Kennedy, John Fitzgerald

Kennedy, John Fitzgerald (1917–63) 35th US president (1961–63). He was badly wounded while serving (1941–43) in the US Navy during World War II. Kennedy served three terms as a Democrat representative from Massachusetts (1946–53). In 1953 he successfully ran for the Senate, and soon after married Jacqueline Lee Bouvier (later Onassis). In 1960 Kennedy gained the presidential nomination, and narrowly defeated his Republican challenger Richard Nixon. Kennedy adopted an ambitious and liberal program, under the title of the “New Frontier”, and embraced the cause of civil rights, but Congress frequently blocked his planned legislation. In foreign policy, he founded the “Alliance for Progress” in order to increase US influence in Latin America and created the Peace Corps. Adopting a strong anti-communist line, he was behind the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba (1961), and stood firm against Nikita Khrushchev in the ensuing Cuban Missile Crisis (1962). He also increased military aid to South Vietnam in the Vietnam War (1954–75). Perhaps Kennedy's greatest foreign policy success was the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty between the US, UK, and Soviet Union. He was assassinated on November 22, 1963. Kennedy was succeeded by his vice president, Lyndon B. Johnson. See also Cold War

http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents; http://www.jfklibrary.org