I’m not qualified to comment on academics. However, a very prominent public relations event were the Kitchen Debates in the Eisenhower/Khrushchev administrations, where Vice President Nixon visited the USSR and debated with Khrushchev about the relative merits of capitalism and communism. It was part of an American Exhibition to the USSR meant to basically show off the American standard of living. It never really passed the bar of casual conversation to be honest and it wasn’t academically rigorous or moderated in any real sense, but it was a public televised exchange between the two sides.