LOUISVILLE, Kentucky (AP) -- From engaging in sexual relations with an intern to letting the Vietnam War escalate, U.S. presidents have been blamed for some egregious errors.
So who had the worst blunder? President James Buchanan, for failing to avert the Civil War, according to a survey of presidential historians organized by the University of Louisville's McConnell Center.
The survey's top 10 presidential blunders were announced Saturday during a President's Day weekend conference called "Presidential Moments."
"We can probably learn just as much -- or maybe even more -- by looking at the mistakes rather than looking at why they were great," said political scientist and McConnell Center Director Gary Gregg.
Scholars who participated said Buchanan did not do enough to oppose efforts by Southern states to secede from the Union before the Civil War.
The second worst mistake, the survey found, was Andrew Johnson's decision just after the Civil War to side with Southern whites and oppose improvements in justice for Southern blacks beyond abolishing slavery.
"We continue to pay" for Johnson's errors, wrote Michael Les Benedict, an Ohio State University history professor emeritus.
Lyndon Johnson earned the No. 3 spot by allowing the Vietnam War to intensify, Gregg said.
Where does Bill Clinton's Monica Lewinsky scandal rank? Many scholars said it belonged at No. 10, saying that it probably affected Clinton's presidency more than it did American history and the public.
The rest of the top 10 blunders:
4: Woodrow Wilson's refusal to compromise on the Treaty of Versailles after World War I.
5: Richard Nixon's involvement in the Watergate cover-up.
6: James Madison's failure to keep the United States out of the War of 1812 with Britain.
7: Thomas Jefferson's Embargo Act of 1807, a self-imposed prohibition on trade with Europe during the Napoleonic Wars.
8: John F. Kennedy allowing the Bay of Pigs Invasion that led to the Cuban Missile Crisis.
9: Ronald Reagan and the Iran-Contra Affair, the effort to sell arms to Iran and use the money to finance an armed anti-communist group in Nicaragua.
I'd sure like to know what school these clowns took history at . They only got 1 right . ( in my humble but correct opinion ) .
#9 Reagan / contras - fighting communism in our back yard , the shame of it all ! It would have been so much better to stay out of it completely , I mean who cares if a 3rd world country surrounded by other 3rd world countries and only 50 feet from the Panama Canal goes red ? I'm sure the Com.s woulda stopped there . They would have zero interest in spreading the book of Marx thru out Central America.
#8 allowing the Bay of Pigs which led to the missle crisis ? WTF kinda logic is that ? are they saying Moscow would never have thought about deploying missles in Havana until AFTER we tried to take out Fidel ?
also - it sure was nice of JFK to ALLOW Cuban natives to try and get their country back , guess the French should thank FDR for ALLOWING them to kill nazis too.
#7 embargo of Europe - ya , sell stuff to all of em , never mind the fact that who-ever wins will be the worlds biggest superpower , and they might hold just a bit of a grudge against who-ever helped the loser..
#6 - war of 1812 If someone is itching for a fight , give em one. We either stand up for ourselves at the drop of a hat or we don't. Time for England to learn the hard way they ain't the only boat on the water.
#5 this one I have to agree with
# 4 yes and no , hard to help a country that just killed a lot of people , you don't want them to gain the strength to do it again. Them kids is hungry , and they didn't do nothing to nobody.
#3 LBJ - and his other choice was .... leave a strugling democracy to the care of the boys in red.
#2 this outta be a no brainer agree with em but...from the political view point keep in mind that the civil war just ended , the South was in ruin ,you're trying to put the Union back together and you don't treat American Indians any better. So you throw the South a bone.
From the moral aspect , it's worse than a "blunder " , and whats even worse is that the next 10 or so Presidents did nothing to change it. You can add those names to the list.
# 1 - ( my favorite ) Buchanan - define enough . how much could he do ? we were barely states and barely united.
almost forgot - # 10 - Bill , thou not his greatest moment as President there are many more who have done much worse . this is more like tarnish image stuff.
