JFK Inaugural Address

4 months ago
@EGTycoon
Accomplishments:
-Making Civil Rights a national issue
-Using executive power to support the civil rights protesters
-Using executive authority to stand up to US Steel to keep inflation low
-Cuban Missile Crisis resolution instead of Nuclear War, need I explain more?
Of course he had his share of failures. The Bay of Pigs was a sad loss of life, however he was mostly deceived by the Joint Chiefs and the CIA who had cooked the plan up during Ike's presidency.

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jfkpublicservant
4 months ago
@EGTycoon JFK had a ton of accomplishments in his short Presidential term. I'm not some disillusioned person that thinks JFK was perfect. I wish he had been more faithful to his beautiful wife Jackie, but he was still a good man and good President. During his period we had:
-An economy with 5.5% GDP growth per year (from 61-63)
-Inflation of around 1 percent
-Industrial production rising by 15 percent
-Motor vehicle sales rising by 40 percent

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jfkpublicservant
4 months ago
@EGTycoon
Revisionist history diminishes his accomplishments? You mean the GOP's take on history right? Most historians that I have seen rank JFK between 7-10 in terms of Presidential greatness. The lowest I've ever seen him ranked is 16th.
Ronald Reagan on the other hand I've seen ranked as low as 38th or 39th. A recent CSPAN poll in 2008 ranked JFK as #6, above Thomas Jefferson. The PEOPLE still love JFK, despite the cynics' attempts to bring him down.

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jfkpublicservant
4 months ago
@EGTycoon Well, the ADVISERS weren't troops now were they?
I love how you ignore the other facts about JFK's intentions to pull us out of Vietnam. They are FACTS because there are RECORDINGS that of private meetings between the Secretary of Defense and the President where they both discuss how they intend to pull out of Vietnam. To be honest, it was more McNamara's idea than JFK's, but JFK accepted it and was going to go along with it.

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jfkpublicservant
4 months ago
@EGTycoon No he didn't. He upped the amount of military ADVISERS sent to Vietnam. However, recordings of private meetings with him and the Secretary of Defense McNamara show that he had intentions of a phased WITHDRAWAL from Vietnam, a position that LBJ STRONGLY DISAGREED WITH. He had an executive order drafted for the first phase of the withdrawal but was killed before he could actually enact it.

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0907oliv
4 months ago
You might be interested in a new book entitled: Letters to Jackie: Condolences from a Grieving Nation. A historian has published 250 condolence letters sent to Jackie after her husband was killed. She received 1.5 million. Since you were not around then, it will give you a good idea of how it felt, and how the American people felt about the loss of their beloved President. Most of the letters are quite moving. If you are interested, just google the title.

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jfkpublicservant
3 months ago
@EGTycoon What are you trying to suggest? That JFK should have sent the advisors to hand out "love, flowers, and cupcakes"?
They were sent for one purpose: To help and ADVISE the Diem administration on how to deal with combat operations against the commies in Vietnam. So obviously they would have been at the sites of battles, that's what ADVISING would entail :)

jfkpublicservant
3 months ago
@EGTycoon JFK himself didn't believe in legends, and I don't believe in making him a mythical godlike figure. I think the REAL man JFK is greater than the legend.
I believe a man who learns from his mistakes is greater than a man who never makes mistakes at all. Had he lived, I think he could have been a top 5 President. But considering his life was cut short, I'd have to relegate him to top 10 instead. Definitely my favorite, but I know there were at least 6 or 7 Presidents that did more.

LlLJohnny
1 year ago 2
Well Kennedy was one of the best but not the best Lincoln I think everyone will agree was the best nobody will ever disagree there but Washington/Adams the Founding Fathers who fought the British for this great country have to be way up there as the best presidents we've ever had but Kennedy is deff. up there. I have always liked FDR also finally someone knows about our great
American History.

redwingsmike3718
1 year ago
You obviously, like others failed to read what I wrote.
Washington. Lincoln. FDR. Those three are the best, there's no question. Each faced the greatest crisis of their respective centuries and lead America through it stronger.
I'm not bashing Kennedy. I'd certainly consider him above average. But he's not elite. There's fairly wide consensus that the aforementioned top 3 are the best. And everyone else is in a class below them.