Chris Wallace looks back at Nixon-Kennedy election in the book “Countdown 1960”

NEW YORK – Longtime newsman Chris Wallace isn’t only thinking about this year’s presidential election.

The CNN anchor has written a book on the race between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon, narrowly won by Kennedy, that featured the first televised presidential debates. Dutton announced Wednesday that “Countdown 1960: The Behind-the-Scenes Story of the 311 Days that Changed America’s Politics Forever” will be published Oct. 8.

“The 1960 presidential election changed everything,” Wallace said in a statement. “It was the first to be conducted largely on television. The first to feature debates between the two major party candidates. The first where both candidates were born in the 20th century.”

Wallace added: The 1960 campaign was “marked by allegations the election had been stolen,” a precursor to Donald Trump’s baseless allegations that the 2020 election was stolen and that he did not lose to Joe Biden.

Wallace co-wrote the new book with Mitch Weiss, who also collaborated with Wallace on the bestsellers “Countdown 1945” and “Countdown bin Laden.”