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Thankyou for your thoughtful reply.

There is something about the villification of the Kennedy family that rings wrong. (I exempt Teddy and Bobby's kids from that statement)Roosevelt with his gang of Communists intended to turn the West into another Communist nation and then become the world's first emperor/king. Clinton also saw himself as a major player,but in a Socialist world,and I think had aspirations of ruling that world.

All of their moves and traitorous deals showed that we were just pawns in the game.Both of these men,in my opinion,were truly evil men,willing to sell their country with all of it's citizens right down the river,in their own quest for power and privelege for themselves and their cronies.And to that end they kept us enmired in wars,and bigger and bigger government with more controls.

Kennedy certainly compromised to get into office;and therefore it would have never worked. But I don't see his agenda at all like FDR's or WJC's.

In fact,I see him as one of only two conservative Presidents,the other being Reagan,in my lifetime.Additionally,he made me very proud to be an American and ready to do what had to be done for my country. Many times I wonder if that may be the reason so many dislike him,maybe the plan was to let us believe our country was there to do for us,until we begged for the chains that bind us.Any thoughts?

But, I remember learning about the Cuban Missle crisis, I remember learning about the Bay of Pigs. And these two events happened during his short time in office.

Show me the other side of the coin with the laundry list of achievements that he accomplished. And then, try to sell me on the idea that Kennedy's good intentions outweighed the dire consequences.

If you cannot do that, then I cannot believe that he was a wonderful president.

As for your last comment... Kennedy echoed that with, "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country." This sentiment is no different than FDR rallying America during WWII, or GWBush saying, "In the war on terror, knowledge is power." Both FDR and GWBush calmly and rationally rallied the nation behind a cause.

The fact that Kennedy had similar stirring words of patriotism may have more to do with the audience that he was speaking to, and the era in which they lived, than anything else. In the early sixties in America, life was pretty good. (I admit this means leaving the plight of blacks and civil rights out of the equation for a moment.) But, all in all, it was good. And, perhaps the people were apathetic because it was so good.

For example, people talk of Reagan's presidency as being the "me generation", filled with greed. In hindsight, I would say that this applies more to Clinton's presidency, not only because he passed the buck when it came to terrorism, but also because of things like the Enron scandals, Lewinsky, Clinton's haircut on the tarmac, etc.

When thinking of Kennedy's time, it WAS Camelot, because of it's place in history, after WWII, and before Viet Nam. A time of innocence. How many older people with hippee children during the sixties wished that they could go back to when children didn't care about politics, and all we had to worry about was the Cubans and the Soviets?

I believe that when people look at Kennedy, they see the innocence... Viet Nam was just getting started, but not a big problem, yet. Nixon wasn't in office, thank God! Carter wasn't ruining the economy. GHWBush wasn't ignoring domestic policy while gloriously kicking Saddam out of Kuwait. Clinton wasn't committing immoral acts in the Oval Office! Compared to the history that followed Kennedy, Kennedy was charming.