John F. Kennedy

Today, John F. Kennedy is mainly known for being assassinated while still in office. On November 22, 1963, while at a Dallas rally for his reelection campaign, Kennedy was shot and killed by a Soviet sympathizer named Lee Harvey Oswald. This tragedy has become infamous in American history, being known and mourned by the majority of the US population even to this day. Many people believe that Kennedy's tragic death is why he's been propelled into America's top 20 leaders in most historians' rankings. They appear to believe that the fact of his tragic death swallows scholars into the void of an unforgiving guilt that refuses to relent unless they uncritically praise President Kennedy. I disagree. I believe that Kennedy was an amazing president who deserves the credit historians give him.

Soon after entering office, Kennedy issued a pair of executive orders that established two admirable government agencies which are still beloved in modern America. One decree founded the Alliance for Progress, an organization that exists to help Latin America develop and progress in terms of economic health and social stability. The other executive order created the Peace Corps, a government agency that travels across the world assisting struggling communities.

Kennedy's administration also enacted a few positive economic reforms. Firstly, Kennedy raised the minimum wage, hence improving the financial status of America's working class. The other notable economic/financial reform instituted by the Kennedy White House has less to do with the working class or impoverished population, and more with how the federal government uses its money, specifically in relation to science and exploration. In 1962, Kennedy appeared before a crowd at Rice University and announced a drastic increase in funding for space exploration and the act of traveling the cosmos. In this speech, he uttered the immortal words, "We choose to go to the Moon by the end of this decade and to do the other things not because they are easy, but because they are hard."

Largely because of Kennedy's allocation of funds to cosmic exploration, American astronauts stepped foot on the Moon before 1970. Kennedy's dedication to this feat allowed humanity to smash the barrier of Earth's limitation, to venture past the gates of reduction, and to bear witness to the glimmering stars and colorful planets dotting our Universe face-to-face.

Apart from assisting struggling nations in their honorable journey of development and reforming the American economy, Kennedy was also a champion of civil liberties and the rights of the US population. For example, Kennedy used federal troops to desegregate the University of Mississippi. Even more significantly, Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act. This statute made it a crime for corporations to pay employees differently on the basis of their gender.

Furthermore, Kennedy called on Congress to draft the bill that would become the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Signed by Lyndon B. Johnson on July 2, 1964, this law prohibited corporations from denying service to or separating customers on the basis of their race. In other words, it ended segregation. The policy also prohibited companies from refusing to hire someone because of what race they were. Lastly, it barred the federal government from funding programs and organizations that engaged in racist behavior and actions.

Something a lot of people criticize Kennedy for is the Bay of Pigs Invasion. On April 17, 1961, the American government and military sent several thousand Cuban immigrants who had fled Fidel Castro's oppressive regime in hopes that they would initiate a successful rebellion against Castro's government, believing they'd overthrow him in the process. Now, I disagree with the Bay of Pigs Invasion - it was an imperialist endeavor that exploited the legitimate suffering of Cuban refugees. However, Kennedy carries little if any of the blame for the operation. The plan was drafted and approved by the administration of Kennedy's predecessor, Dwight D. Eisenhower. Kennedy was just given the burden of enforcing it.

News of the Bay of Pigs Invasion swiftly spread across the planet. Nikita Khrushchev, the leader of the Soviet Union, was terrified and outraged by it, even if the attempt was a miserable failure. So, he began looking for actions he could take. Additionally, over the past couple of years, the American government had placed nuclear weapons in Italy and Turkey facing the USSR. To discourage US officials from taking further action against Cuba - as well as to make up for the unfair advantage the US had in the Cold War due to its nukes placed around the Soviet Union - Khrushchev ordered the installment of Soviet nuclear weapons on Cuban soil in the early autumn of 1962.

On October 14, 1962, an American plane flying over Cuba took a photo of the weapons being installed, beginning the Cuban Missile Crisis. Two days later, on October 16, Kennedy was informed of the picture at a meeting. Desperate to get the missiles removed, Kennedy founded the Executive Committee of the National Security Council - or EXCOMM - a temporary board tasked with creating a strategy to pressure Khrushchev into backing down and withdrawing the nukes.

Before I continue, I want to make my position on Kennedy's actions during this affair clear: Many people blame Kennedy for the Cuban Missile Crisis and its severity. These people believe that had Kennedy merely allowed Khrushchev to have these missiles installed in Cuba, then the crisis never would have taken place. In a way, I agree with this view to an extent. Khrushchev's reasons for placing these missiles in Cuba were not absurd - he wanted the Cold War to be fairer and to help protect Cuba from attacks and manipulation. Because of this, Kennedy shouldn't have been as aggressive about the decision.

Simultaneously, the actions that caused Khrushchev to put these missiles in Cuba were carried out by the Eisenhower Administration, which no longer existed. It had terminated when Kennedy took office. Rather than taking the drastic actions he did, Kennedy should have made it clear that he had no role in these decisions and wouldn't be as hawkish as Eisenhower. That would have allowed for some sort of compromise, or at least a comfortable stalemate. That said, while I do believe Kennedy was sort of making a mountain out of a molehill, I like his response to the Cuban Missile Crisis overall. He's like James Madison in that he created a crisis, but deserves credit for handling it well.

Initially, EXCOMM called on Kennedy to invade Cuba and destroy the nukes with military force. To his undying credit, however, Kennedy immediately rejected these suggestions. Instead, he opted to place a naval blockade around Cuba and to prepare an ultimatum for Khrushchev. After making these plans and installing the blockade, he appeared on national television on October 22, 1962. There, he gave an address explaining what was going on, sparking paranoia across the country. Many Americans believed that nuclear armageddon was imminent. Some even stocked up on food and oxygen.

Amidst these spiking tensions, a Soviet ship managed to sail past the American blockade without being attacked on October 24, 1962. This incident caused people across the globe to rejoice, viewing it as a sign that the situation was improving. One of these people was Khrushchev himself. Motivated by these developments, Khrushchev sent a letter to Kennedy on October 26, 1962, in which he presented Kennedy with a compromise: If Washington DC removed the nukes from Turkey, Moscow would remove the nukes from Cuba.

However, soon after, on October 27, 1962, an American reconnaissance plane was shot down while traveling across Cuba. Most then assumed that this was the final straw and that nuclear war was hours away. Khrushchev, sharing this concern, sent a second ultimatum to Kennedy: Promise not to invade Cuba ever again, and he, Khrushchev, will remove the nukes from Cuba. The following day, on October 28, 1962, Kennedy publicly agreed to Khrushchev's second ultimatum, bringing the Cuban Missile Crisis to a close. Privately, the Kennedy Administration also affirmed Khrushchev's original ultimatum.

Yet again, I consider Kennedy's leadership during the Cuban Missile Crisis to be brilliant and exceptional. While he may have contributed to its start, he wisely discarded reckless proposals by EXCOMM that could have destroyed human civilization. Furthermore, he successfully balanced a mixture of logical diplomacy and an appearance of strength. By only agreeing to the second ultimatum publicly and agreeing to both ultimatums privately, Kennedy both ended the crisis and maintained his popularity with the anti-communist public.

Other elements of Kennedy's foreign policy are quite admirable. For example, while he did escalate US involvement in Vietnam and absolutely warrants criticism for that, he also desired an American withdrawal from the country later on. Unfortunately, he died before he could implement such a withdrawal. Additionally, he brokered an arms limitation treaty with London and Moscow that prohibited the testing of nuclear weapons in space, the atmosphere, or in the Ocean.

Kennedy was a great president. He greatly advanced civil rights, helped the US go to the Moon, reformed the US economy, helped countries with their internal development through organizations like the Peace Corps, tried to quell American involvement in Southeast Asia, reduced the risk of nuclear warfare, and saved civilization during the Cuban Missile Crisis. He warrants his spot in the list of top 15 US presidents.