February 16, 2026….Presidents’ Day

TOP FIVE U.S. PRESIDENTS SINCE 1914 

• Franklin D Roosevelt
• Harry S. Truman
• Dwight D. Eisenhower
• Ronald Reagan
• John F Kennedy

It seems to me that many in our society today have a short-term memory in regards to American history.  People today seem to be either in one of two camps of thought with their sights on only the last eleven years or so.  I’m not one of those people.  I remember events before 2015 and I have historical books written before that fateful year.  Those events and books help shape my view on the world, with a special emphasis on American history since 1914 and its impact on the world since then.  I’ve always been fascinated with the Twentieth Century, and have been greatly disturbed by the historical events of the past eleven years.

Four of the U.S. presidents I consider to be the greatest of the last 112 years came before I was even born.  Three of the presidents were Democrats, long before the party went off the deep end back around 2015.  All of the presidents were of different eras than of recent years.  And one of the presidents came from a very different era than the other four, all four of whom came one right after the other during America’s first years as a world leader for freedom and democracy. The first of these men was president for four consecutive terms…for pretty much an entire generation…

Franklin D Roosevelt led America through two of its greatest challenges, the Great Depression and World War II.  The country emerged victorious and in great economic shape soon after his death in 1945.  These two things happened before television had any impact on society, thus proving that television is not necessary for either prosperity or for peace in a turbulent world.  Despite the poor economy that remained throughout the 1930’s, FDR was reelected in a landslide in 1936 immediately after four years in office…and twice more after that.  Roosevelt had no problem winning four presidential elections.

Harry S. Truman made one of the most fateful decisions in human history to speed up the end of the deadliest war the world had ever seen.  He was the only man in history to have the authority to use the deadliest weapon ever created along with no other countries for four years.  His decision to not use any of those weapons during the Korean War and to fire a popular general for defying his orders in order to limit the war were the best for the country and for world history.  Truman led America during the post-war years into its new leadership role on the world stage and set in motion a path to victory in the earliest years of the Cold War.

Dwight D. Eisenhower ran as a Republican, but put his country before his political party in how he ran the country.  Following Truman’s presidency as America’s new leadership role on the world stage, Eisenhower helped lead the country through some of the early years of the Cold War.  He was reelected in a landslide in 1956 immediately after four years in office.  Also, Eisenhower refused to buckle under pressure from his own political party to lower taxes.  Considering his responsibilities (and success) during World War II, Eisenhower had the moral authority (unlike anyone else) to soak the rich to keep the nation from going much further into debt after its enormous debt that piled up during World War II.  And that’s just what he did.  And for this, I include Eisenhower on my list of top five U.S. presidents since 1914.  (According to a book by William Hitchcock, all paid much higher income taxes in the 1950’s than what people have been getting taxed since 1981.) 

Not many historians would likely place Eisenhower on such a highly ranked list of U.S. presidents, but…too bad.  I don’t mind standing alone sometimes.

Though I commend Eisenhower for his high taxes during the 1950’s, society has changed since the 1950’s.  Most notably, television has become a more dominant and detrimental force, much more so than it was during the 1950’s.  Television entered the political ring in 1971 and has only grown as a destructive force over the decades.  In addition, society has ignored the signs from the Almighty during the 1980’s about what to do with television.  Also, Lyndon Johnson’s spectacular failure of a program known as the Great Society came after the 1950’s, thus creating a much bigger problem, a huge problem that it was created to solve, ironically. 

Different eras of time call for different policies.  Thus how I can include both Eisenhower and Reagan on the same list, but for having different economic policies.  Reagan’s economic policies of cutting taxes as a way of sticking it to those who believed (and still believe) in growing the size of the federal government is just what the country needed at the time.  He was reelected in 1984 in a landslide immediately after four years in office.  Reagan also helped speed up the end of the Cold War with America emerging victorious soon after his last term in office.  And one more note about him, Reagan would hardly recognize the Republican party of the last decade.

John F Kennedy’s handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis was both bold and cautious, ultimately wise enough to avoid a nuclear war that would have devastated the world.  The world escaped destruction.  Kennedy had more to do with that than any other politician who ever held any kind of power.  Kennedy’s words during his inaugural address are the very antitheses to socialism and his vision for traveling to the moon and back before the end of the 1960’s inspired history’s greatest scientific achievement.

And there you have it, my explanation for how I picked the five greatest presidents since 1914.  Thank you for reading.