He liked puppies…
… had a knack for slapstick comedy, and his administration handled the 1976 swine flu outbreak quite well, considering.
On a less facetious note, in absolute terms there was SALT II and the Helsinki Accords (good) but also stuff like NSDM 314 (WTF). To be fair, most of the messes he had to deal with he had inherited from Nixon. Which wasn’t just Vietnam. Then again, he was one of the men that had enabled Nixon to become President in the first place. Quite possibly he prevented Reagan becoming President four years sooner and those four years were critical regarding détente policy (and laying the groundwork for the stumbling stones that the Eastern bloc would trip over and smash itself to bits on later). And Reagan being in charge when the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan took place could have turned out needlessly exciting.
Anyway, he made close friends with Jimmy Carter after losing the election, so he can’t have been a total bastard.
In relative terms? Given the benchmark in presidential comparisons established between 2016 and 2020? No need to elaborate on this, I think.
