[Dynasty]

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JFK is wildly overrated in every dept.

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About ten years ago, I came across a book which attempted to rank the 500 most important people in world history. I can't remember the title or author of the book but it seemed well thought out. #1 on the list was Jesus Christ. #2 was Mohammed.

Among the 500, there were three U.S. Presidents- Washington, Lincoln, and Kennedy. Presidents Washington and Lincoln made it for some fairly obvious reasons.

President Kennedy was a unique situation. The author dismissed all of Kennedy's accomplishments as nothing special from a long term historical perspective with the exception of one. The author even commented on how Kennedy's popularity after death has inflated his legacy.

The one exception was Kennedy's use of his political power to drive forward the U.S.'s space program and goal of landing a man on the moon. The author thought, quite correctly I think, that when looking back at the 20th century from the year 3000 or so that even the World Wars will not be seen as any more important than we see the Crusades or some other long-over war today. But, landing a man on the moon is forever going to be seen as the first giant leap towards mankind moving into outer space permanently.

The author concluded that President Kennedy was the indespensible man in the moon race. Neil Armstong? He was just the astronaut who got the lucky seat. The scientists were plentiful but nobody was absolutely necessary. The same goes for everybody else involved in the moon race except Kennedy. Kennedy was the man who set the goal and greased the political and economic wheels necessary to get the massive job done. And, he was the only man who could do it.

When trying to look at the 20th century from the perspective of somebody in the year 3000, I think the arguement is interesting.

Washington and Lincoln were ranked fairly high. I think they were both in the top 100. Kennedy was at least in the bottom half.