How good was John F. Kennedy?

Question

Yeah, yeah, look up the online biographies.

I'd like a first-hand (or something close) account from someone who lived in his administration though. I

Answer 1

Well, what I do know is that he used the Cubans like pawns when the missile crisis in Cuba. The Russians withdrew the missiles, but the Cubans were left with fidel kastro.
Besides, Kennedy left fidel at 90 miles of the southern border, meaning that he left a mortal enemy of the USA in his own back yard.
Had it not been by Gorbachev, who unwillingly pulverized the Soviet Union, fidel would be now knocking at the doors of the white house and telling the president to beat it, that he was taking charge of the USA

Answer 2

"Cowboydo" has apparently chosen not to read too much of the history and FBI documents that have been declassified in the last 20 years.

The numerous affairs have been well documented by friends, former aides and associates. The troubling fact is that in addition to Judith Exner (a known Giancanna associate), Marilyn Monroe (an unstable individual), he was having affairs with women on the White House payroll, including Jackie's secretary. A former intern popped up a few years ago to acknowledge that she had an affair with JFK as well.

Truth be told, he had an undistinguished career in the House and Senate.

The Bay of Pigs was a fiasco because he couldn't see the folly of sending too few men with no air cover.

I think his restraint during the Cuban Missile Crisis was admirable. He likely saved a war with the Soviets, as almost all of his advisors and the Joint Chiefs of Staff supported a military solution.

His civil rights record was limited at best. Wiretapping Dr. King probably doesn't help his reputation much.

He became a popular President AFTER he was assasinated. The whole point of being in Texas was to raise money for the Democratic Party in what he assumed would be a tough race in 1964.

On the whole though, he is a likeable, charasmatic figure. He was able to solidify support in latin America through the Peace Corps and the OAS. He was well liked by our European allies, even though DeGaulle kicked him around a bit. He challenged and funded NASA's effort to go to the moon.

Answer 3

The only questions I have are for "Oscar" I openly admit I gave him a thrums down on everything he said. I'd like to know where he got all his information from and, would like to challenge him to prove all of what he said.

Most everything is here say and has never been proven, yes, there have been a lot of political rivalries that didn't like the entire Kennedy clan, for one thing or another but, that doesn't make John a bad person. He was a normal human being, like everyone else and, would have been the first to step forward and say that.

As for his second term, he was a favorite son, his first term was a win by a notch but that was because of his age, he was the youngest president to be chosen and, wasn't thought to be weathered enough for the job.
As for the "Bay of pigs" John like his demeanor, he jumped the gun and wanted to save the Cubans, he listened to what he was being told, as was Bush in Iraq, Johnson in 'Nam and Ike in Korea. They all have to go by what they're told by the intelligence their given. He did not blantenly walk away from them. He backed the Russians down with their nuclear weapons 95 miles from our shoreline, but then, Oscar forgets the good things, doesn't he?

Before one goes off the handle, one should have all his information before him, then be able to prove it through articles or, hold his peace.

John, the President and, his brother Bobbie, would have been a pair this country would have remembered had they lived. He was probably the most popular president we'd ever had.

Answer 4

You could read Vincent Bugliosi's Reclaiming History about the assassination of JFK.
I was quite small when he was killed but there really is no way to know what kind of President he would have been.
He was our hope and when he died alot of that hope died with him.
He was young and handsome and charismatic and he had Jackie and they were the golden couple.
I like to think we would have gone in another direction all together if he had lived but we will never know.
I know this hasn't answered your question but maybe someone who was older at the time can tell you. I was 8 years old and everyone grieved.

Answer 5

Several years ago Gorbachev wrote an article in which he basically said that JFK was the real deal. He said that shortly after becoming president, at a meeting of international governments, JFK offered all the countries of the world an equal part in creating a true international union of the governments of the world - where everyone would have an equal vote. Unfortunately, (he explained), the leaders of those countries were afraid to trust the new, young American President, and Gorbachev said it was some time later before he really understood that JFK was 100% sincere, and he regretted that they had not taken him up on his offer.

If they had, the world would likely be a very different one from what it has turned into today. If the world had followed his lead at that crucial point it may have been much more difficult for those negative forces to ally themselves and arrange for his assassination - not to mention the nasty mess they've succeeded in creating since then.

While there are lots of stories both for and against his policies and books full of conjecture about what could have been (good and bad), the fact is that he was greatly loved by just about everyone -(including Khruschev)- and this love had to be inspired by more than policies, speeches and good looks.

It was triggered as always by his spirit - the very essence of which in every case is transmitted by every cell of a person's body and by every note emitted when they speak. It is sent out and we get it (even from the avator you choose). And everyone got something really beautiful from that person - we knew his spirit - just as we know everyone's - and his, like Diana's was very special.

All the mean-spirited stories about his personal life cannot change the basic fact that he was a truly idealistic and courageous leader who was taken out before he could interfere with the wishes of the elite - as he was in the process of doing.

JFK suffered a serious and very painful physical ailment that was connected to the disintegration of his bones caused by being treated as a child with massive doses of steroids (which were only being researched at the time - and the negative effects weren't known) for troubles with digestion likely caused by the severe stress of his home environment - which we now know way too much about. His macho unfaithful father and all the pressure he put on his sons etc.

This pain was no joke -the reason he couldn't duck from the bullets was because he was wearing a body brace that didn't permit him to bend - all because of the pain he was in- and he was reported to have said that if he didn't have sex he couldn't sleep. Sex activates hormones that block pain sensors (as anyone who has had the experience of having the pain stop when they started to get it on knows).

This would certainly have been at least a contributing factor to that part of his makeup. Not only that, but they haven't found even one woman who he got involved with who would say anything negative about him - not even Jackie.

On the other hand, if we were to pillory every public figure for being addicted to sex - we probably would not have very many public figures left.

A woman I met who was part of the social scene in New York during the period when Kennedy was a Senator and then President told me that everybody loved him. There was just something about him. She said that he never hid the affairs from anybody and the press (and everyone else in that scene) knew all about it, but no-one cared about it and no-one wrote about it, because no-one considered it important, and anyway because everybody loved him just as he was - nobody wanted to do anything harmful towards him.

There is sometimes a lot more to the things that are spread around for devious purposes than meets the eye. In spite of the never-ending (it seems) proliferation of stories about all his faults - (I mean it has been 45 years) there has not been another public person in our modern history who was loved as much and whose death was mourned as much as JFK - with Princess Diana a close second. (Please correct me if I've left somebody out.) Certainly no head of state (other than Mandela) has even come close to his international popularity.

And there have been constant onslaughts of publicity about his affairs, to try, it seems, to destroy the memory of his popularity. However, it will not be destroyed. A popular psychic of the time - and I think it was the one who told him not to go to Dallas - Jean Dixon - said that when he died that the love of the entire world went out to him on the other dimension and that he was lifted up into light by all that love, and that he maintained consciousness through it all.

Answer 6

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Answer 7

He was singularly responsible for the greatest nuclear build up of all time.

Answer 8

~But for Lee Oswald's bullet, he would be remembered as mediocre at best. His ethics were on par with US Grant, Warren Harding and Richard Nixon.

He stole the West Virginia primary with the help of his good fella buddies in the mafia, then stole the general election by taking the Illinois (particularly Chicago) vote the same way.

His whoring with Marilyn Monroe and Judith Exner (Sam "Momo" Giancana's babe) and others were common knowledge but overlooked by a jaded press. The presidency was a great way for him to get laid and he used it often. When Jackie found a woman's panties in her bed at the White House, she simply gave them to Jack and told him to return them to whoever left them.

He bungled the Bay of Pigs invasion and may well have double-crossed the troops before they hit shore. He almost mismanaged the Cuban Missile Crisis into a nuclear exchange. Nikita Khrushchev has never been given the credit in the western press that he deserves for the guts and wisdom he displayed in ending that one. All the Soviets wanted was that the US pull its missiles out of Turkey. Putting their own in Cuba was a negotiating ploy to accomplish that. The crisis ended when Khrushchev agreed to publicly remove his missiles from Cuba on the condition that Kennedy pull his out of Turkey (without fanfare) within 6 months.

Kennedy did plan to pull out of Vietnam, but not until after he approved, if not ordered, the assassination of Ngo Dihn Diem. He succeeded in that one, but his attempts to assassinate Fidel Castro (with the aid of his mob buddies) were abysmal failures. He was as ruthless as he was inept.

Having relied on the Teamsters and Mafia to win the election, he appointed his little brother as Attorney General then set him after the mob and Jimmy Hoffa. The man sure knew how to repay debts and to be loyal to friends. Bobby, fresh from his duties as a minor pinion in the McCarthy witch hunts was ideally suited to the task.

He appointed Robert McNamara as Secretary of Defense. McNamara and Kennedy together devised MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) and diverted funds previously intended for health, education and civil rights to the promulgation of a massive nuclear arsenal. He started the arms race that killed the US economy and eventually broke the back of the Soviet Union. Through his efforts, we, as kids, had A-bombs drills in school ("duck and cover", just like Bert the Turtle). We were told the insane Russian were apt to launch an attack at any time without reason and with no warning and when we saw the flash - the last thing we would ever see - we were to drop to the floor in a fetal position, like that would help when our bones hit 10000 degrees. And JFK got funding for his missiles and bombs based on the great "missile gap" lie. There was a disparity between the US and USSR stockpiles but, contrary to what JFK repeatedly said, the margin was grossly in favor of the US. We never got the real numbers until they were declassified decades after Kennedy got dead.

Had JFK lived to the end of his term, it is doubtful that he would have won a second term. He had charisma, he looked good on TV, he had a hot wife and cute kids, and that, with the help of the mob, won him his first term - barely. The next time around, he would have been judged for his accomplishments and there were none of significance. His steroid abuse and myriad of physical ailments were affecting his mental acumen and his ability to function. History has been kind to him because he was murdered and John John looked so adorable at the funeral procession, but viewed objectively he was lacking as a man and woefully deficient as a leader.

The best thing that can be said about Jack is that he was not Bobby. Of course, Bobby wasn't Ted. Luckily, there are no more brothers left. But at least none of the Kennedy boys are named Bush. Things could have been worse.

By the way, I am a liberal democrat. That doesn't change the facts.


~Edit to Cowboy: The documentation is there. I am not going to give you the (very extensive) bibliography. If I annotated it, it would be longer than this comment is going to be. If you are interested in history and fact rather than the martyr and the myth, do some reading. Not the books - the official documents. I have, can you say the same? What part do you dispute and on what evidence? The thumbs down really hurt me. If you can factually dispute me with reliable documentation, I will recant.

I remember Cuba. I remember hearing about the evil Russians and their pawn, Fidel Castro, parking missiles 90 miles off Miami. What I never knew at the time and would not learn until studying the affair some 20 years later when the documents started being declassified was the several planned and/or failed assassination attempts on Castro. The documents and recordings bear JFK's signature and/or his voice. I knew nothing, then, of our missiles in Turkey or that the Cuban missiles were installed in response to them or that Khruschev's deal was based on their removal - something that had been refused until the U2's invading Cuban airspace (another US provocation that pushed us yet closer to the brink of war) proved the Soviet missiles were in Cuba and were very close to launch-ready. How could I have known? JFK withheld that information from us. Not to worry. We put our Peenemunde/German rocket scientists to work on building ICBMs and Polaris missiles and the Soviets put theirs to work on the Soviet counterparts and silos in Turkey and Cuba became unnecessary. With the new toys, both sides could launch from home or they could slide their boomers in close enough to any target in the world. Such waste to invent, build and deploy toys that each side vowed to never use first. What I didn't understand at the time, and what was never explained to us, was how the sugar embargo (imposed long before the missiles were delivered) had crippled Cuba's economy, crushed her civilians (who had no say in their government or in making policy) under the heel of abject poverty, malnutrition and starvation and which had driven Castro into the Soviet bosom for survival. Since Castro, who has never posed a threat to US national security, still breaths, we expanded the embargo once ago in 1992. That part of the Kennedy legacy lives on.

Granted it is unclear exactly what Jack's role in the Bay of Pigs failure was. The circumstantial evidence would be sufficient to convict him of giving away the operation and leaving the troops to hang out to dry. The murder of the leader of the locals in Cuba just hours before the landing took place, with the CIA in the vicinity, shortly after receipt of that not so veiled communique from the Soviets looks just a little too coincidental, doesn't it. Methinks it should. The information he had is irrelevant. The US has signed any number of treaties acknowledging that it violates international law to engage in a preemptive invasion. The Bay of Pigs (and the assassination attempts/plans) was an immoral and illegal attempt by the US to invade a sovereign nation without just cause or provocation. Other examples of like conduct in the last century would be the attack on Pearl Harbor and the invasions of Afghanistan by the USSR and then by the US, and the invasion of Iraq. If Saddam is a rouge leader for moving on Kuwait, where does that leave Kennedy in Cuba? Or Bush in Iraq? What exactly is the difference?

The missile gap information was there - for Jack. We didn't get to see it until a few years ago when it was declassified. No historian worthy of the name disputes that the numbers Kennedy gave us (from the White House, not on the campaign trail) were false. The information now declassified was in his hands at the time. The same holds with his role in the Diem assassination, although the rumors were rampant at the time, the circumstantial evidence was compelling and the man never denied it. The now available writings bear his signature and the recordings bear his likeness and his voice.

Surely you don't dispute his women? The panties story is something Jackie herself acknowledged. Hey, look what happened to Bill Clinton with just one babe. Jack had a few more than Bill did (according to Jackie and others, quite a few more - Bobby had trouble keeping up with him and Bobby was no slouch).

You don't doubt the mob influence in West Virginia and Chicago in the primary and general elections, do you? With the evidence, how can you? Or have you simply not read the evidence? Again, I have. Giancanna may not be the most credible witness, but isn't it interesting that he took seven .22 shots to the brain while frying sausage in his basement with the FBI out front standing guard just a few days before he was to testify about several things, including the elections, Cuba and fellow dons? His statement exists, but is hearsay and unsworn - he never got to testify.

Jack's difficulty in the '60 election was not his age - that was minor by comparison. His real problems were his Catholicism (and an IRISH Catholic to boot - if you were around in '59/60, you understand the significance) and his inexperience. His dad's past deservedly hindered his chances (or do you also dispute that Joe was a bootlegger and a ruthless sob with a long memory and a propensity to act on his grudges?) Today, his daddy wouldn't matter as much. No one seems to care that Prescott Bush, father of George H. W. and grandfather of George H. was a leading money man for the Nazis in the US while George H.W. was undergoing flight training to fight them and our troops were already engaged in Africa. Read about his banks - the records are there. Then read up on the laws those banks violated and ask yourself why was Prescott was never charged with treason.

Check JFK's popularity ratings in '63. He went to Dallas in an attempt to right the capsizing ship. He was warned repeatedly not to go because he was so intensely hated in the south. Don't forget, he was getting involved with civil rights but the Blacks were still having a bit of trouble getting to the polls and leaving alive. He was pushing civil rights because he needed those Black votes and he knew it. At the same time, he only introduced his civil rights package after the Birmingham uprising in April '63, then he and brother Bob brought all their pressure to bear on A. Philip Randolph and Bayard Rustin to call off their March on Washington that August. The Kennedy's failed in their efforts and Martin Luther King gave his "I Have A Dream" speech. The Kennedy's were not happy.

LBJ stepped up Vietnam on the word of his advisers? LBJ was Kennedy's veep. One of their biggest bones of contention between them was Kennedy's intention to pull out the troops and LBJ wanted to escalate. Robert McNamara served both as SecDef (his point of view was dependent on that of his boss at the time, to be sure, but until Dallas he agreed with withdrawal because, as De Gaul warned Eisenhower before Ike sent the first advisers in, the war was unwinable). Hell, if the US had allowed the country to be reunified with the 1956 elections as required by the Geneva Agreements of 1954 and had we allowed those elections to have taken place, Vietnam would never have happened. Since it was clear that Ho Chi Minh was going to win the election, the US forced the installation of Diem as president of South Viet Nam (the French called Diem "not only incapable, but mad") and then supported and protected him militarily and otherwise. Only when Diem refused to be a US puppet did JFK authorize or direct his assassination. LBJ acted on exactly the same information that Kennedy and Eisenhower had, and the Geneva Agreements requiring elections and reunification in 1956 were hardly secret. Kennedy was finally going to do the right, moral, legal, just and required thing in Nam, but he was killed before he could get it done and his plans were immediately reversed by LBJ. McNamara the dove then morphed into McNamara the hawk. He knew where his bread was buttered and he loved butter.

As to what Bush knew or didn't know about Iraq, it matters not. Maybe we will learn the truth when those records are declassified. We did know some of Iraq's arsenal. We had provided it a few years back when we helped Iraq out against Iran. Iran, of course, was still miffed because we never delivered the F-14 spares they had paid for when we sold them the planes (when THEY were our allies) to use against Iraq. [And people wonder why Uncle Sam is not looked upon kindly in the Middle East?] There was no possible justification to invade. Just because we don't like them doesn't give us the right to invade - or do you agree that North Korea has the right to nuke Washington DC simply because the US has threatened them. No difference. And there was even less justification or legal right to invade Afghanistan. Forget that the lessons of history dictated that what has happened would happen and the wars could not be won. [That is not hindsight - I said it before the first troops hit ground, even before the UN condemned the anticipated invasions.] And if we pull out now, the disaster we have created will worsen and spread. One inane, illegal and immoral act cannot be corrected by the commission of and even more immoral and stupid one. We are now morally committed to staying in place until the mess we made is totally cleaned up. Either that, or we will be heading back when the real fighting starts. We harbored the Shah. We harbored Marcos. We harbored Nguyen Van Thieu. We helped train, arm and support bin Laden and his boys when they were on our side against the Soviets in Afghanistan. We are protecting the very warlords we pledged to remove in Afghanistan (they are - and for centuries have been- necessary to keep Afghanistan functioning) and they have just produced record crops of poppies two years running. The price of heroin has gone down and it is once again freely available in our playgrounds and schools. If giving safe haven, training and support to terrorists justifies invasion and retaliation, then 9/11 was justified and proper. It works both ways. What is good for the shooter is good for the target. But I digress. Back to JFK and clan.

Look at the film clips, news reels and newspaper pictures of the McCarthy hearings. That guy that is always whispering to Joe and handing him notes looks so much like Bobby for a reason. That is why they use his name on the tapes, at the hearings and in the captions. Do you know who Joe McCarthy was and what he stood for and what he did? Bobby worked for him willingly and vigorously. This is what Jack wanted as the chief law enforcement officer of the land? Nixon's plumbers are choirboys by comparison.

The steroids were experimental when Jack started on them, then, years later, they became a health fad. Maybe Jack didn't know (or more likely didn't care - there was some good information out even when he started on them of the danger) about the side effects, but would you take a medication without being concerned about the side effects? It is probable (according to his doctors, not me) that the steroids caused or exacerbated several of his other maladies, forcing to take more and more drugs which further diminished - at times - his mental capacity. His amphetamine use/abuse is common knowledge, now. He was a walking pharmacy. He lied about it then and he told his staff to lie, not only about the meds (he said he was taking cortisone - but Dr. Max Jacobs aka "Dr. Feelgood" often traveled with him to give him his speed) but about his Addison's disease. Had his numerous serious health problems been known, he'd never have been elected. There would have been too much doubt and concern about whether or not he would live out his term or be able to function during it. His own aides have since disclosed his at times clouded thinking and inability to act. He was born a sick child and was never healthy throughout his life. The medical records weren't available until after his death. Those records raise the distinct possibility that he may not have lived through the next campaign, let alone the next term. He kept that from us and ordered his staff, physicians and family to do the same. Give Bobby credit. He pleaded with Jack to get away from Dr. Feelgood and to kick the amphetamines, warning Jack of the dangers of addiction and of how it was affecting his thinking and speech. Jack's reply: "I don't care if it's horse piss. It works" [That's from Bobby, not me.]

He had to lie. The heart of his campaign was focused on his youth, his vitality and his vigor vs. the "old republicans who were too feeble to deal with the Soviets" HE made his age an issue in the campaign and he used it to his advantage. His age won him more votes than it lost him. Do you remember those campaign speeches? Did you even hear them?

Fact: papa Joe had to use his clout and call in favors to hide Jack's ailments from the military to get him assigned to PT boat duty in WWII. The navy was crying for recruits but Jack was medically unqualified for enlistment. A military career was critical to one with national political aspirations. Joe wanted at least one of his sons in the White House. The navy accepted Jack.

Information on his 9 hospitalizations in 1955/56 (while he was trying to get the vice-presidential nomination for the '56 election) only became public a few months ago. He, of all people, knew how debilitating his numerous diseases and conditions were, how his medications effected his thinking and his physical stamina, how he had been given last rites 3 times already before 1956 as a result of his physical infirmity and how he might not be able to carry out his presidentail duties. His and his father's hubris pushed him to run, country and consequences be damned, at one of the most dangerous times in US and world history. Given the dichotomy of their military thinking, what could have happened if Jack went down to another bout of any of his disabling diseases in October '62 and LBJ was at the helm with his finger on the button? Worse still, at least 9 of the medications Jack was taking can so alter one's thinking and cognizant abilities that the Air Force will not allow someone taking even ONE of them to talk to a pilot in flight on the radio. Jack, under the influence all 9 of them, was Commander in Chief of the entire Air Force and all of our nuclear arsenal. Isn't that just a little scary to you?

Kennedy was not our worst president. Based on what he did, he ranks somewhere at the lower end of the middle third. However, if pride, wrath, lust and greed are indeed mortal sins, then John Kennedy rots in hell.

I would have voted for him in '64, assuming he accepted the nomination or didn't get beat in a primary. The opposition in '64 was Barry Goldwater. LBJ was bad enough in NAM, but at least he accomplished a lot on the home front, particularly with civil rights and attempts at urban renewal. AUH2O assured us he would toss some nukes. The soviet response would have made urban renewal and civil rights moot.

Kennedy's Camelot myth is not quite as fictional as King Arthur's, but it isn't that far behind if you look at the record.