John F. Kennedy, the 35th U.
S president is most famous for being
assassinated early in his presidency. He is also famous for the Bay of Pigs
invasion and the Cuban missile crisis.
Early Life
John F. Kennedy, the second oldest of nine children, was born in
Brookline, Massachusetts, on May 29, 1917. As a child, Kennedy had
many childhood illnesses and once almost died from scarlet fever. But he
grew up to be athletic and competitive, playing football for Harvard
University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He injured his spine in college
and never fully recovered from the injury. He had three brothers and five
sisters. John's father Joe had the dream that one of his sons would
become president. He sent them to the best schools and expected that his
oldest son, Joe Jr., would be president one day. John graduated from
Harvard in 1940 with honors. He then traveled to Great Britain to be with
his father who was the U.S. Ambassador to Great Britain at the time. Here
he learned firsthand about World War II and realized that the U.S. would
likely be involved before it was over. He tried to join the army, but couldn't
get in because he had a bad back. So he joined the Navy and was in
command of a patrol torpedo boat when it was sunk. He survived and
became something of a war hero. Sadly, his older brother Joe wasn't as
lucky and died in combat during the war.
Before He Became President
When Joe Jr. died, John's father turned to John to become president. He
got John involved in politics and helped John to get elected to the U.S.
Congress in 1947. John served as congressman for six years and then
became a U.S. Senator in 1953. Kennedy ran for president in 1960
against current Vice President Richard Nixon. He won in one of the closest
elections in history. Soon after being elected senator, John F. Kennedy, at
36 years of age, married 24 year-old Jacqueline Bouvier, a writer with
the Washington Times-Herald. Unfortunately, early on in their marriage,
Senator Kennedy’s back started to hurt again and he had two serious
operations. While recovering from surgery, he wrote a book about several
US Senators who had risked their careers to fight for the things in which
they believed. The book, called Profiles in Courage, was awarded the
Pulitzer Prize for biography in 1957. That same year, the Kennedys’ first
child, Caroline, was born.
John F. Kennedy's Presidency
When Kennedy was elected he gave one of the most stirring inaugural
speeches in history. In this speech he said the famous words "Ask not
what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country."
His presidency was marked by major events in the Cold War. These events
included the building of the Berlin Wall in Germany by the communists,
the Bay of Pigs, and the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Bay of Pigs
Just a few months after becoming president, Kennedy decided to try and
help Cuban rebels overthrow the communist Cuban leader Fidel Castro.
Unfortunately, the invasion failed miserably when the CIA-assisted rebels
were soundly defeated. This event is called the Bay of Pigs because of the
name of the bay where the invasion took place.
Cuban Missile Crisis
In 1962 the United States discovered that the Soviet Union was building
secret missile bases in Cuba. These missiles would be able to strike the
U.S. with nuclear bombs. In the coming days the U.S. and the Soviet Union
came close to nuclear war. The U.S. quarantined Cuba in order to keep the
missiles out. After negotiations, the Soviet Union agreed to dismantle the
bases. In return, the U.S. agreed to never attack Cuba and to remove
missiles from Turkey.
How did he die?
On November 22, 1963 John F. Kennedy was shot by Lee Harvey Oswald
while riding in a convertible car in Dallas, Texas.
John won the Pulitzer Prize in history for the book Profiles in Courage.
People most often remember Kennedy for his foreign-policy
achievements, especially his handling of the Cuban missile crisis, but also
the creation of the Peace Corps and the 1963 Limited Nuclear Test Ban
treaty with Great Britain and the Soviet Union.
