Kennedy, Nixon, and Election Fraud

Was the election of 1960 stolen?

Recently, historian Irwin Gellman has been publishing the fruits of his massive research into Richard Nixon. While I don’t think anyone would compare Gellman’s writing flair with that of, say, Stephen Ambrose (one of Nixon’s former biographers), unlike Ambrose Gellman hasn’t to my knowledge made stuff up.

His The President and the Apprentice (2015) made a strong case that Nixon was an effective veep; that President Dwight Eisenhower trusted him; and that many perceived slights toward Nixon by Ike were misconstrued. For example, just before running for reelection in 1956, Ike supposedly wanted to dump Nixon. That wasn’t quite the story: Eisenhower, applying a military model of promotion in which men served in different positions to gain experience, thought Nixon would be better served with Cabinet experience. It should be noted that Ike repeatedly misjudged the political aspects of situations, including failing to call Martin Luther King, Jr.’s wife when he was in jail. On another occasion, when Ike was testy and trying to conclude a long press conference, he was asked on what issue, specifically, Nixon had contributed to the President’s decision making and Ike snapped, “If you give me a week I’ll think of one.”

In fact, Eisenhower thoroughly trusted Nixon and sent him on several serious and important missions, including the Latin American tour where Nixon’s life was endangered. Nixon and Eisenhower agreed that Ike would stay out of the 1960 race until needed, which he was in the waning days.

As for the election itself, Gellman’s new book, Campaign of the Century: Kennedy, Nixon, and the Election of 1960 follows its predecessor in presenting intense and often overlooked evidence. This often bogs Gellman down in excessive detail, but when necessary, as in the chapter on election and possible fraud, “But Did He Win?”, this detail comes in handy.

To cut to the chase, Gellman thinks Nixon was defrauded, but the evidence cannot quite prove it. He cites another historian Edmund Kallina, who did a book and two important articles in the 1980s on the potential fraud. Kallina looked at Cook County records, but applied data from the earlier reelection campaign of Benjamin Adamowski for state attorney. Kallina calculated that Adamowski had been cheated out of over 31,000 votes in the election and should have won.

Examining Nixon’s defeat, Kallina agreed there was fraud, and that Nixon should have had an additional 7,968 votes that were thrown out. However, that wasn’t quite enough to give Nixon the victory—-and he would have lost by about 900 votes. Moreover, to attest to Kallina’s objectivity, he and Gellman alike showed that contrary to Democrat claims of fraud downstate, nothing could be remotely proven.

Two things stand out from these studies. The first was Lyndon Johnson’s repeated comments to the effect that he had had a previous election stolen and that he’d see to it that 1960 was stolen in his direction. There were numerous lawsuits from Texas Republicans, but they all ended up before Democrat judge Leon Jaworski of Houston, who swatted them away. The state canvassing board maintained that under Texas law it had no authority to order a recount and it certified JFK’s victory. The second notable point that stood out was how resolute Nixon was in not asking for a recount. On multiple occasions he was urged to do so, and thought it too big a blow to the American system of government. Oddly, it was the Republican National Committee that was the most active in seeking a recount—-180 degrees opposite of what occurred in 2020 when President Donald Trump, almost on his own and with virtually no help from the GOP, fought the fraud.

In the end, both elections resemble a magician’s trick: we know it’s a trick. We know they were illusions. We know what really happened. But so far, we have not been able to prove it in a court of law.

Larry Schweikart

Rock drummer, Film maker, NYTimes #1, bestselling author, Political pundit

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