Transcripts For CSPAN3 1960 Presidential Debates 20240712 :

Affiliated stations are proud to provide facilities for a in theion of issues correct Political Campaign by the candidates for the presidency. The candidates need no introduction. The republican candidate, Vice President Richard Nixon and the democratic candidate, senator john f. Kennedy. According to rules set by the candidates themselves, each man shall make an Opening Statement of approximately eight minutes duration and a closing statement of approximately three minutes duration. In between, the candidates will answer or comment on answers to questions put by a panel of correspondents. In this, the first discussion of a series of four joint appearances, the subject matter has been agreed to be restricted to internal or domestic matters. Now for the first Opening Statement by senator john f. Kennedy. Sen. Kennedy in the election of 1860, Abraham Lincoln said the question was whether this nation could exist half slave or half free. In the election of 1960, and with the world around us, the question is whether the world will exist half slave or half free, whether it will move in the direction of freedom, in the direction of the road we are taking, or whether it would move in the direction of slavery. I think it will depend in great measure upon what we do here in the United States. On the kind of society that we build, on the kind of strength that we maintain. We discuss tonight domestic issues, but i would not want that to be any implication to be given that this does not involve directly our struggle with mr. Khrushchev for survival. Mr. Khrushchev is in new york and he maintains the communist defensive around the world because of the productive power of the soviet union itself. The chinese communists have always had a large population, but they are important and dangerous now because they are mounting a major effort within their own country. The kind of country we have here. The kind of society we have, the kind of strength we build in the United States will be to defend the defense of freedom. Senator kennedy. V. P. Nixon the things 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 has happened to you . We find that your wages have gone up five times as much in the Eisenhower Administration as they did in the Truman Administration. What about the prices you pay . We find that the prices youve paid went up five times as much in the Truman Administration as they did in the Eisenhower Administration. What is the net result of this . This means that the average Family Income went up 15 in the eisenhower years as against 2 in the truman years. Now, this is not standing still. But good as 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 the seekers the secrets for progress, we know the way to progress, and i think first of all, our own records proves that we know the way. Announcer washington journal continues. Host and welcome in our viewers joining us on cspan 3s American History tv as we are joined by Barbara Perry, president ial studies director of the university of virginias Miller Center. Barbara perry, 60 years since that first debate between thenVice President Richard Nixon and thensenator 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 who were listening on the radio thought nixon won. Is that actually true . Ms. Perry no, it is a myth. It is a myth, but it is longstanding. It is partially true. For example, howard k. Smith, who was the moderator of that debate, and 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 that after that, he thought that nixon had won and then he said when he watched the rerun of the debate, he actually thought kennedy had won. But the reason that popped up was that there had been a survey done by marketing firms of people who had listened on radio. And they had said they thought nixon had perhaps won it. So i asked the viewers, you can do an experiment. You can watch and listen and then vice versa. If nothing else, just the difference in the voices, the difference in the accents between the two men. But most people think kennedy emerged the winner from the first if nothing else because Richard Nixon was suffering from an infection and he did not wear proper makeup, so he looked pretty bad and pretty nervous. Host 60 years this weekend since that first nationally televised president ial debate. There were eventually four debates between john f. Kennedy and Richard Nixon. September 26, 1960, the first one, october 7, 1960, the second, october 13, 1960, the third. And the final one, october 21 before the election. 13, 1960,. If final o how did these four debates come together and what were the hurdles to putting them on television . Barbara perry, are you still with us . We might have had a sound issue there. 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 to call in. 202 7488001 for republicans to call in. Independents, its 202 7488002. We are talking about the history, the legacy, the president ial debates that took place in the fall of 1960, debates between john f. Kennedy and Richard Nixon. Asking for your thoughts on it this morning, asking for you to call in and give us your take from 60 years ago if you watch them, or if you have watched them since. Want to play a little bit from during the second debate. Candidates 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 when he has been in the south and he has accused you of the same thing. With fourth with both north and south listening and watching, would you sum up your intentions . Vp nixon why do i talk every time i speak about civil rights in the south . Not because i am preaching. It is a problem for all of us. I do it because it is the responsibility of leadership. To solveecause we have this problem together. I do it right at this time particularly because when we country,shchev in this a man who has enslaved millions and slaughter thousands, we cannot continue to have a situation where he can point the finger at the United States of america and say we are denying rights to our citizens. On t will be his policy what is he going to do to revive fair employment . He has been the head of the committee for government contracts and carried out two cases in the district of columbia. He has not indicated his support to provide fair Employment Practices around the country. If everyone can get a job, regardless of their race or color. He has also not supported title iii, which would give the attorney general additional powers to protect constitutional rights. These are the great questions. Host we are back with Barbara Perry of the university of virginias Miller Center. 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 . Ms. Perry sure. Well, the stations, the channels. We had three basic channels at that time. It is hard to believe, now that we have hundreds of them. But nbc, abc, and cbs. I was growing up in that time and i know we had a tv that only had two of the main channels, nbc and cbs. You have to have another kind of tuner to get abc. But they came together because they were trying to promote their news divisions at the time. Some people might remember that for example Walter Cronkites interview in 1963 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 30 minutes. They were also also coming off the 1950s quiz show scandals. So they were trying to boost their image among the public. So the approach to the candidates and kennedy jumped on the idea because he knew television was his medium. And then once he did, the nixon camp really could not refuse. So that is how they came to be. The hurdles were somewhat technological. As we see today with trying to was still a, which fairly new medium, same for television in those days. But they pulled it off without a hitch. Host give us a sense of the 1960 campaign at the time of the debates and what the key issues were driving that campaign. Ms. Perry number one was the cold war. Even in the first debate, which was meant to be devoted to domestic policy, kennedy in his Opening Statement jumped right into the cold war, which must have put nixon off a little bit. I am sure he wanted to raise his hand and say, wait a minute, this is supposed to be about domestic policy. But of course the two were so connected. The cold war, the communists, the u. S. Leading the free world after world war ii but in a bipolar world in which we were always fighting the communists, certainly fighting the soviets but also the red chinese. So that was the number one Foreign Policy issue. At home, there was a recession that had come on us in 1958. So kennedy kept bashing the Eisenhower Administration on that. So, unemployment was high for the time, in the 6 , 7 range. Civil rights, clearly an issue. And both candidates wanted to shy away from it of the bit not to put the south off, but they obviously wanted to attract the africanamerican vote. Aged. L care for the kennedy hit hard on that. Those were the basic issues foreign and domestic in 1960. Host who was considered the better debater as they stepped into this new medium to have a debate . Ms. Perry i would say nixon. Nixon had been 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 his family was poor and they could not send him. They just did not have the money to send him there, and 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. He had gotten better, so by the time he gets to the 1960 debate, he is quite good too. America, hers in had what many thought was an odd accent, a boston accent, which many were not used to. His mother always thought he talked too rapidly. She always told him slow down, jack. 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. And from that point on, it was more or less a draw. Host there is always so much focus on who the moderators are. Who were they back in 1960 . Ms. Perry the names that people would probably recognize if they are a certain age today would be those who went on to be anchors on their networks. Howard k. Smith was the first moderator of the first debate. We also had people like frank mcgee who went on to be a moderator. And anchorman. Those who were asking questions, also some of them went on to be anchors, most famously Walter Cronkite and John Chancellor. The others, although i have paid a lot of attention in the 1960s, were still new to me. A lot of them were print 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 i would say those four names were the ones who, by that time, they were household names. Says i viewer on twitter remember the debates as a young person. Kennedy was inspirational. Nixon was not. There wasern times , little need to fact check trade. How times have changed. Can you comment on the role of the moderator and how the immediate responded to those debates . Ms. Perry as people tuned into them or even just washed one, they are impressive. Even if one does not think nixon has charisma, in some ways nixon was at his peak in 1960. That is, he was not the nasty assassin nixon. In fact his running mate before nixon haddebate said an image from a fighting communists in the 1950s. So i thought he was sort of a balanced personality and he was not the socalled new nixon who recreated himself for the 1968 run. That, to me, was he kind of became the nixon of parody. So he almost seemed like balanced nixon at that point. In terms of the moderators and fact checking, people will notice that both of these debaters are excellent debaters. They seem to have their facts right. They keep to the time limit so there is no intervention from the moderators saying you are over time or please stop now. It just goes very smoothly. And it is somewhat heartening to see. It is also quite nostalgic to think that it would be great if we could have that kind of debate now. Host Barbara Perry, our guest this morning as we look back 60 years to the first nationally televised president ial debates 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. On twitter, Barbara Perry is Barbara Perry uva. Taking your phone lines this morning. Phone lines are split up as usual. Democrats, republicans, and independents. Maybe we will have some callers who remember those debates. We will start with joe in pittsburgh, a republican. Caller good morning. I have two questions. Number one, do you think nixons big mistake in 1960 besides looking so horrible in the first debate, was this stupid 50 states a strategy that he had that he promised to visit every state during the campaign . And i think it was selfdefeating. And my second question is obviously the 1960 debates were very influential to the voters. Why was there no further debates between 1960 all the way up until 1976 . Why such a gap that there were no further debates . I am just curious. Ms. Perry great question. The 1956, i think youre absolutely right, worked against nixon. But i believe he was in an old mode. He was thinking of whistle stop campaigns of old, where the more the campaign got out in the 20th century, anyway, the better off. That is, the more people that saw him, the better for him. Because he had that period before the debates before people saw him, where he got that infection and got the flu, he ran himself ragged and continued to do that through the rest of the campaign. So that really backfired against him. Having said that, kennedy went to 48 of the 50 states himself, but over a longer period of time leading up to 1960. Great question about why no more debates until we get to 1976. Think about this. Lyndon johnson was not the most telegenic or charismatic figure, so he did not want to debate in 1964. Barry goldwater and kennedy, who were friends from the senate, thought about doing a whistle stop debate tour. And they were looking forward to that. Goldwater did not like johnson, did not want to debate him, and johnson did not want to either. 1968, Richard Nixon was not going to go back and debate after his experience in 1960. Host across the pond we go to cole in england this morning. Good afternoon. And congratulations. Do you think jfk is the best orator, the best speaker . Do you think that won him the 1960 election . Ms. Perry do we think that john f. Kennedy was the best speaker, perhaps one of the best rhetoricians in the presidency . I would say yes to that. Again, he did not start that way. He was not a natural public speaker. He had taken public speaking lessons. I have been doing some research on the relationship he had politically with eleanor roosevelt. She actually wrote to him in the early part of his presidency and said you need to take more voice lessons. He wrote back and said i have been, but im a little bit busy now as president. But nevertheless 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. And he had the benefit of having ted sorensen as his speech crafter. So he had a lot going for him by the time he got to 1960 and certainly into the presidency. I would rank him up there among the top speakers and rhetoricians in the presidency. Host did nixon and kennedy dislike each other in 1960 . Ms. Perry no, they did not. I think that is a bit of a myth as well. They came into congress at the same time. In 1947 is when they began a careers, and that is when they first met at the press club in washington. They were both hail fellows, well met. Although nixon always had a little bit of a chip on his shoulder. There is a famous anecdote my friend Chris Matthews talks about in his really great book on nixon and kennedy, they went up to pennsylvania to do a debate because they were viewed as the young up and comers in the democratic and republican parties, and they sat around that night after the debate and they talked baseball. Then they hopped on the train into shared a burger on the way back to washington and chatted about politics. A different kind of politics that we long for, where people could be friends across the aisle. Kennedy always said i do not see my opponents as enemies