President Kennedy

President John Fitzgerald Kennedy was the most effective and influential president involved in the cold war. In his youth, he was involved in WWII and fought valiantly even though he was injured. Because of this, he got some insight into the war business. Once coming back, he studied law and moved himself up to being president. He was most influential due to the fact that he helped prevent a larger war that would soon emerge not only in Cuba, but the whole world as well. By war, what I speak about would be the nuclear war that was inevitable in its course. Kennedy prevented the war in the sense that he forced the Soviet Union to remove its missiles stationed in Cuba.

While he was an influential president, he also did not agree with some of the presidents. The first president would definitely be President Eisenhower. He felt that the plans he had done were too rash and crazy, and would probably cause more damage than good. He in turn modified some of Eisenhower's plans. One would be the flexible response meaning that the US would retaliate in a manner that seemed suitable for an occasion. It did not necessarily mean that they would use missiles. Same goes for Nixon, who attempted to become friends with the Soviets. The whole purpose is to end communism, however, his plan was to both visit and become friends with them.