1960 United States presidential election

===Campaign issues===
A key concern in Kennedy's campaign was the widespread skepticism among Protestants about his [[20th century history of the Catholic Church in the United States|Roman Catholic]] religion. Some Protestants, especially Southern Baptists and Lutherans, feared that having a Catholic in the White House would give undue influence to the Pope in the nation's affairs.<ref>{{cite book|author=Shaun Casey|title=The Making of a Catholic President: Kennedy vs. Nixon 1960|url=https://archive.org/details/makingofcatholic00case|url-access=registration|year=2009|publisher=Oxford University Press|pages=[https://archive.org/details/makingofcatholic00case/page/143 143]–46|isbn=9780199743636}}</ref> Radio evangelists such as [[G. E. Lowman]] wrote that, "Each person has the right to their own religious belief ... [but] ... the Roman Catholic ecclesiastical system demands the first allegiance of every true member, and says in a conflict between church and state, the ''church'' must prevail".<ref>{{cite book|last=Lowman|first=G. E.|author-link=G. E. Lowman|title=Should a Roman Catholic Be President?|work=Prophecies for the Times|volume=8|pages=83–89|year=1960|url=http://www.jfklibrary.org/Asset-Viewer/Archives/JFKCAMP1960-1020-024.aspx}} Archived at the [[John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum]].</ref> The religious issue was so significant that Kennedy made a speech before the nation's newspaper editors in which he criticized the prominence they gave to the religious issue over other topics – especially in foreign policy – that he felt were of greater importance.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.jfklibrary.org/Research/Ready-Reference/JFK-Speeches/Remarks-of-Senator-John-F-Kennedy-at-American-Society-of-Newspaper-Editors-Washington-DC-April-21-19.aspx |title=Remarks of Senator John F. Kennedy at American Society of Newspaper Editors, Washington, D. C., April 21, 1960, "The Religion Issue in American Politics" – John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum |publisher=Jfklibrary.org |date=April 21, 1960 |access-date=June 24, 2012 |archive-date=April 19, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120419122244/http://www.jfklibrary.org/Research/Ready-Reference/JFK-Speeches/Remarks-of-Senator-John-F-Kennedy-at-American-Society-of-Newspaper-Editors-Washington-DC-April-21-19.aspx |url-status=dead }}</ref>

To address fears among Protestants that his Roman Catholicism would impact his decision-making, Kennedy told the Greater Houston Ministerial Association on September 12, 1960: "I am not the Catholic candidate for president. I am the Democratic Party's candidate for president who also happens to be a Catholic. I do not speak for my Church on public matters – and the Church does not speak for me."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/jfkhoustonministers.html|title=Address to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association|access-date=September 17, 2007|last=Kennedy|first=John F.|date=June 18, 2002|work=American Rhetoric}}</ref> He promised to respect the separation of church and state, and not to allow Catholic officials to dictate public policy to him.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Carty |first1=Thomas J. |title=A Catholic in the White House? Religion, Politics, and John F. Kennedy's Presidential Campaign |date=2004 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |location=New York City}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Casey |first1=Shaun A. |title=The Making of a Catholic President: Kennedy vs. Nixon 1960 |date=2009 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York City}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Lacroix |first1=Patrick |title=John F. Kennedy and the Politics of Faith |date=2021 |publisher=University Press of Kansas |location=Lawrence |pages=21–44}}</ref> Kennedy also raised the question of whether one-quarter of Americans were relegated to second-class citizenship just because they were Roman Catholic. Kennedy would become the first Roman Catholic to be elected president—it would be 60 years before another Roman Catholic, [[Joe Biden]], was elected.<ref>{{cite book|author=Fleegler, Robert L|title=Ellis Island Nation: Immigration Policy and American Identity in the Twentieth Century|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UpkAJo3vOWYC&pg=PA148|year=2013|publisher=U of Pennsylvania Press|page=148|isbn=978-0812208092}}</ref>

Kennedy's campaign took advantage of an opening when Rev. [[Martin Luther King Jr.]], the civil-rights leader, was arrested in Georgia while taking part in a [[Sit-in#Civil Rights Movement|sit-in]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=White|first1=Theodore H.|title=The Making of the President 1960|url=https://archive.org/details/makingofpresiden1960whit|url-access=registration|date=1961|page=[https://archive.org/details/makingofpresiden1960whit/page/385 385]|publisher=New York, Atheneum Publishers }}</ref> Nixon asked President [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]] to intervene, but the President declined to do so (as the matter was under state jurisdiction, the President did not have the power to pardon King). Nixon refused to take further action, but Kennedy placed calls to local political authorities to get King released from jail, and he also called King's father and wife. As a result, King's father endorsed Kennedy, and he received much favorable publicity among the black electorate.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Farrington|first=Joshua D.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ig8cDQAAQBAJ&q=%22king+sr%22+nixon+kennedy+republican&pg=PA111|title=Black Republicans and the Transformation of the GOP|date=September 20, 2016|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press|isbn=978-0-8122-9326-5|language=en}}</ref> A letter to the Governor of Georgia regarding Martin Luther King Jr.'s, arrest also helped Kennedy garner many African American votes. John F. Kennedy asked Governor Ernest Vandiver to look into the harsh sentencing, and stated his claim that he did not want to have to get involved in Georgia's justice system.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.jfklibrary.org/Research/Research-Aids/Ready-Reference/JFK-Fast-Facts/Vandiver-Letter.aspx|title=President Kennedy's Letter to Georgia Governor Ernest Vandiver, October 26, 1960 – John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum|website=www.jfklibrary.org|access-date=2017-03-01|archive-date=March 1, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170301180442/https://www.jfklibrary.org/Research/Research-Aids/Ready-Reference/JFK-Fast-Facts/Vandiver-Letter.aspx|url-status=dead}}</ref> A member of Kennedy's civil rights team and King's friend, Harris Wofford, and other Kennedy campaign members passed out a pamphlet to black churchgoers the Sunday before the presidential election that said, ""''No Comment" Nixon versus a Candidate with a Heart, Senator Kennedy.''"<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Kuhn|first=Clifford|year=1997|title="There's a Footnote to History!" Memory and the History of Martin Luther King's October 1960 Arrest and Its Aftermath|journal=The Journal of American History|pages=586}}</ref> On election day, Kennedy won the black vote in most areas by wide margins, and this may have provided his margin of victory in states such as New Jersey, South Carolina, Illinois, and Missouri.{{citation needed|date=July 2017}} Researchers found that Kennedy's appeal to African American voters appears to be largely responsible for his receiving more African-American votes than Adlai Stevenson in the 1956 election.<ref>{{Cite web |last= |first= |date=Spring 2014 |title=Lincoln M. Fitch: Throwing the Switch: Eisenhower, Stevenson and the African-American Vote in the 1956 Election |url=https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1295&context=student_scholarship |access-date=July 16, 2023 |website=cupola.gettysburg.edu}}</ref> The same study conducted found that white voters were less influenced on the topic of civil rights than black voters in 1960. The Republican national chairman at the time, [[Thruston Ballard Morton]], regarded the African-American vote as the single most crucial factor.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Middleton|first=Russell|date=March 1962|title=The Civil Rights Issue And Presidential Voting Among Southern Negroes And Whites|journal=Social Forces|volume=40|issue=3|pages=209–215|doi=10.2307/2573630|jstor=2573630}}</ref>

The issue that dominated the election was the rising Cold War tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union.<ref name="jfk1960">{{cite web|url=http://www.jfklibrary.org/JFK/JFK-in-History/Campaign-of-1960.aspx|title=Campaign of 1960 – John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum|website=www.JFKLibrary.org|access-date=July 26, 2017}}</ref> In 1957, the Soviets had launched Sputnik, the first man-made satellite to orbit Earth.<ref name="jfk1960" /> Soon afterwards, some American leaders warned that the nation was falling behind communist countries in science and technology.<ref name="jfk1960" /> In Cuba, the revolutionary regime of Fidel Castro became a close ally of the Soviet Union in 1960, heightening fears of communist subversion in the Western Hemisphere.<ref name="jfk1960" /> Public opinion polls revealed that more than half the American people thought that war with the Soviet Union was inevitable.<ref name="jfk1960" />

Kennedy took advantage of increased Cold War tension by emphasizing a perceived "[[missile gap]]" between the United States and Soviet Union. He argued that under the Republicans, the Soviets had developed a major advantage in the numbers of nuclear missiles.<ref>(Ambrose, p. 562)</ref> He proposed a bi-partisan congressional investigation about the possibility that the Soviet Union was ahead of the United States in developing missiles.<ref name=":1">{{Cite news|title=A Friendly Georgia Greeted Kennedy During His 5 Visits|last=Hal|first=Gulliver|date=November 23, 1963|work=The Atlanta Constitution}}</ref> He also noted in an October 18 speech that several senior US military officers had long criticized the Eisenhower Administration's defense spending policies.<ref>[http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=74096 Speech of Senator John F. Kennedy, American Legion Convention, Miami Beach, FL] accessed November 17, 2013</ref>

Both candidates also argued about the economy and ways in which they could increase the economic growth and prosperity of the 1950s, and make it accessible to more people (especially minorities). Some historians criticize Nixon for not taking greater advantage of Eisenhower's popularity (which was around 60–65% throughout 1960 and on election day), and for not discussing the prosperous economy of the Eisenhower presidency more often in his campaign.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-08/uoc--int081409.php |title=It's not the economy, stupid – it's what you do with it |publisher=Eurekalert.org |date=August 14, 2009 |access-date=June 24, 2012}}</ref> As the campaign moved into the final two weeks, the polls and most political pundits predicted a Kennedy victory. However, President Eisenhower, who had largely sat out the campaign, made a vigorous campaign tour for Nixon over the last 10 days before the election. Eisenhower's support gave Nixon a badly needed boost. Nixon also criticized Kennedy for stating that [[Quemoy]] and [[Matsu Islands|Matsu]], two small islands off the coast of Communist China that were held by Nationalist Chinese forces based in Taiwan, were outside the treaty of protection the United States had signed with the Nationalist Chinese. Nixon claimed the islands were included in the treaty, and accused Kennedy of showing weakness towards Communist aggression.<ref>(Ambrose, pp. 579–580)</ref> Aided by the Quemoy and Matsu issue, and by Eisenhower's support, Nixon began to gain momentum, and by election day, the polls indicated a virtual tie.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Perry|first=Paul|date=1962|title=Gallup Poll Election Survey Experience, 1950 to 1960|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2747357|journal=The Public Opinion Quarterly|volume=26|issue=2|pages=272–279|doi=10.1086/267097|jstor=2747357|issn=0033-362X}}</ref>