historical personage—-defend the right

historical personage—-defend the right

Assume you die and go to heaven. (This essay requires a leap of faith!) Upon arrival, you are summoned before the history judges and told that whether you can stay depends on how well you defend the right to be there of Dwight Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Robert McNamara, Lyndon Johnson and Barry Goldwater. Make the case. (Remember that any good defense anticipates the points that will be raised in opposition and deals with them.) While you must make the case for the right of all of them to be there, you must also rank them in terms of whom most deserves to be there most to whom least deserves to be there. This question is wide open, but your answer should address, where relevant, the individuals’ temperaments, leadership abilities, and policies towards domestic and foreign affairs, and the materials covered in the reading, films (especially “Cold War Roadshow,” “The Fog of War,” “1964,” and “Mr. Conservative”) and lecture.