Republicans Fight Over Party Platform

Los Angeles Times file photo July 25, 1960: Vice President Nixon greets well-wishers in Chicago.   Cartoonist Bruce Russell is sure the GOP has the election in the bag.

July 25, 1960: "The issues that shaped the Republican Convention were those forced on it by Nelson A. Rockefeller.... whether he meant to or not, Nelson Rockefeller was summoning the Republican Party to repudiate the administration and policies of Dwight D. Eisenhower before the Party faced the nation in November." -- Theodore H. White, "The Making of the President 1960"  (Page 191) Times Political Editor Kyle Palmer says: “The transition from Eisenhower to Nixon will entail changes greater than many have realized or expected, but from all indications the break will represent no great fundamental changes in philosophy. Nixon is a younger more politically acute leader. He has seemed during his relatively short time in national politics to have a sort of genius in political action.” On the jump, a caption writer pokes humor at some Native Americans who were honored at the GOP convention. Plus more photos and an item by James Reston of the New York Times.

Nixon, Rockefeller OK Platform in Secret Talk – Goldwater Furious!

Los Angeles Times file photo July 24, 1960: Young Republican members Lloyd LeMere of Oak Park, Ill., and Chris Economos of Berwyn set up a sign painting shop at the convention center in Chicago.

July 24, 1960: Vice President Richard Nixon and New York Gov. Nelson Rockefeller meet to draft a platform for the presidential campaign – and Arizona Sen. Barry Goldwater calls it a “Munich” for the Republican Party. Goldwater accuses Nixon of selling out on every point that separated him from Rockefeller, whom Goldwater describes as the "leader of the Republican left." The Nixon-Rockefeller platform says, in part: Our program for civil rights must assure aggressive action to remove the remaining vestiges of segregation or discrimination in all areas of national life -- voting and housing, schools and jobs. It will express support for the objectives of the sit-in demonstrators and will commend the action of those businessmen who have abandoned the practice of refusing to serve food at their lunch counters to their Negro customers and will urge all others to follow their example. “Our program for health insurance for the aged shall provide insurance on a sound financial basis through a contributory system under which beneficiaries have the option of purchasing private health insurance.” On the jump, pieces by Kyle Palmer, James Reston, Goldwater and Rockefeller’s text of the platform.