Six Crises

by Richard Nixon

  But some commentators were already speculating as to what I would do after my defeat. David Brinkley of NBC, at 10:15, said: “Nixon is a lawyer. He will probably wind up in some high-paying corporate job.” Despite the ever-narrowing popular vote margin and our surprising strength throughout the West, NBC and CBS were still insisting that California was in the bag for Kennedy. Grant Holcomb put it this way: “One of the things about California is that once the trend is established, it very, very seldom changes. It would be surprising indeed if this trend of Kennedy winning California changed.” Merrill Muller of NBC went further: “Kennedy has California and the national election.” NBC’s computer predicted a Kennedy victory in the state at odds of 7 to 3—this at 10:30. Holcomb reported at that time that the San Francisco Chronicle and the Los Angeles Examiner had both conceded California to Kennedy.

  The commentators and observers were now turning to analyses of the vote by racial and religious patterns. Howard K. Smith said at eleven: “Our tentative conclusion would be that Kennedy lost a little by being a Catholic, but he gained a great deal more.”

  The popular vote margin continued to narrow. As each new batch of votes was recorded, I was gaining more of them than Kennedy.

  Shortly after eleven (two o’clock Eastern Time) I decided I had to make a decision, one way or the other, about issuing a statement. I asked Don Hughes to round up our key advisers. First to enter my room were Len Hall and Cliff Folger. These two men had been with me on that cold evening back in November 1958, when we decided to start down the long road which seemed now to be ending at such a heartbreaking destination.

  They could not have been more magnificent. Len Hall had a big smile on his face, shook my hand, and—acting for all the world as if nothing more serious had happened than that he had just lost two dollars on a horse race—said, “It’s a real squeaker.” I knew his heart was breaking. No one had worked longer or harder for our cause. Cliff Folger, my finance chairman, was just as fine. I mentioned that one of my major regrets was that I felt I had let down those who had contributed so generously to the campaign. His eyes flashed as he answered: “Why, don’t you think that for a minute. All of these fellows had a real run for their money. We’ll try again and next time we’ll beat them to a pulp!”8

  Bob Finch, Fred Seaton, and Herb Klein joined us and I told them all that I thought the time had come for me to make some kind of a statement. Seaton was particularly opposed to my making an outright concession. He had just had a call from Jim Worthy in Illinois, and another from Ev Dirksen’s top assistant, Harold Rainville. Both agreed that, if the present trend continued there, we were gaining enough in each downstate precinct to overcome the lead Kennedy had built up in Cook County. Worthy, incidentally, was to point out to me several months later that after I made my statement at 12:20, which was interpreted by some as a concession, the Republican poll-watchers downstate gave up and went home. In his opinion this contributed to our loss by the razor-thin margin of 8000 votes.

  But I gave the group my own analysis. While we were leading Kennedy in the number of states carried (and it was to end up that way, 26 to 23, with one state uncommitted), he now had New York, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Michigan for sure. With Ohio definitely in our column, we still had to win California, Illinois, and one other state-possibly Minnesota—in order to overtake him. The odds were strongly against that happening. I thought we would win California because I knew there were a quarter-of-a-million absentee ballots out, traditionally heavily Republican, and that they would be decisive in view of the closeness of the vote at that hour. But we were still 40,000 behind in Illinois. Absentees had been opened and counted there and I considered our chances of pulling through very remote, the more so in view of a call we had just received from a good friend and very experienced Illinois political observer, John Drieske of the Chicago Sun-Times. He had told us a few minutes before that it just wasn’t in the cards for us to take the state.

  I felt that by midnight I would have to make a statement of some sort—one in good grace but, at the same time, one that would not let down our legion of supporters who still had hopes we might pull the election out of the bag. Bob Finch brought in stacks of wires and phone messages urging me not to concede until all the votes were in. Herb Klein, on the other hand, said many in the press corps thought I had already waited too long and was being “a poor sport” in not conceding—especially in view of the fact that some of the major Republican papers, like the Herald Tribune and the Sun-Times, had long since given up.

  I finally decided, at about 11:30, that I would make a statement to the group of loyal supporters who had been listening to returns all evening long down in the ballroom and whom I would have greeted much earlier had it not been for the indecisiveness of the result.

  Pat was still upstairs in her suite with the girls. We had agreed that they would not join me until we knew what the result would be. As the evening dragged along, I kept putting off calling them in the hope the tide might eventually turn in our direction. Now I could wait no longer. Don Hughes went up to get them. At 11:30, Pat walked into my room with Helene Drown and Tricia. Both Pat and Tricia were wearing the new dresses they had bought for the occasion, Tricia in blue and Pat in a gray-green flowered print. No one could have guessed as they came into the room that things had been going against us. All evening long, Pat had been telling Tricia and Julie—who had gone to bed earlier—that the news would get better as the West came in.

  Tricia greeted me with, “Hi Daddy, how is the election coming?”

  For a fleeting moment I didn’t have the heart to tell them what I had concluded from the trend of the returns. But then I knew I could no longer put off preparing them for the bad news that was to come.

  I replied, almost too bluntly, “I’m afraid we have lost, honey.”

  Tricia, who had been smiling bravely up to this point, began to cry uncontrollably. She said through her tears: “I’m not crying because of myself but for you and Mommy. You have worked so hard and so long.”9

  It was difficult for all of us to keep our tears in check as she spoke.

  I then told Pat that I thought the two of us should go down to the ballroom to greet those who had been waiting it out so patiently. She asked me what I intended to say. I replied: “I don’t intend to make an outright concession, but the least I can do is to indicate that, if the present trend continues, Kennedy will be elected.”

  Pat was adamant against my making any kind of a concession statement—even a conditional one. She said: “I have no regrets about all the work we have done in this campaign. But I simply cannot bring myself to stand there with you while you concede the election to Kennedy.”

  I understood so completely how she felt that I did not press the point. I kissed her and Tricia good night, and they went back upstairs. I asked the members of my staff to leave me alone in the room, and then I sat down with yellow pad and pencil to try and draft some notes which I might use for the statement.

  It was now almost midnight. In fifteen minutes I would have to go downstairs alone to the Ambassador ballroom and speak not only to the thousands gathered there—my closest personal and political friends who, through the years, had worked so hard in my campaigns—but also to millions across the nation, many of whom had worked and voted for me, and perhaps as many more who had worked and voted against me.

  I thought back over other crises which had confronted me as I prepared for speeches or key press conferences: the fund speech in 1952; my White House press conference after the President’s stroke in 1957; trying to hold my temper as I met the press in Lima and Caracas after the riots there in 1958; those tense moments when Khrushchev had verbally assaulted me at the American Exhibition in Moscow and I had a split-second to decide whether to remain silent, to retreat, or to fight back.

  But this was the greatest test of all. How could I be gracious, and yet not concede outright? On the other hand, how could I avoid disappointing and discouraging over thirty million people
who had voted and worked for me and who were now waiting to hear what I had to say? Most important, if the trend were to continue as I expected it would, and Kennedy were elected, how could I best use this opportunity to get those who had voted for me to stand with him—wherever and whenever he would speak in the future as President of all the people and not just as the leader of his party? At least a dozen times I jotted down notes—and then tore the pages from the pad and tossed them in the waste basket.

  I thought back on what other men had done under similar circumstances. I recalled Tom Dewey’s generous comments “the morning after” in 1948 when he finally had to acknowledge a defeat which was, if anything, harder for him to take than mine would be for me because he had been such an overwhelming favorite to win.

  As a student of history, I thought—what an appropriate time for a Lincoln anecdote! But this ground had already been pre-empted by Adlai Stevenson. In 1952 he had compared his feelings in defeat with Lincoln’s little boy who had stubbed his toe: “It hurt too much to laugh, but he was too old to cry.”

  I still had not been able to put down a note that I felt would be appropriate when Don Hughes opened the door and walked in, with Pat beside him. “I have been thinking of all those people in the ballroom who have given so much of themselves to all our campaigns,” she said. “I think we should go down together and tell them how much we appreciate what they have done.”

  It was now 12:15, Pacific Coast Time. Just as we were leaving the room, Bob Finch rushed in to tell me that the popular vote margin was now less than a million—less than 900,000 in fact—and growing smaller as the returns kept piling up. The count by states was now 20 sure states for Nixon—but with only 157 electoral votes—against 19 sure states for Kennedy, with 265—only four electoral votes short of going over the top. Michigan Democrats, according to Stuart Novins of CBS, were still not claiming the state for Kennedy because, while he had piled up a 66 per cent margin in Wayne County, he was running about 3 per cent behind the expected outstate vote. And in Minnesota, it was the same story: “still a horse race.”

  There was still a bare chance that, if we could win California, which I expected we would do, and two out of the other three critical “undecided” states—Illinois, Minnesota, and Michigan—we could take it all. But the chance was a long one, and it had already been announced that I was on my way downstairs to address the group in the ballroom and the national radio and television audience. I had to go ahead with it.

  Pat and I walked together down the long deserted hallway to the elevators. A lone Secret Service man stationed at the end of the hall smiled as we approached him, and then turned away to hide the disappointment he shared with us. Just before we went on-stage we saw Herb Kaplow of NBC, ears covered with headphones. As I saw him, I remembered that he had been the first man to reach my car after we had run the gauntlet of the stone-throwing mob in Caracas. I sensed that he might be remembering the same incident as he smiled at us as we walked on by him and out onto the stage.

  Paul Niven of CBS reported our entrance to the ballroom: “The Nixons are headed for the ballroom where presumably Vice President Nixon will concede defeat to Senator John Kennedy. It is a most enthusiastic reception, a tremendous ovation.” As we moved to center stage, it seemed like still another campaign rally. Johnny Grant, who had been master of ceremonies at our big California rallies, was leading the crowd in the campaign song, “We want Nixon, we want Nixon! We want Nixon to be our Pres-i-dent”—to the tune of “Merrily We Roll Along.” It took us at least two minutes to get everyone quieted down. As we looked out over the crowd, I could see that more than half of them were crying, and we saw literally hundreds who had been personal and political friends since the time, fourteen years before, when I had first run for public office.

  And so I tried first to speak to them in personal terms:

  I thought we had had the last rally of the campaign, but here we go again!

  As all of you in this room know, and as all of you millions who are listening on television and radio realize, it is normally the custom for a candidate for the Presidency . . . not to appear until after the decision is definitely known, and all the votes are counted beyond doubt.

  However, I have been keeping some pretty late hours recently as some of you have . . . I know too that many who are listening in the Eastern part of the United States will find that it is now about 3:15 in the morning, and before the evening was over I did want to have the opportunity to speak to those in this room who have been with us during the day, and also to those who are listening on television, to say these things.

  First, to express to all of you who have done so much in this campaign, our appreciation. Words are really inadequate at times like this. We can only try to let you feel what we have in our hearts . . .

  As I said this, I could see tears welling up in Pat’s eyes and, before going on, I put my arm around her.

  I can say that we couldn’t have had a more wonderful group of people in all of the 50 states than have been in our campaign.

  Next, I tried to say something to those who had supported Kennedy:

  The other thing I wish to do is this: I am sure that many are listening . . . who are supporting Senator Kennedy. I know too that he is probably listening to this program and, while . . . there are still some results to come in, if the present trend continues, Senator Kennedy will be the next President of the United States.

  Here, I very nearly lost control of the situation. Shouts of “no, no, don’t concede” filled the ballroom from the emotional crowd in front of me. I tried to quiet them by saying:

  I want to say that one of the great features of America is that we have political contests, that they are very hard fought, as this one was hard fought, and once the decision is made, we unite behind the man who is elected . . . I want Senator Kennedy to know, and I want all of you to know, that certainly if this trend continues, and if he does become our next President, he will have my whole-hearted support.

  My deep thanks to all of you who are here . . . My congratulations to Senator Kennedy for his fine race in this campaign.

  Finally, I felt I should say something which, at the end of so long and hard a campaign, would remind all those listening, Democrats and Republicans alike, that we were all united in a cause far greater and more important than any partisan considerations. And so I said:

  And while because of interruptions . . . I have not been able perhaps to make this as coherent a statement as I might have wanted to, I do want to say that having been through all of the 50 states of this nation since the nominating convention in Chicago, having seen the American people . . . by the hundreds of thousands and perhaps millions, in the towns and cities of America, I have great faith about the future of this country. I have great faith that our people, Republicans, Democrats alike, will unite behind our next President . . . in seeing that America meets the challenge which destiny has placed upon us.

  That challenge is to give leadership to the whole world which will produce a world in which all men can have what we have in the United States—freedom, independence, the right to live in peace with our neighbors.

  And so with that, may I say again, my thanks to you. Having had only two hours sleep last night, and two hours sleep the night before, I am now going to bed—and I hope you do, too.

  I had spoken for only five minutes but it seemed like a lifetime. Pat and I walked off the stage, making our way slowly through the crowd of friends who swarmed around us—many of them crying, most of them congratulating us on a fine campaign and wishing us well. As we walked back down the hall to my suite, I thought: “Now, it’s really all over. No more schedules. No more crowds. No more handshakes, no more autographs, no more speeches. Now, at last, we can rest.”

  I took Pat to the fifth-floor suite where the girls were sleeping and then went back downstairs to check over any last-minute reports.

  Herb Klein reported that the reaction to my statement had been about what we might have
expected. Ed Morgan of ABC called it “a curious bundle of sentiments and statements,” and John Daly said: “Fighting right down to the end of the race, Vice President Nixon was unwilling to concede the victory. If the trend continues, he said, Senator Kennedy will be the next President. A gracious speech, but not conceding.” Virgil Pinkley called it, “virtually conceding—a sporting speech; the Vice President was in fine form.” On NBC, Chet Huntley said, “I don’t know whether that was a concession or not,” and Dave Brinkley replied: “I suppose it was, but I never heard one just like it before. You can choose your own name for it.”

  The one o’clock reports indicated Oregon and Washington definitely in our column, with California becoming closer all the time. At 1:30, Kennedy’s popular vote margin kept on shrinking: it was now only 800,000 out of 54 million votes recorded.

  Len Hall came into the room at 2:30. Illinois, he reported, was getting closer. Kennedy’s lead had been whittled down to 35,000, and UPI had reported that in each downstate precinct—with 1700 of them still to go—I had been gaining about 100 votes per precinct. At such a rate, Illinois could not yet be conceded to Kennedy. UPI also began to carry reports out of Chicago on alleged vote frauds in Cook County. Len commented, “The Democrats are holding back about 200 Cook County precincts, waiting to see what the count is downstate. We are trying to get them to throw them in but they refuse to do so. Unless they do, they will be able to count us out, no matter what happens downstate.”