One reason he was better than Johnson, who may have been a better manipulator, and Nixon, perhaps a better underhanded cad, and Reagan, and Bushes 1 and 2, is that he thought, and he reflected on such issues as high principles and optimum solutions. While he was not without serious error, such as the Bay of Pigs, he had and showed some virtues of character that have scarcely been seen in Washington since. He was far more articulate than either Nixon or Johnson (or the Bushes or Carter or Reagan, for that matter) which meant people could understand what he thought, also, instead of feeling he was obsessively hiding things. Even when he may have been hiding things!


A