Not robbed, rescued
Sir: John Simpson's allegation that Richard J. Daley 'manipulated' the Chicago vote to carry that election of Kennedy in 1960 is at best ambiguous and at worst thoroughly misleading (The Irish empire', 21 Novem- ber). There was no need to steal votes or vote the dead in Cook County: Kennedy was overwhelmingly popular in Chicago and certain to carry the city by a huge majority, as he did. It was equally certain that if Chicago reported all its precincts before downstate Illinois did so the rural Republi- cans would perform their own miracles of vote-rigging and ballot-box-stuffing, and corruptly carry the state for Nixon. So Daley held back the results from half a dozen precincts while his allies (among them Senator Paul Douglas) went onto radio and television warning the Republi- cans that there was strong reason to believe that irregularities were occurring down- state, and unless the rural counties report- ed promptly they would have to face the full rigours of a legal investigation and heavy penalties. As Douglas admitted afterwards, it was pure bluff, but it did the trick: the Republi- cans sent in their returns, which were heavi- ly for Nixon; then Daley released his final precincts, and Kennedy carried the state by a few thousand votes. Thus, Daley did not steal the election for Kennedy: he saved it, because, thanks to his exertions, the returns were more or less honest, conforming to what every opinion poll had been predict- ing. Not liking to admit that they had been beaten in a fair fight, the Republicans start- ed an investigation of the results, but since the first discoveries were of their own shenanigans, they let the matter drop. But Richard Nixon, in his inimitable fashion, gave it out that the election had certainly been fixed, but that he was too ardent a patriot to disrupt the life of the country by questioning it officially. And so a legend was born, which seems to have numbered John Simpson among its victims.
Hugh Brogan,
History Department, University of Essex, Colchester
Previous page
