Most overrated:

Harry Truman. The Cold War began with him; the witch-hunt began with him; the bombs he ordered dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki didn’t cause him the loss of one night’s sleep (to quote him). It is said Harry Truman grew in the Presidency. The sad truth is we, as a people, diminished to his size.

Most underrated:

Estes Kefauver. Though he was from Tennessee, he refused to sign the Southern Manifesto. At a moment of Cold War hysteria, he spoke out for peace and understanding. Intellectuals, to a great extent, ridiculed him as they paid homage to Adlai Stevenson. The latter went along with JFK’s Bay of Pigs fiasco and accepted humiliation. Kefauver under no circumstances would have exhibited such spinelessness. Kefauver might have been Lincolnian as a President.