America’s Greatest Democratic Presidents of the 20th Century

Woodrow Wilson’s presidency was monumentally consequential, but it is not without its critics, nor is the man himself. Even as Wilson has come to be viewed as one of America’s greatest presidents, perception of Wilson and his administration as racist have also taken hold. Despite being one of the early 20th century’s most forceful proponents of a globalized foreign policy, Wilson’s personal views and comments were ardently anti-immigration, and Wilson’s administration entrenched and expanded segregation in the federal government.

For over a decade, President Roosevelt threw everything he had at the Great Depression, and then threw everything the country had at the Axis powers during World War II. Ultimately, he succumbed to illness in the middle of his fourth term, just before the Allies won the war. The new president, Harry Truman, had to usher America through victory in Europe in his first month and decide to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki a few months later, but the end of World War II produced only the first of many consequential decisions Truman would face during his nearly 8 years in office. As president, Truman would lay the groundwork for the next 50 years of American foreign policy, as the architect of Cold War containment, the man who signed off on the Marshall Plan, and the commander-in-chief during much of the Korean War. He would also be the president who finally integrated the military, a crucial step on the way to full civil rights for the country’s minorities. 

Had Lyndon Johnson’s presidency included just his domestic agenda, he would have unquestionably been one of America’s greatest presidents. Unfortunately, as he was engineering a new social contract at home, he was ramping up American military participation in a tiny country thousands of miles away in Southeast Asia. For a man who accomplished so much at home, it’s ironic and tragic that his presidency and legacy were permanently marred by Vietnam.