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Whether of not JFk was a Great President remains a question mark. His Presidency only lasted a 1000 days. On the negative side of the equation stands the Bay of Pigs, The Khrushchev meeting in Vienna which directly led to the Cuban Missile Crisis, his do nothing stance on Civil Rights, the assassination of Diem in South Vietnam, and his continued escalation of American involvement in Vietnam. On the positive side of the ledger was his tempered handling of the Cuban Missile crisis and the unfulfilled promise of his August 1963 speech in which he said we all have to live in this world together, as the opening of a thaw in the Cold War. However Lee Harvey cut his Presidency short. The idealization of the JFK administration as being a "Camelot" was the work of Jackie Kennedy after the fact.


Robert Kennedy until the death of his brother was an arrogant punk. To quote someone who knew him, "He was a real dog." After his brothers death Robert was able to rise again with a sense of purpose and humility tempered by the despair that he felt. However his time was cut short and we will never know what he would have been able to accomplish.

Edward Kennedy as the sole surviving brother has continued the work of his brothers out of an emotional sense of duty as a personal memorialization of their memories. However Teddy has had an interrupted journey with a Bridge and has anethetized himself with alcohol, even into drunken debauchery in his boxer shorts in his old age. So what do we have here, a flawed lion?