Reading another topic that discussed the Cuban Missile Crisis had me thinking about our current crop of loser presidential candidates (on both loser parties).

I started wondering what would have happened if Bill Clinton were the president during the Cuban Missile Crisis. What if Giuliani were president during the Korean War. Would the Hildabeast have unleashed the dogs of war on Germany, during World War I? Would the Commucrats have cried over the ten thousand casualties the U.S. endured during D-Day? Would George Bush have nuked Japan, or would his religious convictions turn against him? Would an appeasing, surrender monkey like John Kerry actually revolt against the British monarchy, and declare an American Revolution?

Discuss, and do battle!

DIFFICULTY: Do NOT discuss the Vietnam War. That's already been beaten to death. Use other historical events.

Here's my shot across the bow...

If Clinton were president during the CMC, I have no doubt the Soviets would have parked those missiles in Cuba. Clinton wouldn't have the guts to play chicken like JFK did. Although, I doubt the Soviets would have ever used them. They already had ICBM's that could hit American targets, anyway.

Bush would not have nuked Japan. However, I don't know if he'd have the guts to go through with Operation Olympic either. I think they would have laid siege to Japan, and done the diplomacy thing, until the island nation starved. ...or until the Soviets manned up, and invaded themselves.

And John Kerry would never have gone up against the Monarchy. Not in a million years.

Yeah, because we all know that the decision to throw off the yoke of British tyranny was made by one man...

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sputterman: "Aiding the enemy? If the truth aids the enemy then we are in the wrong war."

To what extent is character something brought by the politician and to what extent does the situation instill him with it? And are the people around the president inconsequential themselves. After reading an excerpt in Newsweek last week on Truman, I think that Truman would not have chosen to recognize Israel if not for the consistent lobbying of his friend.
Some historical situations could have been handled differently and still worked out, maybe even better... The hell of it is we'll never know. I think that we could have done well to not nuke Japan- the only reason I think it was ultimately a good idea was that we saw what it would do before the Cold War... Had it been used during the Cold War... I shudder to think. And I find it to be a good character trait that many involved in the decision to nuke Japan lost sleep over it. I would be fearful of a man who didn't.

Overall even the worse presidents we remember seem to make decent decisions most of the time... And we have a good record for replacing every idealist with a realist to fix the fallout of failed experiments.
I tend to think that situations shape the actors at least as much as actors shape the situations. The times when specific traits are needed to solve a crisis are rare. And eventually the right person makes the way to the crisis that needs him.

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"Man lives in the sunlit world of that which he believes to be reality. But unseen by most is an underworld, a place that is just as real... but not as brightly lit... A DARK SIDE!"
-opening from Tales From the Darkside

Did JFK stop missiles in Cuba?

It's just I had to measure up Cuban missiles at san sebastian in 1976/1977 that's 15 years after the event.