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Nixon Shot to Death in Dallas
Richard M. Nixon, the nation’s thirty-fifth president, was shot to death today in Dallas, Texas by an unknown gunman. The president’s death was announced to the public at 1:33 p.m. CST, relayed by radio newsman Walter Cronkite, whose voice cracked audibly as he made the announcement.
Within a half an hour, Vice President Henry Cabot Lodge was sworn in as the thirty-sixth President of the United States. President Lodge addressed the nation later in the evening after flying back to Washington from his vacation home in Massachusetts.
President Nixon’s life was one of stunning highs and lows. A former U.S. representative and senator, he spent eight years as President Eisenhower’s Vice President. Originally expected to win the election of 1960 in a landslide, he was challenged by the young, dynamic Sen. John F. Kennedy, and his lead in the polls eroded away.
It was not until a series of impressive debates in September and October of 1960, broadcast on the radio to the entire nation, that Nixon finally pulled away from Kennedy. Although spectators in the debate halls attest to this day that Kennedy came across better than Nixon in person, Nixon’s voice and arguments won the day on the radio. To this day, media scholars use the debates as an example of the power of the medium and of the limited effect a candidate’s image can have on a campaign.
In a statement today, Senator Kennedy expressed his condolences to the Nixon family, as well as his best wishes to President Lodge, whom Kennedy defeated in 1952 to win election to the Senate.