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It’s interesting that historically the avenue to becoming the U.S. President was not through the U.S. Senate, but in a brief period there was Kennedy, Johnson and Goldwater all from the senate floor.

Barry Goldwater did not wish to run for president in the 1964 election, but due to an up swell movement by the youth of the Republican Party, the Arizona senator was drafted to be their candidate in early 1963. Goldwater looked forward to debating President Kennedy and having fair, honest and open discussions on the issues. When JFK was assassinated in November 1963 in a flash Goldwater had reservations about debating President Johnson.

Goldwater mentioned:
“I have long since abandoned all speculation on how a Kennedy-Goldwater campaign might have turned out. Had we been permitted to enjoy the contest we both conceptualized, it would have been different. It might have been beneficially instructive. In a very real sense, the bullet that killed John Kennedy also destroyed whatever possibility there was for a Goldwater presidency. In December 1963 my intention was to recognize reality and refuse to be a candidate.

“I judged the nation, shocked and grieved by the assassination, would be in no mood to change Presidents�

Barry Goldwater

This is a fascinating site and has videos, audios, photos - concerning the Oral Histories of the House of Representatives: fascinating - I was listening to some of the audios that Cokie Roberts made where she referenced the family's relationships with Lyndon, Lady Bird, her parents and of course Sam Rayburn.

Mark wrote: "It’s interesting that historically the avenue to becoming the U.S. President was not through the U.S. Senate, but in a brief period there was Kennedy, Johnson and Goldwater all from the senate floo..."

Interesting - from what I gather - Goldwater was a lightning rod.

He was, Bentley

Some more on Sam Rayburn:

Rough Cut of a video produced for the Sam Rayburn Library & Museum and the Sam Rayburn House Museum both located in Bonham, TX

Mr. Sam, Mr. Speaker

Some More on Sam Rayburn:

Sam Rayburn House & Library, Bonham, TX

A tour of the grounds at the Sam Rayburn House and a tour of his Library & Museum in Bonham, TX.

RARE 1960 JFK TAPES UNVEILED

On October 13, 2008, NBC-TV's Brian Williams unveiled some never-before-heard audio recordings of John F. Kennedy.

These newly-discovered tapes feature JFK in a casual setting at his home in Georgetown (near Washington, D.C.), as he talks with friends (including Ben Bradlee) after dinner on the evening of January 5, 1960, just three days after Kennedy had announced that he was going to run for President.

These recordings reveal some interesting insights into the mindset of the 42-year-old Massachusetts Senator as he embarked on his campaign to reach the White House.

Newlyweds Lyndon B. Johnson and Lady Bird Johnson posing in a boat on the Floating Gardens while on their honeymoon in Xochimilco, Mexico.

Source: lbjlibrary.org

1941: John Connally, only twenty-four years old, ran LBJ’s Senate campaign out of the Austin headquarters.

Other members of his campaign team included the powerful lobbyist Alvin J. Wirtz and many of LBJ’s staff members from the Texas National Youth Administration.

1936: Eleanor Roosevelt writes to LBJ to applaud his work on the Texas National Youth Administration, and then decides to visit Austin to observe his work first hand.

“She visited Texas later in the year to ‘find out why the Texas NYA director was doing such an effective job.� She conferred with Lyndon at his headquarters on the sixth floor of the Littlefield Building and accompanied him to a vocational training center for girls on East Sixth Street and to college campuses running NYA programs.�

Her praise is especially notable considering the NYA was her brainchild.

Dallek, Robert. Lone Star Rising: Lyndon Johnson and His Times. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991, p. 143.

Source: Flickr / fdrlibrary




by Robert Dallek

Bently said: Interesting - from what I gather - Goldwater was a lightning rod.

I'd say the retired Air Force major general merely stood firm with his beliefs along with his vision for the nation. Ask him a question and you'd get a direct answer. He certainly would not follow polls.

As Senator Goldwater stated: "As my agonizing indecision prevailed during the opening months of 1963, the one supportive or reassuring aspect was my hope that if it did happen, Jack Kennedy would somehow keep his commitments. We would lift this presidential campaign above the petty, conniving scheming which had flawed every political race in my experience. We would present American voters with an opportunity to make a reasoned decision based on contending political philosophies rather than on personality.�

Barry Goldwater

I agree that folks either were very much with him or against him; and those that loved him were as enthusiastic I hear as the Ron Paul supporters are today,

I always thought it interesting that because his mention of dropping an atomic bomb on Vietnam was the very thing that polarized so many who probably remembered WWII . . . Yet in the end we did far more damage to that country in our years of attempting to win . . . before we finally realized that we never would.

Bentley wrote: "I agree that folks either were very much with him or against him; and those that loved him were as enthusiastic I hear as the Ron Paul supporters are today,"


That rather sums it up. Had he become president he was very qualified to fly Air Force One.

Your discussion reminds me of "atomic bomb" commercial that Johnson's campaign aired against Goldwater. See it here one youtube:


I'm old enough to remember it. It was only aired once, but it was repeated on newscasts.

I think poor Goldwater in his own way got the Muskie and Dukakis treatment. BTW - you would never have found a nicer and more honest man than Muskie.

Bentley wrote: - you would never have found a nicer and more honest man than Muskie.

Most folks from Maine are that way. :-)

Yes, I agree (smile). Taciturn, laconic, straight shooting, loyal and they tell you like it is.

George B. Parr:

George B. Parr, the political boss of Duval County for more than thirty years, son of Elizabeth Allen and Archer Parr, was born in San Diego, Texas, on March 1, 1901. At thirteen he served as his father's pageboy in the Texas Senate. Despite a disastrous educational record, which included brief enrollments at Texas A&M, the University of Texas, Southwestern University, and a trade school in Kansas City, George Parr entered the University of Texas law school as a special student in 1923 and passed the state bar examination three years later without earning a law degree. In 1923 he also married Thelma Duckworth of Corpus Christi. After a divorce and remarriage in the late 1930s, their relationship ended with a second divorce in 1949. From his marriage to Thelma and a later one to Eva Perez, Parr had two daughters. The disinclination of his brothers, Givens and Atlee, to pursue political careers paved the way for George to become the political heir apparent to his father, who had ruled Duval County since 1907. George Parr entered the political arena in 1926, when Archer chose him to complete Givens's term as Duval county judge. George was soon managing local affairs as the aging boss, already in his late sixties, struggled with various physical ailments and became increasingly preoccupied with state and national matters. In fact, George even surpassed his father in the role of "El Patrón" for the impoverished Mexican-American laborers who formed the majority of the county population and served as the mainstay of the Democratic machine. He became far more fluent in Spanish than Archer, tirelessly learned the names of his constituents and their children, and provided help in times of need in return for one concession-absolute loyalty. Under his leadership, both corruption and paternalism flourished in Duval County.

Not even a conviction for income-tax evasion in 1934 and his subsequent imprisonment for nine months in 1936 and 1937 destroyed Parr's growing political power. His handpicked candidates continued to sweep county elections, and by the time of his father's death in 1942, Parr stood as the undisputed boss of Duval County-in both a political and an economic sense. He amassed a sizable fortune with income from banking, mercantile, ranching, and oil interests and, of course, from the public treasury. His political influence extended into other South Texas counties as well. With pardon from President Harry Truman in 1946, he even reclaimed the right to run for public office, and later held the posts of county judge and sheriff for his home county.

The remainder of Parr's political career was highlighted by a seemingly endless series of spectacular scandals, involving election fraud, graft on the grand scale, and violence. His most celebrated scheme decided the outcome of the United States Senate race between Coke R. Stevenson and Lyndon B. Johnson in 1948. With Stevenson the apparent winner, election officials in Jim Wells County, probably acting on Parr's orders, reported an additional 202 votes for Johnson a week after the primary runoff and provided the future president with his eighty-seven-vote margin of victory for the whole state. Amid charges of fraud, the voting lists disappeared. Even more sordid controversies followed. As strong challenges from the Freedom party, consisting mainly of World War II veterans, developed in several South Texas counties, including Duval, two critics of Parr's rule and the son of another met violent deaths. While denying Parr's involvement in two of the killings, his biographer, Dudley Lynch, concedes that the evidence against Parr in the shooting of the son of Jacob Floyd, an attorney for the Freedom party, was both "highly circumstantial" and "highly incriminating." After this third murder, Governor Allan Shivers, Texas attorney general John Ben Shepperd, and federal authorities launched all-out campaigns to destroy the Parr machine. Investigations of the 1950s produced over 650 indictments against ring members, but Parr survived the indictments and his own conviction for federal mail fraud through a complicated series of dismissals and reversals on appeal. In the face of another legal offensive in the 1970s and a rebellion within his own organization, he finally relented. While appealing a conviction and five-year sentence for federal income tax evasion, the Duke of Duval committed suicide at his ranch, Los Harcones, on April 1, 1975.
(Source: )

Horace Busby:



Staff, Lyndon B. Johnson's House and Senate Offices, 1948-1950; Staff, U.S. Senate Armed Services Preparedness Subcommittee, 1950-1953; Consultant, U.S. Senate Armed Services Preparedness Subcommittee, 1957-58; Advisor to the Vice President, 1961-1963; Special Assistant to the President and Secretary of the Cabinet, 1963-1965.

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George Reedy:



Staff consultant, Armed Services Preparedness Subcommittee, U.S. Senate, 1951-1952; Staff Director, Minority Policy Committee, 1953-1954; Staff Director, Majority Policy Committee, 1955-1960; Special Assistant Vice President Johnson, 1961-1963; Press Secretary for President Johnson, 1964-1966; White House Aide, 1968.

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George E. Reedy

Joe McCarthy:



a Senator from Wisconsin; born in Grand Chute, Outagamie County, Wis., November 14, 1908; attended a one-room country school; worked on a farm; at the age of nineteen moved to Manawa, Wis., and enrolled in a high school; while working in a grocery store and ushering at a theater in the evenings, completed a four-year course in one year; graduated from Marquette University at Milwaukee, Wis., with a law degree in 1935; admitted to the bar the same year; commenced practice in Waupaca, and in 1936 moved to Shawano, Wis., and continued to practice law; elected circuit judge of the tenth judicial circuit of Wisconsin in 1939; while serving in this capacity enlisted in 1942 in the United States Marine Corps; resigned as a lieutenant in 1945; unsuccessful candidate for the Republican nomination for United States Senator in 1944 while in military service; reelected circuit judge of Wisconsin in 1945 while still in the Marine Corps; elected as a Republican to the United States Senate in 1946; reelected in 1952 and served from January 3, 1947, until his death; co-chairman, Joint Committee on the Library (Eighty-third Congress), chairman, Committee on Government Operations (Eighty-third Congress); used his position as chairman of the Committee on Government Operations and its Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations to launch investigations designed to document charges of Communists in government; censured by the Senate on December 2, 1954, for behavior that was “contrary to senatorial traditions�; died in the naval hospital at Bethesda, Md., May 2, 1957; funeral services were held in the Chamber of the United States Senate; interment in St. Mary’s Cemetery, Appleton, Wis.
(Source: )

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Arthur Herman

Fascinating information about George Parr, Bryan. I had always associated political machines with big northeastern cities, but obviously one was very alive and kicking in Texas.

Indeed, Ann, and out west, too. I think if you have a collection of people, someone is there to direct them, lol.

Vivien mentioned about JFK�I did not realize how sick he was..

The famous Kennedy Rocker that made JFK’s back feel comfortable was made in Asheboro, NC.

Ahhhh, politics . . . with all the corruption that occurs . . . makes me in awe that anything good occurs.

Caro’s assessment of Robert Kennedy’s true personality is great. His in-depth research delved deeper than information found in newspapers and other books on the market.

Edward Kennedy:



brother of John Fitzgerald Kennedy and Robert Francis Kennedy, grandson of John Francis Fitzgerald, uncle of Joseph Patrick Kennedy II, and father of Patrick J. Kennedy), a Senator from Massachusetts; born in Boston, Suffolk County, Mass., February 22, 1932; graduated, Milton Academy, Milton, Mass., in 1950; graduated, Harvard College 1956, the International Law School, The Hague, Holland, 1958, and the University of Virginia Law School 1959; served in the United States Army 1951-1953; admitted to the Massachusetts bar in 1959; appointed assistant district attorney in Suffolk County 1961; elected in a special election on November 6, 1962, as a Democrat to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the 1960 resignation of his brother, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, for the term ending January 3, 1965; reelected in 1964, 1970, 1976, 1982, 1988, 1994, 2000, and 2006, and served from November 7, 1962, until his death; unsuccessful candidate for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States in 1980; Democratic whip 1969-1971; chair, Committee on the Judiciary (Ninety-sixth Congress), Committee on Labor and Human Resources (One Hundredth through One Hundred Third Congresses), Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (One Hundred Seventh Congress [January 3-20, 2001; June 6, 2001-January 3, 2003], One Hundred Tenth and One Hundred Eleventh Congresses); died in Hyannis Port, Mass., on August 25, 2009; interment in Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Va.
(Source: )

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Edward M. Kennedy
Adam Clymer (This is the best balanced biography out there)

Luci Baines Johnson:



is the younger daughter of U.S. President Lyndon Johnson and his wife, the former Claudia Alta Taylor (known as Lady Bird Johnson). Her name was originally spelled "Lucy"; she informally changed the spelling in her teens. As her parents both had the initials LBJ, they named their two daughters to have these initials also.

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Jimmy Hoffa:



Jimmy Hoffa was born on February 14, 1913, in the small town of Brazil, Indiana. His father died from lung disease in 1920, due to poor working conditions in the coal mines. Hoffa's mother later moved the family to Detroit, Michigan. Hoffa attended school until the ninth grade, when he became a full-time stock boy at Kroger's grocery store. At age 17, Hoffa cleverly planned a workers' strike to coincide with a delivery of fresh fruit. Management acquiesced quickly in order to get workers back on the job before the fruit spoiled. Hoffa parlayed this victory into a greater success: he incorporated Kroger's workers into a local Teamsters union.

With this local success, Hoffa came to the attention of the national union. By age 28, Hoffa had been elected vice president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT), and in 1957 he became its president. Hoffa made no secret of his connections to the mafia, believing his organized crime ties were useful in preventing strike interference for his union members. He used his connections to intimidate rival unions and to keep himself out of prison. Hoffa's actions made him the subject of a number of federal investigations during the 50's and 60's. In particular, he drew the ire of Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, who became determined to have Hoffa imprisoned. In 1964, Hoffa was convicted of jury tampering and the fraudulent use of union pension funds. Hoffa retained his IBT presidency while incarcerated in Lewisburg Federal Prison, but appointed Frank Fitzsimmons to watch over the union in his absence. He was denied parole three times, in part because of his unwillingness to renounce his union ties. Hoffa remained involved with both labor and organized crime until his disappearance in 1975.

While Hoffa is thought of as a labor leader first and foremost, he has two autobiographies to his credit. The first, The Trials of Jimmy Hoffa, was told to Donald I. Rogers and published while Hoffa was still in Lewisburg Federal Prison, in 1970. The second, written in 1975, was as told to Oscar Fraley, and is titled Hoffa: The Real Story. The writing style of these autobiographies mirrors Hoffa's own personality: straightforward and forceful. Hoffa confesses what he considers to be his two biggest mistakes: becoming involved in what he deemed a "blood feud" with Robert F. Kennedy and appointing Frank Fitzsimmons as his successor in the IBT.

Though Hoffa had supported Fitzsimmons initially, he later became determined to oust Fitzsimmons and take back his role as IBT president. To get out of jail, Hoffa formally agreed to relinquish his presidency, despite inwardly hoping to regain it once out of jail. President Richard Nixon commuted his sentence on December 23, 1971, and Hoffa left jail that same day. In Hoffa: The Real Story, Hoffa accused against Fitzsimmons of corruption, most likely in an attempt to recover control of the IBT. In this case, Hoffa's book was not merely a chance to tell his story; it was a power play. Some have suggested that Hoffa's writing may have even brought about his death; his son believes that only someone connected to Fitzsimmons would have had a strong motive to kill his father. While this is merely speculation, it is true that Hoffa's work was as incendiary as many of his union tactics.

Today, the story of Jimmy Hoffa still puzzles law enforcement officials. Hoffa left his home on July 30, 1975, promising his wife he would be back in time for dinner. He was headed to a lunch meeting with Anthony Giacalone, reputed to be part of Detroit's organized crime ring, and Anthony Provenzano, a New Jersey Teamsters boss. Witnesses report seeing Hoffa outside of the Machus Red Fox restaurant; what happened to him afterward remains unknown. His body has never been found. Police often pin Hoffa's death on the mafia but have never been able to convict anyone. Hoffa's life has inspired a number of books and one movie, Hoffa (1992), which starred Jack Nicholson. Each presents its own theory of Hoffa's demise, but none has been confirmed.
(Source: )

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(no image)Hoffa: The Real Story by James Hoffa

Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.:



U.S. historian and author, born in Columbus, Ohio; presidential special assistant and speech writer 1961-64; professor of humanities City University of 1966 ('The Age of Jackson', 1946; Pulitzer prize, 1966.

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Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.

Pat Brown:



Born:April 21, 1905 in San Francisco, California
Died: February 16, 1996 in Beverly Hills, California
Married:Bernice Layne on October 30, 1930 in Reno, Nevada
Political Party: Democrat

As a boy growing up in San Francisco, Brown earned his own money by delivering two newspapers—the Call and the Chronicle. After graduating from high school, Brown studied law at the San Francisco College of Law, where he graduated first in his class. While he was in law school, he worked for Milton Schmitt, a blind attorney. After he graduated from law school, Brown continued to work for Mr. Schmitt and upon Schmitt’s death, Brown took over the practice.

On January 8, 1944, Brown was sworn into office as San Francisco’s District Attorney, a post he held until 1950 when he became the state’s Attorney General. He served two terms as California’s Attorney General.

In 1958, Brown was elected Governor, winning by more than 1 million votes. Four years later, Brown defeated Richard Nixon to serve a second term as Governor. While in office, Brown achieved a statewide water plan and improvements in higher education. Brown also ended the practice of cross-filing for political candidates, and backed the use of computers in state government. His most controversial move was when he granted a 60-day reprieve to Caryl Chessman, who was convicted of rape and kidnapping with bodily harm (and eventually executed).

Governor Brown died as a result of a heart attack. He was 90 years old.
(Source: )

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Fascinating information about Hoffa, Bryan - especially that he didn't try to hide the mafia ties and that he regretted the "blood feud" he got into with RFK. So far, it looks like once your crossed RFK he never forgot.

Thanks, Ann, it seems RFK was obsessed with Hoffa.

Haroldson L. Hunt



oil tycoon, the youngest of eight children of Haroldson Lafayette and Ella Rose (Myers) Hunt, was born in Carson Township, Fayette County, Illinois, on February 17, 1889. He was educated at home. In 1905 he traveled through Colorado, California, and Texas. By 1912 he had settled in Arkansas, where he ran a cotton plantation that was flooded out by 1917. In 1921 he joined the oil boom in El Dorado, Arkansas, where he became a lease broker and promoted his first well, Hunt-Pickering No. 1. He claimed to have attained a "fortune of $600,000" by 1925, the year he bought a whole block in El Dorado and built a three-story house for his family. His El Dorado investments and a venture called Smackover taught Hunt lessons about the cost of wasteful practices and excessive drilling. Both fields were depleted rapidly. He also lost money on the Florida land boom, and by the time he got interested in the East Texas oilfield in 1930, he seems to have been broke again.

Hunt is in the famous photograph that immortalizes the drill test for Daisy Bradford No. 3 and the opening of the East Texas oilfield. On November 26, 1930, he made a deal with Columbus M. "Dad" Joinerqv that made him owner of the well and all Joiner's surrounding leases. Hunt used $30,000 that belonged to P. G. Lake, a clothier from El Dorado, and planned to make subsequent payments from revenue to buy out Joiner. He knew Joiner was beset by problems of oversold interests in the well. By December 1, 1930, Hunt had his own pipeline, the Panola Pipe Line, to run oil from the East Texas field. By 1932 the Hunt Production Company had 900 wells in East Texas.

In 1935 H. L. Hunt, Incorporated, was superseded by Placid Oil Company, and the shares were divided into trusts for Hunt's six children. In late 1936 Hunt acquired the Excelsior Refining Company in Rusk County and changed the name to Parade Refining Company. It was residue gas from this company's lines that caused the New London Explosionqv on March 18, 1937. Most of the people involved in that catastrophe were employees of H. L. Hunt. In 1937 or 1938 the family moved to Dallas. On April 5, 1948, Fortune printed a story on Hunt that labeled him the richest man in the United States. It estimated the value of his oil properties at $263 million and the daily production of crude from his wells at 65,000 barrels.

On November 26, 1914, Hunt married Lyda Bunker in Arkansas. They had six children. On Armistice Day 1925 a Franklin Hunt married Frania Tye (probably short for Tiburski) in Florida. They had four children. On November 11, 1975, after H. L. Hunt had died, Mrs. Frania Tye Lee filed a civil complaint against Hunt in which she revealed the history of their relationship. They had married in 1925 and lived together in Shreveport until 1930, when they moved to Dallas. In May 1934 "Franny" had discovered Hunt's other marriage. Hunt apparently shipped her off to New York and in 1941 provided trusts for each of the four children. A friend of his, John Lee, married her and gave his name to the children. Lyda Bunker Hunt died in 1955. In November 1957 Hunt married Ruth Ray and adopted her four children, who had been born between 1943 and 1950. Ruth Hunt admitted in an interview that H. L. Hunt had, in fact, been their real father. H. L. and Ruth Hunt became Baptists.

In his later life Hunt promoted "constructive" politics in two radio shows, Facts Forum and Life Line, which he supported from 1951 to 1963. In 1952 Facts Forum endorsed Senator Joseph McCarthy. In 1960 Hunt published a romantic utopian novel, Alpaca, and in 1968 he began to process aloe vera cosmetics. He died on November 29, 1974.
(Source: )

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Tip O'Neill:



a Representative from Massachusetts; born in Cambridge, Middlesex County, Mass., December 9, 1912; graduated from St. John’s High School, 1931; graduated from Boston College, Chestnut Hill, Mass., 1936; insurance agent; realtor; member of the Massachusetts state house of representatives, 1936-1952, and speaker, 1949-1952; member of school committee, Cambridge, Mass., 1946-1947; elected as a Democrat to the Eighty-third and to the sixteen succeeding Congresses (January 3, 1953-January 3, 1987); chair, Select Committee on Campaign Expenditures (Eighty-ninth through Ninety-second Congresses); majority whip (Ninety-second Congress), majority leader (Ninety-third and Ninety-fourth Congresses), Speaker of the House of Representatives (Ninety-fifth through Ninety-ninth Congresses); was not a candidate for reelection in 1986; died on January 5, 1994, in Boston, Mass.; interment in Mt. Pleasant Cemetery, Harwichport, Mass.
(Source: )

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John A. Farrell

David Ben-Gurion:



David Ben-Gurion was born in Plonsk, Poland in 1886 and educated in a Hebrew school established by his father, an ardent Zionist. By his mid-teens, Ben-Gurion led a Zionist youth group, "Ezra," whose members spoke only Hebrew among themselves.

At the age of 18 he became a teacher in a Warsaw Jewish school and joined the Socialist-Zionist group "Poalei Zion" (Workers of Zion).

Arriving in the Land of Israel in 1906, he became involved in the creation of the first agricultural workers' commune (which evolved into the Kvutzah and finally the Kibbutz), and helped establish the Jewish self-defense group, “Hashomer� (The Watchman).

Following the outbreak of World War I he was deported by the Ottoman authorities with Yitzhak Ben-Zvi (later, Israel's second President). Ben-Gurion traveled on behalf of the Socialist-Zionist cause to New York, where he met and married Paula Monbesz, a fellow Poalei Zion activist. He returned to Israel in the uniform of the Jewish Legion, created as a unit in the British Army by Zionist leader Vladimir Jabotinsky.

Ben-Gurion was a founder of the trade unions, and, in particular, the national federation, the Histadrut, which he dominated from the early 1920's. He also served as the Histadrut's representative in the World Zionist Organization and Jewish Agency, and was elected chairman of both organizations in 1935.

Having led the struggle to establish the State of Israel in May 1948, Ben-Gurion became Prime Minister and Defense Minister. As Premier, he oversaw the establishment of the state's institutions. He presided over various national projects aimed at the rapid development of the country and its population: “Operation Magic Carpet,� the airlift of Jews from Arab countries, the construction of the national water carrier, rural development projects and the establishment of new towns and cities. In particular, he called for pioneering settlement in outlying areas, especially in the Negev.

In late 1953, Ben-Gurion left the government and retired to Kibbutz Sde Boker in the Negev. He returned to political life, after the Knesset elections in 1955, assuming the post of Defense Minister and later the premiership.

Continuing as Prime Minister, Ben-Gurion supported the establishment of relations with West Germany, despite bitter opposition. He also led the country during the 1956 Sinai campaign, in which Israeli forces temporarily secured the Sinai peninsula.

In June 1963 Ben-Gurion resigned as Prime Minister, citing “personal reasons.� Levi Eshkol took over the posts of Prime Minister and Defense Minister. But Ben-Gurion remained active politically, with a rivalry developing between him and Eshkol. In June 1965, the Mapai Party split, with Ben-Gurion establishing Rafi (List of Israeli Workers), which won ten Knesset seats in the following election. In 1968, Rafi rejoined Mapai and Ahdut Ha'avoda, to form the Israel Labor Party, while Ben-Gurion formed a new party, Hareshima Hamamlachtit (The State List), which won four Knesset seats in the 1969 elections.

In June 1970, Ben-Gurion retired from political life and returned to Sde Boker where he passed away in 1973.
(Source: )

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Franklin Roosevelt, Jr.:



a Representative from New York; born in Campobello, New Brunswick, Canada, August 17, 1914; graduated from Groton School, Groton, Mass., 1933; graduated from Harvard University, 1937; graduated from the University of Virginia Law School at Charlottesville, 1940; was admitted to the bar in 1942; was called from the Naval Reserve on March 13, 1941, to active duty as an ensign in the United States Navy and served in North Africa, Europe, and the Pacific; discharged from active duty in January 1946; awarded the Purple Heart Medal and the Silver Star; lawyer, private practice; vice president of President Truman’s Committee on Civil Rights in 1947 and 1948; chairman of mayor’s committee on unity in New York City in 1948 and 1949; delegate to Democratic National Conventions in 1952 and 1956; elected as a Liberal Party candidate to the Eighty-first Congress, by special election, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of United States Representative Sol Bloom (May 17, 1949-January 3, 1951); changed from a Liberal to a Democrat on January 3, 1951; elected as a Democrat to the Eighty-second Congress and to the succeeding Congress (January 3, 1951-January 3, 1955); was not a candidate for renomination in 1954, but was unsuccessful for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination; unsuccessful candidate for election for attorney general of New York in 1954; engaged in the automobile import business in 1958; appointed by President Kennedy as chairman of Appalachian Regional Commission, 1963; appointed by President Kennedy as Undersecretary of Commerce, 1963; appointed by President Johnson as first Chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, 1965; unsuccessful candidate for Governor of New York State for Liberal Party in 1966; businessman and farmer; died on August 17, 1988, in Poughkeepsie, N.Y.; interment in St. James Episcopal Church, Hyde Park, N.Y.
(Source: )

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Theodore H. White:



was an American political journalist, historian, and novelist, known for his wartime reporting from China and accounts of the 1960, 1964, 1968, and 1972 presidential elections.

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by Theodore H. White

It appears that the Kennedys rewarded FDR, Jr for his role smearing Humphrey in the 1960 West Virginia primary. But then, LBJ also appointed him to a political post. Interesting.

Again, thanks for the additional information, Bryan

Politics do make strange bedfellows, lol.

U-2 Incident

Following World War II, the relations between the United States and the Soviet Union grew increasingly wary. The USSR did not agree to a U.S. 'Open Skies' proposal in 1955 and relations continued to deteriorate. The U.S. instituted high altitude reconnaissance flights over the Soviet Union because of this aura of mistrust. The U-2 was the plane of choice for the spying missions. The CIA took the lead, keeping the military out of the picture to avoid any possibilities of open conflict. By 1960, the U.S. had flown numerous 'successful' missions over and around the U.S.S.R. However, a major incident was about to occur. On May 1, 1960, a U-2 spy plane piloted by Francis Gary Powers was brought down near Svedlovsk, Soviet Union. This event had a lasting negative impact on U.S. - U.S.S.R. relations. The details surrounding this event are to this day still shrouded in mystery.
(Source: )

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Michael R. Beschloss

Nikita Khrushchev:



First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union 1953-1964. Certainly the most colorful Soviet leader, Khrushchev is best remembered for his dramatic, oftentimes boorish gestures and "harebrained schemes" designed to attain maximum propaganda effect, his enthusiastic belief that Communism would triumph over capitalism, and the fact that he was the only Soviet leader ever to be removed peacefully from office--a direct result of the post-Stalin thaw he had instigated in 1956.

A miner who had joined the Bolsheviks in 1918, Khrushchev was able to receive a technical education thanks to the October Revolution and became a true believer in the benefits of the workers' state. Rising through the Party's ranks, he became a member of the Central Committee in 1934 and of the Politburo in 1939. After Stalin's death in 1953, Khrushchev became the Party's First Secretary in the collective leadership that emerged after it had eliminated Lavrenti Beria and his faction. Subsequently, he used Stalin's established technique to divide and conquer his rivals, replace them with his own people, and emerge as the undisputed leader of the Soviet Union, with the difference that he did not kill these people, but had them assigned to such faraway and harmless posts as Ambassador to Mongolia.

In 1956, at the 20th Congress of the Communist Party, Khrushchev stunned the delegates with his so-called "secret speech", during which he denounced the excesses of the Stalin era and Stalin's personality cult for six hours. Until the speech, it was still considered taboo to say anything negative about Stalin. Khrushchev's speech seems somewhat mild in hindsight, now that the scale of the horrors of the Great Purges and the Gulag are well known. At the time, however, his revelations (limited only to Stalin's crimes against the Party, not the country at large) were earth shattering.

Khrushchev honestly believed in the superiority of Communism, and felt that it was only a matter of time before it would destroy the Capitalist system once and for all. He set bold (and ultimately unattainable) goals of "overtaking the West" in food production, initiating massive programs to put vast tracts of virgin lands in Kazakhstan and Siberia under the plow with the help of thousands of urban Komsomol volunteers who brought little but their enthusiasm with them to the open steppes. Despite being hailed as an expert on agriculture, Khrushchev miscalculated when, after a trip to Iowa in 1959, he became a huge enthusiast of corn and decided to introduce it to his country, most of which has an unsuitable climate. On the industrial front, Khrushchev relaxed Stalin's emphasis on military production somewhat, resulting in a wider array of consumer goods and an improved standard of living for ordinary Soviet citizens.

Another one of the achievements of Khrushchev's post-Stalin "thaw" was a relaxation of the political climate, in particular censorship. "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich", Solzhenitsyn's tale of life in the Gulag camps, was published in 1961 at Khrushchev's personal behest, and an entire dissident movement of writers and intellectuals appeared. While they were persecuted and had to function underground, this was still a major change, since any dissidents whatsoever simply would not have remained alive under Stalin.

In foreign affairs, Khrushchev also enthusiastically set lofty but often-unattainable goals, and enjoyed dramatically snubbing the West. He flew to a summit in London in a half-completed prototype of a passenger jet to demonstrate the advanced state of Soviet aviation (duly impressing his hosts, who did not have a comparable plane yet at the time). Communism's appeal spread rapidly throughout the decolonizing countries of Asia, Africa, and Latin America as the Soviet Union lavished aid for splashy projects such as dams and stadiums. The stunning propaganda coup scored by the Soviet Union in launching the first satellite, Sputnik, was followed by greater and greater achievements, such as the first dog, the first man, and the first woman in space. Many in the West began to fear that the Soviets really were catching up and soon would overtake them.

Khrushchev's enthusiasm for flashy gestures had not been liked by more conservative elements from the very start; many Soviets were greatly embarrassed by his antics, such as banging a shoe on the podium during a speech to the UN General Assembly. There were elements in the Party who were actively looking for an opportunity to oust him. Their opportunity came with the Cuban Missile Crisis. In yet another case of showmanship that he was unable to back up with deeds, in 1962 Khrushchev deployed nuclear missiles in newly Communist Cuba, within easy striking distance of most major American population centers. Thanks to intelligence received from Oleg Penkovsky, a Soviet double agent, the United States was aware that the missiles were still only partially developed and did not pose an immediate threat. President John Kennedy called Khrushchev's bluff, and the latter was forced to remove the missiles from Cuba, with great loss of face both at home and abroad. Khrushchev never regained his prestige after the incident, and was quietly ousted two years later by opponents in the Politburo--significantly, with no bloodshed. He spent the rest of his life in peaceful retirement, and was the only Soviet leader not to be buried in the Kremlin wall after his death.
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Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev

Mike Mansfield:



a Representative and a Senator from Montana; born in New York City, March 16, 1903; moved with his family to Great Falls, Cascade County, Mont., in 1906; attended the public schools in Great Falls; served as a seaman when only fourteen years old in the United States Navy during the First World War, as a private in the United States Army in 1919-1920, and as a private first class in the United States Marine Corps 1920-1922; worked as a miner and mining engineer in Butte, Mont., 1922-1930; attended the Montana School of Mines at Butte in 1927 and 1928; graduated from Montana State University at Missoula in 1933, and received a masters degree from that institution in 1934; also attended the University of California at Los Angeles in 1936 and 1937; professor of history and political science at the Montana State University 1933-1942; elected as a Democrat to the Seventy-eighth Congress; reelected to the four succeeding Congresses (January 3, 1943-January 3, 1953); was not a candidate for reelection in 1952, having become a candidate for the Senate; chairman, Special Committee on Campaign Expenditures (Eighty-first Congress); was elected to the United States Senate in 1952; reelected in 1958, 1964, and 1970 and served from January 3, 1953, to January 3, 1977; Democratic whip 1957-1961; majority leader 1961-1977; chairman, Committee on Rules and Administration (Eighty-seventh Congress), Select Committee on Secret and Confidential Documents (Ninety-second Congress), Special Committee on Secret and Confidential Documents (Ninety-third Congress); was not a candidate for reelection in 1976; Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Japan 1977-1988; East Asian advisor, Goldman, Sachs; awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom on January 19, 1989; was a resident of Washington, D.C. until his death due to congestive heart failure on October 5, 2001; interment in Arlington National Cemetery.
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Francis R. Valeo

Frank Church:



a Senator from Idaho; born in Boise, Ada County, Idaho, July 25, 1924; attended the public schools; graduated from Stanford (Calif.) University in 1947 and from Stanford Law School in 1950; during the Second World War served in the United States Army and was assigned to Military Intelligence in India, Burma, and China 1942-1946; admitted to the bar in 1950 and commenced the practice of law in Boise, Idaho; elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate in 1956; reelected in 1962, 1968, and again in 1974 and served from January 3, 1957, to January 3, 1981; unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1980; chairman, Special Committee on Aging (Ninety-second through Ninety-fifth Congresses), Special Committee on Termination of the National Emergency (Ninety-second through Ninety-fourth Congresses), Select Committee on Government Intelligence Activities (Ninety-fourth Congress), Committee on Foreign Relations (Ninety-sixth Congress); United States delegate to the twenty-first General Assembly of the United Nations; resumed the practice of law; was a resident of Bethesda, Md., until his death there on April 7, 1984; interment in Morris Hill Cemetery, Boise, Idaho.
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1960 Democratic Convention:

was held in Los Angeles. It nominated Senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts for President and Senator Lyndon B. Johnson of Texas for Vice President. In the general election, the Kennedy-Johnson ticket won an electoral college victory and a narrow popular vote plurality (slightly over 110,000 nationally) over the Republican candidates Vice President Richard M. Nixon and UN Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr.

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Al Smith:



Born on December 30, 1873, Alfred Emanuel Smith was destined to become a "man for the people." His childhood playground, on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, taught him much about diversity inasmuch as its population combined the immigrant cultures of the Irish, Germans, French, Polish, Italians, and Spaniards - to name but a few.

During his formative years, Governor Smith attended the local parish school of Saint James, which had the reputation of being one of the best elementary schools in the city. Additionally, by 1882, an orphanage and an industrial school to feed and teach orphans and homeless children had been built in connection with Saint James School.

Unfortunately, the Governor's education was interrupted by the untimely death of his father.

At thirteen, the young boy found himself forced to work a series of jobs in order to support his family, the most famous of which was his seven year stint at the Fulton Fish Market.

One of the early loves of Governor Smith's life was the theatre, and his experiences in theatre did much to enhance his later political career. Ultimately, the Governor abandoned his thoughts of a theatrical career and, in 1900, married his beloved wife, Catherine Dunn. The two would have five children - Alfred Jr., Emily, Catherine, Arthur, and Walter.

Governor Smith's career in politics began in 1895, with an appointment on the basis of a recommendation from a friend in Tammany Hall, as an investigator in the Office of the City Commissioner of Jurors. When he was elected to the State Assembly in 1903, he quickly proved himself to be a skilled politician and an influential reformer. Service on a 1911 commission to investigate factory conditions and as a 1915 delegate to the State Constitutional Revision Committee further expanded Governor Smith's vision. The Governor's political career began to truly flourish, however, with his 1915 Tammany Hall appointment as Sheriff of New York County and his 1917 election as President of the Board of Aldermen of Greater New York.

In 1918, to the surprise of many, he was elected Governor of the State of New York. Although he lost the 1920 election, he ran successfully again in 1922, 1924, and 1926 - making him one of three New York State Governors to be elected to four terms. While Governor, he achieved the passage of extensive reform legislation, including improved factory laws, better housing requirements, and expanded welfare services. Additionally, he reorganized the State government into a consolidated and business-like structure.

Governor Smith won the Democratic Party's nomination for President of the United States in 1928. During his campaign he continued to champion the cause of urban residents.
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Robert A. Slayton

Bryan wrote: "1960 Democratic Convention:

was held in Los Angeles...."

I wonder what the reasoning was behind California as the convention location. Did the democrats hope to win the state or was it more for Hollywood and the press?

I don't know the answer to that one, Mark. I think they are picked ahead of time. California was an important state but beyond that, not sure...

Joe Kennedy Sr. was not the only mentor of JFK that knew politics.

Having served as Mayor of Boston and as a U.S. Congressman John "Honey Fitz" Fitzgerald the father of Rose and the maternal grandfather to JFK had politics in his blood too. His funeral pallbearers in 1950 resembled the who’s who of politicians at the time such as; U.S. Senator's Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. and Leverett Saltonstall, John McCormack the U.S. Speaker of the House, Thomas P. "Tip" O'Neill the Massachusetts Speaker of the House and James Michael Curley the former Boston mayor and Governor of Massachusetts.