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.
Sounds pretty left - who are these "historians?"
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1564970/posts
Absurd, as this ended up being a Non-Story.
No mention of F.D.R. and he could have had all 10 of them.
I wonder where they put Jimmy Carter's handling of the Iran situation(s.)
Where is Carter???
Nah...On 2nd thought... I guess Potsdam ruined more lives...
They act as if Buchanan could have single handedly prevented the civil war, I think that's ridiculous. Probably the same with most of the rest of these "errors".
I hate it when people expect other people to be like God, all knowing, again, ridiculous.
Yalta, not Potsdam. FDR was dead by the time the Potsdam conference took place.
Carter belongs here!
"Absurd, as this ended up being a Non-Story."
It also ended up being a success, as the Sandinistas were defeated in Nicaragua -- which was the objective of the exercise. Iran-Contra's presence on this list clearly reveals the agenda of these "historians".
What a crock, but hey, it's sort of surprising that the list went all the way to #9 before the effects of liberal political bias crept into the poll.
I'm not surprised that what I consider the worst presidential decision of the last 30 years isn't there:
Jimmy Carter decides to let the Shah of Iran fall.
Wilson's shelling of Vera Cruz wasn't too good of an idea. It was at least as bad as the Iran-Contra affair; Wilson's actions didn't have any upside at all, even in the short term.
How about JFK sending 14000 ground troops to Vietnam, thus starting the Vietnam War.
Scholars= Those who can't.
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