Well, hardly, but at least he generally had American interests at heart even though he and his advisors approached them from a Liberal perspective (that perspective would be termed "GOP Moderate" today) and was considered very "weak" on foreign policy. Most of his domestic and fiscal policies could at best be termed "neutral" or soft-left and he was also considered personally "weak", although urbane and glamorous, with much of the media cheering on he and Jackie's cultured behavior (which the East Coast media adored).
I was a senior in high school when JFK ran for President. I liked him more than Nixon even though my parents saw through his Massachusetts Irish blarney and told me he was no good. I should have listened closer, but I was young and idealistic and easily swayed by the gushing hype surrounding him.
Much of America turned on Kennedy after the Bay of Pigs fiasco and the Berlin Wall went up and he and his advisors were (rightly) seen as soft on Communism abroad. By 1962 or 1963, I (and many others) had turned against him for these reasons.
If Kennedy had not been assassinated less than a year before the election, it is highly probable Goldwater would have easily won in 1964 as most of the country except the East Coast and the big city political machines had turned against Kennedy. Goldwater was extremely popular and JFK's popularity was rapidly waning at this point. But JFK's assassination killed Goldwater politically because of the emotional backlash of the murder and Johnson (not a popular politician at all, but a very canny and effective one) kept the emotion on and played on the assassination and Goldwater's "dangerous" military stance on North Vietnam and nuclear war (remember the "Daisy Ad"?) and won in a landslide because of the continuing national revulsion against the assassination - and the rest is unfortunate history.
LBJ essentially killed America with his radical Great Society, which nobody could stop. The Democrats won not only the White House but historic majorities in the Congress in 1964.
Kennedy was important in history because of his untimely assassination which upended American history and progress, not because he was a good President in any meaningful sense of the word.
I don't recall Kennedy being considered soft on communism. I graduated HS in 1961. JFK approved of the Bay of Pigs operation to take down Castro. He also ordered the subsequent blockade of Cuba in response to the positioning of Soviet missiles in Cuba. We probably came as close to a nuclear war with the Soviets at any time in the history of the Cold War. JFK's "Ich bin Ein Berliner" speech was clearly confrontational with the Communists as was his inaugural address, which I memorized as part of a speech contest in high school.
"We dare not forget today that we are the heirs of that first revolution. Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans--born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage--and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world.
Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.
This much we pledge--and more.
In May 1961 JFK sent 400 military advisors (Green Berets) to South Vietnam to combat the growing communist influence. He would eventually send a total of 16,000.
“Kennedy was important in history because of his untimely assassination which upended American history and progress, not because he was a good President in any meaningful sense of the word. “
thank you for the unvarnished truth, we get so very little of it these days. Way too much P.C. b.s.
We are as afraid to speak today as the people who lived in eastern Europe during the Commie years.