Most people think his greatest action as president was the Missle Crisis. I don't disagree he handled an extremely dangerous situation with great care and a very useful mix of secret and public machinations.

Nearly as important was his growing support of the expanding civil rights issue. He helped change the way we view racial issues in the USA. With 20/20 hindsight it seasy to say there were better paths he should have taken. That may be true. But he chose a from which every president since Lincoln has cowered. He did the right thing even though it would likely have cost him his reelection.

I also like his tax cut. I'd like another one of those, too.

His downsides were grave, the Bay of Pigs invasion, the unwarranted build-up of troops in Vietnam and complicity in the assassination of the So Vietnamese president. What a way to encourage democracy.