Reply #30: Like most presidents, he was driven by events that changed the nation. [View All]

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

Kennedy, himself, didn't do much. But, the Civil Rights movement had awakened a large segment of the populace that change was needed.

The unfolding catastrophe in Vietnam was proving that blind "patriotism" in the guise of "anti-communism" was lousy foreign policy and the way America was pursuing it was as murderous as what we were supposedly fighting.

The anti-war movement took it's lead from the Civil Rights movement after Kennedy's death.

America was losing it's well-applied varnish and being exposed for what it was/is: Just another aggressive, racist, neo-colonialist, regime that paid lip service to the ideals it was founded on.

Kennedy became an icon because, as a politician, he was perceived as an agent of change. After he died it was possible to make assumptions on what he might have done.