The Atlantic Monthly recently published a list of the top 100 most influential figures in American history. The list includes people who had positive and negative impacts on American history. For example, Martin Luther King is number eight on the list for his civil rights work.
His dream of racial equality is still elusive, but no one did more to make it real.
At the same time, John C. Calhoun is number 58 on the list for his defense of slavery.
The voice of the antebellum South, he was slavery’s most ardent defender.
One key person in American History was somehow excluded from the list: John F. Kennedy. When you look at some of the other people who made the list, it seems very likely that the exclusion was not accidental.
More on the other side...
Many other presidents are on the list:
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (#4)
He said, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself," and then he proved it.
Harry S. Truman (#21)
An accidental president, this machine politician ushered in the Atomic Age and then the Cold War.
Dwight D. Eisenhower (#28)
He won a war and two elections, and made everybody like Ike.
Lyndon B. Johnson (#44)
His brilliance gave us civil-rights laws; his stubbornness gave us Vietnam.
Richard M. Nixon (#99)
He broke the New Deal majority, and then broke his presidency on a scandal that still haunts America.
Ronald Reagan (#17)
The amiable architect of both the conservative realignment and the Cold War’s end.
Dating back to World War II through the Clinton presidency, only three presidents were excluded from the list: Kennedy, Ford and Carter. I can see a reason to exclude Gerald Ford. He was never elected and didn't do much aside from pardoning Nixon. And Jimmy Carter wasn't a great president (although he is the only one to have won a Nobel Peace Prize). But putting an American on the moon (at least starting the program) and averting a nuclear war should have put Kennedy high on the list. And let's not forget some famous quotes from JFK.
Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.
We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.
JFK even had his own coin, albeit a 50 cent piece. Where is the Nixon currency? What denomination does LBJ appear on? And why isn't Harry Truman on the ten dollar bill?
And I don't even want to get into the other people who appear on the list, but here's a quick sample:
Walt Disney (#26)
Joseph Smith (#52)
P.T. Barnum (#67)
Brigham Young (#74)
Louis Armstrong (#79)
Benjamin Spock (#87)
I suggest you see the list for yourself. It is unbelieveable that Kennedy is not on the list. And if neagtive impact also qualifies people for the Atlantic Monthly most influential Americans, George W. Bush should be included because of the damage he has done to our country.