20/20: Nixon and the 1960 Election

Nov. 11 -- It was an almost superhuman effort, an exhausting push to the finish.

The last few days of the 1960 presidential campaign were a blur in black and white. And for the two men involved — young, vibrant and wealthy John F. Kennedy and then-Vice President Richard M. Nixon — it was the fight of their lives.

Gen. Don Hughes, Nixon’s military aide and appointments secretary, recalls the candidate’s exhaustion during one of the last nights of the campaign.

“I went down and he was asleep… and it was a deep sleep. I shook him gently and he didn’t respond… so I finally just picked him up physically and put him in bed,” Hughes recounts. “And at that time he opened his eyes, and he said, ‘It’s going to be alright. God is with us.’ And he went to sleep.”

When election day dawned, Nixon had no choice but to stop his fevered campaigning and wait. When the results seemed clear — with Nixon losing the popular vote by only two-tenths of a percentage point — he walked into the glare of the lights … and conceded.

Herb Klein who was Nixon’s campaign press secretary, says one of the candidate’s concerns in the aftermath was how his family would take the defeat.

“I can recall a poignant moment, [when] he was having breakfast with his daughter Julie and tried to explain to her how did it feel to, to lose an election,” Klein says. “[I was] almost tearful… as I listen[ed] to him very painstakingly tell ‘that you win things and you lose things, but you have to keep fighting again.’ ”

In the end, the race was the closest of the century. But even before election day, rumors had circulated about fraud, especially in Chicago where then-Mayor Richard Daley’s machine was known for delivering the Democratic vote, often by whatever means necessary. Friends and some Republican leaders called on Nixon to investigate the vote count in key states like Illinois and Texas.