John F Kennedy
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John F. Kennedy
35th U.S. President
About
John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963) was an American politician who served as the 35th President of the United States from 1961 until his assassination near the end of his third year in office. He was often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack. John F Kennedy was the youngest person to be elected president. At the end of his presidency, John F Kennedy was also the youngest president. Prior to becoming 35th U.S. President, he served as a Democrat in both houses of the United States Congress.
JFK was regarded as a youthful symbol of a new generation of Americans, having championed the world-leading US space programme, led the country out of a recession, and supported the American Civil Rights movement. He also led America through the Cuban Missile Crisis, averting war, and was admired around the world for promoting peace and assisting less economically developed countries.
JFK remains one of the most popular presidents in US history, but his life was not without scandal. Behind closed doors, he suffered from a variety of medical conditions and had extramarital affairs, while his extended family endured a slew of tragedies and controversies throughout the twentieth century.
Timeline
Born in Brookline, Mass, U.S.
The son of Joseph P. Kennedy and John Fitzgerald (Jack) Kennedy was born on May 29, 1917, in Brookline, Massachusetts, to Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., a businessman and politician, and Rose Kennedy (née Fitzgerald), a philanthropist and socialite. His paternal grandfather, P. J. Kennedy, was a state legislator in Massachusetts. John F. Fitzgerald, Kennedy’s maternal grandfather and namesake, was a U.S. Congressman and two-term Mayor of Boston. His four grandparents were all the children of Irish immigrants. Joseph Jr., Kennedy’s older brother, and seven younger siblings: Rosemary, Kathleen, Eunice, Patricia, Robert, Jean, and Edward.
Started attending boarding schools
Kennedy started attending Choate School, a prestigious preparatory boarding school in Wallingford, Connecticut. His older brother Joe Jr. was already at Choate for two years and was a football player and leading student. Jack spent his first years at Choate in his older brother’s shadow and compensated with rebellious behavior that attracted a clique. Their most notorious stunt was exploding a toilet seat with a powerful firecracker. In the next chapel assembly, the strict headmaster, George St. John, brandished the toilet seat and spoke of certain “muckers” who would “spit in our sea”. Defiantly Kennedy took a cue and named his group “The Muckers Club”, which included roommate and lifelong friend Kirk LeMoyne “Lem” Billings.
Graduated from the Harvard University
While Kennedy was an upperclassman at Harvard, he began to take his studies more seriously and developed an interest in political philosophy. He made the dean’s list in his junior year. In 1940 Kennedy completed his thesis, “Appeasement in Munich”, about British negotiations during the Munich Agreement. The thesis eventually became a bestseller under the title Why England Slept.
Joined Navy
In 1943 was assigned to Motor Torpedo Squadron Two. He commanded a patrol torpedo boat in World War II and was gravely injured in an attack by Japanese destroyer. Post recovery he was Commanding PT 59. He was awarded Navy and Marine Corp Medal as well as Purple Heart for being wounded.
Elected to the U.S. House of Representative
In 1946, at the urging of Kennedy’s father, U.S. Representative James Michael Curley resigned his seat in Massachusetts’s heavily Democratic 11th congressional district to become mayor of Boston. Kennedy established his residence at 122 Bowdoin Street, across from the Massachusetts State House. With his father financing and running his campaign under the slogan “The New Generation Offers a Leader,” Kennedy won the Democratic primary with 42 percent of the vote, defeating ten other candidates. “With the money I spent, I could have elected my chauffeur,” his father joked after the campaign. While campaigning in and around Boston, Kennedy advocated for better housing for veterans, better health care for all, and support for organized labor’s campaign for reasonable work hours, a healthy workplace, and equal pay.
U.S. Senate
Kennedy began planning his Senate campaign in 1952 against Republican three-term incumbent Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. with the campaign slogan “KENNEDY WILL DO MORE FOR MASSACHUSETTS” as early as 1949. Joseph Kennedy once again financed his son’s candidacy, while John F. Kennedy’s younger brother emerged as an important member of the campaign as manager. To reach out to women voters, the campaign hosted a series of “teas” (sponsored by Kennedy’s mother and sisters) at hotels and parlors throughout Massachusetts. Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower won Massachusetts by 208,000 votes in the presidential election, but Kennedy defeated Lodge by 70,000 votes in the Senate race. He married Jacqueline Bouvier the following year.
Kennedy was a member of the House Education and Labor Committee and the Veterans’ Affairs Committee for six years. He focused his attention on international affairs, arguing that the Truman Doctrine was the best way to deal with the looming Cold War. He also supported public housing and was opposed to the Labor Management Relations Act of 1947, which limited labour unions’ power. Though not as outspoken as McCarthy, Kennedy supported the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, which required communists to register with the government, and he lamented the “loss of China.” Kennedy published his book, Profiles in Courage, which won a Pulitzer Prize.
Presidential Election
He narrowly defeated Republican opponent Richard Nixon, who was the incumbent vice president. Kennedy’s humor, charm, and youth in addition to his father’s money and contacts were great assets in his campaign. Kennedy’s campaign gained momentum after the first televised presidential debates in American history. He was the first Catholic elected president.
35th President of the U.S.
Kennedy’s administration included high tensions with communist states in the Cold War. As a result, he increased the number of American military advisers in South Vietnam. The Strategic Hamlet Program began in Vietnam during his presidency. In April 1961, he authorized an attempt to overthrow the Cuban government of Fidel Castro in the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion.[3] In November 1961, he authorized the Operation Mongoose, also aimed at removing the communists from power in Cuba. He rejected Operation Northwoods in March 1962, but his administration continued to plan for an invasion of Cuba in the summer of 1962.[4] The following October, U.S. spy planes discovered Soviet missile bases had been deployed in Cuba; the resulting period of tensions, termed the Cuban Missile Crisis, nearly resulted in the breakout of a global thermonuclear conflict. He also signed the first nuclear weapons treaty in October 1963. Kennedy presided over the establishment of the Peace Corps, Alliance for Progress with Latin America, and the continuation of the Apollo program with the goal of landing a man on the Moon before 1970. He also supported the civil rights movement but was only somewhat successful in passing his New Frontier domestic policies.
Assassinated in Dallas Texas
Lee Harvey Oswald, 24, was the accused assassin of US President John F. Kennedy. Oswald was a former US Marine who converted to Marxism and briefly defected to the Soviet Union. Oswald was never tried for the murder. On November 24, 1963, two days after Kennedy’s assassination, Oswald was shot to death in the basement of Dallas City Hall by Jack Ruby, a local nightclub owner with ties to the criminal underworld.
From November 1963 to September 1964, a special President’s Commission on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy, better known as the Warren Commission because it was led by Chief Justice Earl Warren, investigated the assassination. Its report concluded that neither Oswald nor Ruby “were involved in any conspiracy, domestic or foreign to assassinate President Kennedy.”
However, after a two-year investigation, a special House Select Committee on Assassinations reported in March 1979 that a second assassin may have fired a shot as well, and that there may have been a conspiracy. The evidence is still debatable.
The warren Commission
The President’s Commission on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy was established on November 29, 1963, by Johnson, who was convinced that a conspiracy was at the root of the assassination but did not want the country to be pushed into rash action against either the Soviet Union or Cuba by the growing suspicion among Americans that the killing was a communist plot. The Warren Commission, named after its chairman, Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren, was tasked with ascertaining, evaluating, and reporting the facts surrounding the assassination and death of Oswald.
After a lengthy FBI report, eyewitness and expert testimony, Kennedy’s autopsy, physical evidence, sophisticated analysis of home movies of the assassination shot by Orville Nix, Marie Muchmore, and especially Abraham Zapruder, and scientific reenactments, the commission concluded that Oswald acted alone. The resulting 888-page Warren Report concluded that Oswald fired three shots: one that entered Kennedy’s neck and exited through his throat before hitting Connally, one that hit Kennedy in the back of the head (the fatal shot), and one miss.
(The conclusion reached about the first shot, known as the “single bullet theory,” was dismissed by critics as being based on the unfathomable movements of a “magic bullet.”) Many people disagreed with these findings, claiming that there was a second shooter on the grassy knoll in Dealey Plaza as the motorcade approached, and that witnesses heard shots coming from the direction of a railroad yard beyond the knoll. However, the commission determined that neither Oswald nor Ruby were involved in a conspiracy.
John F Kennedy Less known facts
He is still the youngest president in US history.
During the Cuban Missile Crisis, he was president.
He was the country’s first Catholic president.
His marital life was marred by scandal.
He was medically disqualified due to his chronic lower back problems in army.
Jackie took her time accepting JFK’s marriage proposal.
He served in the Navy during WWII
He came from a large family
He was an award-winning author
He suffered from a variety of medical issues
On November 22, 1963, he was assassinated
Kennedy allegedly created his own spy novel, but it was never published.
Kennedy like doodling sailboats during tough sessions.
JFK’s full presidential salary was donated to charity.
Motivational Quotes
“If not us, who? If not now, when?”
“Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.”
“Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.”
“Every accomplishment starts with the decision to try.”
“The greater our knowledge increases the more our ignorance unfolds.”
“Life is never easy. There is work to be done and obligations to be met—obligations to truth, to justice, and to liberty.”
“As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest form of appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.”
“Those who dare to fail miserably can achieve greatly.”
“Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.”
“The ignorance of one voter in a democracy impairs the security of all.”
“We have the power to make this the best generation of mankind in the history of the world or make it the last.”
“Do not pray for easy lives, pray to be stronger men.”
Top Searches
What is JFK most known for ?
- John F. Kennedy was the 35th President of the United States from 1961 to 1963, and he was the youngest person elected to the position. JFK was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963, barely through his first thousand days in office, becoming the youngest President to die.
Who wrote JFK biography ?
- Ted Sorensen’s definitive, intimate, and number one national bestselling biography of JFK. In January 1953, Massachusetts rookie Senator John F. Kennedy hired a twenty-four-year-old from Nebraska on a trial basis as his Number Two legislative assistant.
What did JFK accomplish in his life ?
- John F. Kennedy, the United States’ first Roman Catholic president, inspired the idealism of “a new generation of Americans” with his charm and optimism, championed the United States space programme, and shown cool dynamic leadership during the Cuban missile crisis before being assassinated.
What was JFK last word ?
- According to reports, Jack’s final words were “My God, I’ve been hit,” but doctors say this is impossible given his condition. Historians have now determined that Jack’s final words before the fatal shot were, “No, you absolutely can’t.”
What was JFK’s famous speech ?
- Theodore Chaikin Sorensen (May 8, 1928 – October 31, 2010) was a lawyer, writer, and presidential adviser from the United States. He was a wordsmith and one of President John F. Kennedy’s closest advisers.
What is the best biography of JFK ?
- 1 JFK: Coming of Age in the American Century, 1917-1956 by Fredrik Logevall.
- 2 Prelude to Leadership: The Postwar Diary of John F. Kennedy by John F Kennedy.
- 3 Profiles in Courage by John F Kennedy.
- 4 Counselor: A Life at the Edge of History by Ted Sorensen.
- 5 The Best and the Brightest by David Halberstam.
What did JFK do in the Vietnam war ?
- Kennedy was elected President. In May 1961, JFK authorised the deployment of 500 extra Special Forces troops and military advisors to South Vietnam to aid the proWestern administration. By the end of 1962, South Vietnam had around 11,000 military advisors.
What did JFK do in the cold war ?
- JFK ordered the deployment of 500 Special Forces personnel and military advisers to South Vietnam in May 1961. They joined 700 Americans who had already been dispatched by the Eisenhower administration. In February 1962, President Kennedy dispatched an extra 12,000 military advisers to assist the South Vietnamese army.
Who assassinated JFK ?
- He was hit by two rifle rounds while riding in a motorcade and died shortly after being admitted to the hospital. Lee Harvey Oswald was charged with the murder.
How much money did Aristotle Onassis leave Jackie Kennedy ?
- They married on Skorpios, Onassis’ private Greek island, on October 20, 1968. Mrs. Kennedy was promised $3 million by Onassis to replace her Kennedy trust fund, which she would lose due to her remarriage. Following her death, Onassis would get $150,000 every year for the rest of her life.
John F Kennedy Photos
