The presidential transition of John F. Kennedy began when he won the 1960 United States presidential election, becoming the president-elect of the United States, and ended when Kennedy was inaugurated on January 20, 1961. Kennedy had become president-elect once the election results became clear on November 9, 1960, the day after the election.
Kennedy placed Clark Clifford in charge of the transition effort. Outgoing president Dwight D. Eisenhower and his administration cooperated with President-elect Kennedy and his team on a number of aspects of the transition to facilitate the peaceful transfer of power. Ahead of the election, Clifford had been studying presidential transitions both independently on behalf of Kennedy and as part of a study being undertaken by the Brookings Institution.
At the time, United States presidential transitions were far less elaborate than they have since developed to be in subsequent decades. Kennedy's transition was a volunteer-run operation. Preparations for the transition started in advance of the election, with Clark Clifford working on behalf of Kennedy to studying past presidential transitions and Richard Neustadt doing the same on behalf of the Democratic National Committee (DNC). After the election, Clifford led the transition and Neustadt continued as an advisor. Top officials of Kennedy's transition were largely individuals that had also been part of his presidential campaign, including Robert F. Kennedy, Larry O'Brien, Kenneth O'Donnell, Pierre Salinger, Sargent Shriver, Stephen Edward Smith, and Ted Sorensen, and Dick Donahue. The transition was largely funded by the DNC.
While Eisenhower and Kennedy each thought negatively of the other at the time of the transition, the two intended to avoid a rough, tension-filled transition akin to the previous one between President Truman and Eisenhower. Ahead of the election, Kennedy's campaign and the administration of term-limited outgoing president Eisenhower had taken some actions to study past transitions and prepare for the 1960–61 presidential transition. Shortly after the election, Kennedy began receiving extensive daily briefings from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), as well as briefings from the Department of State. Eisenhower named White House Chief of Staff Wilton Persons as his administration's representative to the transition. Particularly during the later part of the transition, Kennedy's transition head Clifford and Persons both spoke on the phone and met in person with each other frequently.
Pre-election actions A presidential transition was scheduled to occur after the 1960 United States presidential election, as incumbent president Dwight D. Eisenhower was term-limited. In anticipation of this, shortly after the 1960 presidential nominating conventions, Eisenhower created an advisory committee to study presidential transitions, headed by Robert Daniel Murphy.
Planning for a prospective presidential transition by John F. Kennedy began in advance of the election. Clark Clifford and Richard Neustadt were placed in charge of these preparations.Dallek, p. 24 The two largely acted independently of one another in researching presidential transitions and advising Kennedy on his potential transition. Clifford worked directly for Kennedy, while Neustadt worked for the Democratic National Committee (DNC).
Kennedy first began to talk with Clifford about his prospective presidential transition soon after winning the Democratic nomination at the 1960 Democratic National Convention. The Brookings Institution discreetly established an advisory group to review past presidential transitions and to help plan for a smooth transition into the next presidency. Involved in this review of transitions was also Laurin L. Henry, who had been writing a book on the subject of presidential transitions (Presidential Transitions), which would be published that November. The Brookings Institution review was funded with a grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. David W. Kendall, incumbent president Dwight D. Eisenhower's White House counsel, was key in establishing this project and bringing both major party candidates into the fold. Shortly after Kennedy received the Democratic Party's presidential nomination, he met with former Franklin Delano Roosevelt administration official James H. Rowe with the goal of discussing how he might prospectively deal with post-election matters. Rowe was a member of the team conducting the Brookings Institution Review of presidential transitions, and their discussion resulted in Kennedy appointing Clark Clifford to participate in the review, advise Kennedy on how he would run a post-election transition, and prepare a memorandum for Kennedy on how to run a transition. The Eisenhower administration had Secretary to the Cabinet Brad Patterson serve as its liaison attend these discussions, while the team of Kennedy's opponent, Richard Nixon, sent Robert E. Cushman Jr. as their liaison.
Neustadt had first been asked by Chairman of the Democratic National Committee Henry M. Jackson to write a memo on presidential transitions, which Jackson received on September 15. On September 18, 1960, days after Jackson received the memo, he held a meeting with Kennedy and Neustadt at Kennedy's house in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C., where Kennedy read the memo and asked Neustadt various questions. Kennedy then tasked Neustadt with elaborating on his memo by creating a report assessing post-election problems for presidents-elect, particularly those regarding organizing a White House staff.Shaw p. 171
In mid-1960, Kennedy also announced the creation of a special defense and foreign policy committee led by Paul Nitze.
Organization of the transition United States presidential transitions were far smaller and more informal at the time Kennedy was elected than they have since become. Kennedy based his transition operations largely out of his personal residence in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. He additionally held transition planning meetings at his home and other locations in Washington, including his U.S. Senate office, the Democratic National Committee offices, his former campaign headquarters in the Esso Building, Clark Clifford's law offices, and conference rooms at the Brookings Institution.Shaw, p. 168 Serving the function of Kennedy's personal offices during the campaign was his Georgetown residence, his family's Palm Beach, Florida, residence, and the penthouse of the Carlyle Hotel.
The post-election transition was headed by Clark Clifford, who worked with a handful of close associates of Kennedy. None of the transition workers received financial compensation. The transition relied on volunteer staffers. The transition's top officials were individuals who had been part of Kennedy's presidential campaign.Bruaer, p. 67 These individuals happened to largely be relatively young, but were also experienced in Washington, D.C., politics. Many were even more so experienced than their counterparts in previous presidential transitions.Brauer, pp. 67–69 On November 10, during a meeting in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, with his top advisors, Kennedy assigned them their roles for the transition. Clifford and Neustadt were named the formal transition advisors, tasked with planning the transition. Clifford was additionally named the transition's liaison to the Eisenhower administration. During the transition, Kennedy had Neustadt compile and send him further papers providing specific in-depth analysis of specific positions and jobs in a presidential administration. Pierre Salinger was assigned to be the head of the transition's press team (the press secretary). Kenneth O'Donnell was put in charge of administration and appointments. Sargent Shriver (Kennedy's brother-in-law) was put in charge of the selection process for high-level appointees and Larry O'Brien was put in charge of patronage appointments. Dick Donahue was also tasked with assisting in the process of selecting planned presidential appointees as well as managing communications between the transition team and Vice President-elect Lyndon B. Johnson. Ted Sorensen was put in charge of creating the policy agenda and the writing of statements and speeches. Robert F. Kennedy (Kennedy's brother) was a general advisor to the transition. Stephen Edward Smith (Kennedy's brother-in-law) was in charge of the transition's finances. Additionally advising the transition on certain matters were Kennedy's brother Ted Kennedy and father, Joseph P. Kennedy.
As part of the transition, Paul Samuelson headed an economic task force. Harris Wofford was charged with leading the transition in laying-out policy related to civil rights, as well as selecting civil rights-related personnel. Others who played a role in the transition included James E. Webb. There had been tensions during the campaign between individuals aligned with Sorensen and individuals aligned with O'Donnell. To diffuse any similar tensions if they arose, Fred Dutton was brought into the transition in an initially unclear role to act as a sort of neutral figure.Brauer, pp. 70–71
Kennedy's transition effort had to request funding from the Democratic National Committee in order to pay its expenses. Ultimately, the DNC provided most of the funding for the transition.
Start of the transition
Kennedy, arguably, did not become president-elect of the United States until November 9, 1960, the day after the election. While The New York Times (among the first outlets to project Kennedy to be the victor) had projected Kennedy's victory shortly before midnight EST on election night, many other prominent media outlets, such as NBC, waited until the morning of November 9 to project Kennedy as the victor.
After Nixon conceded the election on November 9, President Eisenhower sent President-elect Kennedy two telegrams. One of the telegrams was sent to briefly congratulate the president-elect, and the second one saw Eisenhower both promise to cooperate on an orderly transfer of power and give proposals on how to proceed with one.Shaw, p.126 In Eisenhower's second telegram, he offered to meet with Kennedy, "to consider problems of continuity of government and orderly transfer of Executive responsibility on January 20th from my administration to yours".Shaw, p.129 He also named his White House chief of staff, Wilton Persons, as his administration's representative for the transition. He stated that Persons would be prepared to make arrangements by which representatives appointed by Kennedy could meet with heads of executive branch departments. He also suggested that Kennedy's representatives meet with the White House budget office hold meetings to discuss government administration and budget matters and that Kennedy's representatives also meet with the secretary of state in order to receive foreign policy updates.
Kennedy held his first post-election press conference on November 9, where he discussed the transition and announced, for the first time, the names of several individuals that he had selected for his administration. That same day, Kennedy received the memorandum that Clark Clifford had created for him. The following day, Kennedy and his team held a staff meeting in which they went over the three separate memos created by Clifford, Neustadt, and the Brookings Institution.Brauer, p. 65