Future president ial the television and Radio Station from the United States are proud to provide facilities for discussion of issues in the current Political Campaign by the two major candidates for the president. The candidates need no introduction. Richard im nixon and the democratic candidate senator john f. Kennedy. According to rule said by the candidate, each man should make an Opening Statement of eight minutes duration. A closing statement of freeman adjuration. And between, the candidate will answer or comment upon answers to questions hook by a panel of correspondents. In this first discussion of four, join to pyramids is the subject matter has been restricted to internal or domestic american matters. For the first Opening Statement by senator john f. Kennedy. In the election of 1860, Abraham Lincoln said the question whether this nation could exist free. In the election in 1960 with the world around us, the question is whether the world will exist. Half labour have three . Will we move in the direction of freedom . In the direction of the road we are taking. Whether the over direction of slavery. I think it will depend in great measure up on what we do in the United States. The kind of society that we build, on the kindest rain that we maintain. We discuss tonight domestic issues. I would not want that to be any implication to be given, this is not involved directly mr. Cushy ours in new york. He maintains the communist defenses throughout the world, because of the productive power of the soviet union itself. The Chinese Communist have always had a large population. They are important and dangerous now because of the amounting efforts in their own country. The kind of country we have here, the kind of society we have. The kind of shanked we build in the United States. Will be the defensive freedom. Senator kennedy. I think that senator kennedy has said many of us can agree with. There is no question that we cannot discuss our internal affairs in the United States. Without recognizing that they have a tremendous bearing on our international position. What does happen to you . We find that your wage has gone up five times as much in the eyes and hard administration as it did in the Truman Administration. What about the prices you pay . We find that the prices you pay as much as a Truman Administration youve paid went up five times as much in the Truman Administration as the Eisenhower Administration. What is the result of this . This means that the average Family Income went up 15 in the eisenhower years and 2 in the truman years. This is not standing still. But good at this record is, may i emphasize it isnt enough. A record is never something to stand on, it is something to build on. And in building on this record, i believe that we have progress, we know the way to progress, and i think first of all, our own records prove that we know the way. Continues. Welcome in our viewers joining us on cspan3 from American History tv as we are joined by Barbara Perry, director of the university of virginias Miller Center. Barbara perry, 60 years from that first debate between president Richard Nixon and senator john kennedy and if there is one thing you hear about the legacy of that debate, it is that those who are watching on tv thought kennedy won, and those listening on the radio thought nixon won. Is that actually true . No, it is a myth but it is longstanding. It is partially true. The moderator was sitting behind the candidates, so he really could not see how they were looking on camera, he was just listening to what they were saying. He said after that, he thought that nixon had won and when he watched the rerun of the debate, he actually thought kennedy had won. The reason that popped up with there had been a survey done by marketing firms of people who had listened on radio. They had said they thought nixon had won it. I asked the viewers, you can watch and listen and then vice versa. If nothing else, just the difference in the voices, the difference in the accents. Most people think kennedy emerged the winner. He just looked pretty bad in pretty nervous. 60 years this weekend since that first nationally televised president ial debate. There were essentially four debates between john f. Kennedy and Richard Nixon, october 7, 1960, the second. October 13, 1960, the third. If final one, october 21 before the election. How do these come together and what were the hurdles supporting them on television . Barbara perry, are you still with us . We might have had a sound issue. As we work on getting Barbara Perry back this morning, that me give the phone numbers to our viewers asking you to join this discussion. 202 7488000 for democrats. 202 7488001 for republicans. Independent, 202 7488002. We are talking about the history, the legacy, the president ial debate that took place in the fall of 1960, debates between john f. Kennedy and Richard Nixon. Will play a little bit from the second debate, candidate asked on their positions on the issue of civil rights. Here is what they said. Mr. Vice president , you have accused senator kennedy of avoiding the civil rights issue in the south and he has accused you of the same. With both north and south listening, will you sum up your intentions . Why do i talk every time i speak about civil rights in the south . It is because i am preaching. It is a problem for all of us. It is a responsibility of leadership. I do it because we have to solve this problem together. I do it at this time particularly because khrushchev, a man who has enslaved millions, man who has slaughtered thousands, we cannot have a situation where he can continue to point a finger at the usa and say we are denying rights to our citizens. Giving aid to those trying to carry out the situation what will he do to provide fair employment . He has been the head of the committee on government contracts and he has not indicated his support of providing fair employment around the country so everyone can get a job regardless of their race, nor has he indicated that he would support title iii, which would give the internally attorney general additional powers to we are back with Barbara Perry. Giving viewers a taste of the debates from 60 years ago. How did these debates come together . What were the hurdles to putting them on television and who sponsored them . The stations, the channels. We had three basic channels at that time, nbc, abc, and cbs. We headed tv that only got two of the main channels. We had a tv that only got to have the main channels, nbc and cbs. Some people might remember that for example Walter Cronkites interview with president kennedy around a labor day was to promote the fact that Walter Cronkites evening show was going from a 15 minute format to a 30 minute format. We were also coming off the 1950s quiz show scandals. We were trying to boost to boost their image among the public. They were trying to they approach the candidates and kennedy jumped on the idea because he knew television was his medium. Once he did, the nixon camp could not really refuse. It was somewhat technological. It is still a fairly new medium, same for television in those days. They managed to pull it off without a hitch. Number one was the the cold war. The first debate was meant to be devoted to domestic policy, kennedy and his Opening Statement jumped right into the cold war, which must have put nixon off a little bit. Kennedy care fashion in the Eisenhower Administration on that. Unemployment was pretty high was up in the six and 7 rage. Both candidates wanted to shy away from it a little bit. Obviously, they wanted to attract the African American vote. That was another issue. Farm prices, medical care. Canada hit strongly on that. I would say nixon. Nixon was a champion debater in college. He went to whittier college. He had gotten into harvard but he did not have the money to travel there. He had gotten a scholarship, but they did not have the money for incidentals. He had a bit of a chip on his shoulder because of that but he was an excellent debater. Kennedy though had gotten better as a public speaker as he went through his career from being elected to congress at the same time nixon was in 1946. By the time he gets to the 1960 debate, he is good too. He had an odd accent people were not used too. His mother always thought he talked to rapidly. I would say nixon had the edge, but kennedy was nipping at his heels and because he looked better in the first debate, he is usually viewed as the winner there. From that point on it was pretty much a draw. Who the moderators are. Who were they in 1960 . The names people would probably recognize would be those who went on to be anchors on their networks. Howard k smith was the first moderator. We also had people like frank mcgee who went on to be a moderator. Those who were asking questions, some of them went on to be encouraged, most famously Walter Cronkite and don chancellor. The others, although i have paid a lot of attention, were still new to me. A lot of them were printed journalists from the time because they wanted to have a mix between broadcast and print and some of them were on Radio Networks that no longer exist, but those four names were household names. A twitter user rights and saying i remember the debates as a young person. Kennedy was inspirational. Accent was not. There was little need to fact check nixon was not. There was little need to fact check trade how times have changed. Can you comment on the role of the moderators . They are impressive, even if one does not think nixon has charisma, in some ways nixon was at his peak in 1960. He was not the nasty assassin nixon. His running mate before the first debate said that nixon had an image from a fighting communists. I thought that he was sort of a balanced personality and he was not the socalled new nixon who recreated himself for the 1968 run. He kind of became the nixon of parody. He became a balanced nixon at that point. In terms of moderators and Fact Checking, people will notice both of these debaters are excellent debaters. They have their facts straight. They keep to the time limit so there is no intervention from the moderators. It goes very smoothly. It is quite nostalgic to think wouldnt it be great if we could have that kind of debate now . Barbara perry are guest now as we look back 60 years to the first nationally televised president ial debate back in 1960, joining us from the Miller Center at the university of virginia. Millercenter. Org is where you can find out about the Miller Center. Phone lines are split up as usual. Democrats, republicans, and independents. We will start with joe in pittsburgh, republican caller . Republican. Do you think nixons big mistake in 1960 besides looking so horrible in the first debate was this stupid 50 states a strategy he had that he promised to visit every state during the campaign . I think it was selfdefeating. My second question was obviously the60 debates were influential. Why were there no more debates between60 and 1976 . Great question. The 50 state strategy i think joe is right it worked against nixon. I believe he was in an old mode. He was thinking of us. Campaigns of old where the more the candidate got out in the 20th century, the better off. More people saw because he had that period three weeks before the debate, he had an infection and had the flu, he ran himself ragged and continue to do that through the rest of the campaign. That backfired against him. Kennedy went to 48 of the 50 states himself but over a longer period of time. The question about why no more debates until we get to 1976. Lyndon johnson was not the most charismatic figure, so he did not want to debate in 1964. Very goldwater and kennedy who were friends from the senate odd about doing a whistle stop debate tour thought about doing a whistle stop debate tour. Then who is running in 1968 but Richard Nixon . He was not going to go back and debate after his experience in 1960. England this morning. Do you think jfk, john f. Kennedy is the best orator . The 1960 election . Possibly one of the best rhetoricians in the presidency, i would say yes to that. He did not start that way. He was not a natural public speaker. He had taken public speaking lessons. I studied the relationship he had with eleanor roosevelt. She wrote to him in the early part of his presidency and said you need to take more voice lessons. As we look back now and contrast him with some more recent candidates, he does seem to be a smooth talker, a fluent speaker, a great rhetorician, a great orator. He had a lot going for him the time he got to 1960 and did to the presidency. I would rank him up there among the top rhetoricians in the presidency. Dislike each other in 1960 . No, they did not. They came into congress at the same time. They both came in in 1947 and that is when they first met at the press club in washington. They were both pale fellows hail fellows well met. A famous anecdote my friend Chris Matthews talks about in his book on nexen and Kennedy Nixon and kennedy, they went up to pennsylvania to do a debate because they were seen as the young up and comers in the democratic and republican parties and then they talked baseball. They hopped on the train into shared a burger on the way back to washington and and shared a burger on the way back to washington. Politics we long for now where people can be friends across the aisle kennedy always said i do not all see my opponents as enemies, i see them as adversaries. Along the same lines, kennedy had a dry run when he debated senator humphrey as they were going for the nomination. Cspan had an opportunity to watch that debate and i was blown away by how two thirds were just agree with i agree with senator humphrey, i agree with i agree with senator kennedy. How did that opportunity help kennedy prepare for the debates against nixon in the general election . That is correct. Short of the president ial candidates debating, we had some of that leading up to the 1960s president ial debate, yes, they had debated. I think that helped but more to the point for kennedy was he loved it to chat and debate informally. His family was famous for doing that at the dinner table. Both of his parents promoted that. Reading this biography called jfk, just out from a random house, and in that biography he talks about kennedys time in the navy and all the men who served with him said he would sit around at night, all the men wanted to play cards and kennedy wanted to talk politics. They made a note to themselves this guy is probably going to end up in politics. Morning. Perry. What do you think about having a debate between the Networks Like cnn and fox news . I think it would be appropriate because there is all this talk about fake news and so on. That would be an interesting experience to watch since we are only having two debates, why dont they throw in the networks and have them debate . Forth . They dont sit there together and talk to each other. . That is an interesting idea. The way these debates came about in addition to the networks wanting to have them was there was a fellow called brett kohn, who is still with us. He lives in a suburb outside of washington. He was a lifelong federal bureaucrat, worked in the federal government and as an undergraduate at the university of maryland, he was a holocaust survivor. He believed the nation would benefit from hearing president ial candidates. He started writing to people in the networks and ask them asking them to have debates. His it may be bruces idea maybe bruces idea of having to newscasters debate, go for it, bruce. 60 years since the first nationally televised president ial debates, showing viewers parts of those debates, including the third debates where the candidates were in separate studios for that third debate. Kennedy was in new york, nixon was in los angeles. Here is part of that third debate, the candidates responding to a question about recent comments about president truman [video clip] it was declared that you owed a public apology for strong charges made by harry truman who bluntly suggested that the do you believe you owe the Vice President and apology daca an apology . Mr. Truman has his way of expressing things. He has been in politics for 50 years. It is not my style. I do not think there is anything i can say to president truman that will coerce him at the age of 70. Maybe misses truman can. Any comments, mr. Vice president . Of course senator kennedy and i have felt trumans desire and i think he can speak with feeling on this subject. We all have tempers. I am sure mr. Kennedy has one but when a man as president of the United States or a former president he has an obligation not to lose his temper in public. One thing i have noted as i have traveled around the country are the tremendous numbers of children who come out to see the president ial candidate. I see Mothers Holding their babies up so they can see a man who may be president of the United States. I know senator kennedy sees them to. It makes you realize that whoever is president is going to be a man that all the children of america will either look up to or down to. Barbara perry what did you take away from that clip . That is one of my favorites. Im so glad you all chose that one. Let me tell you about morden, who was the head of the rnc. He was a kentuckian and he became our senator after. A great statesman. I love this clip because it has three