In September 1960, Sen. John F. Kennedy and Vice President Richard Nixon met in a Chicago studio for the first televised presidential debate. Although they were there to discuss domestic matters, Kennedy argued from the start that the United States was slowly losing its economic lead over the Soviet Union.

He tried to highlight the importance of foreign affairs to ordinary people. Nixon didn’t question the growth of the communist adversary, but he noted that the entire Soviet economy made up only 44% of the U.S. gross national product and that the government was doing everything in its powers to deal with this threat.