20th Century US Presidents (1 Viewer)

[pugio]

Teddy and Ronnie

 

[Combat]

Yes I agree one of Ike's biographers (whose name escapes me now) summed up his presidency on the lines of:

"As a man who knew war and detested it, he kept the country at peace and this was his signal achievement but it was secured at a heavy price as he completely failed as a civilian in understanding and building a lasting foreign policy. Neither a saviour nor a creator, he was quite simply, a five star general out of his depth in the White House"...... or something like that.

Reb

Never underestimate the contribution of someone "doing no harm." Eisenhower was one of the first individuals in history entrusted with weapons that could have destroyed the entire world. The political culture and red scare tactics of many politicans of the time including Nixon and Kennedy (who won in part due to his false claim of a missle gap under Ike) created pressure to be aggressive when dealing with the Communists. For the most part, Ike kept his head in places like Korea and Vietnam unlike those that followed him. There were very real proposals to use nuclear weapons in both places during his administration. He also had significant health issues during his administration. In my opinion, he was probably a better President than general due to his cautious mentality.

 

[Gideon]

For me, it is FDR. I believe him to be the only 20th century president to understand that a truly thriving nation means that all walks of life must make a contribution and, in return, are deserving of social safety nets - the ability to retire, the ability to own a home and have a family in that home, the right to know what your government is doing with some air of transparency, a health care system to catch illness and provide freedom and flexibility to move from job and company to another and numerous other social projects and works to keep people from being idle.

All other US presidents since have paled in comparison and only pay lip service to anything the average American can actually use or help to benefit themselves.

Sorry for the rant but I don't think this is what FDR was trying to accomplish during the depression. He had a very humanist approach to governing - for the most part.

 

[Gideon]

Yes-fair point and I suppose one must ask did that make them exceptional presidents? Grant and Eisenhower come to mind.

America has always had a sense of destiny that has come to be associated with a small group of exceptional Presidents-Washington; Jefferson; Lincoln; Teddy Roosevelt; Wilson; FDR and JFK among them.

Reb

I have to disagree with JFK being in a great presidents list. He really was not good but he was charismatic. Sadly, he was assassinated and I think that largely contributed to his escalation as a "great president". We lost a lot in that time period, Kennedy made an awful lot of blunders and the Russians were ready to fire missiles from their subs - two out of three authorized the launch. One was a naval commander who was looking at the bigger picture. We like to think we had the situation under some sort of control but we didn't. I wonder how another president would have handled the encounter.

Personally, I feel the whole situation was garbage but the Russians called us on it and we pulled missiles out of parts of Europe and had to leave Cuba alone.

 

[DCN1898]

I don't want to get into modern politics, but if we look at each president, all of them were far from perfect. FDR had lofty goals, so did Communism, they just don't work in the real world. Kennedy made a lot of blunders but the press didn't pry and we didn't hear about them till later.
I think what matters to history is that at the crisis moment, FDR prepared us for a world war and delivered an awesome and powerful speech in declaring war on Japan. He was a man that the country would follow in that crisis.
Kennedy at the right time made his famous speech at the Berlin Wall and stood up to the Russians over Cuba. At that time, he was a leader that people would follow in that crisis. We are a democracy and we tend to stumble along. At important times, we tend to get the leader that we need.
Teddy Roosevelt made a statement in support of his wish that the Grizzly Bear should be our National icon. It went something to the effect that America Will never be loved by other countries because we tend to be clumsy like the Grizzly. The most that we can hope for, is to be respected. I will try and find the exact qoute.
Here is the article I found.
Theodore Roosevelt once told a reporter that the grizzly bear should be the symbol of America, not the eagle. He likened America to the grizzly bear because it is solitary. He went on to say: 'The world will never love us. They may respect us, they might one day fear us, but they will never love us, for we have too much audacity'. It has been said that while most empires turned complacent as they grew successful, the US has turned more neurotic and industrious. There are many reasons for this, but the American cultural inheritance is crucial