Presidents: John F. Kennedy

Anyone born before 1960, can more than likely tell you where they were on November 22, 1963 when they heard the tragic news of the events in Dallas, Texas. A nation was glued to a nation in a way it never had been before.

That was the day President John F. Kennedy was assassinated and that still resonates with many Americans more than fifty years later.

John Kennedy had only been president for roughly 1,000 days when an assassins bullet changed the presidency and our nation. He is our only Catholic president, a fact that was a big deal in the 1960s.

John Fitzgerald “Jack” Kennedy was born on May 29, 1917 in Brookline, Massachusetts. He was the second son and child of nine children born to Joseph Patrick and Rose Elizabeth Fitzgerald Kennedy.

The Kennedy family spent summers at their home in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, and Christmas and Easter holidays at their winter home in Palm Beach, Florida.

He spent his high school years in a boarding school in Connecticut, often in the shadow of his brother. He worked on the yearbook committee and was voted “Most likely to succeed” when he graduated. While in high school, in 1934, he was diagnosed with colitis, which is an inflammation of the colon.

After several false starts due to illness, he enrolled in Harvard College in 1936. He joined the varsity swim team and sailing team. In 1939 he toured much of Europe, the Soviet Union and Middle East for his senior honors thesis. He graduated cum laude in 1940 from Harvard.

On September 24, 1941, he joined the U.S. Navy. He had tried the year before but was denied for medical reasons. When the boat he was commanding, PT-109, collided he towed his crewmen through the water to a nearby island and later to a second island where they were rescued on August 8, 1943. He was hailed as a hero and promoted to lieutenant that October. Afterward he was on a medical leave due to a back injury.

On August 12, 1944, his older brother, Joe Jr. was killed while piloting a hazardous air mission for the Navy. Jack retired from the Navy on March 1, 1945.

In 1947, John “Jack” Kennedy was elected to the U.S. House of Representative from Massachusetts.

His sister, Kathleen, was killed in a plane crash in the U.K. on May 13, 1948.

In 1953, he was elected to the U.S. Senate. He underwent several spinal operations, was critically ill and as a Catholic, received last rites during this time.

While a congressman, Jack met a roaming reporter, Jacqueline Lee “Jackie” Bouvier. The couple were married on September 12, 1953. The couple had four children together, but only two lived to adulthood.

In 1956, while convalescing, he wrote and published his book, Profiles in Courage. He would win a Pulitzer Prize for his book. That August, Jackie had a stillborn daughter, Arabella.

In 1957, Jack and Jackie’s daughter, Caroline Kennedy was born.

In early 1960, he announced his intention to campaign for president. He earned the Democratic nomination, but the campaign was a tight race with the Vice President Richard Nixon {to President Dwight Eisenhower}. Their debates were the first presidential debates broadcast on TV.

Kennedy won the presidential election after a heated race and became the youngest man ever elected president.

After winning the election, their son, John Jr was born on November 25, 1960.

He was sworn in on January 20, 1961 when he gave his famous speech, “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.”

Kennedy hired his brother, Robert F. Kennedy, as his Attorney General. The only time a family member has been hired in such a capacity until Donald Trump’s administration.

During the summer of 1962, Kennedy had a secret taping system set up in the White House, most likely to aid his future memoir.

The Bay of Pigs Invasion began in Cuba in April 1961. The goal was to overthrown the Cuban government. The incident failed to have the desired results.

In October 1962, the Cuban Missile Crisis put the entire world on edge. After two weeks of negotiations the Soviets agreed to dismantle their missile sites.

As one of his first presidential acts, Kennedy asked Congress to create the Peace Corps. His brother-in-law, Sargent Shriver, was its first director.

Kennedy was a big supported of Israel and worked to strengthen security ties with the nation.

Kennedy was the first of six presidents to have served in the U.S. Navy, and one of the enduring legacies of his administration was the creation in 1961 of another special forces command, the Navy SEALs, which Kennedy enthusiastically supported.

In June 1963, he traveled to his ancestral home of Ireland. All four of his grandparents were Irish immigrants. He also went to Germany that year where he gave his famous “I am a citizen of Berlin” speech.

The economy turned around and prospered during the Kennedy administration.

The 1960s were a turbulent time of Civil Rights. In September 1962, he sent troops to the University of Mississippi as the first African American tried to enter. In 1963, he sent troops into Alabama. His proposals became part of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Kennedy also proposed for a man to be put on the moon by the end of the decade.

Kennedy and his wife were younger in comparison to the presidents and first ladies who preceded them, and both were popular in the media culture in ways more common to pop singers and movie stars than politicians, influencing fashion trends and becoming the subjects of numerous photo spreads in popular magazines.

In August 1963, their son Patrick Bouvier Kennedy was born five weeks early. He died two days after his birth. Jackie grew deeply depressed and took time to holiday out of the country before returning in October 1963. However, losing their child had a positive impact on the marriage, bringing the couple closer together in their shared grief.

John Kennedy asked his wife to accompany him on a political trip to Texas in November. This was the first time she had joined her husband on such a trip in the U.S.

On November 22, 1963, Kennedy went to Dallas, Texas as he began campaigning in hopes of re-election the following year. While riding in an open motorcade he was shot and assassinated by a man later determined to be Lee Harvey Oswald. He was pronounced dead a short time later at Parkland Hospital. His wife, Jackie, was with him and led the nation through the weekend of mourning and the public funeral.

John F. Kennedy was buried at Arlington National Cemetery where the eternal flame was lit. William Howard Taft is the only other president buried at Arlington.

The infant bodies of the Kennedy children Arabella and Patrick were re-interred beside him. When Jackie died in 1994, she was buried with her husband.

Since his death, information concerning Kennedy’s private life has come to light, including his health problems and allegations of infidelity.

After her husband’s death, Jackie Kennedy termed his administration as the Camelot Era.

Today Americans regularly vote him as one of the best presidents, in the same league as Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, and Franklin D. Roosevelt.