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Richard Nixon was the favorite to
win the Republican presidential
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nomination in 1960.
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Just 14 years after he was tapped by a
group of small town businessmen to run for
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Congress in California, Richard Nixon
stood at the top of his party.
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As he mapped out an ambitious
50 state campaign,
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he was challenged by his opponent,
John F Kennedy,
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to a series of televised debates,
the first in American history.
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Even when hospitalized for
two weeks with a knee injury,
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Nixon remained confident,
anxious for the debates to begin,
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eager once again to use television
to talk directly to the voters.
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>> The Republican candidate,
Vice President Richard M Nixon and
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the Democratic candidate,
Senator John F Kennedy.
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According to rules set by
the candidates themselves,
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each man shall-
>> The Nixon-Kennedy debates would forever
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change the way Americans
chose their presidents.
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Political rallies and old fashioned
hand shaking became much less important
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than the image on the television screen.
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>> You must understand that Nixon himself
had said, I don't want any makeup on for
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these particular debates.
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What I tried to explain to **** was
he has a certain characteristic
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of his skin where it's almost transparent.
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And it was a very nice thought to say,
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I don't want any any makeup,
but that he really needed it
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in order to have what we would call
even an acceptable television picture.
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And of course, JFK here,
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he'd been riding in motorcades all
over California with the top down.
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He looked like a bronze warrior when
he came into Chicago, he really did.
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>> I know what it means to see
people who are unemployed.
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I know Senator Kennedy feels as
deeply about these problems as I do.
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But our disagreement is not
about the goals for America, but
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only about the means to reach those goals.
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>> The first debate was costly to Nixon.
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The radio audience thought he had won.
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But the largest television audience in
history had seen the Vice President
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haggard and drawn, and had been given its
first sustained look at the Kennedy style.
