kennedy made a very graceful concession speech, which

Democrats in 1960 obviously remembered.

For all the subliminal discontent, Americans were generally self- assured and confident in their ability to

meet life challenges, both domestic and international. That certitude was ruptured, however, with the

startling announcement in 1957 that the Soviet Union had launched the first orbital satellite. It was

called Sputnik. While fascinating to scientists, the Russian satellite struck fear in the hearts of many who

believed that the Soviets would convert their successes in outer space into military advantage. Before

the United States could get its first satellite aloft, the Russians had sent a cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin, into

orbit. While Soviet rockets seemed capable of sending large payloads into space, American rockets often

blew up on the launch pad. It was not until President Kennedy announced a national goal of landing an

astronaut on the m oon and returning him safely to Earth before the end of the decade of the 1960s that

America began closing the gap in the space race.

In reaction to the launching of Sputnik Congress passed a bill creating the National Aeronautics and

Space Administration (NASA) and another, the National Defense Education Act, to improve American

education by beefing up programs in mathematics and science. While Americans continued to like and

respect President Eisenhower, he seemed like a grandfather figure to many. By the time of the election

001B of 1960, Americans sought a younger more vigorous president, whom they got in John Fitzgerald

Kennedy.

Life in the 1950s in America had about it rather glaring inconsistencies. On the surface, much seemed

well. People were making more money than ever before; men and women were going to college in far

greater numbers than ever before; television was a new form of entertainment, which by the mid -1950s

was a feature of a majority of households, though most households had only one small bl ack-and -white

set (left). Sports were more popular than ever, popular music was going off in new directions with the

emergence of Elvis Presley and rock and roll, and industries like aircraft changed people’s transportation

habits almost as much as the train or automobile. The St. Lawrence Seaway connecting the Great Lakes

with the Atlantic Ocean was also opened in 1959. Ceremonies in Chicago and elsewhere were attended

by President Eisenhower and Queen Elizabeth II. Nostalgic films have shown the 1950s to be good,

comfortable, at least, and free from turmoil, although some might say they were bland and often

uninteresting, maybe even boring. But overall, the “nifty fifties” were still good.

But there were dark sides. In the South, and in parts of the North as well, racial tensions that had been

smoldering since Reconstruction began to emerge with the birth of the modern civil rights movement.

And while the world was relatively at peace, various crises in Europe, Asia and the Middle East kept

tensions high. And above all -there was the bomb. Until 1949 the U.S. was the only nation that had

produced (and used) atomic weapons. When Soviet Union scientists, whom many believe were aided by

secrets stolen from the U.S., exploded its first atomic device, the atomic ( later nuclear) arms race was

on.

The two superpowers established what became known as the balance of terror as more and more

powerful weapons were produced and tested. School children were drilled on what to do in case of a

nuclear attack, subterranean bomb shelters were built (sometimes in people’s back yards), and for a

long time the assumption was that sooner or later World War III —more horrible than World Wars I and

II put together —was bound to start. One did not have to be a pessimist to think the unth inkable, that it

was not a matter of “if,” but “when.” It was for understandable reasons that the Cold War was also

known as the balance of terror.

The Kennedy Years

The 1960 election was a milestone in terms of the impact of television on electoral politics. Richard

Nixon, who had been vice president under President Eisenhower for eight years, and who had a number

of notable achievements on his record, was a formidable, intelligent candidate with broad experience

and a sophisticated understanding of forei gn affairs. Although he received only lukewarm support from

the outgoing president, Richard Nixon was not to be taken lightly.

Senator Kennedy of Massachusetts, on the other hand, had many visible assets, including a charming

young wife and family, a Harvard education, a record of heroism in World War II, and the backing of a

wealthy and powerful family. Yet his years in Congress and the Senate had been undistinguished, and

when Adlai Stevenson opened the nomination for vice president during the 1956 Democr atic

convention, Kennedy lost his bid to Estes Kefauver. Kennedy also had to reckon with the fact that he was

001C attempting to become the first elected Irish Catholic president in American history. If he won, he would

also be the youngest man ever elected president of the United States.

In retrospect the outcome of the election and seems to have turned on the first televised debate

between Senator Kennedy and Vice President Nixon. Kennedy's movie star good looks and smooth

performance overshadowed the haggard, pale appearance of Richard Nixon, who had recently been

hospitalized, and who looked far less appealing to the television audience, having declined to use

makeup. Those who heard the debate on the radio and did not see it divided their sentiments regardin g

the winner 50 -50 between the two candidates. For those who saw the debate on television, Kennedy

came out ahead by a substantial margin. The vote was one of the closest in American history; Kennedy's

margin was 118,000 votes out of 68 million cast.

The 1 960 election was also notable in that for the first time, citizens in Hawaii and Alaska were able to

vote in a presidential election; both had become states in 1959.

JFK Inaugural address.

Probably because of his assassination and the nonstop television c overage of all of events during the

weekend leading up to the funeral, including the heroic performance by Jacqueline Kennedy and the

tragic image of the her two young children saying farewell to their father on camera, Kennedy's

popularity was probably ev en greater after his death than during his administration, and people without

a deep knowledge of politics considered him to have been a great president. In fact, Kennedy's domestic

record was quite modest. He was unable to persuade Congress to follow his lead in a number of his

initiatives, and most of his proposals, especially in the civil rights area, were finally realized under the

powerful Lyndon Johnson, who succeeded Kennedy after his death. Congress did support Kennedy's

creation of the Peace Corps and passed economic programs for urban renewal, raising the minimum

wage, and increasing Social Security benefits. Critics have claimed that Kennedy's performance in office

had more style than substance, but there is no question that the White House seemed a far more

glamorous place with the Kennedy family in residence. There is also little doubt that his handling of the

Cuban missile crisis was his finest hour.