evidence: Quemoy, now known as Kinmen, is within a few miles of the China coast at the entrance to the important port of Xiamen. Matsu is also located just a few miles off another major port of China. Both islands are over a hundred miles from Taiwan. When Chiang Kai-shek and the Nationalist army was defeated on the mainland by the Communists in 1949, he and about 600,000 of his troops fled to Taiwan, to where the government of the Republic of China was transferred. During that retreat, the Nationalists fortified Quemoy and Matsu. In October 1949, the Nationalists repelled a serious invasion attempt by the Communists to seize Quemoy. [...] So, what did happen to Quemoy and Matsu? Fifty years after the Kennedy-Nixon debates, Quemoy and Matsu are still in the hands of the Republic of China on Taiwan. Because of the relaxation of tensions between the PRC and Taiwan, the military presence on both Quemoy and Matsu has been reduced substantially. Both islands have become destinations for tourists from both the mainland and Taiwan. And, as a reminder of those turbulent times of the 1960 presidential debates, the extensive fortifications and tunnels constructed to defend the offshore islands are now major tourist attractions. Quemoy and Matsu, flash points during the Kennedy-Nixon debates, never flared up.