June 6, 1963 - New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller (pictured Monday at the Puerto Rican parade) charged tonight that “vacillation and uncertainty” by President Kennedy on Cuba and civil rights had created “two of the great crises of our times.” Mr. Rockefeller’s attack on the President — made before 3,000 cheering Republican leaders at New York City’s Roosevelt Hotel — was regarded as further proof that the Governor definitely regarded himself a prime contender for the 1964 Republican Presidential nomination. On Tuesday, the Governor declared that his recent marriage to the former Mrs. Margaretta Fitler Murphy had not in any way altered his position with respect to next year’s Presidential race. The Governor made his hard-hitting attack on the President tonight at the annual fundraising dinner of the Republican State Committee. Another speaker, former Gov. Thomas E. Dewey, praised Gov. Rockefeller’s “brilliant progress in the cause of civil rights in this state” and castigated what he termed President Kennedy’s “reckless promises” in this field in the 1960 Presidential campaign.
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