Kennedy and Eisenhower Reflection

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Quiz 1 Question #1: Compare and Contrast JFK and IKE. Both Eisenhower and JFK were affected to various degrees by the previous administrations of FDR and Harry S. Truman. Kennedy’s leadership style adhered more closely to that of FDR than did Ike’s.While there were similarities, the individual leadership styles of these two presidents could not have been more different. Their basic forms of leadership can be broken down into formal and informal styles and their foreign policy being based upon either a symmetric or asymmetric approach. The purposes of the two presidents were broadly reflected in the adoption of their various policy decisions, as well as their individual responses to the issues of their particular administrations. The major issues faced by these two presidential administrations were the “offspring” born of the Cold War. These included; the spread of communism and mutual nuclear proliferation, referred to as the “Arms Race”. The Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations held diametrically opposed views of policy legislation. Kennedy was the youthful representative of the “New Frontier” generation. Free love was in the air and the world was full of hope and change. Eisenhower, on the other hand, represented traditional conservative values and maintenance of the status quo. These factors, among others, formed the backdrop of their formation of public policy. Ike was concerned with a post- WWII, solid, interstate highway system and maintaining a balanced budget. Kennedy was deeply concerned with the question of civil rights and the social condition. Perhaps no other two comparative administrations have characterized so sharply, a temporal division between the past and the future. Where Eisenhower closed the door on WWII and a violent hate filled past, JFK reopened it onto a “New Frontier.” Question #2: How did the 1950’s encourage the 1960’s
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