Richard Nixon was a better president than John F. Kennedy

The accomplishments of Kennedy have a bit more to them than what my opponent has mentioned. Here are my rebuttals to some of them."[Kennedy] passed executive orders that banned discrimination based on race."This sounds good, but in the area of civil rights as a whole, he was somewhat lacking. Kennedy got elected with promises of supporting the civil rights movement, but failed to follow through on them. To claim that Kennedy was a major proponent of civil rights is almost laughable. His famed "accomplishment" of forcing the integration of TWO black students into the University of Alabama was a symbolic victory, though it pales in comparison with Nixon's forced integration of 70% of Southern public schools. What he did do in the area of civil rights was reluctant and slow. Many blacks who had elected him grew tired and frustrated with waiting and began to turn to violent protest, something MLK tried to reign in. The executive orders he passed only happened because of Attorney General Robert Kennedy's persuasion.While campaigning for the 1960 election, he and his opponent Nixon (who made similar promises) were competing for the endorsements of major figures in the movement, among them Jackie Robinson and Martin Luther King. Skeptical of his promises, Robinson was even asked by Kennedy what it would take to get his support, to which he replied "Look, Senator, I don't want any of your damn money!" (this is from the Rampersad biography of Robinson). He then went on to campaign for Nixon, who he and many others believed was more reliable. Before the election, Martin Luther King refused to meet with Kennedy several times for the same reasons and only did so reluctantly. When Kennedy made his now famous phone call to King's wife while King was in jail, it was only to win his support afterwards. When the call made the news, the Kennedy's were terrified that the election had been lost by his indiscretion, though it turned out to increase his political stock among liberals and helped him narrowly win."With regards to foreign policy, he defused the Cuban Missile Crisis."This statement leaves out the fact that the crisis only took place as a result of Kennedy's failures in foreign policy. Beginning with his CIA support of the disastrous invasion of the Bay of Pigs, the presidency was marred with failure in this area. At the Vienna Summit, he was humiliated by Soviet leader Khrushchev in negotiations. His weak performance contributed to Khrushchev's decision to place missiles in Cuba. Kennedy rashly responded by publicly threatening war if the Soviets did not withdraw. This committed the U.S. to action and escalated the crisis to the brink of nuclear war, something that was totally unneccesary and foolish. Historians agree that the administration could have easily negotiated the problem through private diplomatic channels. Also, Secretary of State admitted that Cuban missiles did not even alter the nuclear balance of power and could have been ignored altogether. His "defusing" of the crisis came as a result of a pledge to not invade Cuba as well as a secret deal to remove U.S. missiles from Turkey. His further attempts to have Castro assassinated by the CIA were denounced by Lyndon Johnson as “a damned Murder Inc. in the Caribbean.”"It also goes without saying that he gave some of the most effective and remembered speeches in American history." This is true, but effective for what reasons? As mentioned before, his speech threatening the Soviets over Cuba nearly destroyed the world in nuclear war. His other speeches, while symbolically significant and patriotically rousing, were just that: speeches. Whatever positive effect they achieved for their eloquence and grandeur should instead be attributed to his speech-writers for whom he was simply the face-man. Nixon, on the other hand, is able to be remembered for more doing than talking.For the above reasons, I argue that the statement, "The two were relatively equal in terms of accomplishments," is misguided and false. "Nixon's legacy of Watergate damaged society enough to make his legacy ultimately worse than Kennedy's." Nixon's involvement in Watergate was undoubtedly corrupt, but it is at least rivaled by the corruption of Kennedy's administration. The mainstream media was as loyal to the Kennedys as it was hateful towards Nixon. Had journalists actually reported on the corruption that they no doubt were aware of, Kennedy would have surely been impeached. He had deep ties with the Chicago mob and even shared a mistress with mob boss Sam Giancana, Judith Campbell Exner. In addition to Exner, his mistresses included Marilyn Monroe, Danish journalist Inga Arvad, and several White House interns. Documents that would have revealed further corruption during the administration were destroyed by the Kennedy family following the assassination. Had all of this come to the light, any damage Nixon did to people's trust in government would have already taken place. It should also be noted that Watergate was a failure and did not even accomplish anything; in spite of this, Nixon won the election in the 6th biggest landslide in American history, with a majority in 49 states.On a side note, I would like to thank my opponent for pointing out my sources for the first round; it's much appreciated!Sources:http://www.huffingtonpost.com...http://seekingalpha.com...http://www.saturdayeveningpost.com...http://en.wikipedia.org...http://en.wikipedia.org...http://www.theamericanconservative.com...http://en.wikipedia.org...