THE CAMPAIGN: Debate No. 2

NBC’s Washington studios were abuzz with crowds on the outside and newsmen and technicians on the inside. At 6:31 Jack Kennedy rolled up in a Pontiac convertible with Brother Bobby and a few aides, swept directly into the TV studio. It was cold (64° F.); studio officials meant to keep the temperature low in order to counteract the hot lights that produced beads of perspiration on Nixon’s face during the first telecast. Kennedy allowed as how he would need a sweater if things didn’t warm up; a studio man turned up the thermostat. Then Jack and Bobby walked up to the platform, took turns standing at both speakers’ stands while they gazed at their images on the floor TV monitors. Mindful of the lighting trouble that had befallen his opponent in the first debate, Kennedy noted “all those lights pointing over here” (at his position), and “only one points over there” (at Nixon’s). Muttered he, as technicians scampered to adjust the lighting: “Let’s not have all the lights in my eyes.” As before, Kennedy disdained any TV makeup.

Twenty minutes after Kennedy’s arrival, Richard Nixon’s Government Cadillac pulled up and disgorged the Republican team. Nixon had recently emerged from a Statler-Hilton hotel suite where he spent a few uninterrupted hours of peace and thought. Inside the studio Nixon stepped straight up to the platform, put his wristwatch on his speaker’s stand. He had been made up at home by an expert, and an accompanying lighting expert pronounced NBC’s lights perfectly all right. A few minutes before they went on the air, Kennedy strolled over to the Vice President, and both spoke inaudibly as they shook hands. Moments later, TV monitors in the studio pressroom came alive and focused on Nixon. He was sitting grimly, staring straight ahead, as if to substantiate preshow betting that Nixon had decided to take the gloves off and hit hard.

Hit hard he did—and so did Jack Kennedy. Their hour-long slugging match gave the U.S. its best picture so far of the men, the parties and the issues.

DOMESTIC ISSUES

Both men made telling scores on domestic issues. Jack Kennedy belabored the Eisenhower Administration for failure of moral leadership in civil rights; Nixon named Democratic Vice Presidential Candidate Lyndon Johnson as a man who voted against and still opposes adequate civil rights legislation.* Kennedy called for economic reform, blasting the Administration’s hardmoney, high-interest-rate policies, accused Ike of turning down needed aid for depressed areas. He defended his celebrated claim that “17 million Americans go to bed hungry” by shifting to Secretary of Agriculture Benson’s statement that 25 million Americans have inadequate diets. A tax increase in the winter of 1961, Kennedy said, “under present economic conditions,” would not be “desirable. In fact, it would be deflationary . . . cause a real slowdown in our economy.”

In talking recession cures (“Understand, I do not believe we are going into a recession”), Nixon dealt from basic Republican philosophy, insisting that tax reform and not “massive federal spending programs” would be necessary to stimulate “the private sector” of the economy. In the normal course of the economy, however, “we should be under no illusions whatever about what the responsibilities of the American people will be in the ’60s. Our expenditures for defense . . . for mutual security . . . for economic assistance and technical assistance are not going to get less . . . They are going to be greater. I think it may be necessary that we have more taxes. I hope not.”

FOREIGN ISSUES

Except in reaction to some sharp crack, Nixon rarely looked at Kennedy while Kennedy was talking, although Kennedy kept a shrewd eye cocked on Nixon most of the time that the Vice President had the mike. In the realm of foreign policy they produced the real blazing sparks that could well ignite the campaign and keep it burning straight through into November. Items:

Cuba. Nixon disputed Kennedy’s claim that Cuba is “lost,” defended the Administration’s Latin American policy. “There were eleven dictators in South America and in Central America when we came in in 1953; today there are only three left, including the one in Cuba.” He accused Kennedy of “defeatist talk,” declared flatly that “there isn’t any question but that we will defend Guantánamo [the U.S. Navy base in Cuba] if it is attacked.” Kennedy’s riposte: “We have almost ignored the needs of Latin America; we have beamed not a single Voice of America program in Spanish to all of Latin America in the last eight years except for the months of the Hungarian revolution.”

U-2 Spy-Plane “Regrets.” Kennedy defended his Oregon statement of last May, when he said that the U.S. might have apologized to Khrushchev if it would have saved the summit and accused Nixon of distorting his views. He cited past incidents when, as a matter of “accepted procedure,” the U.S. expressed regrets for accidental overflights in Cuba, Russia, and East Germany. A month ago, said Kennedy, Cabot Lodge “said that if there was ever a case where we did not have the law on our side, it was in the U-2 incident.” Replied Nixon: Kennedy was wrong to expect that Khrushchev might have continued with the summit meeting even if the U.S. had expressed regrets, and that furthermore, Ike had been “defending the security of this country against surprise attack … I don’t intend to see to it that the U.S. is ever in a position where, while we’re negotiating with the Soviet Union, that we discontinue our intelligence effort. And I don’t intend ever to express regrets to Mr. Khrushchev or anybody else if I’m doing something that has the support of the Congress and that is right for the purpose of protecting the security of the U.S.”

Cold War. Disputing Kennedy’s claim that U.S. prestige is declining critically, Nixon said that it is at “an alltime high.” He cited Khrushchev’s recent U.N. tantrums as evidence that Soviet Russia’s prestige is sinking, while President Eisenhower’s U.N. speech and U.S. voting victories in the U.N., he said, had raised the U.S. image in the world. The Democratic Congress, said he, had refused to grant enough funds for sufficient Voice of America programs, mutual security and defense. “Mr. Nixon,” rebutted Kennedy, “is wholly inaccurate.” The Congress appropriated $677 million more for defense, said he pointedly, than the President “was willing to use up till a week ago.” Moreover, last week’s U.N. vote, pressed by neutralists on the question of an Ike-Khrushchev meeting (see FOREIGN NEWS), “was generally regarded as a defeat for the U.S.” Kennedy backed up his claim about low U.S. prestige by citing reports of civilian committees and military leaders. “The relative strength of the U.S. compared to that of the Soviet Union and the Chinese Communists together has deteriorated in the last eight years.”

U.S. Progress. Kennedy was at his best when he moved into the theme of his campaign. “I believe that the American people have to make the choice on Nov. 8 between the view of whether we have to move ahead faster, whether what we are doing now is not satisfactory, whether we have to build greater strength at home and abroad, and Mr. Nixon’s view . . . Mr. Nixon has been part of [the] Administration. He has had experience in it, and I believe this Administration has not met its responsibilities in the last eight years, that our power relative to that of the Communists is declining, that we are facing a very hazardous time in the ’60s. I think the choice is clear and it involves the future.”

“I am glad to hear,” said Nixon, shifting the ground with a rare trace of a smile, that Kennedy “does suggest that I have had some experience . . . What does he offer? He offers retreads of programs that failed. I submit to you that as you look at his programs—his program, for example, with regard to the Federal Reserve and free money, or loose money . . . low interest rates—his programs in the economic field generally are the programs that were adopted and tried during the Truman Administration . . . I say that the program and the leadership that failed then is not the program and the leadership that America needs now.”

Quemoy & Matsu. There were fewer than ten minutes left when a newsman threw Kennedy the question that made headlines: Since he favored withdrawal of U.S. forces from the Nationalist Chinese offshore islands of Quemoy and Matsu, couldn’t that be interpreted as appeasement? Answered Kennedy: Administration experts including Secretary of State Herter (as Under Secretary in 1958) have declared Quemoy and Matsu strategically indefensible, so “we should consult with [the Nationalists] and attempt to work out a plan by which the line is drawn at the island of Formosa … I think it is unwise to take the chance of being dragged into a war which may lead to a world war over two islands which are not strategically defensible.” Nixon seized on the answer to hoist himself to the high point of his evening. “The question is not these two little pieces of real estate; they are unimportant,” said he. “It isn’t the few people who live on them—they are not too important. It is the principle involved. These two islands are in the area of freedom. The Nationalists have these two islands. We should not force our Nationalist allies to get off of them and give them to the Communists.” To do that would start a chain reaction because the Communists are after Formosa, not Quemoy and Matsu. “In my opinion, this is the same kind of woolly thinking that led to disaster for America in Korea. I am against it. I would never tolerate it as President of the U.S., and I would hope Senator Kennedy would change his mind if he should be elected.”

Emotional Punch. Swarmed over by newsmen afterward, both Nixon and Kennedy were agreed on at least one thing: it was one fine brawl. “I thought we had a good exchange,” said Nixon. “The difficulty is that 2½ minutes [per question] is not enough to discuss the issues. I had some loose ends to tie up. and I’m sure Senator Kennedy did too. I thought there was more clash in this.” As they parted, the two gossiped about their road campaigns and what Nixon called “crowds-manship,” i.e., rival claims as to the size of their respective audiences. “Let’s see,” said Nixon next, “when do we meet again?” Replied Kennedy coolly: “Next week, and I’ll give you my best.” (But they will meet only electronically; Nixon will be in Los Angeles, and Kennedy will be in Manhattan.)

With that Kennedy left, walked down the corridor to his makeshift office. “You were great,” said jubilant Bobby Kennedy, but Kennedyites sensed that Nixon had landed what they called an “emotional” punch in the exchange over Quemoy and Matsu. Said Jack: “Will somebody please get Jackie on the phone?” Richard Nixon, heading down Nebraska Avenue toward his Wesley Heights home, stopped at a traffic light, heard a motorist shout through the window: “You really clobbered him tonight.” When he got home, one of his daughters met him at the door. “Daddy,” cried she, “you did great!” A more impersonal reaction might have to wait until Nov. 8.

* Johnson provoked Nixon’s ire by proclaiming in last week’s speeches that Nixon showed signs of “cracking up.”