WHAT WERE THE CENTRAL ISSUES OF THE 1960s PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN, FIRST OF ALL, AND THEN IF YOU WERE TO MAKE A LIST WHERE WOULD CIVIL RIGHTS HAVE APPEARED ON SUCH A LIST IN TERMS OF PRIORITIES?
The… the basic issue that Kennedy tried to strike ah, was getting the country moving again. It was more of a theme than an issue. And under that civil rights was in fact a… a good example of what he might do. And he gave lots of examples of how he would get the country moving in civil rights. But if you turn to issues straight, for John Kennedy, foreign policy was his—from a young man his primary interest. And he put a lot of weight on that in the campaign. And of course, the domestic economy was… was a major issue facing everybody. So civil rights would be down on the list of sort of specific issues but it would be fairly high on the list of… things that a President prepared to act would promise to act on and Kennedy did.