Truman backs Stuart Symington for the 1960 Democratic nomination

Harry S. Truman backed Stuart Symington for the 1960 Democratic presidential nomination when the contest was still taking shape. In May, with John F. Kennedy leading after an upset victory over Hubert Humphrey in West Virginia, Truman publicly named Missouri’s Symington as “without doubt” the candidate best qualified for the presidency. The endorsement joined Truman’s attachment to a candidate from his home state with his continuing effort to influence the Democratic Party’s choice of a successor.

A succession contest taking shape

As Dwight D. Eisenhower prepared to leave office and Richard Nixon appeared likely to lead the Republican ticket, Truman thought a Democratic victory promising. His preferred possibilities were Symington and Lyndon Johnson, though he judged that neither had much chance. He would not consider Adlai Stevenson for a third attempt, and regarded Kennedy as too young and inexperienced.

Truman’s reservations about Kennedy also reflected electoral calculation and political memory. He did not oppose Catholics as such, but, remembering Al Smith’s defeat, feared that a Catholic nominee could not win. He believed Kennedy had been too approving of Joe McCarthy and continued to dislike Kennedy’s father. Truman told Margaret Truman that Joe Kennedy had spent more than four million dollars to buy his son’s nomination; elsewhere, he put his concern in a quip: “It’s not the pope I’m afraid of, it’s the pop.”

Advice, hesitation, and intervention

Truman’s position developed through discussions with political allies. In April, Dean Acheson wrote that if Kennedy stumbled in the West Virginia primary, Stevenson might become the nominee. Acheson considered Symington the only possible alternative, but doubted he could gain traction. He suggested, “Maybe we should all give Jack a run for his money—or rather for Joe’s.” The letter captures the uncertainty surrounding Symington’s prospects even among supporters inclined to favor him.

Bess Wallace Truman urged her husband to avoid the contest and let the next generation fight it out. Truman, however, still wanted “to be young with the young men.” His interest was not only private loyalty to Symington: the nomination was an opening to shape the party’s future at a moment when Truman’s preferred candidates seemed unlikely to prevail.

The endorsement and its limits

After Kennedy’s West Virginia win put him out in front, Truman announced his support for Symington, emphasizing the senator’s qualifications. Asked what objections he had to Kennedy, Truman answered, “None whatever. He’s a fine young man and I know and like him. The only thing is, he lives in Massachusetts.” The answer softened his earlier criticisms in public while making his regional preference unmistakable.

The endorsement did not erase Truman’s doubts about Kennedy or establish that Symington had become a front-runner. Its significance lay in Truman’s choice to intervene despite his wife’s advice and the weak prospects Acheson had described. Acheson worried that Truman might turn against Kennedy in ways that could cause lasting political harm, including over civil rights; on June 27 he wrote urging Truman to observe several specific “don’ts.” The episode thus shows both Truman’s continued influence-seeking within the party and the care his closest adviser thought necessary as that intervention risked becoming an attack on the leading candidate.