John F. Kennedy

John F. Kennedy was born on May 29, 1917, the second of nine children. Joseph Kennedy (1888–1969), his father, was one of the wealthiest men in America, which allowed Kennedy to escape the economic hardships of the Great Depression (1929–41; the period following the stock market crash of 1929 in which there was high unemployment and depressed world economies). Kennedy was often ill as a child and spent many hours in bed, reading. In his senior year at Harvard University in 1940, Kennedy wrote his thesis on why England was not prepared for World War II (1941–45). The paper was published as a book under the title Why England Slept and became a best-seller.

Kennedy enlisted in the U.S. Navy and was commander of a small vessel called a PT boat. On August 2, 1943, a Japanese destroyer sank Kennedy's boat in the southwest Pacific Ocean. Despite a seriously injured neck, Kennedy helped save the lives of several crew members and was awarded medals for his bravery.

Enters the world of politics

Kennedy ran for U.S. Congress and won in 1946. As a Democrat representing Massachusetts in the House of Representatives, he worked for public housing and other social programs in his district. He ran for and won a U.S. Senate seat in 1952. During his first year as senator, Kennedy married Jacqueline Lee Bouvier (see box).

Defeats Nixon

Kennedy had suffered back problems his entire life. In 1954, he underwent two risky operations on his back, and during recovery, he wrote a study of American political leaders. Kennedy won the Pulitzer Prize for Profiles in Courage in 1957. Kennedy was reelected to the Senate in 1958; two years later, he won the Democratic nomination for president.

Kennedy's Republican opponent was Vice President Richard M. Nixon (1913–1994). For the first time in history, Americans watched a presidential debate live on television. Kennedy won the election by only twelve thousand votes and became the youngest person ever elected president. He was forty-three years old.

In his inaugural speech, President Kennedy explained his New Frontier program, which included a tax cut, an increase in spending for space exploration, and a call to action on the issue of civil rights. It was during this speech that he made the famous quote, “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.”

Immediate conflict

As was true of so many presidents before him, Kennedy was concerned about the spread of communism (a system of government in which the state controls the economy and all property and wealth are shared equally by the people). Since the end of World War II, America had been entangled in what is known as the Cold War (1945–91; an intense political and economic rivalry with the Soviet Union). Physical fighting never occurs in a Cold War, nevertheless, there is much stress and tension between the opponents.

In 1961, Kennedy backed a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) plan to have refugee Cubans invade the island of Cuba and overthrow its leader, Fidel Castro (1926–). The invasion occurred on April 17, but it failed miserably due to poor communication and planning. Known as the Bay of Pigs Invasion, it was a major embarrassment for the president, and it strained relations with Cuba for many years.

Threat of nuclear war

Relations between Kennedy and Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev (1894–1971) broke down in the summer of 1961. At the time, Germany was divided into East and West. Communist forces controlled East Germany and built the Berlin Wall in August 1961 to keep Berliners from escaping to West Germany.

In October 1962, American spy planes discovered nuclear missile sites in Cuba, an ally of the Soviet Union. Kennedy responded by ordering a naval blockade of the island so that no more weapons could be taken in. He demanded Khrushchev remove the missiles from Cuba; the Soviet leader refused to back down. For one week, in what became known as the Cuban Missile Crisis , the world waited anxiously to see how the power struggle would end. Finally, Khrushchev agreed to remove the missiles, but only if America would agree to withdraw its missiles from Turkey. Kennedy agreed, and the very real threat of nuclear war was averted.

Kennedy's problems were far from over. The United States had signed a treaty in 1961 in which it pledged to help South Vietnam fight against communist North Vietnam, which had invaded its tiny southern neighbor in 1954. As the Vietnam War (1954–75) escalated, Kennedy sent in troops. The nearly twenty years of fighting in Vietnam marked a turbulent period in history as America divided into two camps: one that supported sending Americans overseas to fight the war, and one that publicly and loudly protested America's involvement in another country's conflict.

Queen of Camelot

Jacqueline Bouvier was born on July 28, 1929, to a wealthy New York family. Her childhood years were spent in New York City and Long Island, where she learned to ride horses almost from the day she could walk. The future First Lady received the best private education money could buy, and she spent much of her time writing, drawing, and studying ballet.

When Bouvier's parents divorced, her mother married Hugh Auchincloss and took Jackie and her sister to their stepfather's home in Washington, D.C. They spent summers in Newport, Rhode Island , where Jackie was crowned Debutante of the Year for the 1947–48 season. She studied at Vassar College for two years, then traveled to France before transferring to George Washington University where she received her degree in 1951.

Bouvier was working as a photographer in Washington when she met Senator John Kennedy, who was known as the most eligible bachelor in the capital. The two married in Newport in 1953. Mrs. Kennedy miscarried a child and gave birth to a stillborn (dead upon birth) daughter before Caroline Kennedy was born in 1957. John Jr. was born in 1960. His life would be cut short when the airplane he was flying crashed in 1999. The Kennedys had one more child, Patrick, who died two days after a premature birth in 1963.

Jackie Kennedy took her role as First Lady seriously and brought to the White House a sense of style, intelligence, and class. She was highly interested in the arts and devoted much time to making the White House a museum of history and arts as well as a home for her family. Women across the country looked to Kennedy for fashion sense and style, and her elegant and classic clothing tastes were copied from coast to coast.

The First Lady's courage in the wake of her husband's assassination earned her the admiration and support of the world. She became every bit as famous as her late husband, and with that fame came an intrusion into her private life. She moved to New York City and married wealthy Greek businessman Aristotle Onassis (1906–1975). Twenty-three years Jackie's senior, Onassis died in 1975.

From 1978 until her death from cancer in 1994, Jackie Bouvier Kennedy Onassis worked as an editor for the book publisher Doubleday. Her legacy has been preserved in numerous films and books, and she remains in the twenty-first century one of the most admired people in American history.

Helping those in need

Kennedy established the Alliance for Progress in 1961, an organization dedicated to sending economic aid to Latin American countries. That same year saw the founding of the Peace Corps. Still active in the twenty-first century, this agency sends volunteers to help the needy in struggling countries around the globe. Volunteers teach language and sciences, but they also train people in areas such as farming and environmental conservation in an effort to help them become self-sustaining.

The president's humanitarian efforts were not limited to foreign countries. On the home front, he established a program to increase the hiring of African Americans in government agencies. He assured the admittance of African Americans into the Universities of Mississippi and Alabama. Not all of Kennedy's reform measures were approved by Congress. He unsuccessfully introduced a tax cut, federal aid for education, a program to fight poverty, and medical care for the elderly.

Shot in Dallas

Kennedy and his wife traveled to Dallas, Texas , to give a speech on November 22, 1963. While riding in a motorcade in the back seat of an open convertible car, the president was fatally shot. Police arrested Lee Harvey Oswald (1939–1963), a communist supporter, and charged him with Kennedy's assassination. Oswald, who denied the shooting, was murdered in a Dallas police station by nightclub owner Jack Ruby (1911–1967) two days later. Although a formal investigation maintained that Oswald was the lone gunman, many experts and historians dispute that finding.

Kennedy's death rocked the nation to its core as millions mourned the loss of a president who brought hope into their lives. Kennedy was buried in Arlington National Cemetery , his grave marked with an eternal flame. Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson (1908–1973) was sworn in as president, Jackie Kennedy by his side. One week after Kennedy's death, the late president's widow gave an interview to Life magazine in which she repeatedly compared the reign of the Kennedy administration to Camelot, the kingdom belonging to the legendary King Arthur. Camelot was also the name of a 1960 Broadway musical about King Arthur, his court, and the imminent downfall of all that was good and wise and shining. One of Kennedy's favorite lines from that musical was “Don’t let it be forgot, that for one brief shining moment there was Camelot.”

From the moment Jackie Kennedy's interview was published, the adoring public remembered the Kennedy administration as a modern day Camelot.