Demystifying The Great Debates: What Really Happened in the Kennedy-Nixon Presidential Debates of 1960

Abstract

The first televised presidential debates between John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon took place between September 26th and October 21st, 1960. The mythos surrounding the debates has become clouded over time through embellishment and selective memory. The first debate has gone down in history as a significant political blunder and the remaining three debates are often ignored. The research consults debate preparation papers from the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum archives, the John F Kennedy Library and Museum archives, and the Albert Gore Research Center at Middle Tennessee State University. The preparation papers will be compared to the actual text of the debates in order to explore what was really said and what mistakes were truly made.