John F. Kennedy vs. Jimmy Carter: Who was the better president?

[dw93]

The former is the 2nd most overrated President of the 20th Century (after Reagan) while the later is somewhat underrated. Kennedy was still the better President but Carter was/is by far a better person.

[dw93]

Carter didn't bring us to the brink of nuclear war.

There is not a single problem the Middle East has had (with the exception of some Israel/Palestine stuff) since 1979 that cannot directly be traced to the awfulness of the Carter Administration towards Iran.

I'd argue it could be traced back to 1953 when a Democratically elected government was taken out in a coup. What specifically could Carter have done to prevent the revolution? Was he supposed to bomb Iran after the hostages were taken?

[dw93]

Carter didn't bring us to the brink of nuclear war.

There is not a single problem the Middle East has had (with the exception of some Israel/Palestine stuff) since 1979 that cannot directly be traced to the awfulness of the Carter Administration towards Iran.

I'd argue it could be traced back to 1953 when a Democratically elected government was taken out in a coup. What specifically could Carter have done to prevent the revolution? Was he supposed to bomb Iran after the hostages were taken?

Anyone who knows anything about modern Iranian history knows that Operation Ajax played only a supporting role in the coup of 1953. The fact is that there were significant and powerful forces in Iran which preferred the Shah to the prime minister, including the Islamists in power now.

Anyways, the Carter Administration did seemingly everything they could to delegitimize the Shah when he was at an extremely vulnerable point in his power, and when various nefarious leftist groups (both religion and secular) were working to bring him and down and instill their own dictatorship. Every Iranian American I know (and I know a lot) look at Carter as being one of the worst presidents in American history because of how he played a key role in creating not only the mess in Iran, but in the entire Middle East.

If we're talking the Middle East as a whole, I think Dubya was the President of the last 50 years most responsible for the mess.