Posted on 02/18/2006 12:20:02 PM PST by ncountylee
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) - From engaging in sexual relations with an intern to letting the Vietnam War escalate, U.S. presidents have been blamed for some egregious errors. So who had the worst blunder? President James Buchanan, for failing to avert the Civil War, according to a survey of presidential historians organized by the University of Louisville's McConnell Center.
The survey's top 10 presidential blunders were announced Saturday during a President's Day weekend conference called "Presidential Moments."
"We can probably learn just as much - or maybe even more - by looking at the mistakes rather than looking at why they were great," said political scientist and McConnell Center Director Gary Gregg.
Scholars who participated said Buchanan didn't do enough to oppose efforts by Southern states to secede from the Union before the Civil War.
The second worst mistake, the survey found, was Andrew Johnson's decision just after the Civil War to side with Southern whites and oppose improvements in justice for Southern blacks beyond abolishing slavery.
"We continue to pay" for Johnson's errors, wrote Michael Les Benedict, an Ohio State University history professor emeritus.
Lyndon Johnson earned the No. 3 spot by allowing the Vietnam War to intensify, Gregg said.
Where does Bill Clinton's Monica Lewinsky scandal rank? Many scholars said it belonged at No. 10, saying that it probably affected Clinton's presidency more than it did American history and the public.
The rest of the top 10 blunders:
-4: Woodrow Wilson's refusal to compromise on the Treaty of Versailles after World War I.
-5: Richard Nixon's involvement in the Watergate cover-up.
-6: James Madison's failure to keep the United States out of the War of 1812 with Britain.
-7: Thomas Jefferson's Embargo Act of 1807, a self-imposed prohibition on trade with Europe during the Napoleonic Wars.
-8: John F. Kennedy allowing the Bay of Pigs Invasion that led to the Cuban Missile Crisis.
-9: Ronald Reagan and the Iran-Contra Affair, the effort to sell arms to Iran and use the money to finance an armed anti-communist group in Nicaragua.
Nixon imposing price controls was worse than the Watergate coverup.
And where's Jimmy Carter? Being a wimp with Iran, giving away the Panama Canal, 14% interest rates, 20% mortgages, skyrocketing gasoline prices, and general "malaise" - does that not count for something????
... Stand corrected....still a Democrat Fiasco... Wasn't Yalta the League of Nations conference?
Where does appointing Souter fall in the lisat?
Where is Carter? (I second that!)
Bush *saying* no new taxes when he knew he couldn't keep that promise.
Or Lincoln?
The United Nations was already in the works well before Yalta.
Actually replace Clitnton-Moanica with Eisenhower-Earl Warren to the Supreme Court.
I thought that Iran-Contra was a master stroke.Consider this;We sell arms to the Iranians who get themselves killed in great numbers.The money from these sales finances weapons for anti-communist forces who then kill commies in great numbers.This is a Win-Win situation for us,and darn good stewardship of our funds.
There are those who'd put Lincoln #1 for "stripping citizens of a foreign country of their property rights."
I'm not one of them tho!
They forgot about Herby Hoover signing protectionist legislation that greatly contributed to the severity and length of the Great Depression. In fact Herby and Franklin Roosevelt should get a joint award for making the depression worst through their meddling.
Jimmy Carter could have, should have, picked up all ten top spots on his lonesome.
It wasn't the fact that Kennedy allowed the Bay of Pigs. It was that he encouraged it and promised help and didn't come through.
#9 is one of those non-event events, a curiosity only.
I was looking at list, and thinking about the rating -
Many posters bring up FDR, Potsdam, etc -
Note that if you ask "What were worst US Presidential actions for leftists/communists" you get a very differnet look -
For instance - Potsdam was good for commies.
Starting/(escalating) Vietnam war? Commies end up winning and US embarrassed - thus not bad.
Reagan and Contras - bad for commies - on list
Clinton and Iran - good for anti-americans - not on list.
Nixon's non-impeachment rated higher than Clintoon's actual impeachment, and subsequent loss of respect for law in US? Just typical leftist spin.
I'm no historian - I just noted a bit of a trend. The freepers treated the question as if "bad" meant bad for the US/ I'm not sure the hoistorians did.
Buchanan's inaction and Johnson's mess in Vietnam really did do the nation lasting harm. Nixon's Watergate cover-up had consequences that took us a decade or so to get over. You could add Peirce's incompetence in letting Kansas-Nebraska go through.
Iran-Contra and Clinton-Lewinsky look like blips in comparison. Jefferson's Embargo and Kennedy's Bay of Pigs were horrible blunders, but may not have done the country or the world lasting harm. Or am I missing something?
Madison's decision to attack Canada was likewise one of the stupidest things any US president has countenanced, but the country doesn't seem to have had much trouble putting it behind us. Calling our second war with Britain a draw did a lot for our national pride, even if it did mean getting our capital burned. Go figure.
The two blunders that are most questionable are Andrew Johnson's and Woodrow Wilson. Would any course of action have worked during Reconstruction? Johnson may have taken the morally objectionable course, but would a different approach really have brought about lasting and beneficial changes?
As for Wilson, did he err more in not compromising to put the Versailles treaty through or in getting into the First World War to begin with? And yes, there were other decisions -- FDR's approach to the Depression, and his infatuation with Stalin, Eisenhower's support for coups in Iran and Guatemala -- that might also qualify as important presidential blunders.
Baloney, from the very beginning. As if the Civil War could've been avoided. It was brewing since the Founding of the nation itself.
Then again, Bush I encouraged Shia uprisings and didn't come through either. Should have whacked Saddam while we were there.
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