KENNEDY, John Fitzgerald | US House of Representatives: History, Art & Archives Adler, Bill, ed. The Kennedy Wit. New York: Citadel Press, 1964. ___, ed. More Kennedy Wit. New York: Bantam Press, 1965. Brogan, Hugh. Kennedy. New York: Longman, 1996. Burner, David, and Thomas R. West. The Torch Is Passed: The Kennedy Brothers and American Liberalism. New York: Atheneum, 1984. Burns, James MacGregor. John Kennedy: A Political Profile. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1961. Crown, James Tracy. The Kennedy Literature: A Bibliographical Essay on John F. Kennedy. New York: New York University Press, 1968. Dallek, Robert. An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917-1963. Boston: Little Brown Co., 2003. Dollen, Charles. John F. Kennedy, American. Boston: St. Paul Editions, 1965.

Giglio, James N., comp. John F. Kennedy: A Bibliogaphy. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1995. Goldman, Alex J., ed. The Quotable Kennedy. New York: Citadel Press, 1965. Gray, Charles H. "A Scale Analysis of the Voting Records of Senators Kennedy, Johnson and Goldwater, 1957-1960." American Political Science Review 59 (September 1965): 615-21. Kennedy, John F. "Congressional Lobbies: A Chronic Problem Re-examined." Georgetown Law Journal 45 (Summer 1957): 535-67. ___. A Nation of Immigrants. 1959. Rev. and enlarged ed., with introduction by Robert F. Kennedy and new preface by John P. Roche. New York: Harper & Row, 1986. ___. Prelude to Leadership: The European Diary of John F. Kennedy, Summer 1945. Washington: Regnery Publishing, 1995. ___. Profiles in Courage.

1956. Memorial ed. New York: Harper & Row, 1964. ___. Why England Slept. 1940. Reprint. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1981. ___, ed. As We Remember Joe. Cambridge, MA: Privately published, 1945. Lemke, William Edgar. "The Political Thought of John F. Kennedy: To the Inaugural Address." Ph.D. dissertation, University of Maine, 1973. Lincoln, Evelyn. My Twelve Years with John F. Kennedy. New York: D. McKay Co., 1965. Lowe, Jacques. Portrait: The Emergence of John F. Kennedy. New York: McGraw Hill, 1961. Matthews, Christopher. Kennedy & Nixon: The Rivalry that Shaped Postwar America. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996. Nevins, Allan, ed. The Strategy of Peace. New York: Harper & Row, 1960. Newcomb, Joan I., comp. John F.

Kennedy: An Annotated Bibliography. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1977. Nurse, Ronald Joseph. "America Must Not Sleep: The Development of John F. Kennedy's Foreign Policy Attitudes, 1947-1960." Ph.D. dissertation, Michigan State University, 1971. O'Donnell, Kenneth P., and David F. Powers. "Johnny, We Hardly Knew Ye": Memories of John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1972. O'Hara, William T., ed. John F. Kennedy on Education. New York: Teachers College Press, Columbia University, 1966. Parmet, Herbert S. Jack: The Struggles of John F. Kennedy. New York: Dial Press, 1980. ___. JFK: The Presidency of John F. Kennedy. New York: Dial Press, 1983. Rorabaugh, W.J. Kennedy and the Promise of the Sixties. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002. Ryan, Dorothy, and Louis J.

Ryan, comps. The Kennedy Family of Massachusetts: A Bibliography. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1981. Sable, Martin H. A Bio-Bibliography of the Kennedy Family. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1969. Sanghvi, Ramesh. John F. Kennedy: A Political Biography. Bombay: Perennial Press, 1961. Shaw, John. JFK in the Senate: Pathway to the Presidency. New York City: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013. Sorensen, Theodore C. Kennedy. 1965. Reprint, with new introduction. New York: Perennial Library, 1988. ___. The Kennedy Legacy. 1969. Special ed. New York: Macmillan Co., 1993. ___, comp. "Let the Word Go Forth": The Speeches, Statements, and Writings of John F. Kennedy. New York: Dell Publishing, 1991. Stone, Ralph A., ed. John F.

Kennedy, 1917-1963: Chronology--Documents--Bibliographical Aids. Dobbs Ferry, NY: Oceana Publications, 1971. U.S. Congress. Memorial Addresses in the Congress of the United States and Tributes in Eulogy of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Late a President of the United States. 88th Cong., 2d sess., 1964. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1964. Whalen, Thomas J. Kennedy Versus Lodge: The 1952 Massachusetts Senate Race. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 2000. White, Theodore H. The Making of the President, 1960. 1961. Reprint. New York: Atheneum, 1988. Wicker, Tom. JFK and LBJ: The Influence of Personality Upon Politics. New York: William Morrow & Co., 1968. Wszelaki, Jan H., ed. John F. Kennedy and Poland: Selection of Documents, 1948-1963.

New York: Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences in America, 1964. John F. Kennedy | whitehouse.gov Air Force One John F. Kennedy John F. Kennedy was the 35th President of the United States (1961-1963), the youngest man elected to the office. On November 22, 1963, when he was hardly past his first thousand days in office, JFK was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, becoming also the youngest President to die. On November 22, 1963, when he was hardly past his first thousand days in office, John Fitzgerald Kennedy was killed by an assassin's bullets as his motorcade wound through Dallas, Texas. Kennedy was the youngest man elected President; he was the youngest to die. Of Irish descent, he was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, on May 29, 1917. Graduating from Harvard in 1940, he entered the Navy. In 1943, when his PT boat was rammed and sunk by a Japanese destroyer, Kennedy, despite grave injuries, led the survivors through perilous waters to safety.

Back from the war, he became a Democratic Congressman from the Boston area, advancing in 1953 to the Senate. He married Jacqueline Bouvier on September 12, 1953. In 1955, while recuperating from a back operation, he wrote Profiles in Courage, which won the Pulitzer Prize in history. In 1956 Kennedy almost gained the Democratic nomination for Vice President, and four years later was a first-ballot nominee for President. Millions watched his television debates with the Republican candidate, Richard M. Nixon. Winning by a narrow margin in the popular vote, Kennedy became the first Roman Catholic President. His Inaugural Address offered the memorable injunction: "Ask not what your country can do for you--ask what you can do for your country." As President, he set out to redeem his campaign pledge to get America moving again. His economic programs launched the country on its longest sustained expansion since World War II; before his death, he laid plans for a massive assault on persisting pockets of privation and poverty. Responding to ever more urgent demands, he took vigorous action in the cause of equal rights, calling for new civil rights legislation.

His vision of America extended to the quality of the national culture and the central role of the arts in a vital society. He wished America to resume its old mission as the first nation dedicated to the revolution of human rights. With the Alliance for Progress and the Peace Corps, he brought American idealism to the aid of developing nations. But the hard reality of the Communist challenge remained. Shortly after his inauguration, Kennedy permitted a band of Cuban exiles, already armed and trained, to invade their homeland. The attempt to overthrow the regime of Fidel Castro was a failure. Soon thereafter, the Soviet Union renewed its campaign against West Berlin. Kennedy replied by reinforcing the Berlin garrison and increasing the Nation's military strength, including new efforts in outer space. Confronted by this reaction, Moscow, after the erection of the Berlin Wall, relaxed its pressure in central Europe. Instead, the Russians now sought to install nuclear missiles in Cuba. When this was discovered by air reconnaissance in October 1962, Kennedy imposed a quarantine on all offensive weapons bound for Cuba. While the world trembled on the brink of nuclear war, the Russians backed down and agreed to take the missiles away.

The American response to the Cuban crisis evidently persuaded Moscow of the futility of nuclear blackmail. Kennedy now contended that both sides had a vital interest in stopping the spread of nuclear weapons and slowing the arms race--a contention which led to the test ban treaty of 1963. The months after the Cuban crisis showed significant progress toward his goal of "a world of law and free choice, banishing the world of war and coercion." His administration thus saw the beginning of new hope for both the equal rights of Americans and the peace of the world. The Presidential biographies on WhiteHouse.gov are from “The Presidents of the United States of America,” by Frank Freidel and Hugh Sidey. Copyright 2006 by the White House Historical Association. For more information about President Kennedy, please visit HOME | TABLE of CONTENTS | INDEX | SEARCH John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917-1963) John Fitzgerald Kennedy (JFK), the thirty-fifth president of the United States and the second son of Joseph Patrick Kennedy and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, May 29, 1917.

The Kennedy household teemed with activity – all nine children were encouraged to be athletic and to play to win. At dinner, both parents expected their children to be well informed, to participate in the political debates that often occurred during dinner, and to accept the ethos of noblesse oblige and a "life of constant competition." JFK's battles were also physical – scarlet fever before he was three, intense back pain caused by a difference in the length of his legs, and a variety of illnesses which forced him to leave Princeton during his freshman year. A year later, he hurt his back trying out for the freshman football team at Harvard, where he had enrolled after leaving Princeton. When he failed to make the team, he joined the varsity swimming team instead. Despite his lackadaisical attitude toward his studies, JFK earned second highest honors for his thesis "Appeasement at Munich," in which he disagreed with his father, who had arranged the interviews JFK used to construct his argument, which posited that while Chamberlain had no choice but to negotiate with Hitler, Churchill was also correct in arguing that American aid was crucial to Britain's survival.

With the encouragement of Arthur Krock and his father's assistance, the thesis, published under the title, Why England Slept, became a bestseller in England and in America, selling 80,000 copies in nine months. He donated the royalties from the British edition to the campaign to rebuild war-scarred Plymouth and enrolled in the London School of Economics. John Kennedy planned to attend Yale Law School, but when American entry into World War II seemed imminent, he exercised to strengthen his back, enlisted in the Navy, and requested a commission to command a PT boat. On August 2, 1943, a Japanese destroyer rammed JFK's boat, which was patrolling the Solomon Islands protecting American transports against Japanese attacks, and split the PT 109 in half, killing two of his thirteen-man crew. One survivor was so badly burned that JFK had to tow him to safety by holding the crewman's life jacket strap in his teeth while he swam five hours to reach a small island. Two days later, they abandoned it for another, larger island, where they stayed for five days before they were rescued.

He then returned to sea as commander of a new PT boat only to have his second tour cut short by malaria and severe back pain. Determined to observe as much as he could, JFK spent the remainder of the war as a Hearst correspondent for the 1945 British elections and the Potsdam conference. Kennedy's heroic actions attracted national attention, especially after John Hersey chronicled the rescue for the New Yorker and the Reader's Digest syndicated an abridged version. Yet, when he returned to Massachusetts and began to give lectures around the state, he refused to capitalize on his fame, saying simply, "It was involuntary. They sank my boat." In 1946, JFK was one of eleven candidates seeking to represent Massachusetts' Eleventh District, an enclave of Irish and Italian voters. He campaigned as a New Deal Democrat and, in a direct reference to Boston Mayor James Curley, promised that he would "maintain integrity and virtue in public office." As a young congressman, he usually followed the lead of House Democrats. Yet his few differences were stark and angered leadership and key constituencies.

He opposed clemency for Curley (which Truman supported), a veteran's pension bill supported by the American Legion, and supported the Mundt-Nixon bill, which liberals considered an anathema. Although he voted against Taft-Hartley, he wrote a minority opinion as critical of labor as it was of management. He also blamed the communist victory in China on Truman's inept foreign policy decisions. In 1953, he joined the Senate at the age of thirty-five, after defeating incumbent Henry Cabot Lodge by 70,000 votes in a state Eisenhower carried by three times that margin. Having set his sights on the presidency, Kennedy collaborated with but never led his colleagues. His prominence came from his national exposure at the 1956 Democratic convention when he narrated the convention film, placed Stevenson 's name in nomination, and narrowly lost the vice-presidential nomination. He then became one of the most sought after speakers among the Senators and a frequent guest on radio and television talk shows. As he did in the House, Kennedy usually sided with the liberal Democratic voting bloc, but angered his colleagues by opposing increased farm price supports and voting for the jury trial amendment to the 1957 Civil Rights Act.

He became an expert on labor law and became a frequent target of criticism by both the National Association of Manufacturers and the AFL-CIO. In foreign policy, he supported economic aid to India, supported Algerian independence from France, and argued that economic aid should be used to lessen Russia's grip on its satellites. In 1960, Kennedy organized his presidential campaign around the themes, "Get America Moving Again" and "To Seek A New Frontier." The nation was prosperous and at peace and the outgoing Eisenhower still commanded great affection from a majority of voters. While Kennedy tried to capitalize on Sputnik by campaigning to bridge "the missile gap" we had with the Soviets, his Catholicism became just as important an issue to the voters. After four nationally televised debates , he defeated Richard Nixon in the closest presidential election since 1888 and became the youngest man ever elected president. Even though Nixon carried more states than JFK and the Republicans controlled Congress, President Kennedy refused to accept that he did not have a clear mandate to lead, declaring, "the margin is narrow, but the responsibility is clear." In the shortest inaugural address since FDR 's 1933 speech, JFK issued a clarion call for citizen engagement and public service.

His domestic priority was the economy. He reduced personal and corporate taxes, increased spending on space and defense projects, and refused to increase federal funding of social programs. He based his foreign policy on the concept of counterinsurgency, arguing that the threat to America was the Third World (Cuba, Latin America, and Vietnam). He increased funding for missile development, increased numbers of all military branches, and urged the creation of a new, more mobile military (the Green Berets). In his one thousand days as president, he faced three major crises: The Bay of Pigs, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the emergence of a powerful civil rights movement. In the process, he brought a new sardonic wit, intellectual charm, and a young, vibrant family to the White House. President John Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, November 22, 1963, while driving past Dealy Plaza in a open-top limousine. His death stunned the nation, which watched his death, the murder of the man arrested for his murder, and his funeral on television. Sources: Carl Brauer, "John F. Kennedy," in Henry F.

Graff, ed., The Presidents: A Reference History, (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1996), pp. 479-485; Fletcher Knebel, "Pulitzer Prize Entry: John F. Kennedy" in Eric Sevareid, ed., Candidates 1960: Behind the Headlines in the Presidential Race, (New York: Basic Books, 1959), pp. 181-215; Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., A Thousand Days: John F. Kennedy in the White House (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1965), passim. Recommended citation: Eleanor Roosevelt, John Kennedy, and the Election of 1960: A Project of The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers, ed. by Allida Black, June Hopkins, John Sears, Christopher Alhambra, Mary Jo Binker, Christopher Brick, John S. Emrich, Eugenia Gusev, Kristen E. Gwinn, and Bryan D. Peery (Columbia, S.C.: Model Editions Partnership, 2003). Electronic version based on unpublished letters. .

For more information, visit The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers home page at ~erpapers/ . Copyright © 2006. The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers. All rights reserved. Life of John F. Kennedy - John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum Life of John F. Kennedy Life of John F. Kennedy Life of John F. Kennedy Growing Up in the Kennedy Family Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, who was a very disciplined and organized woman, made the following entry on a notecard, when her second child was born: John Fitzgerald Kennedy Born Brookline, Mass. (83 Beals Street) May 29, 1917 In all, Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy would have nine children, four boys and five girls. She kept notecards for each of them in a small wooden file box and made a point of writing down everything from a doctor’s visit to the shoe size they had at a particular age. John Fitzgerald Kennedy was named in honor of Rose’s father, John Francis Fitzgerald, the Boston Mayor popularly known as Honey Fitz. Before long, family and friends called this small blue-eyed baby, Jack.

Jack was not a very healthy baby, and Rose recorded on his notecard the childhood diseases from which he suffered, such as: "whooping cough, measles, chicken pox." On February 20, 1920 when Jack was not yet three years old, he became sick with scarlet fever, a highly contagious and then potentially life-threatening disease. His father, Joseph Patrick Kennedy, was terrified that little Jack would die. Mr. Kennedy went to the hospital every day to be by his son’s side, and about a month later Jack took a turn for the better and recovered. But Jack was never very healthy, and because he was always suffering from one ailment or another his family used to joke about the great risk a mosquito took in biting him – with some of his blood the mosquito was almost sure to die! When Jack was three, the Kennedys moved to a new home a few blocks away from their old house in Brookline, a neighborhood just outside of Boston. It was a lovely house with twelve rooms, turreted windows, and a big porch. Full of energy and ambition, Jack’s father worked very hard at becoming a successful businessman.

When he was a student at Harvard College and having a difficult time fitting in as an Irish Catholic, he swore to himself he would make a million dollars by the age of 35. There was a lot of prejudice against Irish Catholics in Boston at that time, but Joseph Kennedy was determined to succeed. Jack’s great-grandparents had come from Ireland and managed to provide for their families, despite many hardships. Jack’s grandfathers did even better for themselves, both becoming prominent Boston politicians. Jack, because of all his family had done, could enjoy a very comfortable life. The Kennedys had everything they needed and more. By the time Jack was eight there were seven children altogether. Jack had an older brother, Joe; four sisters, Rosemary, Kathleen, Eunice, and Patricia; and a younger brother, Robert. Jean and Teddy hadn’t been born yet. Nannies and housekeepers helped Rose run the household. At the end of the school year, the Kennedy children would go to their summer home in Hyannis Port on Cape Cod where they enjoyed swimming, sailing, and playing touch football. The Kennedy children played hard, and they enjoyed competing with one another. Joseph Sr. encouraged this competition, especially among the boys.

He was a father with very high expectations and wanted the boys to win at sports and everything they tried. As he often said, "When the going gets tough, the tough get going." But sometimes these competitions went too far. One time when Joe suggested that he and Jack race on their bicycles, they collided head-on. Joe emerged unscathed while Jack had to have twenty-eight stitches. Because Joe was two years older and stronger than Jack, whenever they fought, Jack would usually get the worst of it. Jack was the only sibling who posed any real threat to Joe’s dominant position as the oldest child. Jack was very popular and had many friends at Choate, a boarding school for adolescent boys in Connecticut. He played tennis, basketball, football, and golf and also enjoyed reading. His friend Lem Billings remembers how unusual it was that Jack had a daily subscription to the New York Times. Jack had a "clever, individualist mind," his Head Master once noted, though he was not the best student. He did not always work as hard as he could, except in history and English, which were his favorite subjects.

"Now Jack," his father wrote in a letter one day, "I don’t want to give the impression that I am a nagger, for goodness knows I think that is the worse thing any parent can be, and I also feel that you know if I didn’t really feel you had the goods I would be most charitable in my attitude toward your failings. After long experience in sizing up people I definitely know you have the goods and you can go a long way…It is very difficult to make up fundamentals that you have neglected when you were very young, and that is why I am urging you to do the best you can. I am not expecting too much, and I will not be disappointed if you don’t turn out to be a real genius, but I think you can be a really worthwhile citizen with good judgment and understanding." Jack graduated from Choate and entered Harvard in 1936, where Joe was already a student. Like his brother Joe, Jack played football. He was not as good an athlete as Joe but he had a lot of determination and perseverance. Unfortunately, one day while playing he ruptured a disk in his spine. Jack never really recovered from this accident and his back continued to bother him for the rest of his life.

The two eldest boys were attractive, agreeable, and intelligent young men and Mr. Kennedy had high hopes for them both. However, it was Joe who had announced to everyone when he was a young boy that he would be the first Catholic to become President. No one doubted him for a moment. Jack, on the other hand, seemed somewhat less ambitious. He was active in student groups and sports and he worked hard in his history and government classes, though his grades remained only average. Late in 1937, Mr. Kennedy was appointed United States Ambassador to England and moved there with his whole family, with the exception of Joe and Jack who were at Harvard. Because of his father’s job, Jack became very interested in European politics and world affairs. After a summer visit to England and other countries in Europe, Jack returned to Harvard more eager to learn about history and government and to keep up with current events. Joe and Jack frequently received letters from their father in England, who informed them of the latest news regarding the conflicts and tensions that everyone feared would soon blow up into a full-scale war. Adolph Hitler ruled Germany and Benito Mussolini ruled Italy. They both had strong armies and wanted to take land from other countries.

On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland and World War II began. By this time, Jack was a senior at Harvard and decided to write his thesis on why Great Britain was unprepared for war with Germany. It was later published as a book called Why England Slept. In June 1940, Jack graduated from Harvard. His father sent him a cablegram from London: "TWO THINGS I ALWAYS KNEW ABOUT YOU ONE THAT YOU ARE SMART TWO THAT YOU ARE A SWELL GUY LOVE DAD." World War II and a Future in Politics Soon after graduating, both Joe and Jack joined the Navy. Joe was a flyer and sent to Europe, while Jack was made Lieutenant (Lt.) and assigned to the South Pacific as commander of a patrol torpedo boat, the PT-109. Lt. Kennedy had a crew of twelve men whose mission was to stop Japanese ships from delivering supplies to their soldiers. On the night of August 2, 1943, Lt. Kennedy’s crew patrolled the waters looking for enemy ships to sink. A Japanese destroyer suddenly became visible. But it was traveling at full speed and headed straight at them. Holding the wheel, Lt.

Kennedy tried to swerve out of the way, but to no avail. The much larger Japanese warship rammed the PT-109, splitting it in half and killing two of Lt. Kennedy’s men. The others managed to jump off as their boat went up in flames. Lt. Kennedy was slammed hard against the cockpit, once again injuring his weak back. Patrick McMahon, one of his crew members, had horrible burns on his face and hands and was ready to give up. In the darkness, Lt. Kennedy managed to find McMahon and haul him back to where the other survivors were clinging to a piece of the boat that was still afloat. At sunrise, Lt. Kennedy led his men toward a small island several miles away. Despite his own injuries, Lt. Kennedy was able to tow Patrick McMahon ashore, a strap from McMahon’s life jacket clenched between his teeth. Six days later two native islanders found them and went for help, delivering a message Jack had carved into a piece of coconut shell. The next day, the PT-109 crew was rescued. Jack’s brother Joe was not so lucky. He died a year later when his plane blew up during a dangerous mission in Europe.

When he returned home, Jack was awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal for his leadership and courage. With the war finally coming to an end, it was time to choose the kind of work he wanted to do. Jack had considered becoming a teacher or a writer, but with Joe’s tragic death suddenly everything changed. After serious discussions with Jack about his future, Joseph Kennedy convinced him that he should run for Congress in Massachusetts' eleventh congressional district, where he won in 1946. This was the beginning of Jack’s political career. As the years went on, John F. Kennedy, a Democrat, served three terms (six years) in the House of Representatives, and in 1952 he was elected to the US Senate. Soon after being elected senator, John F. Kennedy, at 36 years of age, married 24 year-old Jacqueline Bouvier, a writer with the Washington Times-Herald. Unfortunately, early on in their marriage, Senator Kennedy’s back started to hurt again and he had two serious operations. While recovering from surgery, he wrote a book about several US Senators who had risked their careers to fight for the things in which they believed.

The book, called Profiles in Courage, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for biography in 1957. That same year, the Kennedys’ first child, Caroline, was born. John F. Kennedy was becoming a popular politician. In 1956 he was almost picked to run for vice president. Kennedy nonetheless decided that he would run for president in the next election. He began working very long hours and traveling all around the United States on weekends. On July 13, 1960 the Democratic party nominated him as its candidate for president. Kennedy asked Lyndon B. Johnson, a senator from Texas, to run with him as vice president. In the general election on November 8, 1960, Kennedy defeated the Republican Vice President Richard M. Nixon in a very close race. At the age of 43, Kennedy was the youngest man elected president and the first Catholic. Before his inauguration, his second child, John Jr., was born. His father liked to call him John-John. John F. Kennedy Becomes The 35th President of the United States John F.

Kennedy was sworn in as the 35th president on January 20, 1961. In his inaugural speech he spoke of the need for all Americans to be active citizens. "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country," he said. He also 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." President Kennedy, together with his wife and two children, brought a new, youthful spirit to the White House. The Kennedys believed that the White House should be a place to celebrate American history, culture, and achievement. They invited artists, writers, scientists, poets, musicians, actors, and athletes to visit them. Jacqueline Kennedy also shared her husband's interest in American history. Gathering some of the finest art and furniture the United States had produced, she restored all the rooms in the White House to make it a place that truly reflected America’s history and artistic creativity. Everyone was impressed and appreciated her hard work. The White House also seemed like a fun place because of the Kennedys’ two young children, Caroline and John-John.

There was a pre-school, a swimming pool, and a tree-house outside on the White House lawn. President Kennedy was probably the busiest man in the country, but he still found time to laugh and play with his children. However, the president also had many worries. One of the things he worried about most was the possibility of nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union. He knew that if there was a war, millions of people would die. Since World War II, there had been a lot of anger and suspicion between the two countries but never any shooting between Soviet and American troops. This 'Cold War', which was unlike any other war the world had seen, was really a struggle between the Soviet Union's communist system of government and the United States' democratic system. Because they distrusted each other, both countries spent enormous amounts of money building nuclear weapons. There were many times when the struggle between the Soviet Union and the United States could have ended in nuclear war, such as in Cuba during the 1962 missile crisis or over the divided city of Berlin. President Kennedy worked long hours, getting up at seven and not going to bed until eleven or twelve at night, or later.

He read six newspapers while he ate breakfast, had meetings with important people throughout the day, and read reports from his advisers. He wanted to make sure that he made the best decisions for his country. "I am asking each of you to be new pioneers in that New Frontier," he said. The New Frontier was not a place but a way of thinking and acting. President Kennedy wanted the United States to move forward into the future with new discoveries in science and improvements in education, employment and other fields. He wanted democracy and freedom for the whole world. One of the first things President Kennedy did was to create the Peace Corps. Through this program, which still exists today, Americans can volunteer to work anywhere in the world where assistance is needed. They can help in areas such as education, farming, health care, and construction. Many young men and women have served as Peace Corps volunteers and have won the respect of people throughout the world. President Kennedy was also eager for the United States to lead the way in exploring space. The Soviet Union was ahead of the United States in its space program and President Kennedy was determined to catch up.

He said, "No nation which expects to be the leader of other nations can expect to stay behind in this race for space." Kennedy was the first president to ask Congress to approve more than 22 billion dollars for Project Apollo, which had the goal of landing an American man on the moon before the end of the decade. President Kennedy had to deal with many serious problems here in the United States. The biggest problem of all was racial discrimination. The US Supreme Court had ruled in 1954 that segregation in public schools would no longer be permitted. Black and white children, the decision mandated, should go to school together. This was now the law of the land. However, there were many schools, especially in southern states, that did not obey this law. There was also racial segregation on buses, in restaurants, movie theaters, and other public places. Thousands of Americans joined together, people of all races and backgrounds, to protest peacefully this injustice. Martin Luther King Jr. was one of the famous leaders of the movement for civil rights. Many civil rights leaders didn’t think President Kennedy was supportive enough of their efforts.

The President believed that holding public protests would only anger many white people and make it even more difficult to convince the members of Congress who didn't agree with him to pass civil rights laws. By June 11, 1963, however, President Kennedy decided that the time had come to take stronger action to help the civil rights struggle. He proposed a new Civil Rights bill to the Congress, and he went on television asking Americans to end racism. "One hundred years of delay have passed since President Lincoln freed the slaves, yet their heirs, their grandsons, are not fully free," he said. "This Nation was founded by men of many nations and backgrounds…[and] on the principle that all men are created equal." President Kennedy made it clear that all Americans, regardless of their skin color, should enjoy a good and happy life in the United States. The President is Shot On November 21, 1963, President Kennedy flew to Texas to give several political speeches. The next day, as his car drove slowly past cheering crowds in Dallas, shots rang out. Kennedy was seriously wounded and died a short time later. Within a few hours of the shooting, police arrested Lee Harvey Oswald and charged him with the murder.

On November 24, another man, Jack Ruby, shot and killed Oswald, thus silencing the only person who could have offered more information about this tragic event. The Warren Commission was organized to investigate the assassination and to clarify the many questions which remained. The Legacy of John F. Kennedy President Kennedy's death caused enormous sadness and grief among all Americans. Most people still remember exactly where they were and what they were doing when they heard the news. Hundreds of thousands of people gathered in Washington for the President's funeral, and millions throughout the world watched it on television. As the years have gone by and other presidents have written their chapters in history, John Kennedy's brief time in office stands out in people's memories for his leadership, personality, and accomplishments. Many respect his coolness when faced with difficult decisions--like what to do about Soviet missiles in Cuba in 1962. Others admire his ability to inspire people with his eloquent speeches. Still others think his compassion and his willingness to fight for new government programs to help the poor, the elderly and the ill were most important. Like all leaders, John Kennedy made mistakes, but he was always optimistic about the future.

He believed that people could solve their common problems if they put their country's interests first and worked together. John F. Kennedy - U.S. Presidents - HISTORY.com John F. Kennedy A+E Networks Introduction Elected in 1960 as the 35th president of the United States, 43-year-old John F. Kennedy became the youngest man and the first Roman Catholic to hold that office. He was born into one of America’s wealthiest families and parlayed an elite education and a reputation as a military hero into a successful run for Congress in 1946 and for the Senate in 1952. As president, Kennedy confronted mounting Cold War tensions in Cuba, Vietnam and elsewhere. He also led a renewed drive for public service and eventually provided federal support for the growing civil rights movement. His assassination on November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas, sent shockwaves around the world and turned the all-too-human Kennedy into a larger-than-life heroic figure. To this day, historians continue to rank him among the best-loved presidents in American history. Google John F.

Kennedy’s Early Life Born on May 29, 1917, in Brookline, Massachusetts , John F. Kennedy (known as Jack) was the second of nine children. His parents, Joseph and Rose Kennedy, were members of two of Boston’s most prominent Irish Catholic political families. Despite persistent health problems throughout his childhood and teenage years (he would later be diagnosed with a rare endocrine disorder called Addison’s disease), Jack led a privileged youth, attending private schools such as Canterbury and Choate and spending summers in Hyannis Port on Cape Cod. Joe Kennedy, a hugely successful businessman and an early supporter of Franklin D. Roosevelt , was appointed chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission in 1934 and in 1937 was named U.S. ambassador to Great Britain. As a student at Harvard University, Jack traveled in Europe as his father’s secretary. His senior thesis about British’s unpreparedness for war was later published as an acclaimed book, “Why England Slept” (1940). Did You Know? John F.

Kennedy's Senate career got off to a rocky start when he refused to condemn Senator Joseph McCarthy, a personal friend of the Kennedy family whom the Senate voted to censure in 1954 for his relentless pursuit of suspected communists. In the end, though he planned to vote against McCarthy, Kennedy missed the vote when he was hospitalized after back surgery. Jack joined the U.S. Navy in 1941 and two years later was sent to the South Pacific, where he was given command of a Patrol-Torpedo (PT) boat. In August 1943, a Japanese destroyer struck the craft, PT-109, in the Solomon Islands. Kennedy helped some of his marooned crew back to safety, and was awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal for heroism. His older brother, Joe Jr., was not so fortunate: He was killed in August 1944 when his Navy airplane exploded on a secret mission against a German rocket-launching site. A grieving Joe Sr. told Jack it was his duty to fulfill the destiny once intended for Joe Jr.: to become the first Catholic president of the United States.

JFK’s Beginnings in Politics Abandoning plans to be a journalist, Jack left the Navy by the end of 1944. Less than a year later, he was back in Boston preparing for a run for Congress in 1946. As a moderately conservative Democrat, and backed by his father’s fortune, Jack won his party’s nomination handily and carried the mostly working-class Eleventh District by nearly three to one over his Republican opponent in the general election. He entered the 80th Congress in January 1947, at the age of 29, and immediately attracted attention (as well as some criticism from older members of the Washington establishment) for his youthful appearance and relaxed, informal style. Kennedy won reelection to the House of Representatives in 1948 and 1950, and in 1952 ran successfully for the Senate, defeating the popular Republican incumbent Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. On September 12, 1953, Kennedy married the beautiful socialite and journalist Jacqueline (Jackie) Lee Bouvier. Two years later, he was forced to undergo a painful operation on his back.

While recovering from the surgery, Jack wrote another best-selling book, “Profiles in Courage,” which won the Pulitzer Prize for biography in 1957. (The book was later revealed to be mostly the work of Kennedy’s longtime aide, Theodore Sorenson.) Kennedy’s Road to Presidency After nearly earning his party’s nomination for vice president (under Adlai Stevenson) in 1956, Kennedy announced his candidacy for president on January 2, 1960. He defeated a primary challenge from the more liberal Hubert Humphrey and chose the Senate majority leader, Lyndon Johnson of Texas , as his running mate. In the general election, Kennedy faced a difficult battle against his Republican opponent, Richard Nixon, a two-term vice president under the popular Dwight D. Eisenhower . Offering a young, energetic alternative to Nixon and the status quo, Kennedy benefited from his performance (and telegenic appearance) in the first-ever televised debates, watched by millions of viewers. In November’s election, Kennedy won by a narrow margin–less than 120,000 out of some 70 million votes cast–becoming the youngest man and the first Roman Catholic to be elected president of the United States.

With his beautiful young wife and their two small children (Caroline, born in 1957, and John Jr., born just weeks after the election), Kennedy lent an unmistakable aura of youth and glamour to the White House . In his inaugural address, given on January 20, 1961, the new president called on his fellow Americans to work together in the pursuit of progress and the elimination of poverty, but also in the battle to win the ongoing Cold War against communism around the world. Kennedy’s famous closing words expressed the need for cooperation and sacrifice on the part of the American people: “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” Kennedy’s Foreign Policy Challenges An early crisis in the foreign affairs arena occurred in April 1961, when Kennedy approved the plan to send 1,400 CIA-trained Cuban exiles in an amphibious landing at the Bay of Pigs in Cuba. Intended to spur a rebellion that would overthrow the communist leader Fidel Castro , the mission ended in failure, with nearly all of the exiles captured or killed.

That June, Kennedy met with Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev in Vienna to discuss the city of Berlin, which had been divided after World War II between Allied and Soviet control. Two months later, East German troops began erecting a wall to divide the city. Kennedy sent an army convoy to reassure West Berliners of U.S. support, and would deliver one of his most famous speeches in West Berlin in June 1963. Kennedy clashed again with Khrushchev in October 1962 during the Cuban missile crisis. After learning that the Soviet Union was constructing a number of nuclear and long-range missile sites in Cuba that could pose a threat to the continental United States, Kennedy announced a naval blockade of Cuba. The tense standoff lasted nearly two weeks before Khrushchev agreed to dismantle Soviet missile sites in Cuba in return for America’s promise not to invade the island and the removal of U.S. missiles from Turkey and other sites close to Soviet borders. In July 1963, Kennedy won his greatest foreign affairs victory when Khrushchev agreed to join him and Britain’s Prime Minister Harold Macmillan in signing a nuclear test ban treaty.

In Southeast Asia, however, Kennedy’s desire to curb the spread of communism led him to escalate U.S. involvement in the conflict in Vietnam, even as privately he expressed his dismay over the situation. Kennedy’s Leadership at Home During his first year in office, Kennedy oversaw the launch of the Peace Corps, which would send young volunteers to underdeveloped countries all over the world. Otherwise, he was unable to achieve much of his proposed legislation during his lifetime, including two of his biggest priorities: income tax cuts and a civil rights bill. Kennedy was slow to commit himself to the civil rights cause, but was eventually forced into action, sending federal troops to support the desegregation of the University of Mississippi after riots there left two dead and many others injured. The following summer, Kennedy announced his intention to propose a comprehensive civil rights bill and endorsed the massive March on Washington that took place that August. Kennedy was an enormously popular president, both at home and abroad, and his family drew famous comparisons to King Arthur’s court at Camelot. His brother Bobby served as his attorney general, while the youngest Kennedy son, Edward (Ted), was elected to Jack’s former Senate seat in 1962.

Jackie Kennedy became an international icon of style, beauty and sophistication, though stories of her husband’s numerous marital infidelities (and his personal association with members of organized crime) would later emerge to complicate the Kennedys’ idyllic image. JFK’s Assassination On November 22, 1963, the president and his wife landed in Dallas; he had spoken in San Antonio, Austin and Fort Worth the day before. From the airfield, the party then traveled in a motorcade to the Dallas Trade Mart, the site of Jack’s next speaking engagement. Shortly after 12:30 p.m., as the motorcade was passing through downtown Dallas, shots rang out; Kennedy was struck twice, in the neck and head, and was pronounced dead shortly after arriving at a nearby hospital. Twenty-four-year-old Lee Harvey Oswald, known to have Communist sympathies, was arrested for the killing but was shot and fatally wounded two days later by local nightclub owner Jack Ruby while being led to jail. Almost immediately, alternative theories of Kennedy’s assassination emerged–including conspiracies run by the KGB, the Mafia and the U.S. military-industrial complex, among others.

A presidential commission led by Chief Justice Earl Warren concluded that Oswald had acted alone, but speculation and debate over the assassination has persisted. Access hundreds of hours of historical video, commercial free, with HISTORY Vault . Start your free trial today. Tags KENNEDY, John Fitzgerald - Biographical Information Senate Years of Service: 1953-1960 Party: Democrat Courtesy U.S. Senate Historical Office KENNEDY, John Fitzgerald, (brother of Edward M. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy, grandson of John Francis Fitzgerald, and uncle of Joseph Patrick Kennedy II and Patrick J.

Kennedy), a Representative and a Senator from Massachusetts and 35th President of the United States; born in Brookline, Norfolk County, Mass., May 29, 1917; attended the public and private schools of Brookline, Mass., Choate School, Wallingford, Conn., the London School of Economics at London, England, and Princeton University; graduated from Harvard University in 1940; attended Stanford University School of Business; during the Second World War served as a lieutenant in the United States Navy 1941-1945; PT boat commander in the South Pacific; author and newspaper correspondent; elected as a Democrat to the Eightieth, Eighty-first, and Eighty-second Congresses (January 3, 1947-January 3, 1953); did not seek renomination in 1952; elected to the United States Senate in 1952; reelected in 1958 and served from January 3, 1953 to December 22, 1960, when he resigned to become President of the United States; chairman, Special Committee on the Senate Reception Room (Eighty

-fourth and Eighty-fifth Congresses); unsuccessfully sought the Democratic vice presidential nomination in 1956; elected thirty-fifth President of the United States in 1960, and was inaugurated on January 20, 1961; died in Dallas, Tex., November 22, 1963, from the effects of an assassins bullet; remains returned to Washington, D.C.; lay in state in the Rotunda of the U.S.

Capitol, November 24-25, 1963; interment in Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Va.; posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom on December 6, 1993. Bibliography American National Biography; Dictionary of American Biography; Burns, James M. John Kennedy: A Political Profile. New York: Harcourt, Brace and World, 1961; Sorenson, Theodore. Kennedy. 1965. Reprint. New York: Perennial Library, 1988; Dallek, Robert. An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917-1963. Boston: Little Brown Co., 2003. John F. Kennedy | president of United States | Britannica.com president of United States Thomas Hinman Moorer John F.

Kennedy, in full John Fitzgerald Kennedy, byname JFK (born May 29, 1917, Brookline , Massachusetts , U.S.—died November 22, 1963, Dallas , Texas ), 35th president of the United States (1961–63), who faced a number of foreign crises, especially in Cuba and Berlin, but managed to secure such achievements as the Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty and the Alliance for Progress. He was assassinated while riding in a motorcade in Dallas. (For a discussion of the history and nature of the presidency, see presidency of the United States of America .) John F. Kennedy. Key events in the life of John F. Kennedy. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Early life The second of nine children, Kennedy was reared in a family that demanded intense physical and intellectual competition among the siblings—the family’s touch football games at their Hyannis Port retreat later became legendary—and was schooled in the religious teachings of the Roman Catholic church and the political precepts of the Democratic Party .

His father, Joseph Patrick Kennedy , had acquired a multimillion-dollar fortune in banking, bootlegging, shipbuilding, and the film industry, and as a skilled player of the stock market. His mother, Rose, was the daughter of John F. (“Honey Fitz”) Fitzgerald, onetime mayor of Boston. They established trust funds for their children that guaranteed lifelong financial independence. After serving as the head of the Securities and Exchange Commission , Joseph Kennedy became the U.S. ambassador to Great Britain, and for six months in 1938 John served as his secretary, drawing on that experience to write his senior thesis at Harvard University (B.S., 1940) on Great Britain’s military unpreparedness. He then expanded that thesis into a best-selling book, Why England Slept (1940). The birthplace of U.S. President John F. Kennedy, Brookline, Massachusetts. D. Hanley/Photo Researchers Ringling Bros. Folds Its Tent John Kennedy himself had barely escaped death in battle. Commanding a patrol torpedo (PT) boat, he was gravely injured when a Japanese destroyer sank it in the Solomon Islands.

Marooned far behind enemy lines, he led his men back to safety and was awarded the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps Medal for heroism. He also returned to active command at his own request. (These events were later depicted in a Hollywood film, PT 109 [1963], that contributed to the Kennedy mystique.) However, the further injury to his back, which had bothered him since his teens, never really healed. Despite operations in 1944, 1954, and 1955, he was in pain for much of the rest of his life. He also suffered from Addison’s disease , though this affliction was publicly concealed. “At least one-half of the days he spent on this earth,” wrote his brother Robert, “were days of intense physical pain.” (After he became president, Kennedy combated the pain with injections of amphetamines—then thought to be harmless and used by more than a few celebrities for their energizing effect. According to some reports, both Kennedy and the first lady became heavily dependent on these injections through weekly use.) None of this prevented Kennedy from undertaking a strenuous life in politics. His family expected him to run for public office and to win.

Congressman and senator USA Facts Kennedy did not disappoint his family; in fact, he never lost an election. His first opportunity came in 1946, when he ran for Congress. Although still physically weak from his war injuries, he campaigned aggressively, bypassing the Democratic organization in the Massachusetts 11th congressional district and depending instead upon his family, college friends, and fellow navy officers. In the Democratic primary he received nearly double the vote of his nearest opponent; in the November election he overwhelmed the Republican candidate. He was only 29. Britannica Lists & Quizzes Editor Picks: Exploring 10 Types of Basketball Movies Kennedy served three terms in the House of Representatives (1947–53) as a bread-and-butter liberal. He advocated better working conditions, more public housing, higher wages, lower prices, cheaper rents, and more Social Security for the aged. In foreign policy he was an early supporter of Cold War policies. He backed the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan but was sharply critical of the Truman administration’s record in Asia. He accused the State Department of trying to force Chiang Kai-shek into a coalition with Mao Zedong .

“What our young men had saved,” he told the House on January 25, 1949, “our diplomats and our President have frittered away.” His congressional district in Boston was a safe seat, but Kennedy was too ambitious to remain long in the House of Representatives. In 1952 he ran for the U.S. Senate against the popular incumbent, Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. His mother and sisters Eunice, Patricia, and Jean held “Kennedy teas” across the state . Thousands of volunteers flocked to help, including his 27-year-old brother Robert, who managed the campaign. That fall the Republican presidential candidate, General Dwight D. Eisenhower , carried Massachusetts by 208,000 votes; but Kennedy defeated Lodge by 70,000 votes. Less than a year later, on September 12, 1953, Kennedy enhanced his electoral appeal by marrying Jacqueline Lee Bouvier ( Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis ). Twelve years younger than Kennedy and from a socially prominent family, the beautiful “Jackie” was the perfect complement to the handsome politician; they made a glamorous couple. Jacqueline Kennedy, 1961.

White House photo/Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. Pres. John F. Kennedy and his wife, Jacqueline, in the Blue Room of the White House at … Robert Knudsen—Official White House Photo/John F. Kennedy Presidential Library As a senator, Kennedy quickly won a reputation for responsiveness to requests from constituents , except on certain occasions when the national interest was at stake. In 1954 he was the only New England senator to approve an extension of President Eisenhower’s reciprocal-trade powers, and he vigorously backed the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway, despite the fact that over a period of 20 years no Massachusetts senator or congressman had ever voted for it. Connect with Britannica Facebook Twitter YouTube Instagram Pinterest To the disappointment of liberal Democrats, Kennedy soft-pedaled the demagogic excesses of Senator Joseph R. McCarthy of Wisconsin , who in the early 1950s conducted witch-hunting campaigns against government workers accused of being communists. Kennedy’s father liked McCarthy, contributed to his campaign, and even entertained him in the family’s compound at Hyannis Port on Cape Cod in Massachusetts.

Kennedy himself disapproved of McCarthy, but, as he once observed, “Half my people in Massachusetts look on McCarthy as a hero.” Yet, on the Senate vote over condemnation of McCarthy’s conduct (1954), Kennedy expected to vote against him. He prepared a speech explaining why, but he was absent on the day of the vote. Later, at a National Press Club Gridiron dinner, costumed reporters sang, “Where were you, John, where were you, John, when the Senate censured Joe?” Actually, John had been in a hospital, in critical condition after back surgery. For six months afterward he lay strapped to a board in his father’s house in Palm Beach , Florida. It was during this period that he worked on Profiles in Courage (1956), an account of eight great American political leaders who had defied popular opinion in matters of conscience , which was awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 1957. Although Kennedy was credited as the book’s author, it was later revealed that his assistant Theodore Sorensen had done much of the research and writing.

Back in the Senate, Kennedy led a fight against a proposal to abolish the electoral college, crusaded for labour reform, and became increasingly committed to civil rights legislation. As a member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations in the late 1950s, he advocated extensive foreign aid to the emerging nations in Africa and Asia, and he surprised his colleagues by calling upon France to grant Algerian independence. Trending Topics Eyjafjallajökull volcano During these years his political outlook was moving leftward. Possibly because of their father’s dynamic personality, the sons of Joseph Kennedy matured slowly. Gradually John’s stature among Democrats grew, until he had inherited the legions that had once followed Governor Adlai E. Stevenson of Illinois, the two-time presidential candidate who by appealing to idealism had transformed the Democratic Party and made Kennedy’s rise possible. Presidential candidate and president Kennedy had nearly become Stevenson’s vice presidential running mate in 1956. The charismatic young New Englander’s near victory and his televised speech of concession (Estes Kefauver won the vice presidential nomination) brought him into some 40 million American homes. Overnight he had become one of the best-known political figures in the country.

Already his campaign for the 1960 nomination had begun. One newspaperman called him a “young man in a hurry.” Kennedy felt that he had to redouble his efforts because of the widespread conviction that no Roman Catholic candidate could be elected president. He made his 1958 race for reelection to the Senate a test of his popularity in Massachusetts. His margin of victory was 874,608 votes—the largest ever in Massachusetts politics and the greatest of any senatorial candidate that year. John F. Kennedy, 1961. AP A steady stream of speeches and periodical profiles followed, with photographs of him and his wife appearing on many a magazine cover. Kennedy’s carefully calculated pursuit of the presidency years before the first primary established a practice that became the norm for candidates seeking the nation’s highest office. To transport him and his staff around the country, his father bought a 40-passenger Convair aircraft. His brothers Robert (“Bobby,” or “Bob”) and Edward (“Teddy,” or “Ted”) pitched in.

After having graduated from Harvard University (1948) and from the University of Virginia Law School (1951), Bobby had embarked on a career as a Justice Department attorney and counsellor for congressional committees. Ted likewise had graduated from Harvard (1956) and from Virginia Law School (1959). Both men were astute campaigners. John F. Kennedy. © Arthur Rickerby—Black Star/PNI In January 1960 John F. Kennedy formally announced his presidential candidacy. His chief rivals were the senators Hubert H. Humphrey of Minnesota and Lyndon B. Johnson of Texas. Kennedy knocked Humphrey out of the campaign and dealt the religious taboo against Roman Catholics a blow by winning the primary in Protestant West Virginia . He tackled the Catholic issue again, by avowing his belief in the separation of church and state in a televised speech before a group of Protestant ministers in Houston , Texas. Nominated on the first ballot, he balanced the Democratic ticket by choosing Johnson as his running mate. In his acceptance speech Kennedy declared, “We stand today on the edge of a New Frontier.” Thereafter the phrase “New Frontier” was associated with his presidential programs.

Scenes from the 1960 Democratic Party primary elections, which U.S. Senator John F. Kennedy used to … Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Scenes from the 1960 Democratic National Convention, which nominated as candidate for president … Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Another phrase—“the Kennedy style”—encapsulated the candidate’s emerging identity. It was glamorous and elitist, an amalgam of his father’s wealth, John Kennedy’s charisma and easy wit, Jacqueline Kennedy’s beauty and fashion sense (the suits and pillbox hats she wore became widely popular), the charm of their children and relatives, and the erudition of the Harvard advisers who surrounded him (called the “best and brightest” by author David Halberstam ). Button from John F. Kennedy’s 1960 U.S. presidential campaign. Americana/Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Kennedy won the general election, narrowly defeating the Republican candidate, Vice President Richard M. Nixon , by a margin of less than 120,000 out of some 70,000,000 votes cast.

Many observers, then and since, believed vote fraud contributed to Kennedy’s victory, especially in the critical state of Illinois, where Joe Kennedy enlisted the help of the ever-powerful Richard J. Daley , mayor of Chicago. Nixon had defended the Eisenhower record; Kennedy, whose slogan had been “Let’s get this country moving again,” had deplored unemployment, the sluggish economy, the so-called missile gap (a presumed Soviet superiority over the United States in the number of nuclear-armed missiles), and the new communist government in Havana. A major factor in the campaign was a unique series of four televised debates between the two men; an estimated 85–120 million Americans watched one or more of the debates. Both men showed a firm grasp of the issues, but Kennedy’s poise in front of the camera, his tony Harvard accent, and his good looks (in contrast to Nixon’s “five o’clock shadow”) convinced many viewers that he had won the debate. As president, Kennedy continued to exploit the new medium, sparkling in precedent-setting televised weekly press conferences. The televised debate between presidential candidates John F. Kennedy and Richard M.

Nixon was a … Stock footage courtesy The WPA Film Library Results of the American presidential election, 1960… Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Listen: Kennedy, John F. U.S. Pres. John F. Kennedy, delivering his inaugural address, January 20, 1961. He was the youngest man and the first Roman Catholic ever elected to the presidency of the United States. His administration lasted 1,037 days. From the onset he was concerned with foreign affairs . In his memorable inaugural address, he called upon Americans “to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle…against the common enemies of man: tyranny , poverty, disease, and war itself.” He declared: In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility—I welcome it.…The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve it—and the glow from that fire can truly light the world. And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country. U.S. Pres.

John F. Kennedy delivering his inaugural address, Washington, D.C., January 20, 1961. CWO Donald Mingfield—U.S. Army Signal Corps/John F. Kennedy Presidential Library John F. Kennedy being sworn in as U.S. president, January 20, 1961. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. U.S. Pres. John F. Kennedy delivering his inaugural address, Washington, D.C., January 20, … © John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston, Massachusetts The administration’s first brush with foreign affairs was a disaster. In the last year of the Eisenhower presidency, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had equipped and trained a brigade of anticommunist Cuban exiles for an invasion of their homeland. The Joint Chiefs of Staff unanimously advised the new president that this force, once ashore, would spark a general uprising against the Cuban leader, Fidel Castro . But the Bay of Pigs invasion was a fiasco; every man on the beachhead was either killed or captured. Kennedy assumed “sole responsibility” for the setback.

Privately he told his father that he would never again accept a Joint Chiefs recommendation without first challenging it. A group of captured U.S.-backed Cuban exiles, known as Brigade 2506, being lined up by Fidel … Three Lions/Hulton Archive/Getty Images Listen: Kennedy, John F.; Cuban missile crisis U.S. President John F. Kennedy, delivering a televised address to the nation on Soviet missiles in … The Soviet premier, Nikita Khrushchev , thought he had taken the young president’s measure when the two leaders met in Vienna in June 1961. Khrushchev ordered a wall built between East and West Berlin and threatened to sign a separate peace treaty with East Germany . The president activated National Guard and reserve units, and Khrushchev backed down on his separate peace threat. Kennedy then made a dramatic visit to West Berlin, where he told a cheering crowd, “Today, in the world of freedom, the proudest boast is ‘Ich bin ein [I am a] Berliner.’ ” In October 1962 a buildup of Soviet short- and intermediate-range nuclear missiles was discovered in Cuba.

Kennedy demanded that the missiles be dismantled; he ordered a “quarantine” of Cuba—in effect, a blockade that would stop Soviet ships from reaching that island. For 13 days nuclear war seemed near; then the Soviet premier announced that the offensive weapons would be withdrawn. (See Cuban missile crisis .) Ten months later Kennedy scored his greatest foreign triumph when Khrushchev and Prime Minister Harold Macmillan of Great Britain joined him in signing the Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty . Yet Kennedy’s commitment to combat the spread of communism led him to escalate American involvement in the conflict in Vietnam , where he sent not just supplies and financial assistance, as President Eisenhower had, but 15,000 military advisers as well. Under U.S. President John F. Kennedy, the number of U.S. advisers to the South Vietnamese military … Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. President John F. Kennedy announcing the U.S. naval blockade of Cuba on October 22, 1962. © Archive Photos U.S. President John F. Kennedy signing the Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty, October 7, 1963.

National Archives and Records Administration Overview of the Cuban missile crisis and its effect on Germany, 1962. Contunico © ZDF Enterprises GmbH, Mainz John F. Kennedy visiting West Berlin in June 1963 and delivering his “Ich bin ein … Contunico © ZDF Enterprises GmbH, Mainz Because of his slender victory in 1960, Kennedy approached Congress warily, and with good reason; Congress was largely indifferent to his legislative program. It approved his Alliance for Progress (Alianza) in Latin America and his Peace Corps , which won the enthusiastic endorsement of thousands of college students. But his two most cherished projects, massive income tax cuts and a sweeping civil rights measure, were not passed until after his death. In May 1961 Kennedy committed the United States to land a man on the Moon by the end of the decade, and, while he would not live to see this achievement either, his advocacy of the space program contributed to the successful launch of the first American manned spaceflights. President John F. Kennedy rallying the United States to support NASA’s Apollo program to land human … Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Historical news footage outlining the goals of the Peace Corps.

Stock footage courtesy The WPA Film Library He was an immensely popular president, at home and abroad. At times he seemed to be everywhere at once, encouraging better physical fitness, improving the morale of government workers, bringing brilliant advisers to the White House , and beautifying Washington, D.C. His wife joined him as an advocate for American culture . Their two young children, Caroline Bouvier and John F., Jr., were familiar throughout the country. The charm and optimism of the Kennedy family seemed contagious , sparking the idealism of a generation for whom the Kennedy White House became, in journalist Theodore White’s famous analogy , Camelot—the magical court of Arthurian legend , which was celebrated in a popular Broadway musical of the early 1960s. U.S. President John F. Kennedy with first lady Jacqueline Kennedy, 1961. Art Rickerby—Time Life Pictures/Getty Images U.S. President John F. Kennedy attending the dedication of Whiskeytown Dam on the Trinity River in … Art Rickerby—Time Life Pictures/Getty Images Joseph Kennedy, meanwhile, had been incapacitated in Hyannis Port by a stroke, but the other Kennedys were in and out of Washington.

Robert Kennedy, as John’s attorney general, was the second most powerful man in the country. He advised the president on all matters of foreign and domestic policy, national security, and political affairs. In 1962 Ted Kennedy was elected to the president’s former Senate seat in Massachusetts. Their sister Eunice’s husband, Sargent Shriver , became director of the Peace Corps. Their sister Jean’s husband, Stephen Smith, was preparing to manage the Democratic Party’s 1964 presidential campaign. Another sister, Patricia, had married Peter Lawford, an English-born actor who served the family as an unofficial envoy to the entertainment world. All Americans knew who Rose, Jackie, Bobby, and Teddy were, and most could identify Bobby’s wife as Ethel and Teddy’s wife as Joan. But if the first family had become American royalty, its image of perfection would be tainted years later by allegations of marital infidelity by the president (most notably, an affair with motion-picture icon Marilyn Monroe) and of his association with members of organized crime. Assassination President Kennedy believed that his Republican opponent in 1964 would be Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona .

He was convinced that he could bury Goldwater under an avalanche of votes, thus receiving a mandate for major legislative reforms. One obstacle to his plan was a feud in Vice President Johnson’s home state of Texas between Governor John B. Connally, Jr., and Senator Ralph Yarborough, both Democrats. To present a show of unity, the president decided to tour the state with both men. On Friday, November 22, 1963, he and Jacqueline Kennedy were in an open limousine riding slowly in a motorcade through downtown Dallas. At 12:30 pm the president was struck by two rifle bullets, one at the base of his neck and one in the head. He was pronounced dead shortly after arrival at Parkland Memorial Hospital. Governor Connally, though also gravely wounded, recovered. Vice President Johnson took the oath as president at 2:38 pm. Lee Harvey Oswald , a 24-year-old Dallas citizen, was accused of the slaying. Two days later Oswald was shot to death by Jack Ruby , a local nightclub owner with connections to the criminal underworld, in the basement of a Dallas police station.

A presidential commission headed by the chief justice of the United States, Earl Warren , later found that neither the sniper nor his killer “was part of any conspiracy , domestic or foreign, to assassinate President Kennedy,” but that Oswald had acted alone. The Warren Commission , however, was not able to convincingly explain all the particular circumstances of Kennedy’s murder. In 1979 a special committee of the U.S. House of Representatives declared that although the president had undoubtedly been slain by Oswald, acoustic analysis suggested the presence of a second gunman who had missed. But this declaration did little to squelch the theories that Oswald was part of a conspiracy involving either CIA agents angered over Kennedy’s handling of the Bay of Pigs fiasco or members of organized crime seeking revenge for Attorney General Bobby Kennedy’s relentless criminal investigations. Kennedy’s assassination, the most notorious political murder of the 20th century, remains a source of bafflement, controversy, and speculation. U.S. President John F. Kennedy and first lady Jacqueline Kennedy minutes before the president was … Bettmann/Corbis President John F. Kennedy’s funeral procession on its way to Arlington National Cemetery, November … Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

John Kennedy was dead, but the Kennedy mystique was still alive. Both Robert and Ted ran for president (in 1968 and 1980, respectively). Yet tragedy would become nearly synonymous with the Kennedys when Bobby, too, was assassinated on the campaign trail in 1968. Portrait of President John F. Kennedy by Aaron Shikler, 1970. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Jacqueline Kennedy and her two children moved from the White House to a home in the Georgetown section of Washington. Continuing crowds of the worshipful and curious made peace there impossible, however, and in the summer of 1964 she moved to New York City . Pursuit continued until October 20, 1968, when she married Aristotle Onassis , a wealthy Greek shipping magnate.

The Associated Press said that the marriage “broke the spell of almost complete adulation of a woman who had become virtually a legend in her own time.” Widowed by Onassis, the former first lady returned to the public eye in the mid-1970s as a high-profile book editor, and she remained among the most admired women in the United States until her death in 1994. As an adult, daughter Caroline was jealous of her own privacy, but John Jr.—a lawyer like his sister and debonair and handsome like his father—was much more of a public figure. Long remembered as “John-John,” the three-year-old who stoically saluted his father’s casket during live television coverage of the funeral procession, John Jr. became the founder and editor-in-chief of the political magazine George in the mid-1990s. In 1999, when John Jr., his wife, and his sister-in-law died in the crash of the private plane he was piloting, the event was the focus of an international media watch that further proved the immortality of the Kennedy mystique. It was yet another chapter in the family’s “curse” of tragedy. John F.

Kennedy, Jr., with his mother, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, at the John F. Kennedy Library … David M. Tenenbaum/AP Cabinet of President John F. Kennedy The table provides a list of cabinet members in the administration of President John F. Kennedy. Cabinet of President John F. Kennedy January 20, 1961-November 22, 1963 State

Question: Which state did John F Kennedy represent when a senator?
Answer: Massachusetts