What was so great about John F Kennedy ?

Question

People always seem to worship him.
But wasn't he the same guy that almost started WW III?

Slither- JFK didn't prevent WW III. He almost lit the fuse for it. He sent hundreds of ships ready to INVADE Cuba. are you telling me that he was going to prevent a war by starting one ? thats ridiculous.

And what civil right movements he did support only shadow in comparison to the amount of federal power he accumulated in his presidency.

Answer 1

I think his greastest legacy shared and perhaps surpassed by his brother, Bobby, was his ability to move people's hearts. They shared a unique charisma and inspired people to be the best version of themselves...to be people of moral courage like the men JFK wrote about in his book "profiles in courage" and that Bobby mentioned in this famous quote "Few men are willing to brave the disapproval of their fellows, the censure of their colleagues, the wrath of their society. Moral courage is a rarer commodity than bravery in battle or great intelligence. Yet it is the one essential, vital quality for those who seek to change the world which yields most painfully to change."

They made it impossible for us to continue to, in good conscience, hate others for things like the color of their skin by attempting to get us to see life from their eyes and shoes. They were rare rich men in that ,unlike so many wealthy people today, they truly cared about those who were underpriviledged and not just themselves..they gave service when they could have lived lives of ease. People felt a connection with them. They felt they were approachable.

They called us towards peace, love, brotherhood, compassion, equality, and helped plant the seeds within so many Americans of the day...many of the political activists I currently work with talk of the Kennedys inspiring them and bringing them into politics and activism. When so many of the idealistic and decent baby boomers left behind their better selves and turned on their own beliefs, it is clear some still remain.

Even yesterday nearly 40 years later after seeing the movie, Bobby, (a man I revered as a teen, recieved a letter from, wanted to go into politics as a partial result of, and whose speeches I memorized), reliving his assassination on film during watching the Bobby movie, brought me back to that day so long ago when we were stunned and shocked and saddened once again, and I cried profusely and for 15 minutes afterwards...putting my face in my hands and stifling sobs so as not to be embararrased by being so loud. I was stunned by the intense emotion springing from me. The tears would not stop. I trembled in anticipation of the awful moment and when I left the theatre I reflected upon my own life wanting to do better, make true use of the limited time I have to make a difference, felt bad fo my mistakes and for hating people from the past and asked forgiveness. Anyone who could inspire people such --40 years almost after their deaths-- is atypical and had a strong impact on the person they inspired...this are some of the reasons for this worship of the Kennedys.

I see this in other people of similar vulnerability yet whose great hearts and words shines through..Princess Di, Kucinich, MLK, Paul Wellstone, It is a rare trait this abilty to motivate others to change and do better..they call forth the good within us to blossom and shed joy around them. They stand unique amongst their peers as we see their hearts...and their hearts, being such good ones, touch our own.

Answer 2

Kennedy is idolized because he was a good public speaker and his image as "Camelot." Whether he was a good president or a bad one is immaterial when you consider he had promises that were never fulfilled because of his assassination. The people who idolized him felt the future was stolen from them by the assassination. Many still feel that way, even those who were not born until after 1963. There will always be the question among them, "What might have been." If you speak to people who were alive in 1963, America changed on November 22 and has never been the same. It was a violent shock at the beginning of a violent decade. Many people who did not like Kennedy feel this way and were equally traumatized by it. My opinion is that the disastrous war in Vietnam would have been fought even with Kennedy at the helm, the outcome would have been the same (possibly worse if that's possible), and that he was a hypocrite with regard to Civil Rights. PS: I've got to agree with Jim L. He's right on the nose.

Answer 3

JFK was the man that prevented WW 3, standing down the Russians on their way to Cuba with nuclear weapons and negotiating a truce. He also was a great promoter of civil rights, changing the 'old guard' into a better age. That's one reason some despised him. JFK got the space program going and which later overtook the Russian's progress. He created the Peace Corps and signed into law the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.

Answer 4

John F. Kennedy's Legacy

It's interesting that over the '90s more has come out about Kennedy's womanizing. Much more, particularly with my book, has come out about his health problems, but there seems to be a consistency in the public mind in regarding Kennedy as one of the great presidents in American history. There is something about him that continues to command the loyalty, the approval, of the public.

Part of it was the fact that he was martyred, but that's not sufficient to explain it because William McKinley was assassinated and forty years later nobody remembered who he was. There's much more at work here. And I think television is important here. It's captured him on tape -- he's frozen in our minds at the age of 46... what he came across as was so charismatic, charming, witty, engaging, smart -- just an extraordinary personality. And those press conferences he held are captured on tape and have great appeal to people to this day. And also I think he conveyed a kind of hope, a kind of promise to the public, the expectation of a better future. And I don't think that's been lost. The country, I think, is still tied to this and remembers him in such fond and positive terms.

If Kennedy had lived, he would have been reelected, surely, in 1964, running against Barry Goldwater. He would have won probably as big a landslide as Lyndon Johnson commanded. He would have carried with him into the House and the Senate majorities comparable to what Johnson had, which were roughly two-thirds Democratic majorities. And Kennedy then would have put across his reform legislation. He had on the table an $11 billion tax cut, federal aid to elementary, secondary and higher education, a civil rights bill, a bill on poverty, a department of transportation, a department of housing and urban development. All that, I think, would have been passed. But those became Lyndon Johnson's legislative measures. I think one hundred years from now historians will look back and see the presidency of the '60s as a Kennedy-Johnson presidency. And especially on domestic affairs, Kennedy puts this all on the table, Johnson gets it enacted -- surely using Kennedy's martyrdom, but again -- Kennedy would have passed this too.

If he had lived and had all the success in domestic affairs I think he would have matched it, in a sense, in dealing with Vietnam, Cuba. There were back-channel negotiations and discussions going on in the last three months of Kennedy's presidency about the possibility of getting on better footing...

I don't want to overstate this point: utopia wasn't around the corner. But, if he had lived, we would not have had Lyndon Johnson, the credibility gap, I don't think we would have had the extent of our involvement in Vietnam, we wouldn't have had Richard Nixon, or Watergate. There would have been other problems, to be sure -- there always are -- but it wouldn't have been the problems I've just mentioned, and I think maybe there would have been less political cynicism in this country, less alienation from politics than what we've experienced over the last forty years.

Answer 5

I lived during the Kennedy administration (and remember seeing his assassination rerun on TV the night it happened.) There are too many good things to say about John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

"Kennedy, John Fitzgerald (1917-1963), 35th president of the United States" was . . .

1). . .A WWII hero. "World War II. . . ., as a lieutenant (junior grade), he took command of a PT (torpedo) boat in the Solomon Islands. While his boat was cruising west of New Georgia on the night of August 2, it was rammed and sunk by a Japanese destroyer. Kennedy was thrown across the deck onto his back, but he rallied the survivors and managed to get them to an island. He himself towed a wounded man three miles through the seas. For several days he risked his life repeatedly, swimming into dangerous waters hoping to find a rescue ship. He finally encountered two friendly islanders and sent them for aid with a message that he carved on a coconut. He received the Purple Heart and the Navy and Marine Corps Medal,. . ."

2). . .the youngest man ever elected to the presidency.

3). . .the first U.S. president of the Roman Catholic faith.

4). . ."admired (for) his winning personality, his lively family, his intelligence, and his tireless energy. (by most Americans after his inauguration)"

5). . . respected (for) his courage in time of decision.
EXAMPLES:
A. Cuban Crisis (During which Kennedy PREVENTED WWIII)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_Missile_Crisis
B. Construction of the Berlin Wall by East Berlin
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Wall
C. 1963 Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comprehensive_Test_Ban_Treaty

6). . . .motivational in calling Americans to be patriotic.
"And so, my fellow americans: ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man."
John F. Kennedy, Inaugural address, January 20, 1961
http://www.quotationspage.com/quotes/John_F._Kennedy/
This statement became the basis for the beginning of the Peace Corps and Ameri Corps.

7). . .diplomatic by holding out the figurative "olive branch."
". . .Finally, to those nations who would make themselves our adversary, we offer not a pledge but a request: that both sides begin anew the quest for peace, before the dark powers of destruction unleashed by science engulf all humanity in planned or accidental self-destruction. . ."
(John Kennedy, Inaugural Address, January 20, 1961)
http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/presiden/inaug/kennedy.htm

8). . .a visionary.
" I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish."
Speech to Special Joint Session of Congress (25 May 1961)
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_F._Kennedy

"We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy - but because they are hard! Because that challenge is one we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone and one we intend to win!"
John F. Kennedy, Rice University, September 12, 1962
http://www.quotationspage.com/search.php3?Search=&Author=John+F.+Kennedy&C=coles&C=lindsly&C=poorc&C=net&C=devils&C=contrib&page=3

"The U.S. space program, however, surged ahead during the Kennedy administration, scoring dramatic gains that benefited American prestige worldwide."

9). . .an optimist and a team player. His speeches seemed to most always seemed to speak for Americans as a whole. The pronoun "we" (instead of "I") is found in most of his speeches. He believed in the people of the United States.

Kennedy spoke about Civil Rights in his inaugural address.
". . .and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this Nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world."
(John Kennedy, Inaugural Address, January 20, 1961)
http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/presiden/inaug/kennedy.htm

During the Kennedy Administration, much of the Domestic Policy was unfufilled until the Johnson Administration. Kennedy was a moderate on civil rights. ". . .After the march (on Washington D.C - 1963.), King and other civil rights leaders met with President Kennedy at the White House. While the Kennedy administration appeared to be sincerely committed to passing the bill, it was not clear that it had the votes to do it. But when President Kennedy was assassinated November 22, 1963,[4] the new President Lyndon Johnson decided to and did use his power in Congress to bring about much of JFK's legislative agenda in 1964 and 1965 much to the public's approval. . ."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US_civil_rights_movement

"Mayor Willy Brandt of West Berlin expressed the world's sense of loss when he said that 'A FLAME WENT OUT FOR ALL THOSE WHO HAD HOPED FOR A JUST PEACE AND A BETTER LIFE." (emphasis by responder)

Unfortunately, there has been a cloud of secrecy over the assassination of JFK. Even to this day conspiracy theories abound. Today, it seems to be the norm to find human faults in a deceased person (Kennedy's womanizing) rather than remember the good person he was.

NOTE: Some parts of this article are paraphrased. Outside of my opinions, the origin of the information and quotations not followed by a link came from:
http://ap.grolier.com/article?assetid=0229520-00&templatename=/article/article.html

Answer 6

IDK lol noone really knows if you really think about it