Indeks : Index ; this is the story of a rivalry. it's how two's men pursuit of the same prize changed them and their country. When Americans think of John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon, they recall their close, bitter 1960 fight for the presidency. they picture them in their "Great Debate" the debonair Kennedy outshining an awkward Nixon. But behind this snapshot lurks a darker, more enduring saga that began with their election to Congress in the months just after World War II, then crept for fourteen years along those old Capitol corridors where politicians, even rivals, share the same small space. During the ealy years, Nixon was the man to beat. He was the best politicians of his time, articulating more ably than anyone else the nervous most of post-World War II America. By the age of forty-three, he had been elected to the house, the senate, and twice to the vice presidency of the United States.Kennedy was the late bloomer.