We are not alone here. This convention is being attended by hundreds of millions of people.
They are the silent delegates. We cannot see them or hear them, but they are present.
In fact, the whole world is here in this hall.
Through the miracle of modern communication, the words we speak, the actions we take,
will be read, heard, and seen on the instant, and judged in every city and village in America, on every lonely farm.
And so when we speak, let us remember that we are in the presence of the silent delegates.
Speaking to them, with them, and for them.
NBC News presents Every Four Years, a political flashback to 1960, and a look ahead at the next presidential campaign
to be brought to the American viewers in 1964 by NBC News. Your narrator, NBC's Frank McGee.
July 13, 1960. The sports arena in Los Angeles. Thousands of Democrats swept westward for the presidential gold rush of 1960.
NBC's Chad Huntley and David Brinkley.
Good afternoon from the sports arena in Los Angeles, California, the site of the National Democratic Convention.
And this is the big one, the third session of the convention, the nominating convention,
and by 10 or 11 o'clock Pacific Coast time this evening,
we probably will know who the Democratic nominee for president of the United States shall be.
David?
About eight hours from now. We'll be here. We hope you'll stay with us.
The hall is filling up faster today than it has in the past because let us be perfectly frank
and say that the first two sessions in any convention have, shall I say, dull spots,
and the delegates know it as well as anyone else.
Today is, as Chad has just said, the big day. The choice of the nominee for president and the people who are in hotels all over town
left a little earlier and have got here on time. So it's filling up.
The crowds have not been what they might, what you might have thought here.
As a matter of fact, there have been hundreds, possibly thousands of empty seats at the two preceding sessions.
So Governor Brown of California sent the following telegram to National Chairman Butler, quote,
strongly urge immediate action to allow empty convention seats in sports arena to be filled by general public one hour after the session opens,
if not then filled by official ticket holders.
Tens of thousands of California Democrats urgently wish to attend convention in person
and are understandably amazed as seen on television empty gallery seats.
I will appreciate your immediate attention to this matter.
The chair recognizes the chairman of the delegation of Texas,
the distinguished speaker of the House of Representatives, Honorable Sam Rayburn.
Excitement, surprise, suspense, theatrics, all traditional elements in a political convention,
but the most beloved and most lasting ingredient of them all, the oratory of the nominating speech.
Here's fellow Texan Sam Rayburn speaking for candidate Lyndon Johnson.
In this serious hour of our country's history, I present to you a man who has demonstrated that under adverse circumstances,
he can be a great leader and if you nominate him, he will in November bring the elements of Democrats from one end to the other of this country together.
I therefore, with confidence, with faith in your judgment and your patriotism, nominate for the Democratic Party's leader in 1960, Lyndon B. Johnson of Texas.
Perhaps the spontaneous demonstrations are a little too carefully blue printed, but you've got to admit it.
They are exciting, colorful, noisy, and fun.
While the Johnson celebration reached crescendo proportions, the governor of Minnesota, Orville Freeman,
quietly put the finishing touches on his speech, one that would unquestionably be destined for the history books.
And the man who can lead us to meet that responsibility, to lead us to a fruitful America, to a peaceful world for mankind everywhere,
is the great senator from the state of Massachusetts, John F. Kennedy.
Ironically, the speech to draw honors of rhetoric would not be that one, the speech for the winner.
A second orator from Minnesota, Senator Eugene McCarthy, tried to nominate a man who, he said, spoke to the people, moved their minds, and stirred their hearts.
I submit to you a man who is not the favorite son of any one state. I submit to you the man who is the favorite son of 50 states.
This favorite son I submit to you, Adley Stevenson of Illinois.
There it is. The Stevenson supporters have been waiting all day for about five hours, ready to explode. And this is it.
It would be fun here to compare the action in the galleries in the balcony with the action on the floor.
Here's a shot of Mrs. Roosevelt going up the stairs.
That's on the first level of the balcony, and she'll probably make a seconding speech for Governor Stevenson and is being escorted to the podium.
The words created the wildest demonstration of the week, but it faded rapidly when the voting started.
Mr. Chairman, Mr. Chairman, Wyoming's vote will make majority for Senator Kennedy.
Wyoming had planned to split among Kennedy, Johnson, and Simonton, but Delegate Dale Richardson whipped among his colleagues,
Let's go, let's go, he shouted. They shouted back OK, and they went all the way for JFK.
Can we get the vote from Wyoming? Mr. Chairman, Wyoming's vote, I did not announce the number, we have 15 votes.
There are 15 votes from Wyoming for Kennedy.
Nomination of Lyndon Johnson as Vice President and his acceptance surprised everyone but the political experts,
for in 1928 another Catholic Democratic candidate for President, Al Smith, lost seven southern states and the election.
The Kennedys had proved themselves an ingenious political organization, which had no intention of losing the election this early in the game.
The finest vice presidential temper in the country splintered.
Senator Henry Scoop Jackson of Washington, Governor Herschel Loveless of Iowa, Governor George Docking of Kansas,
Governor Orval Freeman of Minnesota, Senator Stuart Simonton of Missouri, all splintered for one guaranteed vote getter, Lyndon Johnson of Texas.
A confident John Kennedy had to instill that confidence into his people from the beginning at his acceptance speech.
Woodrow Wilson's New Freedom promised our nation a new political and economic framework.
Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal promised security and succor to those in need.
But the new frontier of which I speak is not a set of promises, it is a set of challenges.
It sums up not what I intend to offer to the American people, but what I intend to ask of them.
It appeals to their pride.
It appeals to our pride, not our security.
It holds out the promise of more sacrifice instead of more security.
The new frontier is here, whether we seek it or not.
One week later, Chicago.
It seems to be bothered a bit by all the confetti. He just got some in his mouth. There he's covered with it right now.
There's the president, covered with confetti, getting a great hand, showered with confetti.
Although Richard Nixon was already picked as the Republican candidate, the GOP was still able to fire up its share of enthusiasm.
When a political party has a president in office and he arrives at the convention scene, that calls for an extra special kind of brawl.
People have broken the barriers here and are now crowding around the president's car.
The situation, I think, would be well under control as the Chicago police have been seeking service details.
The politician's magical ingredient, timing to the rescue, providing excellent television, exciting newsreels, page one pictures, and, of course, votes.
Inside the amphitheater, about 2,600 delegates sunned themselves under television lights.
Only two names were placed in nomination, Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater against his wishes and Richard M. Nixon in a speech by Oregon Governor Mark Hatfield.
May I present in nomination a fighter for freedom, a pilgrim for peace, the vice president of the United States, the honorable Richard M. Nixon.
It was a political fact of life. The nomination had been Nixon's long before the first delegate arrived.
There was no, had never been, any serious opposition.
New York Governor Rockefeller had bowed out the previous December, and Goldwater had withdrawn immediately after a nomination, although he still received 10 votes on the first ballot.
The 47-year-old Nixon was the first vice president to be so nominated since 1836.
This was the day new ma to the GOP political circus, the final roar of the Nixon steamroller.
Delegates moved to tell the world that all was sweetness and closed ranks.
According to the report of the secretary of the convention, 1,321 votes have been cast for Richard M. Nixon, 10 votes for Barry M. Goldwater.
The question is, shall the nomination of Richard M. Nixon be made unanimous?
The chair recognizes the delegate from Arizona.
Will the gentleman state his name?
Delegate Richard Clineden, chairman of the Republican Party of Arizona.
Mr. Chairman, I move that the delegates of this convention declare unanimous the nomination of Richard M. Nixon as its nominee and as the next president of the United States.
You have all heard the motion made by the delegate from Arizona that the nomination of the honorable Richard M. Nixon be made unanimous.
Those in favor of the motion will signify by saying aye.
It was a Nixon victory, large scale.
The final platform was a Nixon document, the committee adopting a strengthened civil rights plan, climaxing a week of argument and compromise.
Nixon had made peace with Rockefeller, subscribing to a 14-point agreement on all principal aims of the platform.
The party's conservatives had died hard.
And it was Nixon who selected Henry Cabot Lodge as the vice presidential nominee, in spite of very real opposition in some quarters.
On Thursday, Nixon made his first appearance before the assembled delegates.
Up to now, he had watched the spectacle on television in his hotel suite and had taken the results without emotion.
President Eisenhower telegraphed congratulations.
Nixon now stepped to the head of the Republican Party, the lines of control no longer in doubt, and he rose before the convention to make the speech he'd been working on for weeks.
I particularly want to thank this convention for nominating as my running mate a world statesman of the first rank, my friend and colleague, Henry Cabot Lodge of Massachusetts.
From New York, United Nations Ambassador Lodge had flown to Chicago to accept his new role.
A hundred years ago, Abraham Lincoln was asked during the dark days of the tragic war between the states whether he thought God was on his side.
His answer was, my concern is not whether God is on our side, but whether we are on God's side.
My fellow Americans, may that ever be our prayer for our country.
And in that spirit, with faith in America, with faith in her ideals, and in her people, I accept your nomination for President of the United States.
It was to be the longest and most intensive campaign ever held.
Traveling by plane, train, and bus, by car and on foot, both Kennedy and Nixon were to shake hands and confer with politicians from coast to coast.
Each was to cover more than 60,000 miles.
The highlight of the campaign, a series of four television debates between the two nominees.
Senator Kennedy, it was generally conceded, benefited the most.
Religion was a dominant issue despite efforts by both men to play it down.
Others were American prestige in the world and the state of the nation's economy.
By election time, politicians were limp with enthusiasm and the nation ready for an end to the breathless race.
Election night, November 8, Chad Huntley and David Brinkley in studio 8H, New York.
Now begins the exquisite agony of waiting to see how it all turned out.
We're here to pass along the figures that will tell them how.
Suppose we begin now by going down to our eastern section and Sander Van Oaken.
Sandy?
We assumed that Connecticut would be in first. It was in first.
And already the NBC victory desk, on the basis of more than 10 percent, it's two-thirds of the votes in, has awarded the state to Kennedy.
It did that, as you'll remember, about a half an hour ago.
Now on the popular vote.
The projected popular vote shows Senator Kennedy with 50.6 and Vice President Nixon with 49.4.
The projected electoral vote, Nixon is now carrying 16 states with 105. That's the projection.
Early on the morning after, at his Los Angeles headquarters, Nixon would not concede.
A close vote and lagging returns made the outcome still doubtful.
Later, the dregs of personal defeat would be most bitter. But now came this statement.
I am sure that many are listening here who are supporting Mr. Senator Kennedy.
I know too that he probably is listening to this program.
And while the...
And I...
And as I look at the board here, while there are still some results still to come in,
if the present trend continues, if Mr. Kennedy, Senator Kennedy, will be the next president of the United States.
Oh!
I want, I want Senator Kennedy to know, and I want all of you to know,
that certainly if this trend does continue and he does become our next president, that he will have my wholehearted support.
And you'll...
May I say again, my thanks to you. Having had only two hours sleep last night and two hours sleep the night before,
I'm now going to bed and I hope you do too. Thank you.
But there was to be little sleep and no sudden reversals by breakfast time.
Here is an election bulletin from NBC News. We switch to NBC News Los Angeles.
I have a copy of a telegram which has been sent to Senator John F. Kennedy at Iannis Fort, Massachusetts.
I'll read it through and then I'll have it available or repeat it more slowly after we have...
I've read the statement and I'll also answer questions.
The telegram reads as follows. I want to repeat through this wire, congratulations and best wishes.
I extended to you on television last night.
I know that you will have the United support of all Americans as you leave the nation in the cause of peace and freedom during the next four years.
The telegram is signed, Richard Nixon.
For Richard Nixon and his press secretary Herb Klein, there was nothing more to be said other than it had been the closest contest in 76 years.
The political capital of the nation moved to Iannis Fort, Massachusetts and John F. Kennedy came home to the cheers of neighbors.
The once very junior senator from Massachusetts, now at the age of 43, the president-elect of the United States and his wife Jacqueline are strolling down the aisle.
His wife Jacqueline, who is expecting a child in three weeks' time, is wearing a purple pose.
The youngest man ever to be elected president. The cheers soared to the ceiling of the Iannis Fort Armory and rode out across Cape Cod.
May I say, may I say, in addition to all citizens of this country, Democrats, independents, Republicans,
regardless of how they may have voted, that it is a satisfying moment to me and I want to express my appreciation to all of them and to Mr. Nixon personally.
I particularly want to thank all those who worked so long and so hard in this campaign on our behalf and who were generous to me in my visits throughout the country
and who were generous enough to support me in the election on yesterday.
To all Americans, I say that the next four years are going to be difficult and challenging years for us all.
The election may have been a close one, but I think that there is general agreement by all of our citizens
that a supreme national effort will be needed in the years ahead to move this country safely through the 1960s.
I ask your help in this effort and I can assure you that every degree of mind and spirit that I possess
will be devoted to the long-range interests of the United States and to the cause of freedom around the world.
So now my wife and I prepare for a new administration and for a new baby. Thank you.
The era of the new frontier had begun.
But it is in the ebb and flow of tragic and unpredictable events that Democrats will hold their 1964 convention without John F. Kennedy.
Yet in convention hall in Atlantic City next summer, some of the names may be different, but the roles will be played out much the same way.
Nearly 3,000 delegates will warm under presidential fever and sometimes be drugged with oratory from the first gavel on August 24th until the last four days later.
And 3,000 miles away in San Francisco, the act and actors will be Republican at the Cow Palace the week of July 13th.
Again, the hopefuls, the stalwarts, and the little kingmakers among some 1,300 delegates plus alternates.
The dramas of convention and election night will have their tense, their comical, and sometimes their boring moments.
But Barnum in his day never outproduced a convention, much less an election night.
This is Frank McGee, NBC News.
NBC News, the number one broadcast news organization, will present the fastest, most complete coverage of the 1964 political conventions, campaigns, and election day activities.