“A rising tide lifts all boats”. Tax rates under Eisenhower were confiscatory and counterproductive, and he cut them, having run on the promise of cutting taxes. The Cuban “freedom fighters” had a dickens of a time convincing the Cuban people to get behind them, because they were exclusively Batiste die-hards, and were recognized as such on their home stomping grounds, even if they did dupe the CIA into backing them. There was a time that Castro was regarded by some as a “freedom fighter”. Beware of lofty labels with no substance. JFK faced down the Soviets at Checkpoint Charlie and on the eve of Armageddon over Cuba.
Was he “right-wing”? In some aspects, yes. Other aspects, no. He would not recognize the modern-day Democrat Party. Neither would Bobby, who was still defending McCarthy in the 1960s, when he suddenly discovered he was left-wing just in time to coopt the anti-war movement from Gene McCarthy (no relation to Joe). Fortuitously, an Arab terrorist spared the country from another Kennedy presidency.
“The whole family has been a cancer on the nation from the beginning.”
Amen. Quite aside from my narrow point regarding Ethyl and the boys.
Ike was not a Conservative. Given the mess he left and the disastrous wipe-out of the Republicans in 1958 on his watch, he could not have inflicted nearly as much damage had Truman persuaded him to run as a Democrat.
Our government was infested by the 1950s with Communist/leftist agents and sympathizers. As Humberto Fontova pointed out, about the only person who was anti-Castro was the then-Ambassador, Earl Smith. Batista, of course, was no prize, but compared to what followed...
As I said, I have little regard for JFK. He stole the 1960 election and put the whole nation on the wrong course. Nixon actually won, and he would not have kow-towed to the Soviets. He knew Khrushchev was a blustering phony and could handle him. He would have taken out Castro early on (by 1969, it was too late). JFK was so far out of his element that he was as bad as, if not worse than, Emperor Zero. He had most of the media covering for his escapades and incompetence (and they still do today). He was a sex degenerate and addicted to narcotics, both of which gravely jeopardized his ability to serve.