Scandinavian Viking explorer Leif Erikson in the year 1000 was the first European to discover the New World, but more than 400 years later it was "rediscovered" by Christopher Columbus and got the name "America." Later still, a Scandinavian-American inventor-engineer named John Ericsson helped rescue America with his ironclad ship the USS Monitor when the United States struggled through a Civil War to protect the Union. So this story, in the form of a debate between students from two Scandinavian-American colleges, explores the importance to America of these "Nordic kith & kin" in their similarities, ethnic differences and significance of their achievements.