August 28, 1960: Better than Tail Fins, Soviets on Our Turf and Veep Surge

In his newspaper column on this day in 1960 James Reston writes about Vice President Richard Nixon's recent appearance on the Jack Paar television show: "What other generation of Americans has ever had the opportunity of hearing the Vice President of the United States discuss the survival of the Republic with a night-shift comic? As a symbol of our times, this is obviously better than tail fins. ... Until recently, there was only one popular test between Kennedy and Nixon and now there are two: Who can stand up to Nikita Khrushchev and who can sit down with Jack Paar?" ... In an editorial the New York Times concludes that "when [Soviet] Premier [Nikita] Khrushchev offered to defend Cuba militarily against a nonexistent military threat from the United States and even proffered the possible use of nuclear missiles in support of Cuba, the Soviet Union was intervening in the affairs of the hemisphere." ... There was also a report in today's paper about Vice President Nixon's second campaign swing through the South, which is considered a Democratic stronghold. The Vice President was greeted by enthusiastic crowds in Birmingham, Ala., and Atlanta. The frontrunner in the campaign was optimistic about his chances in the fall. Nixon's press secretary, Herb Klein, was reported saying the campaign was surging in Iowa, Kansas, South Dakota, Illinois, California, Oregon, Arizona and Hawaii.


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