Wilson dragging the US into the Great War. If we'd stayed out, the battered powers of Europe would've had to sue for peace- some bits of land would probably change hands, but the total effect wouldn't've been much. As horrible as it was that all of those people had died for nothing, consider the alternative:
-Without the US forcing a harsher end to the war, there's no Treaty of Versailles, punishing the Germans for what's essentially a massive political pileup, resulting in no economic collapse and no bitterness that lead to the rise of Hitler.
-Without Russia being dragged back in to a fight it had little to do with, Kerensky doesn't lose popular support and the Bolsheviks get crushed, resulting in no Cold War- against Russia, anyway.
-Without the Japanese getting shafted at the Versailles negotiations, they don't go whole hog into THEIR horrific bigotry- obviously Hirohito still takes power, and I doubt things would've been dandy for their neighbors, but they don't pile in with Germany and Italy. And THAT means no Indochina wars.
-Without the USSR (since it wouldn't exist) threatening India, the UK never invades Afghanistan, and thus the Russians don't, and we're spared all the damage wrought by THOSE wars.
I'm not so naive as to think everything would be sunshine and roses as a result; no doubt we'd have other forms of strikingly inhuman horror (humanity is depressingly good at those). But as it was, we wound up with a setup perfectly arranged to destroy civilization as we know it. It didn't (spoiler alert), but we came SO close SO many times...
What makes this especially egregious is that Wilson's invasion of Mexico showed him very well that he wasn't the military or the diplomatic genius he thought he was. When William Jennings Bryan repeatedly informs you to your face that you're a dumbfuck, you should probably listen. But no. He illegally invades a sovereign nation, violating pretty much every major law of war, and all because a government founded on a Constitution is inherently morally better than one that comes to power through bloodshed, which means it's better in every way for everyone involved. Then he ignored the Constitutionalist Mexicans, because they wanted political recognition of THEIR sovereignty. And it all fell apart, and boatload of people died who otherwise wouldn't've. Some mistakes are hard to predict the consequences of, but if you can't keep your borders safe from Villa's thugs and can't resist the urge to invade a country because they won't respect your rag on a stick unless you respect theirs, maybe you SHOULDN'T try to dictate to major world powers how to conduct their affairs.
In its entirety definitely Watergate, with everything preceding the break-in ("The Plumbers") and following till the resignation of "the madman Richard Nixon" (quoting Henry Kissinger). I recommend every youngster to read Woodward's and Bernstein's book "All The President's Men" to get the complete picture.
Compared to the current madman Trump, Richard Nixon at least had the decency to resign, before he could damage the country and presidency any further.
As a Mexican, I hate how Obama gave arms to the cartels. I think taking Saddam Hussein and the war in Iraq was another big mistake though, it led to the rise of ISIS and an even worse Iraq than under Hussein, yes he was bad but now it's to a poing that most Iraqis became nostalgic over him and thinking of him as a type of hero.
And the way Biden handled their exit of Afghanist was very innapropriate as well, now theTaliban even has equipment that the Americans left behind.
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Well, due to the fact it's current and has/can have ramifications, the Afghan departure and concede of Bahrain, in my opinion, was the most heinous. We agreed to do X, and we ultimately chose to do the exact opposite.
Additionally, due to the fact the US pulled it's Patriot Batteries and THAAD ballistic missile defense unit from Saudi Arabia, Asian news orgs. are sharing stories that many of our bases in the Middle East (Iraq, Kuwait, Jordan and Saudi Arabia) are defenseless. Al-Asad and Erbil being rocked by Fateh 313 and Qiam type missiles this past March must've traumatized this current C&C.
Wow, hard to choose- they were all huge. However, given the huge expense in lives and money for taking Saddam out in Iraq, right now I'd have to say that was. That said, transferring technology to China in general will one day be considered the worst screw-up by a US President (actually it was intentional and traitorous).
As much as I despise Biden's administration, I think the worse has yet to come. So I think either Nixon or Clinton. And well, Clinton didn't get impeached, even if what he did was worse. So... Nixon, if I have to be honest. But Biden is still PRETTY f*cking bad...
Wow, these are all pretty bad. I’d argue that the Afghan departure was worse than Saigon… But it’s hard to choose between the ones that have undermined America on the world stage and could lead to catastrophes vs the ones that either immediately or eventually led to a significant loss of life.
I think I’d argue the consistent blind eye to the corruption in the stock market that’s going to lead to America’s fall is a pretty consistent screw up by almost every president since JFK.
Oof, some good ones here. Going off the choices it is easily Biden's Afghan withdrawal. Followed closely by either the Iran hostage crisis or Clinton rocket technology as it possibly has led us to the hypersonic missile threat we now look at.
Of the ones in your list, the failed Bay of Pigs invasion in 1962 would be picked by history as the worst by a sitting President.
Arming our enemy with 85 billoin dollars worth of state on the art weaponry is more than incompetence. It is treason.
Trump. Pretty much his entire presidency but especially 1/6
Them are all pretty messed up, but I think Biden and enslavement of the people mentality.
He is hell bent and ending freedom in the USA
You missed all of Trumps fuckups I see. Probably because you can't have more than 10 options on a poll.
You wouldn't be able to add the others mistakes!
FDR not letting Patton march all the way to Moscow.
Well Truman stood up to China during the Korean War which forced China to get North Korea to sign the split of Korea. But China wasn't as powerful then also Biden is the biggest mistake to the US.
Trumps terrible handling of covid which we are still living with the ramifications over it today in america
Trump trying to build a wall and trying to make another country pay for it and never even finishing the wall in the first place
@Bidensucks2020 I chose "Afghan departure by Biden" because I considered his botched plan for withdrawal from Afghan as a humiliating foreign policy failure.
This post makes a lot of assumptions. Most presidents don't know what every department under them is doing. They leave it to their cabinet managers and agency heads to run a lot do this stuff.
The CEO of Wendys doesn't know there is a finger in the chili till it makes the news. Same with a lot do government stuff
Reagan plotting with Iran
Reagan selling drugs to fund right wing terorrists.
Lynden B. Johnson escalating the Vietnam War should be in this list also.
Wilson allowing the Federal Reserve to control your currency.
Trump and his goons not fighting hard enough last winter.
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