October 10, 1960: Kennedy will Retain Dulles at CIA and Hoover at FBI, Republicans Split on Whether to Challenge Balloting, Coup Reported in Vietnam

President-elect John F. Kennedy said today he would retain Allen Dulles as head of the CIA. Dulles has served every president since Woodrow Wilson. Kennedy also pledged to retain J. Edgar Hoover as head of the FBI. In Austin, Texas, Vice President-elect Lyndon Johnson, still dressed in a bathrobe after rising late, conferred by telephone with Kennedy and Democratic leaders from his fourth-floor suite at the Driskill Hotel.

The head of the Republican National Committee, Thruston Morton, said he did not share the opinion of some that investigations into reports of voting fraud could lead to a reversal of the election outcome. "I personally know of now fraud and I am sure that Senator Kennedy does not." However, a RNC spokesman said earlier that complaints of fraud had been received, mostly from Illinois, Texas, the Carolinas, Michigan and New Jersey.

In Chicago, the US Attorney's office announced it would convene a grand jury to hear complaints of fraud in five Chicago wards. Reporting on on the announcement, the Associated Press would report, "There are those in the Nixon camp who -- far from conceding Illinois to Mr. Kennedy -- contend Vice President Nixon will be proved the victor."

In California, Kennedy retained his lead as votes continued to be counted. His margin was 37,146 out of 6,250,000 votes cast, excluding absentee ballots, which have yet to be counted. As many as 200,000 voters requested absentee ballots. Benjamin Hite, the Los Angeles County registrar said, "Personally, it is rather hard for me to believe that the absentee returns can overcome the Kennedy lead."

Meanwhile, Hawaii's three electoral votes were put in the Republican column and Nixon widened his small lead in vote counting in Alaska, which has three electoral votes.

The New York Times prepared a report for tomorrow's edition summing up the fluid situation by saying, "The closeness of the vote in many states led some Republicans yesterday to musing about recounts and the possibility of changing the result. But it would take a wholly unlikely combination of accidents ro reduce Senator Kennedy's electoral-vote total below the majority of 269. The result will be official Dec. 19, when the Presidential electors meet in their respective state capitals."

There was an attempted military coup today in South Vietnam. Five battalions of the South Vietnamese army staged the uprising and a Military Revolutionary Committee said it had overthrown the government of President Ngo Dinh Diem. President Diem's palace guard put up stiff resistance. The fate of President Diem was unknown. Diem, who has been battling the Communists, has strong backing from the United States.

In Bonn, West Germany, Chancellor Adenauer proposed a meeting between Kennedy and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev "to achieve a rapprochement." Adenauer conceives of the meeting as a preliminary to a summit between leaders of the United States, Britain, France and the Soviet Union.

At the United Nations a General Assembly committee recommended seating a Congolese delegation headed by President Joseph Kasavubu.

In New Orleans, Louisiana governor Jimmie Davis called a special legislative session. Davis want to block the desegregation of public schools.

In a northern suburb of Paris Algerian terrorists used sub-machine guns to shoot up a crowded cafe. They killed seven and wounded an eighth.