John F Kennedy was born on May 29th, 1917 in Brookline,
Massachusetts. Little did his parents know he was going to become one of the most successful presidents of the United States.
Early life
Military Service
Kennedy played a notable and outstanding role in the second world war especially in the pacific theatre. After being disallowed into the Army due to his medical problems, Kennedy decided to join the US Navy. Following the attack on pearl harbour Kennedy volunteered to enter the Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron Training Centre in Rhode island. On August 2nd 1943, Kennedys patrol boat, the legendary PT109, was rammed by the Japanese warship, 'Amagiri', while Kennedy and his crew were performing night-time patrols near New Georgia, the Solomon Islands. Kennedy gathered the surviving crew members and through his actions and great leadership skills, he was able to get them to safety a few days later. because of these heroics and outstanding leadership skills. Kennedy was awarded the Navy and Marine Corps medal due to his 'heroic conduct' and 'outstanding courage, endurance and leadership' as stated in this certificate from the Secretary of the navy, James Forrestal. This participation and outstanding achievement during Kennedys military service helped in Kennedys popularity bid to run for senator, and later president.
Interest In politics
As shown in the previous report card, Kennedy performed well in subjects that were useful for politics such as English and history. JFK was interested in politics during university at Harvard. As an upperclassman at Harvard, Kennedy became a more devoted and serious student and developed a keen interest in political philosophy. For his end of year Thesis in 1940, Kennedy wrote about the British participation and appeasement in the Munich agreement. This was influenced by his trip to Europe and the middle East the previous summer in 1939. He titled it "Appeasement in Munich". This was met by mixed reviews from his teachers and lecturers at Harvard. However after being pressured by his father to publish his thesis, under the new name "Why England Slept", it proved very popular among the general public and became a bestseller. This was then a major influencing factor into Kennedys career of politics and helped launch him in the right direction towards becoming president.
Political Career
In 1944, Kennedys oldest brother, Joseph Patrick 'Joe' Kennedy Jr. was killed in a plane crash over east Suffolk, England. His brothers long term ambitions to becom4e president were dashed and the challenge now fell to John to be the family's political standard bearer. In 1946 Kennedy ran for the seat in the House of representatives beating his opponent by a massive margin. Kennedy served in Congress for six years. After these six years Kennedy ran for the US senate and beat the incumbent Henry Cabot Lodge for the Senate seat. During His time in the senate, Kennedy helped pass the Civil rights act of 1957 as well as many other bills. Kennedy then ran for presidency in 1961 against opponent Richard Nixon. Kennedy won by a very slight margin of only two tenths of a per cent. However this was to be the biggest success of Kennedy's life.
Presidency
At the age of 43, John F Kennedy was the youngest man elected President of the United States and the only Catholic. Before becoming president, people were wary about these subjects and many believed he wasn't 'up to what it takes' to be president. Kennedy was a strong believer in a "single man president". Kennedy preferred the organizational structure of a wheel, with all the spokes leading to the president. Soon after Kennedy was elected, Kennedy faced his first big challenge, The Cuban revolution. Kennedy felt that Communism was a grave threat to the nation and the thought of having a communist country only a stones throw away was deemed unacceptable by Kennedy. He contacted the CIA to organise an invasion of Cuba by anti-Castro Cuban exiles and form a counter revolution. This was originally the previous president's, Eisenhower's idea. Kennedy decided to leave it to the CIA, Whom told Kennedy that the invasion would be a "walk in the park". On April 17th 1961 the Cuban exiles invaded The bay of pigs. However by the 19th of April, only two days later, the Cuban exiles were defeated and overrun. This was to be the biggest failure of Kennedy's presidency and was a big embarrassment for him. Kennedy took responsibility for the failure, saying, "We got a big kick in the leg and we deserved it. But maybe we'll learn something from it." This incident also made Kennedy look weak and "too young for the job" in the eyes of Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev and this meant Khrushchev was not afraid to pressure Kennedy into achieving his aims. However Kennedy sprang back from this defeat and had a number of successes including The berlin wall incident, The Nuclear test ban Treaty, Improvements to black civil rights, and especially the Cuban missile crisis. In the Cuban missile crisis a major standoff occurred between the soviet union led by Nikita Khrushchev and The USA led by John F Kennedy. The dispute was over Nuclear missiles being placed in Cuba which was seen as unacceptable by Kennedy. The world came on the brink of Nuclear war with tensions being extremely high in both the US and The soviet union.. Eventually the dispute was resolved and this was seen a s a major success for Kennedy and was most likely the highlight of his career.