John F . Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy ( May 29 , 1917 – November 22 , 1963 ) , commonly known as " Jack " or by his initials JFK , was the 35th President of the United States , serving from January 1961 until he was assassinated in November 1963 . After military service as commander of Motor Torpedo Boats " PT - 109 " and " PT - 59 " during World War II in the South Pacific , Kennedy represented Massachusetts ' 11th congressional district in the U . S . House of Representatives from 1947 to 1953 as a Democrat . Thereafter , he served in the U . S . Senate from 1953 until 1960 . Kennedy defeated Vice President and Republican candidate Richard Nixon in the 1960 U . S . presidential election . At age 43 , he was the youngest to have been elected to the office , the second - youngest president ( after Theodore Roosevelt ) , and the first person born in the 20th century to serve as president . A Catholic , Kennedy was the only non - Protestant president , and was the only president to have won a Pulitzer Prize . Events during his presidency included the Bay of Pigs Invasion , the Cuban Missile Crisis , the Space Race — by initiating Project Apollo ( which would culminate in the moon landing ) , the building of the Berlin Wall , the African - American Civil Rights Movement , and early stages of the Vietnam War . Therein , Kennedy increased the number of military advisers , special operation forces , and helicopters in an effort to curb the spread of communism in South East Asia . The Kennedy administration adopted the policy of the Strategic Hamlet Program which was implemented by the South Vietnamese government . It involved certain forced relocation , village internment , and segregation of rural South Vietnamese from northern and southern communist insurgents . Kennedy was assassinated on November 22 , 1963 , in Dallas , Texas . Lee Harvey Oswald was accused of the crime and arrested that evening , but Jack Ruby shot and killed him two days later , before a trial could take place . The FBI and the Warren Commission officially concluded that Oswald was the lone assassin . However , the United States House Select Committee on Assassinations ( HSCA ) concluded that those investigations were flawed and that Kennedy was probably assassinated as the result of a conspiracy . Kennedy ' s controversial Department of Defense TFX fighter bomber program led to a Congressional investigation that lasted from 1963 to 1970 . Since the 1960s , information concerning Kennedy ' s private life has come to light . Details of Kennedy ' s health problems with which he struggled have become better known , especially since the 1990s . Although initially kept secret from the general public , reports of Kennedy ' s philandering have garnered much press . Kennedy ranks highly in public opinion ratings of U . S . presidents . Early life and education . John Fitzgerald Kennedy was born at 83 Beals Street in Brookline , Massachusetts on May 29 , 1917 to U . S . England Ambassador Joseph Patrick " Joe " Kennedy , Sr . ( 1888 – 1969 ) and philanthropist Rose Elizabeth Fitzgerald ( 1890 – 1995 ) . Joe was the elder son of businessman / politician Patrick Joseph " P . J . " Kennedy ( 1858 – 1929 ) and Mary Augusta Hickey ( 1857 – 1923 ) . Rose was the eldest daughter of Boston Mayor John Francis " Honey Fitz " Fitzgerald ( 1863 – 1950 ) and Mary Josephine " Josie " Hannon ( 1865 – 1964 ) . All four of his grandparents were the children of immigrants from Ireland . Jack ' s younger brothers were Robert Francis " Bobby " Kennedy ( 1925 – 1968 ) and Edward Moore " Ted " Kennedy ( 1932 – 2009 ) . Bobby and Ted both became prominent Senators . Kennedy lived in Brookline for ten years and attended Edward Devotion School , Noble and Greenough Lower School , and the Dexter School , through 4th grade . In 1927 , the family moved to 5040 Independence Avenue in Riverdale , Bronx , New York City ; two years later , they moved to 294 Pondfield Road in Bronxville , New York , where Kennedy was a member of Scout Troop 2 . Kennedy spent summers with his family at their home in Hyannisport , Massachusetts , and Christmas and Easter holidays with his family at their winter home in Palm Beach , Florida . For the 5th through 7th grade , Kennedy attended Riverdale Country School , a private school for boys . For 8th grade in September 1930 , the 13 - year - old Kennedy attended Canterbury School in New Milford , Connecticut . In late April 1931 , he required an appendectomy , after which he withdrew from Canterbury and recuperated at home . In September 1931 , Kennedy was sent to The Choate School in Wallingford , Connecticut , for his 9th through 12th grade years . His older brother , Joseph Patrick " Joe " Kennedy , Jr . ( 1915 – 1944 ) , had already been at Choate for two years , a football star and leading student . Jack spent his first years at Choate in his brother ' s shadow , and compensated for this with rebellious behavior which attracted a coterie . Their most notorious stunt was to explode a toilet seat with a powerful firecracker . In the ensuing chapel assembly , the strict headmaster , George St . John , brandished the toilet seat and spoke of certain " muckers " who would " spit in our sea " . The defiant Jack Kennedy took the cue and named his group " The Muckers Club " , which included roommate and friend Kirk LeMoyne " Lem " Billings . While at Choate , Kennedy was beset by health problems that culminated in 1934 with his emergency hospitalization at Yale – New Haven Hospital . In June 1934 he was admitted to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester , Minnesota , and diagnosed with colitis . Kennedy graduated from Choate in June 1935 . For the school yearbook , of which he had been business manager , Kennedy was voted the " most likely to succeed " . In September 1935 , he made his first trip abroad , with his parents and sister Kathleen , to London , with the intent of studying under Harold Laski at the London School of Economics ( LSE ) , as his older brother Joe had done . Ill - health forced his return to America in October 1935 , when he enrolled late and spent six weeks at Princeton University . He was then hospitalized for observation at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston . He convalesced further at the Kennedy winter home in Palm Beach , then spent the spring of 1936 ( along with his older brother Joe ) working as a ranch hand on the " Jay Six " cattle ranch outside Benson , Arizona . It is reported that ranchman Jack Speiden worked both brothers " very hard " . In September 1936 , Kennedy enrolled at Harvard College , where he produced that year ' s annual " Freshman Smoker " , called by a reviewer " an elaborate entertainment , which included in its cast outstanding personalities of the radio , screen and sports world " . He tried out for the football , golf , and swimming teams and earned a spot on the varsity swimming team . In July 1937 Kennedy sailed to France — bringing his convertible — and spent ten weeks driving through Europe with Billings . In June 1938 Kennedy sailed overseas with his father and brother Joe to work with his father , who was then Franklin D . Roosevelt ' s U . S . Ambassador to the Court of St . James ' s , at the American embassy in London . In 1939 Kennedy toured Europe , the Soviet Union , the Balkans , and the Middle East in preparation for his Harvard senior honors thesis . He then went to Czechoslovakia and Germany before returning to London on September 1 , 1939 , the day Germany invaded Poland . On September 3 , 1939 , the family was in the House of Commons for speeches endorsing the United Kingdom ' s declaration of war on Germany . Kennedy was sent as his father ' s representative to help with arrangements for American survivors of the SS " Athenia " , before flying back to the U . S . from Foynes , Ireland , to Port Washington , New York on his first transatlantic flight . As an upperclassman at Harvard , Kennedy became a more serious student and developed an interest in political philosophy . In his junior year he made the Dean ' s List . In 1940 Kennedy completed his thesis , " Appeasement in Munich " , about British participation in the Munich Agreement . The thesis became a bestseller under the title " Why England Slept " . He graduated from Harvard College with a Bachelor of Science " cum laude " in international affairs in 1940 . Kennedy enrolled in and audited classes at the Stanford Graduate School of Business that fall . In early 1941 , he helped his father write a memoir of his three years as an American ambassador and then traveled throughout South America . Military service . In September 1941 , after medical disqualification by the Army for his chronic lower back problems , Kennedy joined the U . S . Navy , with the influence of the director of the Office of Naval Intelligence , former naval attaché to Joseph Kennedy . Kennedy was an ensign serving in the office of the Secretary of the Navy when the attack on Pearl Harbor occurred . He attended the Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps and then voluntarily entered the Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron Training Center in Melville , Rhode Island . Thereafter , he was assigned duty in Panama and later in the Pacific theater , where Kennedy earned the rank of lieutenant , commanding a patrol torpedo ( PT ) boat . On August 2 , 1943 , Kennedy ' s boat , " PT - 109 " , along with " PT - 162 " and " PT - 169 " , were performing nighttime patrols near New Georgia in the Solomon Islands , when " PT - 109 " was rammed by the Japanese destroyer " Amagiri " . Kennedy gathered his surviving crew members together in the water around the wreckage , to vote on whether to " fight or surrender " . Kennedy stated , " There ' s nothing in the book about a situation like this . A lot of you men have families and some of you have children . What do you want to do ? I have nothing to lose . " Shunning surrender , the men swam towards a small island . Kennedy , despite re - injury to his back in the collision , towed a badly burned crewman through the water with a life jacket strap clenched between his teeth . He towed the wounded man to the island , and later to a second island , from where his crew was subsequently rescued . For these actions , Kennedy received the Navy and Marine Corps Medal with the following citation : " For extremely heroic conduct as Commanding Officer of Motor Torpedo Boat 109 following the collision and sinking of that vessel in the Pacific War Theater on August 1 – 2 , 1943 . Unmindful of personal danger , Lieutenant ( then Lieutenant , Junior Grade ) Kennedy unhesitatingly braved the difficulties and hazards of darkness to direct rescue operations , swimming many hours to secure aid and food after he had succeeded in getting his crew ashore . His outstanding courage , endurance and leadership contributed to the saving of several lives and were in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service . " In October 1943 , Kennedy took command of a PT boat converted into a gunboat , " PT - 59 " , which took part in a Marine rescue on Choiseul Island that November . Kennedy then left " PT - 59 " , and returned to the United States in early January 1944 . After receiving treatment for his back injury , he was released from active duty in late 1944 . Kennedy was honorably discharged in early 1945 , just prior to Japan ' s surrender . Kennedy ' s other decorations in World War II included the Purple Heart , American Defense Service Medal , American Campaign Medal , Asiatic - Pacific Campaign Medal with three bronze service stars , and the World War II Victory Medal . When later asked how he became a war hero , Kennedy joked : " It was easy . They cut my PT boat in half . " In April 1945 , Kennedy ' s father , a friend of William Randolph Hearst , arranged a position for his son as a special correspondent for Hearst Newspapers ; the assignment kept Kennedy ' s name in the public eye and " expose [ d ] him to journalism as a possible career . " He worked as a correspondent that May , covering the Potsdam Conference and other events . Congressional career . House of Representatives . While Kennedy was still serving , his older brother , Joe Jr . , was killed in action on August 12 , 1944 , while part of Operation Aphrodite . Since Joe Jr . had been the family ' s political standard - bearer , the task now fell to Jack . In 1946 , U . S . Representative James Michael Curley vacated his seat in the strongly Democratic 11th Congressional district in Massachusetts — at Joe ' s urging — to become mayor of Boston . Kennedy ran for the seat , beating his Republican opponent by a large margin . He served as a congressman for six years . Senate . In the 1952 election , he defeated incumbent Republican Henry Cabot Lodge , Jr . for the U . S . Senate seat . The following year he was married to Jacqueline . Kennedy underwent several spinal operations over the following two years . Often absent from the Senate , he was at times critically ill and received Catholic last rites . During his convalescence in 1956 , he published " Profiles in Courage " , a book about U . S . Senators who risked their careers for their personal beliefs , and which received the Pulitzer Prize for Biography in 1957 . Rumors that this work was co - authored by his close adviser and speechwriter , Ted Sorensen , were confirmed in Sorensen ' s 2008 autobiography . In the book , Kennedy supported the conservative Southern view that Reconstruction was corrupt . At the 1956 Democratic National Convention , Kennedy was nominated for Vice President on a ticket with presidential nominee Adlai Stevenson , but finished second in the balloting to Senator Estes Kefauver of Tennessee . Kennedy received national exposure from that episode ; his father thought it just as well that his son lost , due to the political debility of his Catholicism and the strength of the Eisenhower ticket . One of the matters demanding Kennedy ' s attention in the Senate was President Eisenhower ' s bill for the Civil Rights Act of 1957 . Kennedy cast a procedural vote on this , which was considered by some as an appeasement of Southern Democratic opponents of the bill . Kennedy did vote for Title III of the act , which would have given the Attorney General powers to enjoin , but Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson agreed to let the provision die as a compromise measure . Kennedy also voted for Title IV , termed the " Jury Trial Amendment " . Many civil rights advocates at the time criticized that vote as one which would weaken the act . A final compromise bill , which Kennedy supported , was passed in September 1957 . In 1958 , Kennedy was re - elected to a second term in the Senate , defeating his Republican opponent , Boston lawyer Vincent J . Celeste , by a wide margin . It was during his re - election campaign that Kennedy ' s press secretary at this time Robert E Thompson , put together a film entitled " The U . S . Senator John F . Kennedy Story " , which exhibited a day in the life of the Senator and showcased his family life as well as the inner - workings of his office . It is the most comprehensive film produced about Kennedy up to that time . Senator Joseph McCarthy was a friend of the Kennedy family ; Joseph Kennedy , Sr . was a leading McCarthy supporter , Robert F . Kennedy worked for McCarthy ' s subcommittee , and McCarthy dated Patricia Kennedy . In 1954 , when the Senate voted to censure McCarthy , Kennedy drafted a speech supporting the censure . The speech was not delivered , because he was in the hospital . Though absent , he could have participated procedurally by " pairing " his vote against that of another senator , but did not do so . He never indicated how he would have voted , but the episode damaged Kennedy ' s support among members of the liberal community , including Eleanor Roosevelt , in the 1956 and 1960 elections . 1960 presidential election . On January 2 , 1960 , Kennedy initiated his campaign for President in the Democratic primary election , where he faced challenges from Senator Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota and Senator Wayne Morse of Oregon . Kennedy defeated Humphrey in Wisconsin and West Virginia , Morse in Maryland and Oregon , as well as token opposition ( often write - in candidate s ) in New Hampshire , Indiana , and Nebraska . Kennedy visited a coal mine in West Virginia ; most miners and others in that predominantly conservative , Protestant state were quite wary of Kennedy ' s Roman Catholicism . His victory in West Virginia confirmed his broad popular appeal . At the Democratic Convention , he gave his well - known " New Frontier " speech , saying : " For the problems are not all solved and the battles are not all won — and we stand today on the edge of a New Frontier . . . But the New Frontier of which I speak is not a set of promises — it is a set of challenges . It sums up not what I intend to offer the American people , but what I intend to ask of them . " With Humphrey and Morse eliminated , Kennedy ' s main opponent at the Los Angeles convention was Senator Lyndon B . Johnson of Texas . Kennedy overcame this formal challenge as well as informal ones from Adlai Stevenson , the Democratic nominee in 1952 and 1956 , Stuart Symington , and several favorite son s , and on July 13 the Democratic convention nominated Kennedy as its candidate . Kennedy asked Johnson to be his Vice Presidential candidate , despite opposition from many liberal delegates and Kennedy ' s own staff , including his brother , Bobby . He needed Johnson ' s strength in the South to win what was considered likely to be the closest election since 1916 . Major issues included how to get the economy moving again , Kennedy ' s Roman Catholicism , Cuba , and whether the Soviet space and missile programs had surpassed those of the U . S . To address fears that his being Catholic would impact his decision - making , he famously told the Greater Houston Ministerial Association on September 12 , 1960 , " I am not the Catholic candidate for President . I am the Democratic Party candidate for President who also happens to be a Catholic . I do not speak for my Church on public matters – and the Church does not speak for me . " Kennedy questioned rhetorically whether one - quarter of Americans were relegated to second - class citizenship just because they were Catholic , and once stated that , " No one asked me my religion [ serving the Navy ] in the South Pacific . " In September and October , Kennedy appeared with Republican candidate Richard Nixon , then Vice President , in the first televised U . S . presidential debates in U . S . history . During these programs , Nixon , with a sore injured leg and his " five o ' clock shadow " , was perspiring and looked tense and uncomfortable , while Kennedy , choosing to avail himself of makeup services , appeared relaxed , leading the huge television audience to favor Kennedy as the winner . Radio listeners either thought Nixon had won or that the debates were a draw . The debates are now considered a milestone in American political history — the point at which the medium of television began to play a dominant role in politics . Kennedy ' s campaign gained momentum after the first debate , and he pulled slightly ahead of Nixon in most polls . On November 8 , Kennedy defeated Nixon in one of the closest presidential elections of the 20th century . In the national popular vote Kennedy led Nixon by just two - tenths of one percent ( 49 . 7 % to 49 . 5 % ) , while in the Electoral College he won 303 votes to Nixon ' s 219 ( 269 were needed to win ) . Another 14 electors from Mississippi and Alabama refused to support Kennedy because of his support for the civil rights movement ; they voted for Senator Harry F . Byrd of Virginia , as did the elector from Oklahoma . Kennedy was the youngest man elected president , succeeding Eisenhower , who was then the oldest ( Ronald Reagan surpassed Eisenhower as the oldest president in 1981 ) . Presidency . John F . Kennedy was sworn in as the 35th President at noon on January 20 , 1961 . In his inaugural address he spoke of the need for all Americans to be active citizens , famously saying , " Ask not what your country can do for you ; ask what you can do for your country . " He asked the nations of the world to join together to fight what he called the " common enemies of man : tyranny , poverty , disease , and war itself " . He added : " All this will not be finished in the first one hundred days . Nor will it be finished in the first one thousand days , nor in the life of this Administration , nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet . But let us begin . " In closing , he expanded on his desire for greater internationalism : " Finally , whether you are citizens of America or citizens of the world , ask of us here the same high standards of strength and sacrifice which we ask of you . " The address reflected Kennedy ' s confidence that his administration would chart an historically significant course in both domestic policy and foreign affairs . The contrast between this optimistic vision and the pressures of managing daily political realities at home and abroad would be one of the main tensions running through the early years of his administration . Kennedy brought to the White House a stark contrast in organization compared to the decision - making structure of former - general Eisenhower ; and he wasted no time in dismantling Eisenhower ' s methods . Kennedy preferred the organizational structure of a wheel , with all the spokes leading to the president . He was ready and willing to make the increased number of quick decisions required in such an environment . He selected a mixture of experienced and inexperienced people to serve in his cabinet . " We can learn our jobs together " , he stated . There were a couple instances where the president got ahead of himself , as when he announced in a cabinet meeting , without prior notice , that Edward Lansdale would be Ambassador to South Vietnam , a decision which Secretary of State Rusk later had Kennedy alter . There was also the case of Harris Wofford , who was summoned to the White House for swearing in without knowing which position he was to assume . Much to the chagrin of his economic advisors who wanted him to reduce taxes , Kennedy quickly agreed to a balanced budget pledge . This was needed in exchange for votes to expand the membership of the House Rules Committee in order to give the Democrats a majority in setting the legislative agenda . The president focused on immediate and specific issues facing the administration , and quickly voiced his impatience with pondering of deeper meanings . Deputy national security advisor Walt Whitman Rostow once began a diatribe about the growth of communism , and Kennedy abruptly cut him off , asking , " What do you want me to do about that today ? " In May 1961 the press ran articles , that Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall had requested an oil executive to solicit $ 100 contributions at a fund - raiser from oil and gasoline interests . Udall demanded that his name , which was used on material to solicit funding , be withdrawn . A week earlier , Kennedy had proposed that Congress tighten the conflict - of - interest laws . At a press conference , Kennedy faulted the then - current campaign finance laws , rather than Udall . Kennedy stated that he had spoken with Udall and was satisfied with his explanation . Kennedy stated that anyone who contributed to a campaign fund should not expect any favors in return . Udall denied any wrongdoing and stated that the oil executive misunderstood his intentions . Foreign policy . President Kennedy ' s foreign policy was dominated by American confrontations with the Soviet Union , manifested by proxy contests in the early stage of the Cold War . In 1961 , Kennedy anxiously anticipated a summit with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev . The President started off on the wrong foot by reacting aggressively to a routine Khrushchev speech on Cold War confrontation in early 1961 . The speech was intended for domestic audiences in the Soviet Union , but Kennedy interpreted it as a personal challenge . His mistake helped raise tensions going into the Vienna Summit of June 1961 . On the way to the summit , Kennedy stopped in Paris to meet Charles de Gaulle , who advised Kennedy to ignore Khrushchev ' s abrasive style . The French president was nationalistic and disdainful of the United States ' presumed influence in Europe . Nevertheless , de Gaulle was quite impressed with the young president and his family . Kennedy picked up on this in his speech in Paris , saying that he would be remembered as " the man who accompanied Jackie Kennedy to Paris . " On June 4 , 1961 , the president met with Khrushchev in Vienna and left the meetings angry and disappointed that he had allowed the Premier to bully him , despite the warnings he had received . Khrushchev , for his part , was impressed with the president ' s intelligence , but thought him weak . Kennedy did succeed in conveying the bottom line to Khrushchev on the most sensitive issue before them , a proposed treaty between Moscow and East Berlin . He made it clear that any such treaty which interfered with U . S access rights in West Berlin would be regarded as an act of war . Shortly after the president returned home , the U . S . S . R . announced its intention to sign a treaty with East Berlin , abrogating any third - party occupation rights in either sector of the city . Kennedy , depressed and angry , assumed that his only option was to prepare the country for nuclear war , which he personally thought had a one - in - five chance of occurring . In the weeks immediately after the Vienna summit , more than 20 , 000 people fled from East Berlin to the western sector in reaction to statements from the USSR . Kennedy began intensive meetings on the Berlin issue , where Dean Acheson took the lead in recommending a military buildup alongside NATO allies . In a July 1961 speech , Kennedy announced his decision to add $ 3 . 25 billion to the defense budget , along with over 200 , 000 additional troops , stating that an attack on West Berlin would be taken as an attack on the U . S . The speech received an 85 % approval rating . The following month , the Soviet Union and East Berlin began blocking any further passage of East Berliners into West Berlin and erected barbed wire fences across the city , which were quickly upgraded to the Berlin Wall . Kennedy ' s initial reaction was to ignore this , as long as free access from West to East Berlin continued . This course was altered when it was learned that the West Berliners had lost confidence in the defense of their position by the United States . Kennedy sent Vice President Johnson , along with a host of military personnel , in convoy through West Germany , including Soviet - armed checkpoints , to demonstrate the continued commitment of the U . S . to West Berlin . Kennedy gave a speech at Saint Anselm College on May 5 , 1960 , regarding America ' s conduct in the emerging Cold War . The address detailed how American foreign policy should be conducted towards African nations , noting a hint of support for modern African nationalism by saying that " For we , too , founded a new nation on revolt from colonial rule " . Cuba and the Bay of Pigs Invasion . The prior Eisenhower administration had created a plan to overthrow the Fidel Castro regime in Cuba . The plan , led by the Central Intelligence Agency ( CIA ) with help from the U . S . military , was for an invasion of Cuba by a counter - revolutionary insurgency composed of U . S . - trained anti - Castro Cuban exiles led by CIA paramilitary officers . The intention was to invade Cuba and instigate an uprising among the Cuban people in hopes of removing Castro from power . On April 17 , 1961 , Kennedy ordered what became known as the " Bay of Pigs Invasion " : 1 , 500 U . S . - trained Cubans , called " Brigade 2506 " , landed on the island . No U . S . air support was provided . Allen Dulles , director of the CIA , later stated that they thought the president would authorize any action required for success once the troops were on the ground . By April 19 , 1961 , the Cuban government had captured or killed the invading exiles , and Kennedy was forced to negotiate for the release of the 1 , 189 survivors . After twenty months , Cuba released the captured exiles in exchange for $ 53 million worth of food and medicine . The incident made Castro wary of the U . S . and led him to believe another invasion would occur . According to biographer Richard Reeves , Kennedy primarily focused on the political repercussions of the plan rather than military considerations ; when it failed , he was convinced that the plan was a setup to make him look bad . However , he took responsibility for the failure , saying , " . . . We got a big kick in the leg and we deserved it . But maybe we ' ll learn something from it . " In late 1961 , the White House formed the " Special Group ( Augmented ) " , headed by Robert Kennedy and including Edward Lansdale , Secretary Robert McNamara , and others . The group ' s objective — to overthrow Castro via espionage , sabotage , and other covert tactics — was never pursued . Cuban Missile Crisis . On October 14 , 1962 , CIA U - 2 spy planes took photographs of intermediate - range ballistic missile sites being built in Cuba by the Soviets . The photos were shown to Kennedy on October 16 ; a consensus was reached that the missiles were offensive in nature and thus posed an immediate nuclear threat . Kennedy faced a dilemma : if the U . S . attacked the sites , it might lead to nuclear war with the U . S . S . R . , but if the U . S . did nothing , it would be faced with the increased threat from close - range nuclear weapons . The U . S . would also appear to the world as less committed to the defense of the hemisphere . On a personal level , Kennedy needed to show resolve in reaction to Khrushchev , especially after the Vienna summit . More than a third of the members of the National Security Council ( NSC ) favored an unannounced air assault on the missile sites , but for some of them this conjured up an image of " Pearl Harbor in reverse " . There was also some reaction from the international community ( asked in confidence ) , that the assault plan was an overreaction in light of U . S . missiles that had been placed in Turkey by Eisenhower . There could also be no assurance that the assault would be 100 % effective . In concurrence with a majority - vote of the NSC , Kennedy decided on a naval quarantine . On October 22 he dispatched a message to Khrushchev and announced the decision on TV . The U . S . Navy would stop and inspect all Soviet ships arriving off Cuba , beginning October 24 . The Organization of American States gave unanimous support to the removal of the missiles . The president exchanged two sets of letters with Khrushchev , to no avail . United Nations ( UN ) Secretary General U Thant requested that both parties reverse their decisions and enter a cooling - off period . Khrushchev said yes , but Kennedy said no . One Soviet - flagged ship was stopped and boarded . On October 28 Khrushchev agreed to dismantle the missile sites , subject to UN inspections . The U . S . publicly promised never to invade Cuba and privately agreed to remove its missiles in Turkey , which were by then obsolete and had been supplanted by submarines equipped with UGM - 27 Polaris missiles . This crisis brought the world closer to nuclear war than at any point before or since . In the end , " the humanity " of the two men prevailed . The crisis improved the image of American willpower and the president ' s credibility . Kennedy ' s approval rating increased from 66 % to 77 % immediately thereafter . Latin America and communism . Arguing that " those who make peaceful revolution impossible , will make violent revolution inevitable , " Kennedy sought to contain the perceived threat of communism in Latin America by establishing the Alliance for Progress , which sent aid to some countries and sought greater human rights standards in the region . He worked closely with Governor of Puerto Rico Luis Muñoz Marín for the development of the Alliance of Progress , and began working towards the autonomy of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico . When the president took office , the Eisenhower administration , through the CIA , had begun formulating plans for the assassination of Castro in Cuba and Rafael Trujillo in the Dominican Republic . Kennedy privately instructed the CIA that any such planning must include plausible deniability by the U . S . His public position was in opposition . In June 1961 the Dominican Republic ' s leader was assassinated ; in the days following the event , Undersecretary of State Chester Bowles led a cautious reaction by the nation . Robert Kennedy , who saw an opportunity for the U . S . , called Bowles " a gutless bastard " to his face . However , several historians have criticized Kennedy for what they perceive to be his double standards on the subject of human rights and political freedom . For example , Noam Chomsky finds evidence that the 1963 coup in Guatemala that prevented an election from taking place had the full backing of the Kennedy Administration . Chomsky suggests that Kennedy supported the coup because the chief policy proposal of Jacobo Arbenz , the frontrunner in the proposed election , was a very popular land reform act that was inimical to the interests of the American United Fruit Company . Other scholars have held that Kennedy , and later Lyndon B . Johnson , supported the military regime which conducted a brutal counter - insurgency campaign through the 1960s that claimed tens of thousands of civilian lives . Peace Corps . As one of his first presidential acts , Kennedy asked Congress to create the Peace Corps . His brother - in - law , Sargent Shriver , was the first director . Through this program , Americans volunteer to help underdeveloped nations in areas such as education , farming , health care , and construction . The organization grew to 5 , 000 members by March 1963 and 10 , 000 the following year . Since 1961 , over 200 , 000 Americans have joined the Peace Corps , serving in 139 countries . Southeast Asia . When briefing Kennedy , Eisenhower emphasized that the communist threat in Southeast Asia required priority ; Eisenhower considered Laos to be " the cork in the bottle " in regards to the regional threat . In March 1961 , Kennedy voiced a change in policy from supporting a " free " Laos to a " neutral " Laos , indicating privately that Vietnam , and not Laos , should be deemed America ' s tripwire for communism ' s spread in the area . In May 1961 he dispatched Lyndon Johnson to meet with South Vietnam ' s President Ngo Dinh Diem . Johnson assured Diem more aid in molding a fighting force that could resist the communists . Kennedy announced a change of policy from support to partnership with Diem in defeat of communism in South Vietnam . Kennedy initially followed Eisenhower ' s lead , using limited military action to fight the communist forces led by Ho Chi Minh . He continued policies that provided political , economic , and military support to the South Vietnamese government . Late in 1961 , the Viet Cong began assuming a predominant presence , initially seizing the provincial capital of Phuoc Vinh . Kennedy increased the number of helicopters , military advisors , and undeclared U . S . Special Forces in the area , but he was reluctant to order a full - scale deployment of troops . In late 1961 , President Kennedy sent Roger Hilsman , then director of the State Department ' s Bureau of Intelligence and Research , to assess the situation in Vietnam . There , Hilsman met Sir Robert Thompson , head of the British Advisory Mission to South Vietnam and the concept of the Strategic Hamlet Program was formed . It was approved by Kennedy and South Vietnam President Ngo Dinh Diem . It was implemented in early 1962 and involved some forced relocation , village internment , and segregation of rural South Vietnamese into new communities where the peasantry would be isolated from Communist insurgents . It was hoped these new communities would provide security for the peasants and strengthen the tie between them and the central government . However , by November 1963 the program waned and officially ended in 1964 . In early 1962 , Kennedy formally authorized escalated involvement when he signed the " National Security Action Memorandum – Subversive Insurgency ( War of Liberation ) " . Secretary of State Dean Rusk voiced strong support for U . S . involvement . " Operation Ranch Hand " , a large - scale aerial defoliation effort , began on the roadsides of South Vietnam . In April 1963 , Kennedy assessed the situation in Vietnam : " We don ' t have a prayer of staying in Vietnam . Those people hate us . They are going to throw our asses out of there at any point . But I can ' t give up that territory to the communists and get the American people to re - elect me " . Kennedy faced a crisis in Vietnam by July ; despite increased U . S . support , the South Vietnamese military was only marginally effective against pro - communist Viet Cong forces . On August 21 , just as the new U . S . Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge , Jr . arrived , Diem and his brother Ngo Dinh Nhu ordered South Vietnam forces , funded and trained by the CIA , to quell Buddhist demonstrations . The crackdowns heightened expectations of a coup d ' état to remove Diem with ( or perhaps by ) his brother , Nhu . Lodge was instructed to try to get Diem and Nhu to step down and leave the country . Diem would not listen to Lodge . Cable 243 ( DEPTEL 243 ) , dated August 24 , followed , declaring Washington would no longer tolerate Nhu ' s actions , and Lodge was ordered to pressure Diem to remove Nhu . If Diem refused , the Americans would explore alternative leadership . Lodge stated that the only workable option was to get the South Vietnamese generals to overthrow Diem and Nhu , as originally planned . At week ' s end , Kennedy learned from Lodge that the Diem government might , due to France ' s assistance to Nhu , be dealing secretly with the communists — and might ask the Americans to leave ; orders were sent to Saigon and throughout Washington to " destroy all coup cables " . At the same time , the first formal anti - Vietnam war sentiment was expressed by U . S . clergy from the Ministers ' Vietnam Committee . A White House meeting in September was indicative of the very different ongoing appraisals ; the President was given updated assessments after personal inspections on the ground by the Department of Defense ( General Victor Krulak ) and the State Department ( Joseph Mendenhall ) . Krulak said that the military fight against the communists was progressing and being won , while Mendenhall stated that the country was civilly being lost to any U . S . influence . Kennedy reacted , saying , " Did you two gentlemen visit the same country ? " The president was unaware that the two men were at such odds that they had not spoken to each other on the return flight . In October 1963 , the president appointed Defense Secretary McNamara and General Maxwell D . Taylor to a Vietnam mission in another effort to synchronize the information and formulation of policy . The objective of the McNamara Taylor mission " emphasized the importance of getting to the bottom of the differences in reporting from U . S . representatives in Vietnam " . In meetings with McNamara , Taylor , and Lodge , Diem again refused to agree to governing measures insisted upon by the U . S . , helping to dispel McNamara ' s previous optimism about Diem . Taylor and McNamara were also enlightened by Vietnam ' s Vice President , Nguyen Ngoc Tho ( choice of many to succeed Diem should a coup occur ) , who in detailed terms obliterated Taylor ' s information that the military was succeeding in the countryside . At Kennedy ' s insistence , the mission report contained a recommended schedule for troop withdrawals : 1 , 000 by year ' s end and complete withdrawal in 1965 , something the NSC considered a strategic fantasy . The final report declared that the military was making progress , that the increasingly unpopular Diem - led government was not vulnerable to a coup , and that an assassination of Diem or Nhu was a possibility . In late October , intelligence wires again reported that a coup against the Diem government was afoot . The source , Vietnamese General Duong Van Minh ( also known as " Big Minh " ) , wanted to know the U . S . position . Kennedy instructed Lodge to offer covert assistance to the coup , excluding assassination , and to ensure deniability by the U . S . Later that month , as the coup became imminent , Kennedy ordered all cables to be routed through him . A policy of " control and cut out " was initiated to insure presidential control of U . S . responses , while cutting him out of the paper trail . On November 1 , 1963 , South Vietnamese generals , led by " Big Minh " , overthrew the Diem government , arresting and then killing Diem and Nhu . Kennedy was shocked by the deaths . He found out afterwards that Minh had asked the CIA field office to secure safe - passage out of the country for Diem and Nhu , but was told that 24 hours were needed to procure a plane . Minh responded that he could not hold them that long . News of the coup initially led to renewed confidence — both in America and in South Vietnam — that the war might be won . McGeorge Bundy drafted a National Security Action Memo to present to Kennedy upon his return from Dallas . It reiterated the resolve to fight communism in Vietnam , with increasing military and economic aid and expansion of operations into Laos and Cambodia . Before leaving for Dallas , Kennedy told Michael Forrestal that " after the first of the year . . . [ he wanted ] an in depth study of every possible option , including how to get out of there . . . to review this whole thing from the bottom to the top " . When asked what he thought the president meant , Forrestal said , " it was devil ' s advocate stuff . " Historians disagree on whether Vietnam would have escalated had Kennedy survived and been re - elected in 1964 . Fueling the debate are statements made by Secretary of Defense McNamara in the film " The Fog of War " that Kennedy was strongly considering pulling out of Vietnam after the 1964 election . The film also contains a tape recording of Lyndon Johnson stating that Kennedy was planning to withdraw , a position that Johnson disagreed with . Kennedy had signed National Security Action Memorandum ( NSAM ) 263 , dated October 11 , which ordered the withdrawal of 1 , 000 military personnel by the end of the year . Such an action would have been a policy reversal , but Kennedy was moving in a less hawkish direction since his acclaimed speech about world peace at American University on June 10 , 1963 . When Robert Kennedy was asked in 1964 what his brother would have done if the South Vietnamese had been on the brink of defeat , he replied , " We ' d face that when we came to it . " At the time of Kennedy ' s death , no final policy decision had been made as to Vietnam . U . S . involvement in the region escalated until Lyndon Johnson , his successor , directly deployed regular U . S . military forces for fighting the Vietnam War . After Kennedy ' s assassination , President Johnson passed NSAM 273 on November 26 , 1963 . It reversed Kennedy ' s decision to withdraw 1 , 000 troops , and reaffirmed the policy of assistance to the South Vietnamese . American University speech . On June 10 , 1963 , Kennedy delivered the commencement address at American University in Washington , D . C . , " to discuss a topic on which too often ignorance abounds and the truth is too rarely perceived — yet it is the most important topic on earth : world peace . . . I speak of peace because of the new face of war . . . in an age when a singular nuclear weapon contains ten times the explosive force delivered by all the allied forces in the Second World War . . . an age when the deadly poisons produced by a nuclear exchange would be carried by wind and air and soil and seed to the far corners of the globe and to generations yet unborn . . . I speak of peace , therefore , as the necessary rational end of rational men . . . world peace , like community peace , does not require that each man love his neighbor — it requires only that they live together in mutual tolerance . . . our problems are man - made — therefore they can be solved by man . And man can be as big as he wants . " The president also made two announcements — that the Soviets had expressed a desire to negotiate a nuclear test ban treaty and that the U . S had postponed planned atmospheric tests . West Berlin speech . In 1963 , Germany was enduring a time of particular vulnerability due to Soviet aggression to the east , de Gaulle ' s French nationalism to the west , and the impending retirement of West German Chancellor Adenauer . On June 26 Kennedy gave a public speech in West Berlin reiterating the American commitment to Germany and criticizing communism ; he was met with an ecstatic response from a massive audience . Kennedy used the construction of the Berlin Wall as an example of the failures of communism : " Freedom has many difficulties , and democracy is not perfect . But we have never had to put a wall up to keep our people in , to prevent them from leaving us . " The speech is known for its famous phrase " " Ich bin ein Berliner " " ( " I am a citizen of Berlin " ) . A million people were on the street for the speech . He remarked to Ted Sorensen afterwards : " We ' ll never have another day like this one , as long as we live . " Israel . In 1960 , Kennedy stated : " Israel will endure and flourish . It is the child of hope and the home of the brave . It can neither be broken by adversity nor demoralized by success . It carries the shield of democracy and it honors the sword of freedom " . Subsequently as president , Kennedy initiated the creation of security ties with Israel , and he is credited as the founder of the US - Israeli military alliance ( which would be continued under subsequent presidents ) . Kennedy ended the arms embargo that the Eisenhower and Truman administrations had enforced on Israel . Describing the protection of Israel as a moral and national commitment , he was the first to introduce the concept of a ' special relationship ' ( as he described it to Golda Meir ) between the US and Israel . Kennedy extended the first informal security guarantees to Israel in 1962 and , beginning in 1963 , was the first US president to allow the sale to Israel of advanced US weaponry ( the MIM - 23 Hawk ) , as well as to provide diplomatic support for Israeli policies which were opposed by Arab neighbours ; such as its water project on the Jordan River . However , as result of this newly created security alliance , Kennedy also encountered tensions with the Israeli government regarding the production of nuclear materials in Dimona , which he believed could instigate a nuclear arms - race in the Middle East . After the existence of a nuclear plant was initially denied by the Israeli government , David Ben - Gurion stated in a speech to the Israeli Knesset on December 21 , 1960 , that the purpose of the nuclear plant at Beersheba was for " research in problems of arid zones and desert flora and fauna " . When Ben - Gurion met with Kennedy in New York , he claimed that Dimona was being developed to provide nuclear power for desalinization and other peaceful purposes " for the time being " . When Kennedy wrote that he was skeptical , and stated in a May 1963 letter to Ben - Gurion that American support to Israel could be in jeopardy if reliable information on the Israeli nuclear program was not forthcoming , Ben - Gurion repeated previous reassurances that Dimona was being developed for peaceful purposes . The Israeli government resisted American pressure to open its nuclear facilities to International Atomic Energy Agency ( IAEA ) inspections . In 1962 , the US and Israeli governments had agreed to an annual inspection regime . A science attaché at the embassy in Tel Aviv concluded that parts of the Dimona facility had been shut down temporarily to mislead American scientists when they visited . According to Seymour Hersh , the Israelis set up false control rooms to show the Americans . Israeli lobbyist Abe Feinberg stated , " It was part of my job to tip them off that Kennedy was insisting on [ an inspection ] . " Hersh contends the inspections were conducted in such a way that it " guaranteed that the whole procedure would be little more than a whitewash , as the President and his senior advisors had to understand : the American inspection team would have to schedule its visits well in advance , and with the full acquiescence of Israel . " . Marc Trachtenberg argued : " Although well aware of what the Israelis were doing , Kennedy chose to take this as satisfactory evidence of Israeli compliance with America ' s non - proliferation policy . " The American who led the inspection team stated that the essential goal of the inspections was to find " ways to not reach the point of taking action against Israel ' s nuclear weapons program " . Rodger Davies , the director of the State Department ' s Office of Near Eastern Affairs , concluded in March 1965 that Israel was developing nuclear weapons . He reported that Israel ' s target date for achieving nuclear capability was 1968 – 69 . On May 1 , 1968 , Undersecretary of State Nicholas Katzenbach told President Johnson that Dimona was producing enough plutonium to produce two bombs a year . The State Department argued that if Israel wanted arms , it should accept international supervision of its nuclear program . Dimona was never placed under IAEA safeguards . Attempts to write Israeli adherence to the Nuclear Non - Proliferation Treaty ( NPT ) into contracts for the supply of U . S . weapons continued throughout 1968 . Iraq . In 1963 , the Kennedy administration backed the coup against the government of Iraq headed by Abd al - Karim Qasim , who five years earlier had deposed the Western - allied Iraqi monarchy . On February 8 , 1963 , Kennedy received a memo stating : " We will make informal friendly noises as soon as we can find out whom to talk with , and ought to recognize as soon as we ' re sure these guys are firmly in the saddle . CIA had excellent reports on the plotting , but I doubt either they or UK should claim much credit for it . " The CIA had planned to remove Qasim in the past , but those efforts did not come to fruition . The new government , led by Abdul Salam Arif and dominated by the Ba ' ath Party ( along with a coalition of Nasserists and Iraqi nationalists ) , allegedly used lists — provided by the CIA — of suspected communists and other leftists to systematically murder unknown numbers of Iraq ' s educated elite . The U . S . continued to back Arif after he purged the Ba ' ath Party from the government . Former CIA officer James Chritchfield disputed the notion that the CIA offered " active support " to the coup plotters , arguing that while " well - informed " on the first coup , it was " surprised " by the power struggles that followed . Ireland . During his four - day visit to his ancestral home of Ireland in June 1963 , Kennedy accepted a grant of armorial bearings from the Chief Herald of Ireland and received honorary degrees from the National University of Ireland and Trinity College , Dublin . He visited the cottage at Dunganstown , near New Ross , County Wexford where his ancestors had lived before emigrating to America . He also became the first foreign leader to address the Houses of the Oireachtas ( the Irish parliament ) . On December 22 , 2006 , the Irish Department of Justice released declassified police documents indicating that security was heightened as Kennedy was the subject of three death threats during this visit . Nuclear Test Ban Treaty . Troubled by the long - term dangers of radioactive contamination and nuclear weapons proliferation , Kennedy and Khrushchev agreed to negotiate a nuclear test ban treaty , originally conceived in Adlai Stevenson ' s 1956 presidential campaign . In their Vienna summit meeting in June 1961 , Khrushchev and Kennedy reached an informal understanding against nuclear testing , but the Soviet Union began testing nuclear weapons that September . The United States responded by conducting tests five days later . Shortly thereafter , new U . S . satellites began delivering images which made it clear that the Soviets were substantially behind the U . S . in the arms race . Nevertheless , the greater nuclear strength of the U . S . was of little value as long as the U . S . S . R . perceived themselves to be at parity . In July 1963 , Kennedy sent Averell Harriman to Moscow to negotiate a treaty with the Soviets . The introductory sessions included Khrushchev , who later delegated Soviet representation to Andrei Gromyko . It quickly became clear that a comprehensive test ban would not be implemented , due largely to the reluctance of the Soviets to allow inspections that would verify compliance . Ultimately , the United States , the United Kingdom , and the Soviet Union were the initial signatories to a limited treaty , which prohibited atomic testing on the ground , in the atmosphere , or underwater , but not underground ; the U . S . Senate ratified this and Kennedy signed it into law in October 1963 . France was quick to declare that it was free to continue developing and testing its nuclear defenses . Domestic policy . Kennedy called his domestic program the " New Frontier " . It ambitiously promised federal funding for education , medical care for the elderly , economic aid to rural regions , and government intervention to halt the recession . Kennedy also promised an end to racial discrimination . In his 1963 State of the Union address , he proposed substantial tax reform and a reduction in income tax rates from the current range of 20 – 90 % to a range of 14 – 65 % ; he proposed a reduction in the corporate tax rates from 52 to 47 % . Kennedy added that the top rate should be set at 70 % if certain deductions were not eliminated for high income earners . Congress did not act until 1964 , after his death , when the top individual rate was lowered to 70 % , and the top corporate rate was set at 48 % ( see Revenue Act of 1964 ) . To the Economic Club of New York , he spoke in 1963 of " . . . the paradoxical truth that tax rates are too high and revenues too low ; and the soundest way to raise revenue in the long term is to lower rates now . " Congress passed few of Kennedy ' s major programs during his lifetime , but did vote them through in 1964 – 65 under his successor Johnson . Economy . Kennedy ended a period of tight fiscal policies , loosening monetary policy to keep interest rate s down and encourage growth of the economy . He presided over the first government budget to top the $ 100 billion mark , in 1962 , and his first budget in 1961 led to the country ' s first non - war , non - recession deficit . The economy , which had been through two recessions in three years and was in one when Kennedy took office , accelerated notably during his presidency . Despite low inflation and interest rates , GDP had grown by an average of only 2 . 2 % during the Eisenhower presidency ( scarcely more than population growth at the time ) , and had declined by 1 % during Eisenhower ' s last twelve months in office . The economy turned around and prospered during the Kennedy administration . GDP expanded by an average of 5 . 5 % from early 1961 to late 1963 , while inflation remained steady at around 1 % and unemployment eased ; industrial production rose by 15 % and motor vehicle sales rose by 40 % . This rate of growth in GDP and industry continued until around 1969 , and has yet to be repeated for such a sustained period of time . The major steel companies announced in April 1962 a 3 . 5 % price increase ( the first in 3 years ) within a day of each other . This came just days after the companies had reached a settlement with the steelworkers ' union , providing in chief a wage increase of 2 . 5 % . The administration was furious , with Kennedy saying , " Why did they do this ? Do they think they can get away with this ? God , I hate the bastards . " Amid concern about the inflationary effects of the price increase , the president took personal charge of a campaign against the industry , assigning to each cabinet member a statement regarding the effects of the price increase on their area . Robert Kennedy , echoing his brother ' s sentiments , said " We ' re going for broke . . . their expense accounts , where they ' ve been a | nd what they ' ve been doing . . . the FBI is to interview them all . . . we can ' t lose this . " Robert took the position that the steel executives had illegally colluded to fix prices . The administration ' s actions influenced U . S . Steel to rescind the price increase . " The Wall Street Journal " wrote that the administration had acted " by naked power , by threats , by agents of the state security police . " Yale law professor Charles Reich opined in " The New Republic " that the administration had violated civil liberties by calling a grand jury to indict U . S . Steel for collusion so quickly . A " New York Times " editorial praised Kennedy ' s actions and said that the steel industry ' s price increase " imperils the economic welfare of the country by inviting a tidal wave of inflation . " Nevertheless , the administration ' s Bureau of Budget reported the price increase would have resulted in a net gain for GDP as well as a net budget surplus . The stock market , which had steadily declined since Kennedy ' s election , dropped 10 % shortly after the administration ' s action on the steel industry . Kennedy had little knowledge of the agricultural sector of the economy , and farmers were not on his list of priorities , at least in his 1960 campaign . After giving a speech to a farming community , he rhetorically asked an aide , " Did you understand any of what I just said in there ? I sure didn ' t . " Federal and military death penalty . As President , Kennedy oversaw the last federal execution prior to Furman v . Georgia , a 1972 case that led to a moratorium on federal executions . Victor Feguer was sentenced to death by a federal court in Iowa and was executed on March 15 , 1963 . Kennedy commuted a death sentence imposed by a military court on seaman Jimmie Henderson on February 12 , 1962 , changing the penalty to life in prison . On March 22 , 1962 , Kennedy signed into law HR5143 ( PL87 - 423 ) , abolishing the mandatory death penalty for first degree murder in the District of Columbia , the only remaining jurisdiction in the United States with such a penalty . The death penalty has not been applied in the District of Columbia since 1957 , and has now been abolished . Civil rights . The turbulent end of state - sanctioned racial discrimination was one of the most pressing domestic issues of the 1960s . Jim Crow segregation was the established law in the Deep South . The Supreme Court of the United States had ruled in 1954 in " Brown v . Board of Education " that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional . Many schools , especially in southern states , did not obey the Supreme Court ' s decision . The Court also prohibited segregation at other public facilities ( such as buses , restaurants , theaters , courtrooms , bathrooms , and beaches ) but it continued nonetheless . Kennedy verbally supported racial integration and civil rights ; during the 1960 campaign he telephoned Coretta Scott King , wife of the Reverend Martin Luther King , Jr . , who had been jailed while trying to integrate a department store lunch counter . Robert Kennedy called Georgia governor Ernest Vandiver and obtained King ' s release from prison , which drew additional black support to his brother ' s candidacy . In his first State of the Union Address in January 1961 , President Kennedy said " The denial of constitutional rights to some of our fellow Americans on account of race - at the ballot box and elsewhere - disturbs the national conscience , and subjects us to the charge of world opinion that our democracy is not equal to the high promise of our heritiage . " Kennedy believed the grassroots movement for civil rights would anger many Southern whites and make it more difficult to pass civil rights laws in Congress , which was dominated by conservative Southern Democrats , and he distanced himself from it . He also was more concerned with other issues early in his presidency , such as the Cold War , Bay of Pigs fiasco and the situation in Southeast Asia . As articulated by brother Robert , the administration ' s early priority was to " keep the president out of this civil rights mess " . Many civil rights leaders viewed Kennedy as lukewarm , especially concerning the Freedom Riders , who organized an integrated public transportation effort in the south , and who were repeatedly met with violence by whites , including law enforcement officers , both federal and state . Kennedy assigned federal marshal s to protect the Freedom Riders as an alternative to using federal troops or uncooperative FBI agents . Robert Kennedy , speaking for the president , urged the Freedom Riders to " get off the buses and leave the matter to peaceful settlement in the courts . " On March 6 , 1961 , Kennedy signed Executive Order 10925 which required government contractors to " take affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed and that employees are treated during employment without regard to their race , creed , color , or national origin . " It established the President ' s Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity . However , displeased with the pace of Kennedy ' s addressing the issue of segregation , Martin Luther King , Jr . and his associates produced a document in 1962 calling on the President to follow in the footsteps of Abraham Lincoln and use an Executive Order to deliver a blow for Civil Rights as a kind of Second Emancipation Proclamation - Kennedy did not execute the order . In September 1962 , James Meredith enrolled at the University of Mississippi , but was prevented from entering . Attorney General Robert Kennedy responded by sending 400 federal marshals , while President Kennedy reluctantly sent 3 , 000 troops after the situation on campus turned violent . The Ole Miss riot of 1962 left two dead and dozens injured , but Meredith did finally enroll in his first class . The instigating subculture at the Old Miss riot and at many other racially ignited events , was the Ku Klux Klan . On November 20 , 1962 , Kennedy signed Executive Order 11063 , prohibiting racial discrimination in federally supported housing or " related facilities " . In early 1963 , Kennedy related to Martin Luther King , Jr . , about the prospects for civil rights legislation : " If we get into a long fight over this in Congress , it will bottleneck everything else , and we will still get no bill . " However , civil rights clashes were on the rise that year . Brother Robert and Ted Sorenson pressed Kennedy to take more initiative on the legislative front . On June 11 , 1963 , President Kennedy intervened when Alabama Governor George Wallace blocked the doorway to the University of Alabama to stop two African American students , Vivian Malone and James Hood , from attending . Wallace moved aside only after being confronted by Deputy Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach and the Alabama National Guard , which had just been federalized by order of the President . That evening Kennedy gave his famous civil rights address on national television and radio , launching his initiative for civil rights legislation — to provide equal access to public schools and other facilities , and greater protection of voting rights . His proposals became part of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 . The day ended with the murder of a NAACP leader , Medgar Evers , in front of his home in Mississippi . As the president had predicted , the day after his TV speech , and in reaction to it , House Majority leader Carl Albert called to advise him that his two - year signature effort in Congress to combat poverty in Appalachia ( Area Redevelopment Administration ) had been defeated , primarily by the votes of Southern Democrats and Republicans . Earlier , Kennedy had signed the executive order creating the Presidential Commission on the Status of Women on December 14 , 1961 . Former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt led the commission . The Commission statistics revealed that women were also experiencing discrimination ; their final report documenting legal and cultural barriers was issued in October 1963 . Further , on June 10 , 1963 , Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act of 1963 , a federal law amending the Fair Labor Standards Act , aimed at abolishing wage disparity based on sex . Over a hundred thousand , predominantly African Americans , gathered in Washington for the civil rights March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28 , 1963 . Kennedy feared the March would have a negative effect on the prospects for the civil rights bills in Congress , and declined an invitation to speak . He turned over some of the details of the government ' s involvement to the Dept . of Justice , which channelled hundreds of thousands of dollars to the six sponsors of the March , including the N . A . A . C . P . and Martin Luther King ' s Southern Christian Leadership Conference ( SCLC ) . To ensure a peaceful demonstration , the organizers and the president personally edited speeches which were inflammatory and agreed the March would be held on a Wednesday and would be over at 4 : 00 pm . Thousands of troops were placed on standby . Kennedy watched King ' s speech on TV and was very impressed . The March was considered a " triumph of managed protest " , and not one arrest relating to the demonstration occurred . Afterwards , the March leaders accepted an invitation to the White House to meet with Kennedy and photos were taken . Kennedy felt the March was a victory for him as well and bolstered the chances for his civil rights bill . Nevertheless , the struggle was far from over . Three weeks later , a bomb exploded on Sunday , September 15 at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham ; by the end of the day , four African American children had died in the explosion and two other children shot to death in the aftermath . Due to this resurgent violence , the civil rights legislation underwent some drastic amendments that critically endangered any prospects for passage of the bill , to the outrage of the president . Kennedy called the congressional leaders to the White House and by the following day the original bill , without the additions , had enough votes to get it out of the House committee . Civil liberties . In 1963 , FBI Director J . Edgar Hoover , who hated civil - rights leader Martin Luther King , Jr . and viewed him as an upstart troublemaker , presented the Kennedy Administration with allegations that some of King ' s close confidants and advisers were communists . Concerned that the allegations , if made public , would derail the Administration ' s civil rights initiatives , Robert Kennedy and the president both warned King to discontinue the suspect associations . After the associations continued , Robert Kennedy felt compelled to issue a written directive authorizing the FBI to wiretap King and other leaders of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference , King ' s civil rights organization . Although Kennedy only gave written approval for limited wiretapping of King ' s phones " on a trial basis , for a month or so " , Hoover extended the clearance so his men were " unshackled " to look for evidence in any areas of King ' s life they deemed worthy . The wiretapping continued through June 1966 and was revealed in 1968 . Immigration . John F . Kennedy initially proposed an overhaul of American immigration policy that later was to become the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 , sponsored by Kennedy ' s brother Senator Edward Kennedy . It dramatically shifted the source of immigration from Northern and Western European countries towards immigration from Latin America and Asia and shifted the emphasis of selection of immigrants towards facilitating family reunification . Kennedy wanted to dismantle the selection of immigrants based on country of origin and saw this as an extension of his civil rights policies . Native American relations . Construction of the Kinzua Dam flooded of Seneca nation land that they had occupied under the Treaty of 1794 , and forced 600 Seneca to relocate to Salamanca , New York . Kennedy was asked by the American Civil Liberties Union to intervene and halt the project , but he declined , citing a critical need for flood control . He expressed concern about the plight of the Seneca , and directed government agencies to assist in obtaining more land , damages , and assistance to help mitigate their displacement . Space policy . The Apollo program was conceived early in 1960 , during the Eisenhower administration , as a follow - up to Project Mercury . While NASA went ahead with planning for Apollo , funding for the program was far from certain , given Eisenhower ' s opposition to manned spaceflight . Kennedy ' s advisors speculated that a Moon flight would be prohibitively expensive , but he postponed the decision . Kennedy had appointed Vice President Johnson chairman of the U . S . Space Council , a strong supporter of the US space program who had worked for the creation of NASA in the Senate . In Kennedy ' s January 1961 State of the Union address , Kennedy had suggested international cooperation in space . Khrushchev declined , as the Soviets did not wish to reveal the status of their rocketry and space capabilities . On April 12 , 1961 , Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first person to fly in space , reinforcing American fears about being left behind in a technological competition with the Soviet Union . Kennedy was eager for the U . S . to take the lead in the Space Race for reasons of strategy and prestige . He first announced the goal of landing a man on the Moon in the speech to a Joint Session of Congress on May 25 , 1961 , stating : " First , I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal , before this decade is out , of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth . No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind , or more important for the long - range exploration of space ; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish . " Kennedy made a speech at Rice University on September 12 , 1962 , in which he said : On November 21 , 1962 , in a cabinet meeting with NASA administrator James E . Webb and other officials , Kennedy explained that the Moon shot was important for reasons of international prestige , and that the expense was justified . Johnson assured him that lessons learned from the space program had military value as well . Costs for the Apollo program were expected to reach $ 40 billion . In a September 1963 speech before the United Nations , Kennedy urged cooperation between the Soviets and Americans in space , specifically recommending that Apollo be switched to " a joint expedition to the moon " . Khrushchev again declined , and the Soviets did not commit to a manned Moon mission until 1964 . On July 20 , 1969 , almost six years after Kennedy ' s death , Apollo 11 landed the first manned spacecraft on the Moon . TFX fighter - bomber controversy . On November 24 , 1962 , the Department of Defense announced that the $ 6 . 5 billion contract to make 1 , 700 F - 111 Tactical Fighter Experimental ( TFX ) fighter - bombers would be awarded to General Dynamics Corporation , rather than to Boeing . Since 1959 , the Department of Defense , under the Eisenhower administration , had planned to build a TFX fighter - jet system that could intercept missiles launched by Soviet submarines and warships . Both the U . S . Navy and U . S . Air Force sought a new tactical low - flying interceptor fighter aircraft which could carry heavy armament and large fuel loads , achieve supersonic speeds , incorporate twin engines , two seats , and variable geometry wings . In June 1961 , Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara ordered that one TFX plane for both armed services would be a collaborative design between the air force and navy . Although this was done to save $ 1 billion in taxpayers ' money , both the navy and air force still desired their own separately designed fighter planes . Both McNamara and President Kennedy had approved of the General Dynamics contract for the manufacture of the TFX fighter - bomber . According to author Leroy F . Prouty , McNamara and Secretary of Labor Arthur Goldberg mapped out each county of any contested states as to how the TFX funding would be distributed in order to obtain the best swing vote for the Kennedy ticket in the 1964 presidential election . At stake were 69 electoral votes ; the Boeing company was based in Washington and Kansas , while General Dynamics was based in Texas and New York . Controversy ensued because McNamara had overruled a Pentagon Source Selection Board that had approved the Boeing TFX program rather than the General Dynamics one . Democratic Senator Henry M . Jackson , from Washington and a supporter of the Boeing company , started a preliminary inquiry into the matter in December 1962 . Two comprehensive Congressional investigations hearings took place in 1963 and 1970 . McNamara defended the selection of the General Dynamics design , stating it possessed greater commonality between air force and navy versions . The Congressional investigation revealed that Deputy Secretary of Defense Roswell L . Gilpatric , who was involved in the TFX fighter - bomber decision , had performed legal services for General Dynamics prior to 1961 , with a $ 20 , 000 annual severance retainer . Secretary of the Navy Fred Korth was found to have retained $ 160 , 000 in stocks in a Fort Worth bank that had approved a $ 400 , 000 loan to General Dynamics while Korth was the bank ' s president . Kennedy defended both McNamara ( March , 1963 ) and Gilpatric ( August 1963 ) in press conferences . In September 1963 , Kennedy ' s Justice Department exonerated Korth of any conflict of interest . Kennedy accepted Korth ' s resignation in mid - October 1963 and stated there was " no evidence that Mr . Korth acted in any way improperly in the TFX matter " . When the investigation concluded in 1970 , Gilpatric was castigated by the committee for being " guilty of a flagrant conflict of interest " . The F - 111s actual manufacturing cost ranged between $ 6 and 8 million each rather than McNamara ' s projected $ 3 . 5 million . This was in part due to the addition of computer - controlled Terrain - Following - Radar ( TFR ) . There had been nine crashes during the testing of the F - 111 plane . By 1968 , six F - 111s would go on to serve in the Vietnam War ; three never returned . Controversy over the F - 111 continued throughout the 1960s as the plane could not equally reach both the demands of the air force and navy . The air force wanted a heavy tactical fighter plane while the navy wanted a lighter , long range , missile to missile Combat Air Patrol ( CAP ) plane to " ride shotgun " and protect the U . S . fleet from nuclear attack . Assassination . President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas , Texas , at 12 : 30 pm Central Standard Time on Friday November 22 , 1963 , while on a political trip to Texas to smooth over frictions in the Democratic Party between liberals Ralph Yarborough and Don Yarborough ( no relation ) and conservative John Connally . He was shot once in the throat , once in the upper back , with the fatal shot hitting him in the head . He was taken to Parkland Hospital for emergency medical treatment , but pronounced dead at 1 : 00 pm . Only 46 , President Kennedy died younger than any U . S . president to date . Lee Harvey Oswald , an employee of the Texas School Book Depository from which the shots were suspected to have been fired , was arrested on charges for the murder of a local police officer , but was never subsequently charged with the assassination of Kennedy . He denied shooting anyone , claiming he was a patsy , but was killed by Jack Ruby on November 24 , before he could be indicted or tried . Ruby was then arrested and convicted for the murder of Oswald . Ruby successfully appealed his conviction and death sentence but became ill and died of cancer on January 3 , 1967 , while the date for his new trial was being set . President Johnson created the Warren Commission — chaired by Chief Justice Earl Warren — to investigate the assassination , which concluded that Oswald was the lone assassin . The results of this investigation are disputed by many . The assassination proved to be an important moment in U . S . history because of its impact on the nation and the ensuing political repercussions . A 2004 Fox News poll found that 66 % of Americans thought there had been a conspiracy to kill President Kennedy , while 74 % thought there had been a cover - up . Funeral . A Requiem Mass was held for Kennedy at the Cathedral of St . Matthew the Apostle on November 25 , 1963 . Afterwards , John F . Kennedy ' s body was buried in a small plot , ( 20 by 30 ft . ) , in Arlington National Cemetery . Over a period of 3 years , ( 1964 – 66 ) , an estimated 16 million people had visited his grave . On March 14 , 1967 , Kennedy ' s body was moved to a permanent burial plot and memorial at the Cemetery . The funeral was officiated by Father John J . Cavanaugh . It was from this memorial that the graves of both Bobby and Ted were modeled . The honor guard at John F . Kennedy ' s graveside was the 37th Cadet Class of the Irish Army . Kennedy was greatly impressed by the Irish Cadets on his last official visit to Ireland , so much so that Jackie Kennedy requested the Irish Army to be the honor guard at the funeral . Kennedy ' s wife , Jacqueline and their two deceased minor children were buried with him later . His brother , Senator Robert Kennedy , was buried nearby in June 1968 . In August 2009 , his brother , Senator Edward M . Kennedy , was also buried near his two brothers . John F . Kennedy ' s grave is lit with an " Eternal Flame " . Kennedy and William Howard Taft are the only two U . S . Presidents buried at Arlington . According to the JFK Library , " I Have a Rendezvous with Death , " by Alan Seeger " was one of John F . Kennedy ' s favorite poems and he often asked his wife to recite it . " Administration , Cabinet , and judicial appointments 1961 – 63 . Judicial appointments . Supreme Court . Kennedy appointed the following Justices to the Supreme Court of the United States : Other courts . In addition to his two Supreme Court appointments , Kennedy appointed 21 judges to the United States Courts of Appeals , and 102 judges to the United States district courts . Image , social life and family . Jack met his future wife , Jacqueline Lee " Jackie " Bouvier ( 1929 – 1994 ) , when he was a congressman . Charles L . Bartlett , a journalist , introduced the pair at a dinner party . They were married a year after he was elected senator , on September 12 , 1953 . The Kennedy family is one of the most established political families in the United States , having produced a President , three senators , and multiple other Representatives , both on the federal and state level . Jack ' s father , Joe , was a prominent American businessman and political figure , serving in multiple roles , including Ambassador to the United Kingdom , from 1938 to 1940 . Outside on the White House lawn , the Kennedys established a swimming pool and tree house , while Caroline attended a preschool along with 10 other children inside the home . In October 1951 , during his third term as Massachusetts ' s 11th district congressman , the then 34 - year - old Kennedy embarked on a seven - week trip to India , Japan , Vietnam , and Israel with his then 25 - year - old brother Bobby ( who had just graduated from law school four months earlier ) and his then 27 - year - old sister Pat . Because they were several years apart in age , the brothers had previously seen little of each other . This trip was the first extended time they had spent together and resulted in their becoming best friends , in addition to being brothers . Bobby was campaign manager for Kennedy ' s successful 1952 Senate campaign and later , his successful 1960 presidential campaign . The two brothers worked closely together from 1957 to 1959 on the Senate Select Committee on Improper Activities in the Labor and Management Field , when Robert was its chief counsel . During Kennedy ' s presidency , Robert served in his cabinet as Attorney General and was his closest advisor . Kennedy was a life member of the National Rifle Association . Kennedy came in third ( behind Martin Luther King , Jr . and Mother Teresa ) in Gallup ' s List of Widely Admired People of the 20th century . Camelot Era . Kennedy and his wife were younger in comparison to the presidents and first ladies that preceded them , and both were popular in the media culture in ways more common to pop singers and movie stars than politicians , influencing fashion trends and becoming the subjects of numerous photo spreads in popular magazines . Although Eisenhower had allowed presidential press conferences to be filmed for television , Kennedy was the first president to ask for them to be broadcast live and made good use of the medium . Mrs . Kennedy brought new art and furniture to the White House , and directed its restoration . They invited a range of artists , writers and intellectuals to rounds of White House dinners , raising the profile of the arts in America . The president was closely tied to popular culture , emphasized by songs such as " Twisting at the White House " . Vaughn Meader ' s " First Family " comedy album — an album parodying the President , First Lady , their family , and administration — sold about four million copies . On May 19 , 1962 , Marilyn Monroe sang " Happy Birthday , Mr . President " at a large party in Madison Square Garden , celebrating Kennedy ' s upcoming forty - fifth birthday . The charisma of Kennedy and his family led to the figurative designation of " Camelot " for his administration , credited by his wife , who coined the term for the first time in print during a post - assassination interview with Theodore White , to his affection for the then contemporary Broadway musical of the same name . Health . Years after Kennedy ' s death , it was revealed that in September 1947 , at age 30 , and while in his first term in Congress , he was diagnosed by Sir Daniel Davis at The London Clinic with Addison ' s disease , a rare endocrine disorder . In 1966 , his White House doctor , Janet Travell , revealed that Kennedy also had hypothyroidism . The presence of two endocrine diseases raises the possibility that Kennedy had autoimmune polyendocrine syndrome type 2 ( APS 2 ) . He also suffered from chronic and severe back pain , for which he had surgery and was written up in the American Medical Association ' s " Archives of Surgery " . Kennedy ' s condition may have had diplomatic repercussions , as he appears to have been taking a combination of drugs to treat severe back pain during the 1961 Vienna Summit with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev . The combination included hormones , animal organ cells , steroids , vitamins , enzymes , and amphetamines , and possible potential side effects included hyperactivity , hypertension , impaired judgment , nervousness , and mood swings . Kennedy at one time was regularly seen by no fewer than three doctors , one of whom , Max Jacobson , was unknown to the other two , as his mode of treatment was controversial and used for the most severe bouts of back pain . There were disagreements among his doctors , into late 1961 , over the proper balance of medication and exercise , with the president preferring the former as he was short on time and desired immediate relief . During that timeframe the president ' s physician , George Burkley , did set up some gym equipment in the White House basement where Kennedy did stretching exercises for his back three times a week . Details of these and other medical problems were not publicly disclosed during Kennedy ' s lifetime . Personal tragedies . Behind the glamour , the Kennedys experienced many personal tragedies . Jackie had a miscarriage in 1955 and a stillbirth in 1956 ; and a son , Patrick Bouvier Kennedy , died shortly after birth in August 1963 . They had two children who survived infancy . One of the fundamental aspects of the Kennedy family is a tragic strain which has run through the family , due to the violent and untimely deaths of many of its members . Jack ' s elder brother , Joseph P . Kennedy , Jr . , died in World War II , at the age of 29 . It was Joe Jr . who was originally to carry the family ' s hopes for the Presidency . Then both Jack himself , and his brother Bobby died due to assassinations . Ted had brushes with death , the first in a plane crash in 1964 and the second due to a car accident in 1969 known as the Chappaquiddick incident . Ted died at age 77 , on August 25 , 2009 , from the effects of a malignant brain tumor . Caroline Bouvier Kennedy was born in 1957 and is the only surviving member of JFK ' s immediate family . John F . Kennedy , Jr . , was born in 1960 , just a few weeks after his father was elected . John Jr . died in 1999 , when the small plane he was piloting crashed en route to Martha ' s Vineyard , killing him , his wife , Carolyn Bessette , and his sister - in - law . Extramarital relationships . As a young single man in the 1940s , Kennedy had affairs with Danish journalist Inga Arvad , and actress Gene Tierney . Later in life , Kennedy reportedly had affairs with a number of women , including Marilyn Monroe , Gunilla von Post , Judith Campbell , Mary Pinchot Meyer , Marlene Dietrich , Mimi Alford , and Jackie ' s press secretary Pamela Turnure . Kennedy ' s philandering may have included actress Angie Dickinson , and White House secretaries Priscilla Weir and Jill Cowen . The extent of a relationship with Monroe will never be known , although it has been reported they spent a weekend together in March 1962 while Kennedy was staying at Bing Crosby ' s house . Furthermore , the White House switch board noted calls from her during 1962 . FBI director , Hoover , received reports as to Kennedy ' s indiscretions . Doctors speculated that the drugs the president required for Addison ' s disease had the side effect of increasing his virility . The president remarked to UK Prime Minister Harold Macmillan , " I wonder how it is for you , Harold ? If I don ' t have a woman for three days , I get terrible headaches . " Kennedy may have been influenced by his father Joe Kennedy ' s open affair with Gloria Swanson . According to John F . Kennedy himself , Joe told his sons to get " laid as often as possible " . Kennedy inspired affection and loyalty from the members of his team and his supporters . According to Reeves , this included " the logistics of Kennedy ' s liaisons . . . [ which ] required secrecy and devotion rare in the annals of the energetic service demanded by successful politicians " . Kennedy believed that his friendly relationship with members of the press would help protect him from revelations about his sex life . During the Election of 1960 , Republican Senator Hugh Scott , at an October 3 , 1960 press conference , stated in reference to Kennedy running for the Presidency , " this is no job for a playboy " . Scott , a member of the Republican " Truth Squad " , was referring to Kennedy riding his yacht in Hyannis Port , absent from the Senate during a vote on medical care for the elderly . Scott stated that Senator Kennedy was absent from voting in the Senate 331 times out of 1 , 189 times , not including the 36 absences due to Kennedy ' s back surgery in 1955 , during the time period from 1953 to 1960 . Ancestry . The Kennedy family originally came from Dunganstown , County Wexford , Ireland . In 1848 , Patrick Kennedy ( 1823 – 1858 ) left his farm and boarded a ship in New Ross bound for Liverpool on his way to Boston . It was here he met the woman he was to marry , Bridget Murphy ( c . 1824 – 1888 ) . Patrick came to Boston , took a job as a migrant worker , and died within eight or nine years , of cholera . They had three daughters and two sons ( the elder son died young from cholera ) . He left behind a widow and four children to carry on , the youngest being Patrick Joseph Kennedy . Legacy . Television became the primary source by which people were kept informed of events surrounding John F . Kennedy ' s assassination . In fact , television started to come of age before the assassination . On September 2 , 1963 , Kennedy helped inaugurate network television ' s first half hour nightly evening newscast according to an interview with " CBS Evening News " anchor Walter Cronkite . Newspapers were kept as souvenirs rather than sources of updated information . In this sense it was the first major " TV news event " of its kind , the TV coverage uniting the nation , interpreting what went on and creating memories of this space in time . All three major U . S . television networks suspended their regular schedules and switched to all - news coverage from November 22 through November 25 , 1963 , being on the air for 70 hours , making it the longest uninterrupted news event on American TV until 9 / 11 . Kennedy ' s state funeral procession and the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald were all broadcast live in America and in other places around the world . The state funeral was the first of three in a span of 12 months . The other two were for General Douglas MacArthur and President Herbert Clark Hoover . All three have two things in common : the commanding general of the Military District of Washington during those funerals was Army Major General Philip C . Wehle and the riderless horse was Black Jack , who also served in that role during Lyndon B . Johnson ' s funeral . The assassination had an effect on many people , not only in the U . S . but around the world . Many vividly remember where they were when first learning of the news that Kennedy was assassinated , as with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7 , 1941 , before it and the September 11 attacks after it . UN Ambassador Adlai Stevenson said of the assassination : " all of us . . . will bear the grief of his death until the day of ours . " Many people have also spoken of the shocking news , compounded by the pall of uncertainty about the identity of the assassin ( s ) , the possible instigators and the causes of the killing as an end to innocence , and in retrospect it has been coalesced with other changes of the tumultuous decade of the 1960s , especially the Vietnam War . Special Forces had a special bond with Kennedy . " It was President Kennedy who was responsible for the rebuilding of the Special Forces and giving us back our Green Beret , " said Forrest Lindley , a writer for the newspaper " Stars and Stripes " who served with Special Forces in Vietnam . This bond was shown at JFK ' s funeral . At the commemoration of the 25th anniversary of JFK ' s death , Gen . Michael D . Healy , the last commander of Special Forces in Vietnam , spoke at Arlington Cemetery . Later , a wreath in the form of the Green Beret would be placed on the grave , continuing a tradition that began the day of his funeral when a sergeant in charge of a detail of Special Forces men guarding the grave placed his beret on the coffin . Kennedy was the first of six Presidents to have served in the U . S . Navy , and one of the enduring legacies of his administration was the creation in 1961 of another special forces command , the Navy SEALs , which Kennedy enthusiastically supported . Ultimately , the death of President Kennedy and the ensuing confusion surrounding the facts of his assassination are of political and historical importance insofar as they marked a turning point and decline in the faith of the American people in the political establishment — a point made by commentators from Gore Vidal to Arthur M . Schlesinger , Jr . and implied by Oliver Stone in several of his films , such as his landmark 1991 " JFK " . Although President Kennedy opposed segregation and had shown support for the civil rights of African Americans , he originally believed in a more measured approach to legislation given the political realities he faced in Congress , especially with the Southern Conservatives . However , impelled by the civil rights demonstrations of Martin Luther King , Kennedy in 1963 proposed legislative action . In a radio and TV address to the nation in June 1963 — a century after President Abraham Lincoln had signed the Emancipation Proclamation — Kennedy became the first president to call on all Americans to denounce racism as morally wrong . Kennedy ' s civil rights proposals led to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 . President Lyndon B . Johnson , Kennedy ' s successor , took up the mantle and pushed the landmark Civil Rights Act through a bitterly divided Congress by invoking the slain president ' s memory . President Johnson then signed the Act into law on July 2 , 1964 . This civil rights law ended what was known as the " Solid South " and certain provisions were modeled after the Civil Rights Act of 1875 , signed into law by President Ulysses S . Grant . Kennedy ' s continuation of Presidents Harry S . Truman and Dwight D . Eisenhower ' s policies of giving economic and military aid to South Vietnam left the door open for President Johnson ' s escalation of the conflict . At the time of Kennedy ' s death , no final policy decision had been made as to Vietnam , leading historians , cabinet members and writers to continue to disagree on whether the Vietnam conflict would have escalated to the point it did had he survived . However , his agreeing to the NSAM 263 action in withdrawing 1 , 000 troops by the end of 1963 , and his earlier 1963 speech at American University , gives an idea he was ready to end the Vietnam War , and the Cold War via detente with the Soviet Union nine years before it actually did in 1972 . The Vietnam War contributed greatly to a decade of national difficulties , amid violent disappointment on the political landscape . Many of Kennedy ' s speeches ( especially his inaugural address ) are considered iconic ; and despite his relatively short term in office and lack of major legislative changes coming to fruition during his term , Americans regularly vote him as one of the best presidents , in the same league as Abraham Lincoln , George Washington , and Franklin D . Roosevelt . Some excerpts of Kennedy ' s inaugural address are engraved on a plaque at his grave at Arlington . He was posthumously awarded the Pacem in Terris Award . It was named after a 1963 encyclical letter by Pope John XXIII that calls upon all people of goodwill to secure peace among all nations . Pacem in Terris is Latin for ' Peace on Earth . ' President Kennedy is the only president to have predeceased both his mother and father . He is also the only president to have predeceased a grandparent . His grandmother , Mary Josephine Hannon Fitzgerald , died in 1964 , just over eight months after his assassination . Throughout the English - speaking world , the given name " Kennedy " has sometimes been used in honor of President Kennedy , as well his brother Robert . Coat of arms . In 1961 , Kennedy was presented with a grant of arms for all the descendants of Patrick Kennedy from the Chief Herald of Ireland . The design of the arms strongly alludes to symbols in the coats of arms of the O ' Kennedys of Ormonde and the FitzGeralds of Desmond , from whom the family is believed to be descended . The crest is an armored hand holding four arrows between two olive branches , elements taken from the coat of arms of the United States of America and also symbolic of Kennedy and his brothers . Kennedy received a signet ring engraved with his arms for his 44th birthday as a gift from his wife , and the arms were incorporated into the seal of the USS " John F . Kennedy " . Following his assassination , Kennedy was honored by the Canadian government by having a mountain , Mount Kennedy , named for him , which his brother , Robert Kennedy , climbed in 1965 to plant a banner of the arms at the summit .