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U.S Presidents — John F. Kennedy

OVERVIEW Name: John F. Kennedy President: # 35 Term Number(s): 44 Term Length: 2.8 Took Office: January 20, 1961 Left Office: November 22, 1963 Age when Elected: 43 Party: Democratic Also Known As: "JFK, Jack" BIOGRAPHIC INFORMATION Education: Harvard University Occupation: Soldier, Senator Other Governmental Position: United States Senator from Massachusetts, Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts' 11th District. Military Service: Lieutenant, United States Navy Religion: Roman Catholic Spouse(s): Jacqueline Lee Bouvier Kennedy (September 12, 1953) Children: Arabella Kennedy; Caroline Bouvier Kennedy; John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Jr.; Patrick Bouvier Kennedy Birthdate: May 29 ,1917 Birthplace: Brookline, Massachusetts Deathdate: November 22 ,1963 Deathplace: Dallas, Texas Age at Death: 46 Cause of Death: assassinated Place of Internment: Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia Signature FIRST ELECTION Election Year: 1960 Main Opponent: Richard Nixon Voter Participation: 64.00%   Electoral Popular States Click for larger image Winner 303 (56.50%) 34,220,984 (49.70%) 22 Main Opponent 219 (40.78%) 34,108,157 (49.60%) 26 total 537 68,895,628 48 CABINET AND COURT APPOINTMENTS Vice President: Lyndon B. Johnson Secretary of State: Dean Rusk (1961–1963) Secretary of the Treasury: C. Douglas Dillon (1961–1963) Secretary of Defense: Robert S. McNamara (1961–1963) Secretary of the Interior: Stewart L. Udall (1961–1963) Secretary of Agriculture: Orville L. Freeman (1961–1963) Secretary of Commerce: Luther H. Hodges (1961–1963) Secretary of Labor: Arthur J. Goldberg (1961–1962), W. Willard Wirtz (1962–1963) Attorney General: Robert F. Kennedy (1961–1963) Postmaster General: J. Edward Day (1961–1963), John A. Gronouski (1963) Supreme Court Assignments: Byron Raymond White (1962), Arthur Joseph Goldberg (1962) PRESIDENT'S BIOGRAPHY 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, and the youngest president to die. Of Irish descent, Kennedy was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, on May 29, 1917. Graduating from Harvard University 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. Kennedy's 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, Kennedy 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, Kennedy 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 that 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. FIRST LADY'S BIOGRAPHY Jacqueline Lee Bouvier Kennedy The inauguration of John F. Kennedy in 1961 brought to the White House and to the heart of the nation a beautiful young wife and the first young children of a president in half a century. She was born Jacqueline Lee Bouvier, daughter of John Vernon Bouvier III and his wife, Janet Lee. Her early years were divided between New York City and East Hampton, Long Island, where she learned to ride almost as soon as she could walk. She was educated at the best of private schools; she wrote poems and stories, drew illustrations for them, and studied ballet. Her mother, who had obtained a divorce, married Hugh D. Auchincloss in 1942 and brought her two girls to "Merrywood," his home near Washington, D.C., with summers spent at his estate in Newport, Rhode Island. Jacqueline was dubbed "the Debutante of the Year" for the 1947–1948 season, but her social success did not keep her from continuing her education. As a Vassar College student she traveled extensively, and she spent her junior year in France before graduating from George Washington University. Her experiences abroad left her with a great empathy for people of foreign countries, especially the French. In Washington, Jacqueline took a job as "inquiring photographer" for a local newspaper. Her path soon crossed that of Senator Kennedy, who had the reputation of being the most eligible bachelor in the capital. Their romance progressed slowly and privately, but their wedding at Newport in 1953 attracted nationwide publicity. With marriage, "Jackie" had to adapt herself to the new role of wife to one of the country's most energetic political figures. Her own public appearances were highly successful, but limited in number. After the sadness of a miscarriage and the stillbirth of a daughter, Caroline Bouvier was born in 1957; John Jr. was born between the election of 1960 and Inauguration Day. Patrick Bouvier, born prematurely on August 7, 1963, died two days later. To the role of first lady, Jacqueline Kennedy brought intelligence and cultivated taste. Her interest in the arts, publicized by press and television, inspired an attention to culture never before evident at a national level. She devoted much time and study to making the White House a museum of American history and decorative arts as well as a family residence of elegance and charm. But Mrs. Kennedy defined her major role as "to take care of the president" and added that "if you bungle raising your children, I don't think whatever else you do well matters very much." Mrs. Kennedy's gallant courage during the tragedy of her husband's assassination won her the admiration of the world. Thereafter it seemed the public would never allow her the privacy she desired for herself and her children. She moved to New York City, and in 1968, married the wealthy Greek businessman, Aristotle Onassis. Onassis was 23 years her senior, and died in March 1975. From 1978 until her death in 1994, Mrs. Onassis worked in New York City as an editor for Doubleday. At her funeral, her son described three of her attributes: "love of words, the bonds of home and family, and her spirit of adventure." MAJOR EVENTS 1960: First joint radio-television broadcast of a U.S. presidential debate between John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon. 1961: Peace Corps is established. 1961: Bay of Pigs. The unsuccessful invasion of Cuba is attempted by the U.S. 1961: Khrushchev orders the creation of the Berlin Wall. 1962: Cuban Missile Crisis. During the Cold War, this confrontation between the U.S., the Soviet Union, and Cuba over placement of missiles in Cuba by the Soviet Union and Cuba brought the world dangerously close to a nuclear war. 1963: Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty is signed by the U.S., the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union. 1963: March on Washington. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., delivers "I have a dream" speech. 1963: President Kennedy is assassinated. TRIVIA 1. John F. Kennedy won the Pulitzer Prize in 1957 for the book he wrote entitled Profiles in Courage. 2. Hours before he was shot, Kennedy reportedly told his wife and friends that an assassin could easily shoot him from a crowd. 3. Kennedy rarely carried money with him so he would borrow cash from friends to pay for cab fares, restaurant checks, etc. Though he came from a wealthy family, he never paid his friends back, leaving them annoyed.