Fifty years ago, American government – even American society – entered into a wonderland of youth, prettiness, chic, and charisma. John Kennedy had defeated Richard Nixon in the presidential debates (or, at least, JFK defeated Nixon in the eyes of the millions of Americans who watched the debates - those who heard them on television felt that Nixon had won.) The election of 1960 was incredibly close and could have torn the country apart, except that mean-spirited Nixon (unlike Nobel Prize winner Gore) chose to concede and spare the nation a political civil war.
