The Life History of John F.

Kennedy

Selina Vance

Course Gen/101

November 1st, 2010

Robert Boyd
 John F. Kennedy was the thirty- fifth president. Kennedy was the first

president to reach for the moon, ending the race between Russia and the United

States. Some wondered if the moon race ever existed. “Was it a true race

resulting from the cold war to land the first man on moon?”. Whatever the answer

is to this question, The United States has clearly benefited from the moon

landing.

John F. Kennedy was the thirty-fifth President of the United States.

President Kennedy was considered by some to be the only president who had a

vision to reach for the moon. Kennedy also made the nation see itself with new

eyes, and unfortunately, his assassination shocked the world.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy was born in Brookline Massachusetts in May 29,

1917, the second son of nine children. JFK was born into a family with a history

of political and public service. During his childhood Kennedy was sick, and spent

most of his time reading. As an adult, he enrolled at Princeton University, but

shortly there after he had to withdraw himself because of his illness. Upon his

recovery Kennedy entered Harvard University, where he in International

Relations. While in his senior year he traveled to Europe. During his time in

Europe, John Kennedy was inspired after he read Winston Churchill’s book,

titled, “While England Slept”, which chronicled Britain’s lack of military

preparation when threatened by Nazi Germany. John Kennedy, later wrote his

senior thesis titled, “Why England slept”, in which he explored and examined the

reasons for England’s lack of military preparedness, was published in 1940.

 After graduating from Harvard, John enrolled at Stanford University.

Afterwards, he tried to enlist in the U.S. Army, but was rejected because of a

back injury. Determined to serve his country, Kennedy worked on strengthening

his back with a regimen of exercises. Soon after, Kennedy enlisted in the U.S.

Navy and was accepted. Kennedy served as an Intelligence Officer in

Washington D.C.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor, The United States entered World War II.

Kennedy requested to be on active duty. Kennedy trained at sea among the

Motor Torpedo boat squadron. After training, Kennedy went to South Pacific to

fight the war against Japan.

In March 1943, John Kennedy commanded a small patrol torpedo boat.

Even thought the boat was fast, small and loaded with weapons and torpedoes, a

Japanese Destroyer boat sliced his boat in half. Kennedy ordered his men to

swim to a small island that was three miles away. He towed one of his men to

shore in a heroic five-hour struggle. Several days later, with leadership and

courage he and his men were rescued. After returning to civilian life, Kennedy

did newspaper work for several months covering the United Nations

Conferences, Potsdam Conferences and the British Elections from 1945 to 1946.

Kennedy became a candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives for

the Massachusetts Eleventh Congressional District. Kennedy communicated with

people in a direct informal style about the issues they were concerned with.

Kennedy’s brothers and his sisters supported him. Kennedy’s brothers, Robert
and Edward served as his campaign managers. Kennedy’s mother and sisters

held fundraising events to raise money for his campaign. Kennedy won the fall

Elections and was reelections to the house in (1948 and 1950). While serving as

a congressman, He supported the Truman administration domestic programs

such as: better social welfare programs and low- cost public housing for people

to have a place to live. However, he was not a fan of Truman’s policies regarding

China.

In 1949 He became a member of the Joint Committee on Labor-

Management Relations, where he continued to support programs for

employment, higher wages and better working conditions. He did not follow

Truman’s policies in foreign relations. For example: Kennedy was against the

fighting in Korea or any places where the United States could not hold their own

defenses.

Kennedy ran for a seat for the U.S. Senate against Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr.

He won by seventy-thousand votes. In 1953, Kennedy married Jacqueline

Leebouvie. Taking his seat in January, Kennedy continued to support, Key

Labor, Economic and foreign relations issues. He also worked to pass several

bills to aid the Massachusetts fish and textile industries and to improve New

England’s economy.

In October 1954, Kennedy had an operation due to a recurrence of old

back injuries, followed by another one in February 1955 while recovering from

these surgeries. He wrote biographies of Americans who has showed moral

courage in difficult points in their lives. The biographies were compiled into one
book titled: “Profiles on Courage”. The biographies became a best-selling book

that won a Pulitzer Prize for in 1957.

Kennedy returned to his senate seat in May 1955. Even though he was

fully recovered from is operations, Kennedy decide to run for president.

Regardless of his records in elected office, and the fact that he had written many

successful books and articles that attracted national attentions, he lost the Vice

presidential nominations at the democratic national convention in Chicago in

1956. In January 1960, Kennedy announced the he wanted to run for President.

Kennedy made whirlwind tours and won the Democratic primaries

in all states. Kennedy was nominated for president with Lyndon B. Johnson as

his running mate. Kennedy was considered a controversial candidate because of

his religious affiliation as a Roman Catholic. Kennedy has several televised

debates against vise president Richard Nixon., These debates were crucial to his

campaign. Many people believed that Kennedy defeated Nixon with his own

style, as he showed the American people that he had a sense of humor.

On January 20, 1960, the U.S. President John f. Kennedy was sworn into

office. Kennedy’s inaugural address included the challenge. “Ask not what your

country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.’’

In Kennedy’s short time in office he faced many crises. The first was The

Cuban Missile Crisis. Kennedy was able to prove that he could face many

disasters. On October 22, 1962, he announced to the nation that the Soviet

Union had sent nuclear missiles to Cuba. In response, the United States had

blocked all shipments of military equipment into Cuba. There was a series of
messages and communications between Kennedy and the Soviet Union. One

week later, on October 28, 1962 the Soviets decided to remove its missiles from

Cuba. A result of those events generated the Nuclear Test ban Treaty with the

Soviet Union. Kennedy called this event, “the first step down the path of Peace.”

The Vietnam War took up more of Kennedy’s time. Kennedy believed that

a “full scale war in Vietnam … was unthinkable”. Senator William Fulbright

wanted Kennedy to put more troops in Vietnam to prove to Soviet Union

president Khrushchev that “he couldn’t intimidated.”

John f. Kennedy was aware of the dangers of the presidency. On the day

of his arrival in Dallas Texas, John F. Kennedy was quoted, “if anyone wanted to

kill a president he needed only a high building and a rifle with a telescopic lens.”

On November 22, 1963, the President was assassinated.

What Kennedy accomplished was not as important as what he stood for.

He was the thirty-fifth president whose vision was to reach for the moon through

the nation’s space program. He also was the first president since Theodore

Roosevelt with whom youth could identify. He made the nation see itself with new

eyes, and his assassination shock the world.

The United States Landing on the moon ended the Lunar race with the

soviets, but there were several factors and setbacks that lead to the momentous

moon landing in 1969, by the Americans. In 1989, the soviets newspaper detailed

Russia involvement in a plan to land on the moon, but the moon race was

tarnished, the United States regained the lead, and citizens swelled with pride at

the momentous occasion.

 Works Cited

John F. Kennedy. Retrieved from http://notableboigraphies.com

Historical resources. Retrieved from http://jfklibrary.org

John F. kennedy. Retrived from http:// reference center.com