In the political history of the United States, John F. Kennedy and Dwight D Eisenhower are two of the most indelible and influential presidents and were living legends in their time. Despite radical differences in both leadership style and approach, each was widely applauded and forged a lasting premonition on the psyche of American citizens and sociopolitical institutions. There are strong contrasts linked to the two presidents. Kennedy as a liberal visionary and herald of a new frontier full of hope and strengthened security for the future; Eisenhower as a faithful bastion of rigid traditional and conventional American values. This article will examine the areas of leadership styles and more specifically the foreign and defense policy structures of both presidents. Leadership Styles Both Eisenhower and Kennedy were influenced to varying degrees in governance matters by the previous administrations of Harry Truman and Franklin Roosevelt. However, Kennedy's leadership style was more closely related to FDR than to Eisenhower. Although there were several corresponding points of view, the discrete and idiosyncratic values ​​and leadership styles of the two presidents could not have been so dissimilar. Their primary forms of leadership can be classified into formal and informal styles, while their foreign policy is based on the foundation of a symmetric or asymmetric approach. Essentially, every nation's president has a purpose behind his presidency, characterized by an unalterable commitment. Eisenhower's formal style differed markedly from Kennedy's informal administration style, characterized by intense interaction with the government. Eisenhower, through his military orientation, was more attached to a formalized, hierarchical style of i... middle of paper... post-World War II, while Kennedy focused deeply on issues of social status and civil rights. Perhaps no other comparative administration in U.S. politics has so sharply countered a temporal divide between past and future. References Moss, G. D. (2010). Vietnam: An American Ordeal (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education. Retrieved from http://devry.vitalsource.com/books/9781256086260 www.whitehouse.gov/presidents. Bose, M. (1998). Defining and reporting presidential policy; the national security decision making of Eisenhower and Kennedy. University Station: Texas A&M University PressGreenstein, FI, (2005). Presidents, their styles and their leadership. Working Papers, Center for Public Leadership: Princeton University.Welch, J.P., (1996). Eisenhower and Kennedy: worlds apart. Final paper research. The Presidency and the Executive.