As I look back to almost fifty years ago, it seems to me that the period between the 1952 and 1956 election campaigns marked the end of an era--what could be called the Norman Rockwell era. Exhausted by war, the nation was finally at peace. It was prosperous. Most mothers stayed at home to take care of their children and were traditional housewives. Most fathers went daily to work. It was a "Honey, I'm home" time. (This of course applied to average middle class families like ours. Others were less fortunate.) Groceries were packed in paper, not plastic bags. This simple detail was about to change. The great civil rights movement had begun. Such was the background for the election year of 1956.
Again in 1956 Adlai Stevenson was the presidential nominee with Estes Kefauver of Tennessee as his running mate. "Ike" was tremendously popular and we Democrats had a grim feeling that it was to be a losing battle for our side. Stevenson put up a brave fight but his wit and charm were not enough--it was a landslide victory for the GOP.
Eisenhower's second term was not as placid as his first. He worried about the advance of communism on the other side of the world and sent military advisers to Vietnam, a momentous step. America's dubious and unhelpful ally, Chiang Kai Shek had fled to Formosa/Taiwan after Chairman Mao had taken over China. His lady wife, Madame Chiang Kai Shek was a frequent visitor at the White House and the President was said to have grumbled to his Mamie that he wished the woman would go home. There was the embarrassing U-2 incident. A U.S. spy plane crashed in Russia. The pilot bailed out and was captured. We denied vigorously charges of spying but Nikita Khrushchev, the Soviet premier had proof: in the crashed plane were photos of Russian military installations. Francis Gary Powers, the unfortunate pilot, spent ten highly unpleasant months in a Russian prison before being exchanged for another political convict.
In 1957 came the infamous Little Rock crisis. Nine courageous teen-agers, exercising their constitutional rights, tried to enter a Little Rock public high school and were prevented from doing so by Governor Faubus's National Guard. To his great credit, Eisenhower federalized the Guard and the students were able to accomplish their aim. Up to this time, although I heartily approved the civil rights movement, since it did not concern me or mine, I confess I had not thought much about it. The televised scenes I watched changed all that. The horrifying shock of seeing grown-up people jeering, reviling, shouting nasty names at nine kids who asked only for equality with their white peers is still with me and always will be.
In 1959 Fidel Castro's takeover of Cuba and his friendship with Soviet Russia seriously alarmed Eisenhower and the U.S. in general. Here was a communist nation, small though it was, a few miles from the nation's southeastern coast. Anti-Castro Cubans were swarming into Florida. The CIA went into action and a plot was cooked up to invade the island at the Bay of Pigs.
The election year of 1960 brought hope to Democratic hearts. At the July convention in Los Angeles Senator John Fitzgerald Kennedy of Massachusetts was chosen as the presidential nominee with Lyndon Johnson of Texas as his potential VP. Kennedy was a new and exciting personality, a veteran and a genuine hero of WWII. The more we learned about this young man, the more attractive he became. He was a brilliant speaker, had published a book ("Profiles on Courage") and was a diligent worker for what he believed in.
At the GOP convention Vice President Richard Nixon was the obvious choice and he named Senator Henry Cabot Lodge as his running mate. Nixon was in a strong position. He could and did claim some knowledge of foreign affairs. He spoke often of his "kitchen debate" with Nikita Khrushchev. He implied that he had been Eisenhower's close assistant but Ike, who disliked him, denied this, saying tartly that he couldn't recall anything special his VP had done.
Labor Day weekend as usual, was the start of the contest. Nixon pulled out all the stops, using his pretty wife and daughters as props. ("Wouldn't Pat make a wonderful First Lady?") Kennedy didn't indulge in such personal matters. In this WASPish nation he had to defend himself against charges that as a Catholic, he would be influenced by Rome. In an eloquent and powerful speech before the Greater Houston Ministerial Association he managed to convince his hearers that his religion was a private, personal thing and that he believed in total separation of church and state. Then came the debates. Nixon was at a disadvantage in the first one. He wasn't feeling well and looked tired and wan. Kennedy by contrast, was the picture of health and in command of the situation. In his gray suit, Nixon almost faded into the background. Kennedy, in dark blue, stood erect and confident. The contrast between these two young men was so startling that Nixon himself seemed to feel it.
It is said that technically he won the debate but that didn't matter. Suddenly this election was no shoo-in. It was hard fought on both sides and Kennedy's win on November seventh was by a narrow margin.
Kennedy's inaugural speech on January 20, 1961 was stirring and inspiring. "Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your county," he said. He and his glamorous wife Jackie moved into the White House with four year old Caroline and two month old JFK, Jr. For a brief time the historic mansion was called Camelot, after the musical comedy of that name. There were elegant parties and fine entertainment: the brilliant Spanish cellist Pablo Casals gave a concert there. This was on the light side. Shortly after JFK took office came the Bay of Pigs, a dismal and embarrassing failure for which he took full blame although it was not his plan.
Concerned like Eisenhower over the advance of Soviet influence in Asia, JFK sent some troops to Vietnam and the U.S. became involved in a political assassination. He is said to have planned to pull those troops out but his days were numbered and he didn't have time. On our side of the world Castro and Khrushchev were becoming friendly--uncomfortably so. The Cuban Missile Crisis was the result. The Russian plan to build sites for ballistic missiles in Cuba was intolerable. Kennedy acted with decisive promptness, telling the Soviet premier to destroy those sites or else.
Millions of us watched TV and saw the dismantling process. The Cold War was in full swing when the two Kennedys went to Europe in the spring of 1963. Jackie charmed the French while JFK, visiting the divided city of Berlin, won the hearts of its citizens with his "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech. In late November, preparing for the next year's election, they went on a campaign swing that took them to Dallas, Texas on November twenty second. Unlike the character in the ancient story, Kennedy had had no warning. He could not know that Dallas was his Samarra.