Who would you consider the President of the 60s and the 70s?

[Reaganfan]

1900s: Roosevelt
1910s: Wilson
1920s: Coolidge
1930s: Roosevelt
1940s: Roosevelt
1950s: Eisenhower
1960s: ?
1970s: ?
1980s: Reagan
1990s: Clinton
2000s: Bush

The 60s saw four Presidents in office, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon. Kennedy seems to have dominated..but Johnson was President for a longer period of time.

The 70s would have been easy, had Nixon not gotten into scandal as he would have served until just three short years before the 80s. However, since history changed that legacy, the 70s saw three Presidents, Nixon, Ford and Carter. Who would have dominated? I'd guess Nixon...but Carter and Ford played important roles.

[Robespierre's Jaw]

1960's: John F. Kennedy

Despite Kennedy only being in the White House for more than 2 years, he represented a new generation and a new era, the 1960's. Sure Johnson and Nixon were political leaders in the 1960's, they did not represent the '60's generation. Kennedy did.

1970's: Richard M. Nixon

What can I say, the 1960's ended when Richard Nixon was elected in 1968 and the 1970's began. Ford and Carter did have their impacts on the 1970's but Nixon's was far greater. The first US President to go to communist China to the first to resign.

[Padfoot]

I'd say Johnson for the 60's and Nixon for the 70's.

Johnson is the president most associated with Vietnam IMO and he was largely responsible for forcing the Civil Rights Agenda through Congress.

Nixon overshadows both Ford and Carter.  After all, his actions are responsible for putting both of them in the Oval Office.

[jokerman]

Kennedy, for embodying the hope of the 60s; Nixon, for embodying the cynicism of the 70s.

[Frodo]

LBJ for the Sixties; Jimmy Carter for the Seventies. 

[Joe Biden 2020]

LBJ for the 60s and Nixon and Carter both for the 70s.

I think JFK was the bridge between the 1950s America and 1960s America (even though Ike served until '61), but Johnson had the biggest impact on the 60s with the Civil Rights and Vietnam and healing the nation after a tragic assassination of a beloved leader.

I consider there to have been two "1970's", the early and the middle/latter.  The early 1970s was Richard Nixon and the latter 1970s was Ford and Carter.  Nixon embodied the bridge between the 60s and 70s.  Watergate was the dominant issue of most of the 1970's, but was overshadowed by the rise of Saddam Hussein and our problems with Iran.  Carter also saw the beginning of the demise of the Soviet Union, which was propelled by Reagan in the 1980s and completed by Bush in 1991.

Ford also played a major role in the 1970's by trying to heal the nation again after the big integrity vacuum that the Oval Office saw, though I think it was Reagan who allowed us to move on from the Nixon troubles and start looking toward the turn of the century and the rise of technology.

Incidentally, I think the humiliation of the Republican Party by Nixon's resignation ultimately led to the rise of Ronald Reagan who took us through the 1980s.

Carter was the bridge from the 1970's into the 1980's and then Reagan changed America's thought pattern from the downfall of Nixon to the downfall of the Soviet Union.

I also think the rise of Reagan in the 1970s into his administration in the 1980s led to the rise of the Clintons in 1988 that lasted through the present.  Bush 41 was just the place holder between the Reagan era and the Clinton era.

[NDN]

Unfortunately, in reality the answer is Johnson. The Great Society, Vietnam, etc. under him epitomizes the 1960s. Kennedy represents the 1960s that could have been but got (literally) shot down. And even then he only started to improve after the Cuban Missile Crisis. As it stands I think we'd actually be better off overall if Nixon won in 1960 instead.

[Nym90]

Johnson for the 60s and Nixon for the 70s. Although the 70s as a decade do not really have a clear identity, it really was multiple eras.

BTW, the same was true of the 40s. Truman definitely gives Roosevelt a run for his money as President of the decade, considering he served only a few months less in the decade. The World War 2 half of the decade obviously was very different than the post war half.

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

60s is definitely Kennedy

70s I'm torn on though.  My gut reaction is to say Nixon because of his scandal, but Carter and his Carterness caused some problems and issues that helped Reagan get elected.  I don't know for the 70s.

[Reaganfan]

Johnson for the 60s and Nixon for the 70s. Although the 70s as a decade do not really have a clear identity, it really was multiple eras.

BTW, the same was true of the 40s. Truman definitely gives Roosevelt a run for his money as President of the decade, considering he served only a few months less in the decade. The World War 2 half of the decade obviously was very different than the post war half.

Yeah...infact...I'd consider it as Roosevelt for the 30s and Truman for the 40s....even though Roosevelt dominated much of those two decades.

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

I'd call the 1960s the era of LBJ. You immediately think of Civil Rights and the Vietnam War.

The 1970s you think of high inflation, oil shortages, hostage crises, and dirty air. I think of Carter.

[Хahar 🤔]

Johnson for the '60s. Though there was that hope that people have talked about, the '60s was, IMO, civil rights and Vietnam first and foremost.

However, I think RFK represents the '60s more than either President. The hope, the war, the assassination; it was the epitome of the 1960s, which was strongest at the very end of the decade.

To understand the 1960s, you need to understand so much; the '50s, Nikita Khrushchev, Berlin, the Beatles, the list goes on and on. But the '70s are the '60s, but with much much more added on; I've always been amazed by my total lack of knowledge about the '70s. But from what I do know, the President of the '70s must be Nixon; Watergate defined the era, as did the idea of "Tricky Dick".

Of course, this comes from a 13-year-old.

[Kaine for Senate '18]

1900s: Roosevelt
1910s: Wilson
1920s: Coolidge
1930s: Roosevelt
1940s: Roosevelt
1950s: Eisenhower
1960s: Kennedy
1970s: Nixon
1980s: Reagan
1990s: Clinton
2000s: Bush