moderation. They also hoped to convince Nixon to choose either Barry Goldwater or Walter Judd as his running mate. When their attempts all failed and Nixon choose moderate Henry Cabot Lodge Jr., they saw it as pandering to a liberal consensus represented by New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller. Some conservatives even believed that this outcome was proof that the Republican Party would never change and they would need to look elsewhere if conservatism was to succeed. Though still in Texas, Viguerie would later recall his distaste over the situation, saying "I never was a Nixon fan." Goldwater deferred to Richard Nixon and did not challenge him for the Republican nomination in 1960, instead he traveled the nation as chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee in an effort to gain grass-roots support for his brand of conservativism. This new brand of conservative differed both from the established Republican's vision but also from that of anti-interventionist ideas of the previous generation's conservative icon Robert A. Taft. In September 1960 a group of young conservative activists met at "Great Elm", the estate of the family of William F. Buckley Jr. in Sharon, Connecticut. The produced a short exposition of their vision of conservative principles and how they should be implemented which was known as the Sharon Statement. This group of activists would take up the name Young Americans for Freedom. After Nixon lost the election to John F. Kennedy in November 1960, Goldwater's reputation would carry on and as early as 1962 his supporters began forming "Draft Goldwater for President" committees. In August, 1961 Viguerie became executive secretary of Young Americans for Freedom earning $125 a week and supporting its Sharon Statement manifesto. Viguerie would later recall, "I moved to New York, where their offices were. That was no small thing for me, a Texas kid. I lived in Greenwich Village. I had a great time and went to a lot of parties. The conservatives and socialists were two extremes and found and solicited each other's company. I hung around the White Horse, and lived around the corner on St. Marks Place. I knew [democratic socialist] Michael Harrington quite well, and saw Bill Buckley and Bill Rusher. Things were loose and free then, none of the uptightness of the later sixties and seventies. We had a lotta fun." In the role of executive secretary of Young Americans for Freedom Viguerie gained relationships