Was Kennedy considered the more hawkish candidate in 1960?

[TransfemmeGoreVidal]

Given that he ran hard on the issue of the “missile gap” I’ve often wondered if there was some crossover with many hardcore cold warriors who would otherwise have been Republicans backing him while advocates of detente may have leaned slightly to Nixon? Especially since central to his appeal was that Republicans were the party of “peace and prosperity.”

[Pres Mike]

The 1960 election probably had the most swing voters of any election in our history. About 40 states could have swung in either direction on election day. Cloestest election in our history except for 2000

I don't think Kennedy was seen as more hawkish than Nixon, both were seen as hawks. Its entirely possible that if Kennedy was less hawkish he would have lost

[Mr. Smith]

Yes.

[Pericles]

Nixon also had a reputation as a hardcore anti-communist, going back to the 1940s when he went after Alger Hiss.

[wnwnwn]

Kennedy somehow managed to link progresivism and anti-communism. Maybe if liberal zionists had an speaker like him, Biden would had aproved the siege of Rafah.

[Sumner 1868]

I don't know if he was considered more hawkish, but 1960 was definitely the most hawkish matchup of the Cold War.

[Progressive Pessimist]

Maybe not "more hawkish," but definitely hawkish.

Without the "missile gap" rhetoric, I don't think he would have really distinguished himself from Nixon, and had the chance he did to beat him.

[darklordoftech]

Maybe Kennedy and Nixon were viewed as equally hawkish?

[Agonized-Statism]

Nixon had been viewed as the more ardent Cold Warrior due to his history of red-baiting, despite not being particularly warmongering  relative to anyone else at the time. Isolationist sentiment within the Republican Party had already been declining since Pearl Harbor, and its last peak had been in the early 1950s, when Robert Taft rather than Eisenhower was the Republicans' ideological leader and before it became clear that Western Europe would stabilize. Democratic liberal internationalism became the dovish position during the 1950s, favoring mediation through the United Nations before war. By 1960, the Democrats were perceived as the softer party, and Kennedy's talk of a missile gap was a purely defensive move preempting Nixon's attacks of softness on communism. For a modern comparison, think about how Democrats have shifted to grandstanding around the "rules-based international order" for fear of being called weak.

[PickleMan]

In terms of record, Nixon was likely seen as more hawkish, but Kennedy’s campaign tended to be more hawkish than Nixon’s.

[ReaganLimbaugh]

NO.....watch the 2nd, 3rd and 4th debates.

[I Will Not Be Wrong]

Both Kennedy and Nixon certainly campaigned to be perceived as the more hawkish candidate.

[Benjamin Frank 2.0]

The 1960 election probably had the most swing voters of any election in our history. About 40 states could have swung in either direction on election day. Cloestest election in our history except for 2000

I don't think Kennedy was seen as more hawkish than Nixon, both were seen as hawks. Its entirely possible that if Kennedy was less hawkish he would have lost

More than 1976?

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Kennedy didn't want to defend Kinmen as much as Nixon.