In 1976, during the vice-presidential debate between Democrat Walter Mondale (pictured below) and Republican Robert Dole, Sen. Dole (pictured top) asserts, "If you add up all the people killed in Democrat wars in this century, starting with World War I and continuing through World War II and Korea to the present conflicts in Cuba and Vietnam - and yes, they were all started by Democrats - you get a total of over 1.6 million American dead, more than the population of Detroit". Click to watch the Youtube

Unbelievable by Eric LippsHis Democratic opponent responds, "Unbelievable. Does Senator Dole seriously expect Americans to believe my party started wars which began years before America entered them? World War I began in 1914; we got in in 1917. World War II started in 1939; as Mr. Dole, a veteran of that war, must recall, the U.S. didn't get in until December 1941. Even in the case of Korea, the U.S. sent forces in response to a United Nations Security Council resolution following the North's unprovoked and deadly assault on the South. Even Cuba and Vietnam don't prove his point: planning for the Bahia de Cochinos intervention which began the conflict was initiated under the Republican administration of President Eisenhower, and it was Eisenhower, too, who sent the first 'advisers' to Indochina after the French collapse at Dien Bien Phu.

Or does the Senator mean to suggest that we shouldn't have become involved at all? That we should have stood aside while our friends in Europe were torn apart in the world wars? Does he mean to suggest that we should have let the Communists prevail on the Korean peninsula and in Indochina and maintain their grip on an island nation ninety miles off our own shore? And if not, what would he have said of Roosevelt, or of Truman, or of Kennedy had they avoided the confrontations he wishes to blame not on foreign aggressors but on my party?

"I am as opposed to war as anyone, but there come times when it cannot be avoided. And for Senator Dole to attempt to exploit the sacrifices of our troops in past and present wars for partisan advantage is - well, frankly, Senator, I thought better of you". Mondale's peroration stuns the audience, which had expected Dole to be the aggressor. Post-debate polls detect a significant shift toward the Democratic ticket and a distinct rise in voters- favorable impressions of Mondale himself. Following Carter's razor-close victory in November, political analysts will mark Mondale's debate performance as a crucial tipping point in the campaign.