US President Barack Obama repeatedly attacked Republican challenger Mitt Romney on foreign policy in their third and final debate.
The high-stakes debate strayed frequently into domestic policy, with Mr Romney seeking to bolster his argument that Mr Obama had bungled the US economic recovery.
Neither man threw a knockout punch or made a noticeable gaffe in the 90-minute encounter, although Mr Obama scored enough debating points to be declared the winner in the first surveys.
A CBS News snap poll declared 53% believed Mr Obama won, versus 23% for Mr Romney and 24% said it was a draw. A CNN poll put Mr Obama as the winner by 48% to 40%.
With foreign policy a low priority in a campaign focused mostly on the economy, it is unclear what impact the debate would have on the race, which enters the final frenzy of campaigning with both men tied in the polls before the 6 November election.
Respondents in the CNN poll were split over whether the debate would influence their votes.
The debate was one last chance for the candidates to appeal to millions of voters watching on television and Mr Obama was the aggressor from start to finish.
He criticised the Republican for lacking ideas on the Middle East, mocked his calls for more ships in the US military and accused Mr Romney of wanting to bring the United States back to a long-abandoned Cold War stance.
"You mentioned the Navy, for example, and that we have fewer ships than we did in 1916," Mr Obama said. "Well, Governor, we also have fewer horses and bayonets, because the nature of our military's changed.
"We have these things called aircraft carriers, where planes land on them. We have these ships that go under water, nuclear submarines," he said.
"The question is not a game of Battleship, where we're counting ships," he said.
He also said the Republican candidate was seeking to turn back the clock by once declaring Russia the top "geopolitical foe" of the US.
Seated at a table with moderator Bob Schieffer, Mr Obama said Mr Romney was trying to return US foreign policy to the 1980s and that the decade was "now calling to ask for their foreign policy back because, you know, the Cold War's been over for 20 years".
Mr Romney said Mr Obama's policies toward the Middle East and North Africa were not stopping a resurgence of the threat from al-Qaeda in the region.
"Attacking me is not an agenda," said Mr Romney. "Attacking me is not how we deal with the challenges of the Middle East."
Mr Romney, wanting to make no mistakes that could blunt his recent rise in the polls, did not take the bait on some occasions when attacked, which may have led viewers to declare Mr Obama the winner.
Although Mr Romney lacks foreign policy experience, his aides said they believed their man's performance allowed him to pass the "commander-in-chief" test to show Americans he is knowledgeable about foreign affairs and enable them to envision him in the Oval Office.
The former Massachusetts governor, whose central theme throughout the campaign has been a promise to rebuild the weak US economy, frequently turned the discussion back to economic matters, saying US national security depended on a strong economy.
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