Best Cold War President
qwerty:
I say the man who ended it all...
opebo:
Nixon, Eisenhower, Reagan, so many great ones to choose from. But I chose Truman. Why? Because he used nuclear weapons.
Btw, the worst were LBJ and Carter.
Niles Caulder:
Tough choice; but my finger clicked on Nixon first so I'll try to make that case:
He inhereted the absolute worst state of affairs during the Cold War and transformed the world around it into a strategy for success where time was on our side. He was a most competant executor of foreign policy at the time we needed it the most, and despite problems (some self-inflicted) he ended the Vietnam quagmire in the sanest possible fashion, undeterred by controversy, all the while having built a box around the Soviets with the help of the Chinese.
Make no mistake, Watergate is a serious detraction from the quality of his administration's foreign policy, too. The crisis rippled throughout the world, including sealing the doom of South Vietnam. The malaise that followed until Reagan was a direct fallout of Watergate as well. If Cater was a step backwards, it was Nixon's fault he could ever conceivably have been elected.
But the fact that Reagan could STILL deliver the knockout blow is a testemant to Nixon's accomplishment despite the problems that weighed it down. Even in this troubled time of change, we're still living on some major geopolitical tectonic plates that Nixon forged under next-to-impossible conditions.
Really, though, I could convince myself the greater Cold War titan was Truman. But despite the importance of the bomb decisively ending the war sooner, by far his greatest accomplishment was the Security-by-Fusion of Western Europe. No single feat can compare in its importance to our security or standing in the world.
Ike was no slouch, either--but the devestation we helped inflict upon Central and South America is seriously bad karma we'll still have to pay off.
Keystone Phil:
The Gipper
Schmitz in 1972:
Who voted for Carter???
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