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Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or the present are certain to miss the future.
― John F. Kennedy
We have the power to make this the best generation of mankind in the history of the world or make it the last.
― John F. Kennedy
Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.
― John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy's Speech at the Berlin Wall
Kennedy speaking in West Germany
John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29th, 1917 – November 22rd, 1963) was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 to 1963 until his assassination near the end of his third year in office.
Biography[]
Early Life[]
His father was Joseph Kennedy, Sr., and his mother was Rose Fitzgerald. John’s (or Jack’s) family were descendants of Irish immigrants. Jack's family had nine children, and including his parents, there were eleven people in his family. Jack had a dachshund named Offie. When he was in grades four to six, he attended Riverdale Country Day School. In June 1929, his family moved to Bronxville, New York. He went to Canterbury Preparatory School. It was a Catholic boarding school in New Milford, Connecticut. In 1931, he joined his brother Joe, Jr. at Choate School in Wallingford, Connecticut, another boarding school. He made the football, basketball, baseball, rowing and golf teams at Choate. He was very thin at this age. He was expelled because he didn’t like the rules. He was sloppy and didn’t like his routine. In 1936, he agreed to go to Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In college he had a serious attack of jaundice, which is a symptom of disease. The common sign of jaundice is when your skin turns yellow because yellow fluids build up in your liver. Luckily, he recovered from this attack. When he graduated in 1940, he joined the Navy. Then World War II broke out and he became the captain of a PT boat.
When Jack became the President of the United States of America, he was the youngest president in history at age forty-two. He was also the first Irish Catholic president. He was the thirty-fifth president.
Kennedy and his family faced several challenges. One challenge is when Jack got sick. He got hives in school and he also had hepatitis, a blood disease. Also, Kennedy was not supported in his campaign to be president. Here is another challenge Kennedy went through when he was in the navy. He piloted a PT boat (torpedo boat). It was the PT-109. It had a twelve-man crew. Kennedy went on his first mission. He had to destroy any Japanese destroyers he found. It was dark and he was part of a group of twelve PT boats. Night was the only time to do it because they would not be noticed. One of the men on PT-109 saw a Japanese destroyer 200 feet away. Kennedy turned the wheel. The Japanese destroyer hit them. The gas tanks blew up. Two men died. Kennedy had to pull a man by the rope on his life jacket because he could not swim. He pulled him with his teeth. They got to an island three miles away. Kennedy had a disc injury in his back. The island that they were on had no food, so they swam to another island that had food. He asked a native to give his information to Lieutenant Arthur Evan who was an Australian naval lookout. Kennedy wanted to get even with the Japanese, so he got gunboat number 1. The torpedo tubes were taken away and replaced with large machine guns in the front. It had better fire power to attack Japanese ships that carried supplies to their bases.
John had several character traits, of which one trait was his bravery. During the Second World War when Kennedy was fighting in the Pacific War, his torpedo boat was rammed by a Japanese destroyer, lightly injuring his back and killing two of his crew members. The gas tanks blew up and the boat was split into two pieces. Despite his injury, Kennedy who was a good swimmer, focused on his remaining crew members and led them away from the flaming waters. One man couldn't swim so Kennedy had to pull him to safety by the rope on his lifejacket. He pulled him with his teeth.
Kennedy and his surviving crew members swam to an island three miles away. The island that they were on had no food, so they swam to another island that had food. He asked a native to give his information to Lieutenant Arthur Evan who was an Australian naval lookout. After returning to base, Kennedy wanted to get even with the Japanese, so he got another gunboat.
The torpedo tubes were taken away and replaced with large machine guns in the front. It had better fire power to attack Japanese ships that carried supplies to their bases. The first island he and his crew members reached was called Plum Pudding Island, it would be renamed “Kennedy Island”. Another character trait is that he was anti-communist. He ordered an attempted invasion of Cuba to stop the communists and stood up to the Russians in the Cuban Missile Crisis. He was also an idealist. He fought for civil rights and world peace. As an example of this he said, “Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country."
Kennedy accomplished many things; he created the Peace Corps. He expanded the space program and the project to get to the moon first. He also helped America become a superpower because he didn’t back down during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Shortly before his assassination, it was President Kennedy's intention to reach a détente with Cuban Premier Fidel Castro, and to withdraw all US military advisers from Vietnam.
Death and Funeral[]
No, you certainly can't.
― Kennedy's last words before being assassinated, he was responding the First Lady of Texas who said "You certainly can’t say that the people of Dallas haven’t given you a nice welcome?"
On November 22rd, 1963, John F. Kennedy traveled to Dallas, Texas for a campaign visit, along with his wife, Governor Connally and his wife. The motorcade was turning near the Texas School Book Depository at Dealey Plaza. However, at 12:30 pm, Lee Harvey Oswald (supposedly) fatally shot Kennedy, who was quickly rushed to Parkland Memorial Hospital. But at 1 p.m., he was pronounced dead. His funeral was held at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle at Washington, DC. He was later buried at the Arlington National Cemetery. One hour and Twenty minutes later, Oswald was arrested for the two murders of President Kennedy and Officer J.D. Tippit, whom he fatally shot just minutes after shooting JFK in the same day. But before his trial could be arranged, 2 days later, he was shot to death in a jail transfer at the Dallas Police Headquarters by an upset nightclub owner, Jack Ruby, who later died in 1967 before his second trial could take place after his death penalty got overturned. Like the Lincoln Assassination, numerous conspiracy theories and unanswered questions still remained in the JFK Assassination.
Legacy[]
Many of Kennedy's speeches (especially his inaugural address) are considered iconic; Americans regularly vote him as one of the greatest presidents, in the same league as Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt and Thomas Jefferson. Some excerpts of Kennedy's inaugural address are engraved on a plaque at his grave at Arlington.
Robert Kennedy, JFK's brother and Attorney General, helped Kennedy on important issues.
Heroism[]
- Blocked Operation Northwoods: during the Cold War the Department of Defense proposed "Operation Northwoods", a false flag operation that would see the CIA carry out terror attacks on American soil and destroy US military installations before uncovering false evidence implicating Cuba. Even though the proposal was approved by the DoD and Joint Chairman Lyman Lemnitzer and would give him an excuse to overthrow the Cuban government, Kennedy not only rejected it (saving countless lives) but also sacked Lemnitzer from his position.
- Suppressed the Ole Miss riot: after riots broke out over African-American student James Meredith being accepted to the previously segregated University of Mississippi, Kennedy authorized federal troops to step in and quell the riots. The racism of the time was so extreme that the National Guard had to enroll Meredith by force, again under orders from Kennedy
- Prevented World War III and Nuclear War: in October 1962, an American U-2 spy plane photographed nuclear missile sites being built in Cuba. Kennedy considered a U.S. air strike to destroy the missiles, but there was uncertainty about whether or not the nuclear weapons in Cuba were already operational, which meant that any such attack could have sparked a nuclear war, that would have been known as "World War III". After days of deliberation, on Oct. 22, 1962, Kennedy ordered the establishment of a naval blockade, or "quarantine," around Cuba to prevent the Soviets from bringing in more nuclear weapons and military supplies. For 13 days in October 1962, the world was on the brink of a nuclear war, but as a result of Kennedy's leadership, a peaceful resolution was reached. In the face of a major crisis, Kennedy showed firmness and resolve, and emerged as both a national and global hero.
Trivia[]
- He and Abraham Lincoln share some similarities:
- Both men were elected to Congress in the year ending in 46 (Kennedy was elected to Congress in 1946, whereas Lincoln was elected to Congress in 1846).
- Both men were elected as presidents in the year ending in 60 (Kennedy was elected as president in 1960, whereas Lincoln was elected as president in 1860).
- Their names contain seven letters.
- Concerned with Civil Rights (Kennedy proposed the Civil Rights of 1964, whereas Lincoln wanted the slaves to be freed by the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared freedom for slaves in the Confederacy).
- They were in their 30's when they got married to women in their 20's (On September 12, 1953, Kennedy married Jacqueline Bouvier (born July 28, 1929), whereas Lincoln (born February 12, 1809) married Mary Anne Todd (born December 13, 1818) on November 4, 1842).
- Both men were shot by on a Friday, sitting next to their wives and a second man of another couple was injured in the attack (Kennedy was sitting in a Ford Lincoln, next to Jackie, when he and Governor John Connally were shot (Connally survived), whereas Lincoln, his wife, and two guests were at Ford's Theater when he was shot and Major Henry Rathbone was seriously injured in the attack when his left arm got stabbed (Rathbone recovered)).
- Both men were shot by Southerners, who were also killed by Northerners before coming to trial (Kennedy was shot and killed by Lee Harvey Oswald, who was later killed by Jack Ruby, whereas Lincoln was shot and killed by John Wilkes Booth, who was later killed by Boston Corbett).
- Both men were succeeded by a Southern man named Johnson, born in the year ending in 08 (Kennedy was succeeded by Lyndon Johnson (born in 1908), whereas Lincoln was succeeded by Andrew Johnson (born in 1808).
- He was the last president to die in office and the most recent of four presidents to have been assassinated.
- He was the youngest elected president at age 43.
- He was the first Catholic president, followed by Joe Biden.
- He served in the Navy in World War 2.