reddys Note: As most of you know, I am credited as the person credited for being the architect of the novel idea of presidential debates . Acoule years ago, I was iterviewed on national public radio (NPR) all Things Considered Program , as well as cvhannel9 of Washington, D.C.WUSA. Those programs were just before the first debate in 2012 between President Barack Obama and the Republican presidential candidate.Mitt Romney.. Prior to theappearance on tlevision and theinterview onradio, I had been interviwed for articles in the Washington Jewish Week, the Huffington Post, the Gazette, te Bethesda Magazine, the Washingtonian Magazine, The Washington Post, Newsday, and the Nixon Museum Blog. The proposal that I made was in a press release via the Associated Press andtheUPI back in the summer of l956. Util then the idea of presidential debates was considered an anachronism and when I suggested it to expand the democratic process of the presidential campaigns, I was told at first that it would not be politically feasible and would be sensational if it ever happened. The debates often spoken about was thedebate in 1858 between two candidates for a senatorial seat in the Senat ofIllinois between Douglas and the newcomer candidate Abrham Lincoln. Contrary to manys belief, the debate was not for the presidency of the US but for a senatorial seat in the Illinois State legislature., The debates main issue was slavery. Abraham Lincoln , a young lawyer did lose the bid to be senator in the Senate of Illinois .That is Douglas became the senator. in Springfield , Illinois. However, AbrahamLincoln who had lost the lection made a copy of the transcript of thedebate andhadit published. Theresult was that Abraham Lincoln whowas unknown until then, received the attention of the Repubican party and was chosenas the Republican presidential candidate in l860. This time Lincoln won. And the rest, as you know, is history. But, there was no debate ever for the presidency. So that when I advanced the idea in l956, it was novel. In June 1956, I had compleyted my first yearat the University of Maryland and was selectedas Vice Presidentof the International Club of the University of Maryland. Whereas most students at the university were not interested in politicalactivities and showed great apathyin thepresidential election of l956, the members of the International Club were interested. As a survivor of the German occupied Belgium during World War Two , which was deprived By the Nazis of democracy and a recent naturalized U.S. citizen , I took that citizenshipseriously and thoughtthat a presidentoal debate would enhance greater participation in a democracy like the US by young people. At the time also in thesummer of 1956, Iparticipated in several international re lations insitutes organized by the American Friends Service Committee, the quacker service organization. I also had participaedin a Peace Caravan of the AFSC visiting communities in New York and Pennsylvania with other college students communicating a message for tolertance and peace. I was hired for the last part of the summer by the AFSC and spent it in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was from that base and meetings at Cornell University in Ithaca , New York, that through conversations with like minded people I arrived at a proposal for intitiating presidential debates I I wrrote a press release which AP and UPI spread nationwide, Then , I wrote on the democratic side to Mrs Eleanor Roosevelt, and on the republican side to the governor of Marykand Theodore Mc Keldin. I also wrote to the chair men of the Democratic National Committee Paul Butler and Mr. Hall, the chairman of the Republican National Committe. All answered me and encouraged me. The chairmenof both parties assured me they would discuss the idea with the representatives of their candidates. Mrs Roosevelt endorsed my idea and then wrote to the democratic candidatemanager James Finnegan to have him discuss it with the democratic candidate Governor Stevenson. I also wrote and received a response from the President of the University of Maryland Dr. Elkins who assured me of his support. Then returning to school at the end of the summer, Ihad the endorsement of the International Club and asked the Student Government Associaiton to send invitation to both candidates to come and debate the issues at heUniversity of Maryland. The invitations were sent, but later had toi be retracted when the Board of Regents cited that political speeches jhad beenbanned on campus. Result was that my proposal was discussedat alll levlwes whereas before i initiated the idea it was avoided. In l958, when Iwas an employeee of the US Department of State in Brussels Wor;ds Fair I met with Governor Adlai E. Stevenson, the democratic presidential candidate in l952 and 1956. Governor Stevenson was in Brussels on a stop over to meet Kruschev , the Soviet Union leader, in Moscow. I discussed my proposdal with the governor who endorsed my proposal to have the first presidential debate in l960. I relentlessly then furthered the approach. contacting heads of thetelevisionstation NBC, Robert Sarnoff and headof CBS, Frank Stanton. In l960, it was discovered that amendment to the 1934 VCommunications Act was needed. Thereupon, both Robert Sarnoff and Frank Stamnton were prevailed upon through intermediarties to testify in favor of debates with them offering free time for the debates on television. Finally, Governor Styevenson kept hispromised that he made to me in l958 and also testifiedyo the committeeof Congress to amend only for 1960 the Communications Act of 1934 to allow the debates o only for the presidential candidates of the two major parties. And then on July 25, 1960, Veep Nixon answering a question by Edward Murrow and Walter Cronkite, on television, if he would accept debating Senator Kennedy, acquiesced. A few dayslater Richard Nixon announced at his accptasnce speechas the repblican candudate that he had accepted tp debate Senator Kennedy, the democraticpresidential candidate., Kennedyquickly alsoaccepted and representatives from both candidates as well as representives from the televison networks and the radio met throughout August to agree on the format which was reached and set down in a memorandum dated September 1, 1960 by Pierre Salingher, the representative of Senator Kennedy to his counterpart of Veep Nixon. The first dfebate occurred on September 26, 1960 in a TV studio in Chicago, without any audience in the studio. The debate were sponsored by the Womens League of Voters.As you know, the rest is history... Iwent on with my life and only two years I let it known that I had been the person who had been the architect of the debate whicgwas novel in the history of the U.S. It has now, it seems, becoming a tradition to have presidential debates. The above is in esponse to often asked questions how I came about proposing the debates. It seemed to me that debates would attract attention and have more young people participate in the democratic process. Back in l956. there was a great amount of apathy by youth who then in the most part were not eligible to vote. Most youth were not eligible to vote until the law was enacted in l971/2 to allow voting lowered to 18 year olds in the presidential elections. Recent elections presidential debates have attracted increased attention by young people into participating in the democratic processas I had intended for them when I proposed them back in l956 whille I was a student leader at the University of Maryland. My background had much to do about it since I had survived the Holocaust and was stateless until I was naturalized an American citizen on November 24,1953, while serving in the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. If i have made typographical errors due to my typing with one finger which slips sometimes on the wrong keys, I apologize.
Posted on: Thu, 17 Jul 2014 01:52:00 +0000