Originally Posted By: thedoctor
 Originally Posted By: Friendly Neighborhood Ray-man
Well Eisenhower actually started our involvement in Vietnam and Johnson was the one who escalated into what it became. The blame for the Bay of Pigs depends on whether you think we should've used military action in Cuba to overthrow the government, if not then the CIA is to blame. Ultimately it was their mess, Kennedy just refused to send in air support.
He did manage to pull us away from WWIII during the missile crisis, fighting the hardline rightwingers in the military who wanted a war.
He desegregated the Federal Government after Woodrow Wilson (a Democrat) re-segregated it.
He was the first to start the ball on the Civil Rights legislation, at least on the level of the President.
For those acts he deserves credit as a great president.
I do agree that dying young, especially being murdered, does add to the legend.

Which is why John Lennon is more of a legend on his own than the other Beatles, even though his solo career never was commercially successful.


LBJ was the bastard that threw us head long into Vietnam, but Kennedy helped escalate our presence and involvement there.

As for the Bay of Pigs, Kennedy not only canceled the airstrike; but he also changed a lot of the CIA's plan, including the landing site, which cut off the rebels from other anti-communist groups that would have assisted, resupplies of food and guns, as well as the mountains that they could have retreated and hid in had shit gone wrong, as it did.

I agree that Kennedy was great in the Cuban Missile Crisis, but it must also be noted that the Crisis came about due to Castro's reaching out to the USSR after the failure of the Bay of Pigs Invasion.

His participation in the Civil Rights Movement and creation of the Space Program are other big boosts to his legacy; but I still feel that we look more admirably on him than we would have had be not been assassinated.

yeah but if Castro had had a better pitching arm, the whole thing would've gone down differently.
and ifs and buts were candies and nuts, then we'd all have a merry christmas.

Bow ties are coool.