Misfire

John F. Kennedy's First Term and the 1964 Campaign
November 22, 1963 - January 20, 1965

Despite a near assassination in Dallas, the Presidency of John F. Kennedy continued on schedule. In January 1964, Defense Secretary Robert McNamera, with the consent of President Kennedy, announced that the United States would take "extensive measures" against North Vietnam and would base 15,000 more troops in South Vietnam by June, along with the deployment of a naval fleet to blockade the North Vietnamese.

On domestic issues, the Kennedy Administration decided to target civil rights. In President John Kennedy's 1964 State of the Union Address, Kennedy called on Congress to pass a right protecting civil and voting rights. This sparked anger among the social conservatives within the Democratic Party and nearly every southern U.S. Senator stating their fierce opposition to President Kennedy's requests. Despite the opposition, the bill was pushed by the Democratic House of Representatives into the Senate, where, instead of being voted on, faced record-breaking filibusters by Southern Democrats. Eventually, the "Dixiecrats" won out, and the bill was canned.

President Kennedy's popularity had begun to go sour in the winter of 1963-64. Rumors about his infidelity began swirling around Washington, and reports of an increasingly tense relationship between the President and Vice President only made the White House look internally divided and somewhat dysfunctional. Despite sitting at lukewarm-to-poor approval ratings, President John Kennedy intended to seek reelection. In his quest for reelection, the President was challenged by Alabama Governor George C. Wallace, who ran an insurgent, populist campaign against the President. Wallace garnered massive support from southern Democrats, and his support only intensified once it was revealed that Vice President Johnson was going to be dropped from the ticket and replaced by North Carolina Governor Terry Sanford. Despite growing support among the southern ranks, it was not enough to overcome Kennedy's backing from the socially liberal Democrats from the north and west. With unwavering support from the deep south, however, Governor Wallace announced that he would seek the presidency as an Independent.

On the Republican side, the conservative and moderate wings of the party battled for the nomination, with the conservatives led by Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater and the moderates led by New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller. The convention was brutal for both factions, but with an endorsement from former President and war hero Dwight D. Eisenhower and former Vice President Richard Nixon, Governor Rockefeller prevailed over Senator Goldwater. Rockefeller selected Oregon Governor Mark Hatfield, which only rubbed salt in the wounds of angered conservative Republicans.

President Kennedy and Governor Rockefeller were relatively similar on social issues, with both supporting protections of civil rights for African-Americans and other minorities oppressed by Jim Crow laws, so the general election campaign became centered around economic and foreign policy. Kennedy ran as a New Deal liberal who would expand social programs for the poor and elderly, while Rockefeller ran as a fiscal moderate, who would not attempt to reverse the social programs created under the Roosevelt, Truman, and Kennedy administrations. On foreign policy, Kennedy attempted to boost his foreign policy credentials by citing his expansion of the War in Vietnam, however Rockefeller repeatedly attacked Kennedy for the failure of the Bay of Pigs Invasion.

George C. Wallace focused his campaign in the deep south and areas with high labor support, running as a social conservative and an economic liberal. He was open about his opposition to civil rights and said that he would do anything he could to expand the New Deal programs.

By November of 1964, the potential of no candidate winning a majority of electoral votes loomed as Wallace's campaign secured the vote in the deep south, however Rockefeller and Kennedy insisted that they would win a majority on election day.

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