REALLY?
Look at the record. The Soviets put up the Berlin wall under JFK. What did JFK do about it.... NOTHING!!!! JFK did nothing to prevent the advancement of the power of the Soviet Union. JFK folded our hand at every confrontation.
No nation in Western Europe would let us put Nukes on their soil. They were afraid of the Soviets. It will only make us a target, they said. And our missiles could not reach Russia from US soil. Ike got Turkey to let us put our nuclear missiles and the troops to control them on their soil. From Turkey we could blow every Soviet citizen to kingdom come. The Soviets had no bases from which they could not hit us. We were, under Ike, in the drivers seat.
The Russians tested JFK's testicles with the Berlin wall. Khrushchev wanted to go straight to Cuba. But other Soviet leaders demanded he test JFK with the Berlin wall first. When JFK only talked about the Berlin wall, and did nothing, it convinced the Soviets that JFK would back down and remove our missiles from Turkey. With the success of the Berlin wall under the Soviet belt, the Soviets started putting their missiles into Cuba! They were convinced that JFK would surrender our surperior position if they let him save face.
The Soviets made no attempt to hide that they were putting missiles in Cuba. Look at the pictures. ... They wanted us to find them.
What did JFK do to get rid of the Missiles in Cuba? Exactly what the Russians demanded. JFK took our missiles out of Turkey... that's what. That was exactly what the Russians wanted. The Russians did not want Castro to have his hands on their NUKES. They wanted OUR Nukes out of Turkey. That is what they got in the Cuban Missile Crisis.
The difference between JFK and McGovern is McGovern was honest about surrendering to the Soviets. JFK surrendered as long as the Sovites let him claim it to be a victory.
JFK took the whip hand Ike left him and let Nikita Khrushchev beat the crap out of the USA.
Some people like to forget that John, Robert and Teddy Kennedy are blood brothers that share their Daddies views on both woman and politics.
The last real anti-communist Democrat was LBJ. VietNam was his attempt to make the Russians fear us... It did not work. He was just trying to send the Soviets a message. It was a failure. Nixon tried to take us to a military superiority with technology that could destroy them. JFK wanted a public relations victory by going to the moon. Nixon did two things. He built us a missile system that could destroy all of the soviet union, and he created a split between the Soviet Union and China. Those were good moves indeed.
Reagan saw a way to victory that escaped every Democrat plus Ike and Nixon as well. He got the Russians into a war using dollars and rubbles and the Soviets lost. Reagan knew that the weak point in a Socialist system is their economy not their missiles and guns. He used our great advantage to beat them. It was a technique that escaped of the brilliant men in all the great think tanks.
It was Harry Truman who decided that containment was the only game in town. We played containment or 'Can't we just all get along.' until Reagan came to office. It was he who went for the win with the best weapon we had... dollars against rubbles ... and the dollars won.
History clearly shows thjat JFK played poker with Khrushchev, Khrushchev won every hand.
"Excellent analysis of JFK."
What more can be said? :)