John F. Kennedy and Leadership

This study will examine the qualities of leadership demonstrated by President John F. Kennedy. The study will focus on both personal and political strengths which allowed Kennedy to effectively and imaginatively exercise leadership in domestic and foreign affairs.

It has often been said that Kennedy was more style than substance, and that, in any case, his brief thousand days in office prevented him from doing anything substantial in either the economic or the foreign realm while in office. Some analysts grant that he averted nuclear war in the Cuban Missile Crisis, but he is just as often criticized for his handling of that event. He is almost universally criticized, on the other hand, for the fiasco known as the Bay of Pigs. While he is given credit for advancing the cause of civil rights, he is also criticized for having stalled action in that area until it was no longer possible to do so and he absolutely had to involve the Presidency.

It is certainly true that Kennedy was in office for less than three years and obviously did not have the time to demonstrate his leadership fully. However, he did accomplish enough and set in motion enough trends and policies to allow us to argue that he was indeed an effective leader, and would have likely developed into an even greater leader had he lived and been re-elected.

The personal power of a leader is crucial to his carrying out his policies, and Kennedy undeniably possessed such personal power. However, the same can be sa

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federal government against the state in a confrontation with potentially disastrous consequences, Kennedy stood his ground: Shortly after midnight [on September 29, 1962], the President ordered the Secretary of Defense (1) to enforce the court orders [that Meredith be admitted]; (2) "to use such of the armed forces of the united States as he may deem necessary;" and (3) to nationalize the Mississippi National Guard" (Bernstein 82). Violence did occur, two people were killed, but Meredith was admitted and the civil rights struggle moved on, culminating in the civil rights bill shoved through the Congress by Johnson and by the urgent national need to fulfill Kennedy's efforts. Kennedy showed leadership in the economic arena by guiding a major income tax cut through the House. It was expected that the Senate Finance Committee would conclude hearings on the bill on November 27, 1963, but the President was murdered on November 22 (Bernstein 159). In the fight for continuing New Deal social programs, federal aid to education, and the fight against structural unemployment, Bernstein reports that Kennedy did not win every political battle with Congress, to be certain, but he did demonstrate increasing knowledge and skill in mane

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