Whilst I don't disagree with a lot you said - I differ on one thing and make a point on another
"but his message and sincerity touched enough Americans who knew they had been shafted for decades" - I completely agree - IMO - he harnessed the anger -------- beautifully - but, the problem is - he's the exact same that they hate ----------- he's in crap up to his eyeballs - might be different crap - but, it's crap.
On Kennedy - hmmmm - maybe, maybe not ----------- I believe that things were dark before Kennedy -
but, I have a particular distaste for Kennedy --
Kennedy followed on from Eisenhower with the Vietnam system hatred --
ok - I could see that as foolish - and, I would not judge him as bad for that - just foolish.
But -- this is where I completely fall out with Kennedy -
he was smart enough to learn that Vietnam was unwinnable ------- as far as I know - the first American President who learnt that -
but, he FULLY intended in staying in Vietnam until his reelection ------ 1 year and 59 days away from his assination
Now - the ONLY reason why he stayed in Vietnam (even if he intended to pull out after reelection) - was that he thought that he could never get reelected if he pulled the troops out and finished the war.
To me - that's unforgivable. That's at least (and, probably a lot more) - 1 year and 2 months of death and destruction that could have been avoided - thousands of families torn apart - real people.
Now - Johnson also stayed in there - and, he too knew full well that Vietnam was unwinnable ----but, he wasn't the first to realise that ------ Kennedy was.
Then, things just went from bad to worse from there - a very ugly place in our history.
