The presidency of John F. Kennedy began at noon EST on January 20, 1961, when Kennedy was inaugurated as the 35th President of the United States, and ended on November 22, 1963, upon his assassination, a span of 1,036 days. A Democrat from Massachusetts, he took office following the 1960 presidential election, in which he narrowly defeated Richard Nixon, the then–incumbent Vice President. He was succeeded by Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson. Stevenson accepted a non-policy role as the ambassador to the United Nations. In spite of concerns over nepotism, Kennedy's father insisted that Robert F. Kennedy become Attorney General, and the younger Kennedy became the 'assistant president' who advised on all major issues. Kennedy, depressed and angry, assumed that his only option was to prepare the country for nuclear war, which he personally thought had a one-in-five chance of occurring. On November 20, 1962, Kennedy signed Executive Order 11063, prohibiting racial discrimination in federally supported housing or 'related facilities'.