I started Chris Matthews’ Kennedy & Nixon: The Rivalry That Shaped Postwar America.
What has interested me in my reading of this book so far is that
Republican Richard Nixon called himself a liberal when he was running
for Congress in 1946, whereas Democrat John F. Kennedy was calling
himself a conservative as a candidate for Congress. I can see how
Kennedy was rather conservative, for, according to Matthews, Kennedy was
not too keen on the New Deal, and he believed that Franklin Roosevelt
gave too much to the Soviets at Yalta. On how Nixon was a liberal in
1946, I am not entirely sure, for Nixon in 1946 ran against the New
Deal.
On pages 49-50, Matthews talks about a debate that Nixon and Kennedy
as Congressmen had with each other regarding the Republican Taft-Hartley
bill. Although Nixon was publicly for it and Kennedy was publicly
against it, each had reservations about his own public position,
Matthews narrates. Matthews states that Nixon was actually more
centrist on the issue of labor unions rather than right-wing and
anti-union, and that Nixon thought that Taft-Hartley “went too far”
(Matthew’s words). Kennedy, meanwhile, did not want to alienate the
“working stiffs” (Matthew’s words) in Massachusetts, so he publicly
supported big labor. Privately, however, Kennedy believed in taming big
labor, and he did not care for the massive strikes that it created.