Original subtitles

narrator: Previously on "Kennedy"...

- He’d climb one rung of the ladder.

Then he’d start looking to the next one.

narrator: The presidential election of 1956

would be an important opportunity

for Kennedy to gain momentum on his political journey.

- He spotted a potential opening for himself,

so Kennedy thought he could butter up Adlai Stevenson

and be chosen as an ideal running mate.

- He campaigns vigorously for Adlai Stevenson.

narrator: He would soon know if his efforts had been enough

to claim the vice presidential nomination.

[dramatic music]

- To lead us to a fruitful America,

from the state of Massachusetts,

John F. Kennedy.

narrator: John F. Kennedy lived a life that would help

define an entire generation.

♪ ♪

- Together we shall save our planet,

or together we shall perish in its flames.

- What was it about that guy?

- Looks, style, empathy.

He was incredibly charming.

- Intellectual and progressive.

- He was the future. He was next.

♪ ♪

narrator: President for just over a thousand days,

Kennedy navigated events and crises

that changed the world.

- Kennedy is feeling the pressure

from the civil rights activists.

- This was a country on nuclear war footing.

♪ ♪

- This could be the last mistake

that anybody makes politically.

♪ ♪

- He changed us in the process of his own growth.

- We choose to go to the moon in this decade

and do the other things, not because they are easy

but because they are hard.

♪ ♪

narrator: 60 years after his assassination,

we are still fascinated by the triumphs and flaws

of the youngest president ever elected.

- I ask you to join us in all the tomorrows yet to come

in building America, moving America,

picking this country of ours up,

and sending it into the ’60s.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

narrator: August 1956.

♪ ♪

It was off to Chicago

for the 1956 Democratic National Convention.

- These are taking place in the televised age

by the 1950s and ’60s.

And part of what parties are trying to do

is tell Americans

what kinds of issues do they stand for,

who are some of our most exciting figures,

who are the voices of the future.

That’s where Kennedy fits in in 1956.

narrator: When Kennedy arrived, he denied allegations

that he sought the vice presidential nomination.

- Playing games, clearly,

he was better prepared than anybody.

That was really his first gambit

was to seize control of the state

Democratic apparatus, which he did.

narrator: Secretly, his team had prepared for months,

working to support Stevenson and boost Kennedy’s chance

to be chosen as his running mate.

However, Stevenson decided not to choose at all.

narrator: Stevenson decided he would allow

state delegates to choose the nominee,

meaning each vice presidential candidate would have

to scramble for the next 24 hours,

trying to collect the most votes.

♪ ♪

Kennedy decided to chase the nomination.

Rushing to pull a team together,

Kennedy, his family members, Sorensen,

and the larger Kennedy machine went into motion.

It was a frenzied, messy,

nonstop political free-for-all.

- It’s fascinating.

We’re still in the era of backroom politics

with smoky back rooms, you know?

This is not an era as we live in now

where it’s all decided before that convention starts.

I mean, was Keith Arthur gonna be named,

or was Kennedy gonna be named?

narrator: Kennedy’s team raced around the convention,

trying to secure as many delegates as possible

to win the vice presidential nomination.

The hotel room- turned-campaign headquarters

was suddenly bursting with activity.

♪ ♪

Bobby Kennedy took on a key campaign role,

attempting to personally persuade delegates

to vote for his brother

and scolding them if they didn’t.

During that frantic 24 hours, Kennedy’s father, Joe,

called campaign headquarters.

Bobby answered the phone.

The room froze and stared at Bobby,

observing his alarmed reaction to what he heard

on the other end of the line.

♪ ♪

Joe was incensed that his son had decided

to run for the vice presidential nomination,

certain that a defeat would destroy

Jack’s political future.

- You can imagine, you know,

probably a good bit of profanity,

telling him how dumb they were to do it.

narrator: Joe insisted that Kennedy back down.

Jack refused.

As the results were tallied,

Kennedy seemed to be in the lead.

- So yeah, I watched it,

and I’m begging them to pick John F. Kennedy.

♪ ♪

narrator: Campaign headquarters waited

in joyful anticipation,

but suddenly there was a roadblock.

The votes began to swing in favor

of Tennessee senator Estes Kefauver.

Before long, two candidates,

Senator Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota

and Albert Gore of Tennessee,

receded from the race.

As the final votes came in, the Kennedy camp knew

it was not in his favor.

♪ ♪

In the end, Kefauver won the nomination for vice president.

- The Democratic Party will go from this convention

far stronger for what we have done here today.

♪ ♪

narrator: Kennedy returned home empty-handed after losing

the vice presidential nomination,

but he had won a major victory.

After appearing on TV numerous times

and proving himself a charming, youthful,

and hardworking presence at the convention,

Kennedy had a surge in popularity.

- I want to take this opportunity

first to express my appreciation.

♪ ♪

- He has used this to get his name out there.

He’s used this to make deals, to make friends,

to try to add to his organization.

♪ ♪

narrator: Following Stevenson’s defeat

and Eisenhower’s reelection,

the Kennedy family gathered at Hyannis Port

for Thanksgiving in 1956.

Kennedy and his father, Joe, are huddled in a small study,

discussing the future.

After Kennedy’s surge in popularity

at the Democratic National Convention,

questions arose about a presidential run.

Kennedy listed every reason why he believed

running for president was a bad idea.

His father countered each point one by one.

♪ ♪

The two went back and forth

until the conversation reached a stalemate.

Finally, Kennedy uttered four words

that would unwittingly change the course of his life:

where do we begin?

♪ ♪

- Somebody once asked him,

why do you want to run for president?

And his answer:

that’s where the action is.

He wanted to be where the action was.

♪ ♪

narrator: The Kennedy presidential campaign

started very early,

before any other candidate.

Money could buy advertisements,

but time was a luxury that could not be purchased.

Ted Sorensen said one hour of work in 1957

was the equivalent to two hours of work in 1958.

- And in those days, Kennedy was not traveling

with a great entourage.

It was basically Ted,

who would keep track of the speeches.

He would attend and listen carefully

to every speech, what worked, what didn’t,

what could be more clear.

They analyzed the political situation.

What were the key states?

And that’s where they started.

♪ ♪

narrator: In 1957, Kennedy participated

in more than 140 campaign events,

building momentum for his presidential run

as well as his upcoming Senate reelection race in 1958.

- The number of days on the road

in ’57, ’58, ’59,

there’s a famous story about Lyndon Johnson looking up

one day in the Senate in ’57 or ’58

and saying something like, where’s Kennedy?

I never see him around.

♪ ♪

narrator: He spent a great deal of time

drumming up support from

and forming relationships with journalists,

taking advantage of each press inquiry.

- There was a tremendous amount of exposure

in the national mass circulation press,

"Time" magazine, "Life."

narrator: Kennedy created a campaign division

solely to monitor public opinion and collect data.

- They’re writing down the name and the address

of every single person that he’s met,

putting it on an index card.

By 1960, they have maybe 10,000 index cards.

- It gave a personal touch to it

so that the audience felt

recognized and appreciated.

Eventually, they built a deep file of political contacts,

friends and supporters.

- Nobody had ever campaigned like that before.

c]

narrator: With the 1958 Senate election swiftly approaching,

Kennedy’s months of effort on the campaign trail

were paying off.

- The impression that stays with me is that what started

as a rather small effort began to grow

and to grow and to grow.

And at first, the audience might be 100 people.

Then it was 500. Then it was 1,000.

Then it was a full auditorium and people outside.

They just got this positive response

that encouraged them to carry on.

♪ ♪

narrator: In 1958, Kennedy won Senate reelection

by the largest margin in Massachusetts history.

After the victory, Kennedy knew his sole focus

had to be the presidential race.

Although he had not yet announced his candidacy,

Kennedy secretly campaigned with an eye

towards a national audience,

building towards the 1960 election.

♪ ♪

narrator: To enhance his image as a serious politician,

Kennedy and Sorensen made it a goal

to release an assortment of scholarly articles

and pamphlets expressing Kennedy’s politics,

ideas, and observations.

In public, Kennedy spoke about topics

like health care, public school funding,

and foreign policy concerns.

- He was a mainstream Democrat who believed in the Cold War.

He believed in the welfare state at home.

So he was anti-communist in his foreign policy.

In a very firm way, he was sort of a Roosevelt disciple

in terms of domestic policy in this country.

- He’s talking about, get America moving again

so we can compete against the Soviet Union.

The Cold War is what dominates

the 1960 election almost completely.

- Kennedy developed a way of looking at America

that was fresh,

that the country was a little bit stuck,

that it needed a new push,

that it needed some goals

that might excite people and stimulate effort.

narrator: To win the presidency,

Kennedy would have to be nominated

at the Democratic National Convention in 1960.

To get the nomination, he would need to persuade

at least 761 delegates from around the country

to support him.

In the months leading up to the convention,

Kennedy trekked across the country,

meeting with state leaders and influential politicians.

- He was everywhere.

The more people saw of him,

the better he did.

Nobody had ever worked like that

as a presidential candidate.

♪ ♪

narrator: In 1959, Joe Kennedy purchased

an American Airlines aircraft,

fitted it with a new interior,

and donated it to his son’s presidential campaign.

That plane, called "Caroline,"

was the first private aircraft ever used

by a presidential candidate.

It was a sizable tribute

to the newest Kennedy family member.

- I think, of all the things his father did for him,

having that plane was a big deal,

because I think it increased his mobility,

particularly in ’59.

narrator: During the campaign, the airplane logged

more than 100,000 miles.

Ted Sorensen called the Kennedy campaign

a highly organized army ready for battle.

♪ ♪

- I am today announcing my candidacy

for the presidency of the United States.

- Senator Kennedy, if you don’t win

the presidential nomination,

will you accept the vice presidency?

- I shall not, under any conditions,

be a candidate for vice president.

If I fail in this endeavor, I shall return and serve

in the United States Senate.

narrator: To win the presidential nomination,

Kennedy needed delegates.

He set his eyes on state primaries,

a series of daunting obstacles he would have to overcome.

His major Democratic rival, Lyndon Johnson,

opted to sit them all out,

feeling that his influence and years spent in Congress

would be enough to earn the nomination at the convention.

However, Kennedy believed winning at the primaries

would carry him into the convention with momentum.

In March of 1960, Kennedy dove into his first primary

in New Hampshire and won handily.

- You know, because it’s neighboring to Massachusetts,

it wasn’t considered a breakthrough on his part.

Next comes Wisconsin.

♪ ♪

narrator: Kennedy gave unprecedented access

to documentarian Robert Drew and his crew

to follow him as he campaigned in the Wisconsin primary.

- You’re essentially running against Hubert Humphrey,

who’s, you know, trying to do a low-funded campaign

but high-energy.

And Wisconsin, of course, is neighboring

to his own Minnesota, so he’s putting his all

into that campaign.

- He wasn’t nearly as good on the campaign trail as Kennedy.

[people clamoring]

[indistinct chatter]

- Listen, now, anybody I didn’t get?

’Cause I guess we’re late.

Yeah, whose is this? - Mine.

- Whose is this? - Mine.

- If you would write me at the Senate,

I’ll send you a picture and an autograph

and something about the Capitol.

- Where should we write?

[indistinct chatter]

- Just write me, Senator Kennedy,

the Senate, Washington, D.C.

- There. That’s it.

And the eyes just above the camera.

That’s just fine.

- He was really good-looking.

That helps.

- Kennedy’s physical attractiveness was huge.

He looked great, particularly when he was feeling well,

and he always seemed to have a suntan.

- You know, he had that kind of bon vivant quality.

Men want to be him. Women want to have him.

There’s something to that.

- It became a kind of running joke

among many of the reporters covering him

about the women who would flock to see him

like they would flock to see Elvis Presley

or some kind of movie star celebrity.

And he made his youth into an attractive quality

by associating it with sort of the dawning of a new age.

It was time to get the country moving again.

♪ ♪

c]

narrator: As Kennedy campaigned in 1960,

he honed the power of his words.

- Well, John F. Kennedy knew how to deliver a speech.

- He was funny, and he gave short speeches.

They’re witty.

They’re to the point.

They were all at most 6 paragraphs, maybe 12.

Make them want more.

- I run for the presidency because, like you,

I have strong ideas about what this country must do.

I have strong ideas about the United States

playing a great role in a historic moment.

When the cause of freedom is endangered

all over the world...

- These are rhetorical devices

to make your words more powerful.

- But that particular accent and the particular pacing

and all of that, I don’t think anybody’s come

anywhere close to it.

- This is somebody who gives speeches that make people want

to get up and march somewhere.

♪ ♪

- Well, ladies and gentlemen, I ask your help.

I ask your help in building the United States.

I ask your help in reestablishing the prestige

and strength of our country.

I ask your help.

♪ ♪

narrator: April 1960, Wisconsin.

The campaign lasted four weeks.

While Kennedy did well in large cities like Milwaukee,

Humphrey spent much of his time

with farmers in rural areas.

Humphrey was far more familiar with that territory

than his upper-class opponent from Boston.

♪ ♪

- This is the heart of Senator Kennedy’s strength,

the heavily populated city areas,

particularly the Polish Catholic fourth district

in Milwaukee.

♪ ♪

- We would have passed that bill two years ago,

but it failed by one vote in the Senate

when the president withdrew his support

on the day the bill was coming up to vote.

That’s how important the office of the presidency is.

He shall determine what shall be our policy on Berlin.

He shall determine whether we shall be at war or peace.

♪ ♪

narrator: When the Wisconsin numbers came in,

Kennedy and his team were shaken.

He had won by only 13%, a dramatic contrast

to his landslide victory in New Hampshire.

♪ ♪

- It punctured the Kennedy momentum

for a brief, brief period, that they really realized

they had to regroup.

crowd: ♪ Back Jack ♪

♪ Jack is on the right track ♪

♪ ’Cause he’s got high hopes ♪

narrator: After Wisconsin, Kennedy won in Illinois,

his home state of Massachusetts,

Pennsylvania, Indiana, and Nebraska.

But the next destination, West Virginia,

would prove to be a challenge unlike any state so far.

♪ ♪

- As different from Massachusetts

or anything John Kennedy had ever known,

very Protestant, very few Catholics,

people who didn’t know wealth.

narrator: West Virginia was rural,

at the heart of America’s coal country.

- Coal mines were running at 100% capacity.

Everybody was busy, but it still had the reputation

of having pockets of poverty.

And I think that’s how Kennedy was briefed,

that he was going to be coming into a poverty-stricken place.

Instead he found a lot of working coal miners.

♪ ♪

narrator: The campaign increased its intensity

beyond what it had displayed in Wisconsin.

The Humphrey camp followed suit.

♪ ♪

One of the biggest gripes the general public had

with Kennedy was his Catholic faith.

This was especially true in West Virginia.

- You would be divided between two loyalties,

to your church and to your state,

if you were to be elected president.

- Yeah, the question is whether I think that--

if I were elected president,

I would be divided between two loyalties,

my church and my state.

Let me just say that I would not.

I have sworn to uphold the Constitution.

In the 14 years I’ve been in Congress,

in the years I was in the service,

the Constitution provides in the First Amendment

that Congress shall make no laws

abridging the freedom of religion.

I must say I believe in it.

I think it’s the only way that this country can go ahead.

I am sure that no one believes that I’d be

a candidate for the presidency

if I didn’t think I could meet my oath of office.

♪ ♪

narrator: This clear, strong oath

seemed to quiet the local critics.

♪ ♪

On May 10th, Kennedy won 60% of the popular vote

in West Virginia.

That afternoon, overcome with emotion

from the hard-fought campaign,

Humphrey tearfully announced he would no longer seek

the Democratic nomination.

♪ ♪

Kennedy won more votes than any other candidate

in the Democratic primaries,

walking away with 32.5% of the total vote.

It was a significant accomplishment,

but it wasn’t enough to lock in the nomination.

♪ ♪

With the nomination up for grabs,

Kennedy took off for the Democratic National Convention

in Los Angeles.

♪ ♪

- I want to assure you that today we begin here

in this city an effort to win this nomination,

which I believe will be successful.

♪ ♪

c]

narrator: At the 1960 Democratic National Convention

in Los Angeles, Kennedy was vying

for the presidential nomination

against Lyndon Johnson of Texas,

Stuart Symington of Missouri,

and Adlai Stevenson of Illinois.

- If we’re going to successfully move

through the ’60s,

if we’re going to be true to our destiny of being

the great defender of freedom in these dangerous times,

then the United States must build its strength.

♪ ♪

narrator: Civil rights were this convention’s

hot-button topic.

- You know, the experiences of African Americans

vary greatly.

The common thread is segregation, discrimination,

denial of opportunity.

- It was a movement that could not be contained in the South

or even in the United States.

It was a powerful human statement

for the desire for human freedom,

and that is what gave it so much power.

narrator: Despite his lackluster record

on the issue,

Kennedy took a decisive step by supporting

a progressive civil rights plank at the convention.

This plank called for the complete elimination

of discrimination based on race,

religion, and national origin.

It also demanded fair employment practices

and openly advocated the sit-in demonstrations

occurring all over the Deep South.

♪ ♪

- So at that convention, what’s notable

is the lead that the Kennedy group takes

in insisting on a strong civil rights plank,

responding to the demands that are rising,

the pressures that are accelerating,

and, most significantly, the importance of Black voting

in Northern industrial states.

♪ ♪

Narrator: After this unflinching stance

was announced,

nine Southern states promptly signed a document

denouncing Kennedy as a candidate.

- It wasn’t like everybody was for John Kennedy in 1960.

That was clear.

People were counting,

are we gonna get the number of votes on the first ballot?

So there was a tension as to whether it was gonna work,

absolutely, total tension.

♪ ♪

narrator: The legwork done by the Kennedy camp

over the past four years

finally paid off on July 13, 1960.

♪ ♪

narrator: Amidst tens of thousands of people,

Kennedy accepted the Democratic nomination

at the Los Angeles Coliseum

and chose his former opponent, Lyndon Johnson,

as his vice presidential running mate,

believing the Texas senator would help secure

the Southern political support he needed to win the election.

- And we stand today on the edge of a new frontier,

the frontier of the 1960s,

the frontier of unknown opportunities and perils,

the frontier of unfilled hope and unfilled threats.

The new frontier is here, whether we seek it or not.

Beyond that frontier are uncharted areas

of science and space,

unsolved problems of peace and war.

♪ ♪

narrator: The 1960 presidential race

between Kennedy and Nixon

would be the first widely televised election in history.

♪ ♪

If the American people couldn’t see

their candidate in person,

they could watch him from the comfort of their own home.

The candidates would debate four times,

arguing their case to the nation.

- The candidates need no introduction,

the Republican candidate,

Vice President Richard M. Nixon,

and the Democratic candidate, Senator John F. Kennedy.

- The president gained, America gained

by continuing the dignity, the decency

that has characterized us,

and it’s that that keeps the prestige of America up,

not running down America the way Senator Kennedy

has been running her down.

- Much as Richard Nixon is criticized,

he mounted the stage of the Republican Party

on five separate occasions

to accept the nomination for national office,

three times for president and twice for vice president.

He was formidable.

- I really don’t need Mr. Nixon to tell me

about what my responsibilities are as a citizen.

I’ve served this country for 14 years in the Congress

and before that in the service.

I have just as high a devotion, just as high an opinion.

- You look at the Kennedy-Nixon debate,

a Republican running at the center

and a Democrat running at the center in 1960

don’t disagree on much.

And so when people were trying to decide who do they want,

you have two people who want the job

who are saying they’re pretty much

gonna do similar things.

So then TV becomes that much more important

because you’re making your decisions based on,

what does your gut tell you?

Kennedy presents very differently than Nixon.

♪ ♪

- And the difference between the crowds

the day before that debate

and the crowds after that debate,

the crowds the next morning heading into Iowa

were enormous.

We called them the dancers.

The crowds, if you look down the street half a mile away,

you started to see-- as soon as they saw him,

you could see the crowd start to jump.

♪ ♪

- I don’t think I looked at him as some sort of a sex idol.

I looked at him as an energizer.

He was the future.

He was next.

♪ ♪

c]

♪ ♪

- I think one of the most important things

was when he called Coretta Scott King

in the election

when Martin Luther King was arrested.

- Martin Luther King is busted in Georgia

on a phony parole violation charge.

He’s sent off to a rural Georgia prison,

where there’s great fear that he will never

get out of there alive.

- He was arrested after participating in a sit-in,

but he had an outstanding traffic violation,

so he wasn’t given bail.

He’s put in the jail.

And this was the end of October.

The election’s beginning in November.

- Nixon-- who, I think, frankly,

had a better civil rights record

during the last eight years than Kennedy--

froze, and he didn’t know what to do.

He was trying to compete in the South,

and so he didn’t want to inflame--

he thought he might win over some Southern Democrats.

So Nixon tried to just kind of put his head in the sand

and just hope that this King incarceration

would be resolved quickly by local officials.

Kennedy makes a phone call-- it lasted maybe a minute

or two--to Coretta Scott King and just said,

I’m worried about your husband,

and we’ll be thinking of you,

and we’ll do everything we can do.

- That sent a huge message to the Black community

that John F. Kennedy, that he was helpful.

And they got Martin Luther King out of jail.

♪ ♪

- Kennedy’s action redounded in his favor.

King’s father, Martin Luther King Sr.,

was actually intending to vote for Nixon.

- And when they got Dr. King out of jail,

Daddy King said, I got a whole suitcase full of votes,

and now they’re going to Kennedy.

And so that was a signal where Black people

then lined up behind John F. Kennedy.

♪ ♪

narrator: With time running out before the election,

Kennedy and Nixon were still in a tight race.

Kennedy knew that to win, he needed to address

any last concerns the public still had.

♪ ♪

- This program this evening

does not constitute an endorsement

of either the speaker

or the party which he represents.

The program has been motivated by the religious issues

in this campaign.

♪ ♪

- He’s looking at the polling data.

They decide, look, we’ve got to take

the Catholicism issue head-on.

- The talk on the street was, he’ll kiss the pope’s ring.

The pope calls him every morning

and tells him what to do.

I mean, I remember this.

I was a Catholic schoolkid at the time.

narrator: Kennedy knew he had to address the subject

in a public arena one last time before the election.

He chose Houston as the location,

where the Greater Houston Ministerial Conference

was taking place.

♪ ♪

- I believe in an America

where the separation of church and state is absolute,

for while this year, it may be a Catholic

against whom the finger of suspicion is pointed,

in other years, it has been

and may someday be again a Jew or a Quaker

or a Unitarian or a Baptist.

- He made his points forcefully but not--

he was very good in not being overly combative.

But he was assertive.

- And we raised the question because we would like to know,

if you are elected president and your church elects to use

that privilege and obligation,

what your response will be under those circumstances.

- If my church attempted to influence me in a way

which was improper or which affected adversely

my responsibilities as a public servant

sworn to uphold the Constitution,

then I would reply to them

that this was an improper action on their part.

It would be an unfortunate breach

of an interference with the American political system.

♪ ♪

narrator: After the speech, Kennedy spoke off the cuff,

answering a series of questions

from the ministers that had not been screened in advance.

- I’m sure that I have made no converts to my church,

but I do hope-- [laughter]

I do hope that at least my view, which I believe

to be the view of my fellow Catholics who hold office,

I hope that it may be of some value

in at least assisting you to make a careful judgment.

[applause]

♪ ♪

narrator: Racing across the country

and fueled by adrenaline,

Kennedy often had dark circles around his eyes.

Without much time to rest or eat,

just days before the election, Kennedy claimed,

I’m going to last about five more days,

but that’s time enough.

- It’s the day before the election in 1960,

and Kennedy finishes in Waterbury,

Springfield, and Boston Garden that night.

My grandmother marched us down to city hall

to see this remarkable presentation.

I remember one sign that was hung

on the Grand Army Hall of the Republic that said,

welcome home, Jack.

I mean, I’m 11 years old and looking up and saying,

you know, tomorrow this guy could be the president.

And nobody knows how the election

is still gonna turn out.

- His last speech was at Boston Garden.

And it was brilliant.

It was absolutely brilliant.

♪ ♪

- So I come here tonight.

I thank you for your past support.

I ask you to join us tomorrow.

And most of all, I ask you to join us--

if we are successful,

I ask you to join us in all the tomorrows

yet to come in building America,

moving America, picking this country of ours up,

and sending it into the ’60s.

♪ ♪

c]

♪ ♪

narrator: Finally, Election Day had arrived.

Kennedy, his wife, Jackie,

and their two-year-old daughter, Caroline,

were camped out at Hyannis Port.

- Joe Kennedy, the father,

had a big place in Hyannis Port,

and we were invited to be there on election night

as the returns were coming in.

And the cohesion among the family,

it was a beautiful sight.

- Photographers and reporters are all around them,

for this is the man who, in the next 24 hours,

may become president of the United States

and she first lady of the land.

♪ ♪

narrator: Jackie was pregnant with John Jr.,

due at the end of the month.

Jackie described the scene as a cold, clear autumn day.

She would later remember her husband as restless but quiet,

spending some time in the sun and then trying to nap.

- From the very beginning, it becomes obvious

that this is going to be a close election.

♪ ♪

The television networks have made elaborate preparations

to broadcast the election returns

as they come in from the different parts

of the country.

Huge tally boards post the returns

as they come in minute by minute, hour by hour.

♪ ♪

- The excitement of being there,

watching the returns coming in,

it was neck and neck all night.

♪ ♪

- I guess the thing I really remember trying to stay up.

Come on, I’m not gonna stay up till--

stay up till 6:00 tomorrow morning and find out

we still got 10 hours to go, you know.

But we stayed up awful late, and we had no idea.

♪ ♪

- In Illinois, the voting will be so close

that the lead will go back and forth

from one candidate to the other,

but then this turns into a seesaw battle

in quite a few of the states all night long.

♪ ♪

narrator: As darkness set over Cape Cod,

Kennedy hung up the phone with his brother Bobby

after learning the numbers would not be in for hours.

He retired to his bedroom.

In the morning, Kennedy’s closest aide, Ted Sorensen,

set out for Kennedy’s house,

just like any other day in Hyannis Port.

As he approached, he noticed something was different.

Secret Service agents were stationed around the home.

John F. Kennedy was the next president

of the United States.

♪ ♪

Kennedy won the election

with 303 electoral votes to Nixon’s 219.

The popular vote was much closer,

with Kennedy receiving only 118,000 more votes than Nixon.

- 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 interest

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.

♪ ♪

- He ends up writing

his farewell speech to Massachusetts,

which is astonishingly eloquent and powerful.

♪ ♪

- For 14 years, I have placed my confidence

in the citizens of Massachusetts,

and they have generously responded

by placing their confidence in me.

Now on the Friday after next,

I am to assume new and broader responsibilities.

We must always consider, he said,

that we shall be as a city upon a hill.

The eyes of all people are upon us.

I ask for your help and your prayers

as I embark on this new and solemn journey.

♪ ♪

narrator: Next on "Kennedy"...

- I, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, do solemnly swear

that I will faithfully execute

the office of president of the United States.

- He’s very young, and he doesn’t fit the mold.

- How would he do on the world stage,

given he was so young and inexperienced?

- He was instantly overwhelmed by it.

The sheer number of concerns

that were piled onto his plate,

and they were urgent issues.