 In 1959, while still vice president, Nixon traveled to Moscow to engage in an impromptu debate with Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev.The debate took place in a mock kitchen that was intended to show Soviet citizens how ordinary American families lived, and came to be known as the Kitchen Debate.While finishing his second term as vice president, Nixon became the Republican presidential nominee; in the 1960 United States presidential election, he lost an extremely close race to Senator John F. Kennedy.