American life changed forever in 1960 when Vice President Richard M. Nixon and Massachusetts Sen. John F. Kennedy ushered politics into the multimedia age with the first televised presidential debates.
This second event in a series called The Great Debates Revisited features a screening of the second presidential debate between Kennedy and Nixon, with introductory commentary and a post-screening Q&A session led by James Roth.
The second debate was considered a tie, with a slight advantage given to Nixon for his forceful articulation of the strategic importance of Quemoy and Matsu – two islands controlled by Taiwan located off the coast of mainland China.
James Roth is the deputy director of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum, where he oversees its Digital Initiative and other matters relating to its Archives and Museum divisions. He joined the institution in 2001 as its Ernest Hemingway Curator. His articles have been published in American Archivist, Prologue, and The Hemingway Review.
The Kansas City Public Library, the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum, and the Truman Library Institute present The Great Debates Revisited to commemorate the 50th anniversary of this landmark moment in American political history.
