Was john f kennedy a democrat
John F. Kennedy
President of the United States from to
Several terms redirect here. For other uses, see John Kennedy (disambiguation), Jack Kennedy (disambiguation), JFK (disambiguation), and John F. Kennedy (disambiguation).
John F. Kennedy | |
|---|---|
Oval Office portrait, | |
| In office January 20, &#;– November 22, | |
| Vice President | Lyndon B. Johnson |
| Preceded by | Dwight D. Eisenhower |
| Succeeded by | Lyndon B.
Johnson |
| In office January 3, &#;– December 22, | |
| Preceded by | Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. |
| Succeeded by | Benjamin A. Smith II |
| In office January 3, &#;– January 3, | |
| Preceded by | James Michael Curley |
| Succeeded by | Tip O'Neill |
| Born | John Fitzgerald Kennedy ()May 29, Brookline, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Died | November 22, () (aged&#;46) Dallas, Texas, U.S. |
| Manner&#;of&#;death | Assassination |
| Resting place | Arlington National Cemetery |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 4, including Caroline, John&#;Jr., and Patrick |
| Parents | |
| Relatives | Kennedy family Bouvier family (by marriage) |
| Education | Harvard University (AB) |
| Signature | |
| Allegiance | United States |
| Branch/service | United States Navy |
| Years&#;of service | – |
| Rank | Lieutenant |
| Unit | |
| Battles/wars | |
| Awards | |
John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, – November 22, ), also known as JFK, was the 35th president of the United States, serving from until his assassination in He was the youngest person elected president at 43 years.[a] Kennedy served at the height of the Cold War, and the majority of his foreign policy concerned relations with the Soviet Union and Cuba.
A Democrat, Kennedy represented Massachusetts in both houses of the United States Congress prior to his presidency.
Born into the prominent Kennedy family in Brookline, Massachusetts, Kennedy graduated from Harvard University in , joining the U.S. Naval Reserve the following year. During World War II, he commanded PT boats in the Pacific theater.
Kennedy's survival following the sinking of PT and his rescue of his fellow sailors made him a war hero and earned the Navy and Marine Corps Medal, but left him with serious injuries. After a brief stint in journalism, Kennedy represented a working-class Boston district in the U.S. House of Representatives from to He was subsequently elected to the U.S.
Senate, serving as the junior senator for Massachusetts from to While in the Senate, Kennedy published his book, Profiles in Courage, which won a Pulitzer Prize. Kennedy ran in the presidential election. His campaign gained momentum after the first televised presidential debates in American history, and he was elected president, narrowly defeating Republican opponent Richard Nixon, the incumbent vice president.
Kennedy's presidency saw high tensions with communist states in the Cold War. He increased the number of American military advisers in South Vietnam, and the Strategic Hamlet Program began during his presidency. In , he authorized attempts to overthrow the Cuban government of Fidel Castro in the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion and Operation Mongoose.
In October , U.S. spy planes discovered Soviet missile bases had been deployed in Cuba.
John f kennedy early childhood John F. Kennedy served in both the U. House of Representatives and U. Senate before becoming the 35 th American president in On November 22, , Kennedy was assassinated while riding in a motorcade in Dallas.The resulting period of tensions, termed the Cuban Missile Crisis, nearly resulted in nuclear war. In August , after East German troops erected the Berlin Wall, Kennedy sent an army convoy to reassure West Berliners of U.S. support, and delivered one of his most famous speeches in West Berlin in June In , Kennedy signed the first nuclear weapons treaty.
He presided over the establishment of the Peace Corps, Alliance for Progress with Latin America, and the continuation of the Apollo program with the goal of landing a man on the Moon before He supported the civil rights movement but was only somewhat successful in passing his New Frontier domestic policies.
On November 22, , Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas.
His vice president, Lyndon B. Johnson, assumed the presidency. Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested for the assassination, but he was shot and killed by Jack Ruby two days later. The FBI and the Warren Commission both concluded Oswald had acted alone, but conspiracy theories about the assassination persist. After Kennedy's death, Congress enacted many of his proposals, including the Civil Rights Act of and the Revenue Act of Kennedy ranks highly in polls of U.S.
presidents with historians and the general public. His personal life has been the focus of considerable sustained interest following public revelations in the s of his chronic health ailments and extramarital affairs. Kennedy is the most recent U.S. president to have died in office.
Early life and education
John Fitzgerald Kennedy was born outside Boston in Brookline, Massachusetts, on May 29, ,[3] to Joseph P.
Kennedy Sr., a businessman and politician, and Rose Kennedy (née Fitzgerald), a philanthropist and socialite. His paternal grandfather, P. J. Kennedy, was an East Boston ward boss and Massachusetts state legislator.[5] Kennedy's maternal grandfather and namesake, John F. Fitzgerald, was a U.S. congressman and two-term mayor of Boston.
All four of his grandparents were children of Irish immigrants.[1] Kennedy had an older brother, Joseph Jr., and seven younger siblings: Rosemary, Kathleen, Eunice, Patricia, Robert, Jean, and Ted.[7]
Kennedy's father amassed a private fortune and established trust funds for his nine children that guaranteed lifelong financial independence.[8] His business kept him away from home for long stretches, but Joe Sr.
was a formidable presence in his children's lives. He encouraged them to be ambitious, emphasized political discussions at the dinner table, and demanded a high level of academic achievement.
Presidents john f kennedy biography summary printable
John Kennedy was the 35th president and first to be born in the 20th century. Kennedy was known for his great speeches and political skills. His leadership helped the country avoid war during the Cuba Missile Crisis. His assassination on November 22, shocked the nation and did not allow him to see many of his ideas become law. His early work on civil rights were the basis for the Civil Rights Act ofJohn's first exposure to politics was touring the Boston wards with his grandfather Fitzgerald during his failed gubernatorial campaign.[9][10] With Joe Sr.'s business ventures concentrated on Wall Street and Hollywood and an outbreak of polio in Massachusetts, the family decided to move from Boston to the Riverdale neighborhood of New York City in September [11][12] Several years later, his brother Robert told Look magazine that his father left Boston because of job signs that read: "No Irish Need Apply."[13] The Kennedys spent summers and early autumns at their home in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, a village on Cape Cod,[14] where they swam, sailed, and played touch football.[15] Christmas and Easter holidays were spent at their winter retreat in Palm Beach, Florida.
In September , Kennedy, 13 years old, was sent to the Canterbury School in New Milford, Connecticut, for 8th grade. In April , he had an appendectomy, after which he withdrew from Canterbury and recuperated at home.
In September , Kennedy started attending Choate, a preparatory boarding school in Wallingford, Connecticut. Rose had wanted John and Joe Jr.
to attend a Catholic school, but Joe Sr. thought that if they were to compete in the political world, they needed to be with boys from prominent Protestant families.[19] John spent his first years at Choate in his older brother's shadow and compensated with rebellious behavior that attracted a clique.
Their most notorious stunt was exploding a toilet seat with a firecracker. In the next chapel assembly, the headmaster, George St. John, brandished the toilet seat and spoke of "muckers" who would "spit in our sea," leading Kennedy to name his group "The Muckers Club," which included roommate and lifelong friend Lem Billings.[21] Kennedy graduated from Choate in June , finishing 64th of students.[12] He had been the business manager of the school yearbook and was voted the "most likely to succeed."
Kennedy intended to study under Harold Laski at the London School of Economics, as his older brother had done.
Ill health forced his return to the U.S. in October , when he enrolled late at Princeton University, but had to leave after two months due to gastrointestinal illness.[22]
In September , Kennedy enrolled at Harvard College.[23] He wrote occasionally for The Harvard Crimson, the campus newspaper, but had little involvement with campus politics, preferring to concentrate on athletics and his social life.
Kennedy played football and was on the JV squad during his sophomore year, but an injury forced him off the team, and left him with back problems that plagued him for the rest of his life. He won membership in the Hasty Pudding Club and the Spee Club, one of Harvard's elite "final clubs".[25]
In July , Kennedy sailed overseas with his older brother to work at the American embassy in London, where his father was serving as President Franklin D.
Roosevelt's ambassador to the Court of St. James's. The following year, Kennedy traveled throughout Europe, the Soviet Union, the Balkans, and the Middle East in preparation for his Harvard senior honors thesis. He then went to Berlin, where a U.S. diplomatic representative gave him a secret message about war breaking out soon to pass on to his father, and to Czechoslovakia before returning to London on September 1, , the day that Germany invaded Poland; the start of World War II.[28] Two days later, the family was in the House of Commons for speeches endorsing the United Kingdom's declaration of war on Germany.
Kennedy was sent as his father's representative to help with arrangements for American survivors of the torpedoing of SS&#;Athenia before flying back to the U.S. on his first transatlantic flight.[29]
While Kennedy was an upperclassman at Harvard, he began to take his studies more seriously and developed an interest in political philosophy.
He made the dean's list in his junior year. In , Kennedy completed his thesis, "Appeasement in Munich", about British negotiations during the Munich Agreement. The thesis was released on July 24, under the title Why England Slept. The book was one of the first to offer information about the war and its origins, and quickly became a bestseller.[33] In addition to addressing Britain's unwillingness to strengthen its military in the lead-up to the war, the book called for an Anglo-American alliance against the rising totalitarian powers.
Kennedy became increasingly supportive of U.S. intervention in World War II, and his father's isolationist beliefs resulted in the latter's dismissal as ambassador.
In , Kennedy graduated cum laude from Harvard with a Bachelor of Arts in government, concentrating on international affairs. That fall, he enrolled at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and audited classes, but he left after a semester to help his father complete his memoirs as an American ambassador.
In early , Kennedy toured South America.
U.S. Naval Reserve (–)
Kennedy planned to attend Yale Law School, but canceled when American entry into World War II seemed imminent. In , Kennedy attempted to enter the army's Officer Candidate School. Despite months of training, he was medically disqualified due to his chronic back problems.
On September 24, , Kennedy, with the help of the director of the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) and the former naval attaché to Joe Sr., Alan Kirk, joined the United States Naval Reserve.
Presidents john f kennedy biography summary and analysis John F. Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, — a tragic death that shocked America and the world. Born on May , John F. Kennedy came from an illustrious political family; his father Joseph Kennedy was a leading member of the Democratic Party, and Joseph encouraged John F. Kennedy in his political ambitions after the war.He was commissioned an ensign on October 26, ,[40] and joined the ONI staff in Washington, D.C.[41][42]
In January , Kennedy was assigned to the ONI field office at Headquarters, Sixth Naval District, in Charleston, South Carolina.[42] His hope was to be the commander of a PT (patrol torpedo) boat, but his health problems seemed almost certain to prevent active duty.
Kennedy's father intervened by providing misleading medical records and convincing PT officers that his presence would bring publicity to the fleet. Kennedy completed six months of training at the Naval Reserve Officer Training School in Chicago and at the Motor Torpedo Boat Squadrons Training Center in Melville, Rhode Island.[41] His first command was PT from December 7, , until February 23, [42] Unhappy to be assigned to the Panama Canal, far from the fighting, Kennedy appealed to Massachusetts senator David Walsh, who arranged for him to be assigned to the South Pacific.
Commanding PT and PT
Main article: Patrol torpedo boat PT
In April , Kennedy was assigned to Motor Torpedo Squadron TWO,[41] and on April 24 he took command of PT,[46] then based on Tulagi Island in the Solomons.[42] On the night of August 1–2, in support of the New Georgia campaign, PT and fourteen other PTs were ordered to block or repel four Japanese destroyers and floatplanes carrying food, supplies, and Japanese soldiers to the Vila Plantation garrison on the southern tip of the Solomon's Kolombangara Island.
Intelligence had been sent to Kennedy's Commander Thomas G. Warfield expecting the arrival of the large Japanese naval force that would pass on the evening of August 1. Of the 24 torpedoes fired that night by eight of the American PTs, not one hit the Japanese convoy. On that moonless night, Kennedy spotted a Japanese destroyer heading north on its return from the base of Kolombangara around &#;a.m., and attempted to turn to attack, when PT was rammed suddenly at an angle and cut in half by the destroyer Amagiri, killing two PT crew members.[48][42][b] Avoiding surrender, the remaining crew swam towards Plum Pudding Island, miles (&#;km) southwest of the remains of PT, on August 2.[42] Despite re-injuring his back in the collision, Kennedy towed a badly burned crewman to the island with a life jacket strap clenched between his teeth.
From there, Kennedy and his subordinate, Ensign George Ross, made forays through the coral islands, searching for help. When they encountered an English-speaking native with a canoe, Kennedy carved his location on a coconut shell and requested a boat rescue. Seven days after the collision, with the coconut message delivered, the PT crew were rescued.
Almost immediately, the PT rescue became a highly publicized event.
The story was chronicled by John Hersey in The New Yorker in (decades later it was the basis of a successful film). It followed Kennedy into politics and provided a strong foundation for his appeal as a leader.[56] Hersey portrayed Kennedy as a modest, self-deprecating hero.[57] For his courage and leadership, Kennedy was awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal, and the injuries he suffered during the incident qualified him for a Purple Heart.[56]
After a month's recovery Kennedy returned to duty, commanding the PT.
On November 2, Kennedy's PT took part with two other PTs in the rescue of 40–50 marines. The 59 acted as a shield from shore fire as they escaped on two rescue landing craft at the base of the Warrior River at Choiseul Island, taking ten marines aboard and delivering them to safety. Under doctor's orders, Kennedy was relieved of his command on November 18, and sent to the hospital on Tulagi.
Presidents john f kennedy biography summary His term was cut short by his assassination on Nov. John F. Kennedy May 29, —Nov. Elected as the 35th president in , he took office on Jan. Though he served as president for less than three years, his brief term coincided with the height of the Cold War, and his tenure was marked by some of the biggest crises and challenges of the 20th century.By December , with his health deteriorating, Kennedy left the Pacific front and arrived in San Francisco in early January After receiving treatment for his back injury at the Chelsea Naval Hospital in Massachusetts from May to December , he was released from active duty.[61][41] Beginning in January , Kennedy spent three months recovering from his back injury at Castle Hot Springs, a resort and temporary military hospital in Arizona.[63] On March 1, , Kennedy retired from the Navy Reserve on physical disability and was honorably discharged with the full rank of lieutenant.[64] When later asked how he became a war hero, Kennedy joked: "It was easy.
They cut my PT boat in half."
On August 12, , Kennedy's older brother, Joe Jr., a navy pilot, was killed on an air mission. His body was never recovered.[67] The news reached the family's home in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, a day later. Kennedy felt that Joe Jr.'s reckless flight was partly an effort to outdo him.
To console himself, Kennedy set out to assemble a privately published book of remembrances of his brother, As We Remember Joe.[70]
Journalism ()
In April , Kennedy's father, who was a friend of William Randolph Hearst, arranged a position for his son as a special correspondent for Hearst Newspapers; the assignment kept Kennedy's name in the public eye and "expose[d] him to journalism as a possible career." That May he went to Berlin as a correspondent, covering the Potsdam Conference and other events.
U.S.
House of Representatives (–)
Kennedy's elder brother Joe Jr. had been the family's political standard-bearer and had been tapped by their father to seek the presidency. After Joe's death, the assignment fell to JFK as the second eldest. Boston mayor Maurice J. Tobin discussed the possibility of John becoming his running mate in as a candidate for Massachusetts lieutenant governor, but Joe Sr.
preferred a congressional campaign that could send John to Washington, where he could have national visibility.
At the urging of Kennedy's father, U.S. Representative James Michael Curley vacated his seat in the strongly Democratic 11th congressional district of Massachusetts to become mayor of Boston in Kennedy established legal residency at Bowdoin Street across from the Massachusetts State House.[76] Kennedy won the Democratic primary with 42 percent of the vote, defeating nine other candidates.[77] According to Fredrik Logevall, Joe Sr.
spent hours on the phone with reporters and editors, seeking information, trading confidences, and cajoling them into publishing puff pieces on John, ones that invariably played up his war record in the Pacific. He oversaw a professional advertising campaign that ensured ads went up in just the right places the campaign had a virtual monopoly on [Boston] subway space, and on window stickers ("Kennedy for Congress") for cars and homes and was the force behind the mass mailing of Hersey's PT article.[78]
Though Republicans took control of the House in the elections, Kennedy defeated his Republican opponent in the general election, taking 73 percent of the vote.
As a congressman, Kennedy had a reputation for not taking much interest in the running of his office or his constituents' concerns, with one of the highest absenteeism rates in the House, although much was explained by illness.[80]George Smathers, one of his few political friends at the time, claimed that he was more interested in being a writer than a politician, and at that time he suffered from extreme shyness.[80] Kennedy found "most of his fellow congressmen boring, preoccupied as they all seemed to be with their narrow political concerns." The arcane House rules and customs, which slowed legislation, exasperated him.
Kennedy served in the House for six years, joining the influential Education and Labor Committee and the Veterans' Affairs Committee.
He concentrated his attention on international affairs, supporting the Truman Doctrine as the appropriate response to the emerging Cold War. He also supported public housing and opposed the Labor Management Relations Act of , which restricted the power of labor unions. Though not as vocally anti-communist as Joseph McCarthy, Kennedy supported the Immigration and Nationality Act of , which required communists to register with the government, and he deplored the "loss of China." During a speech in Salem, Massachusetts on January 30, , Kennedy denounced Truman and the State Department for contributing to the "tragic story of China whose freedom we once fought to preserve.
What our young men had saved [in World War II], our diplomats and our President have frittered away."[84] Having served as a boy scout during his childhood, Kennedy was active in the Boston Council from to as district vice chairman, member of the executive board, vice-president, and National Council Representative.[85][86]
To appeal to the large Italian-American voting bloc in Massachusetts, Kennedy delivered a speech in November supporting a $ million aid package to Italy.
He maintained that Italy was in danger from an "onslaught of the communist minority" and that the country was the "initial battleground in the communist drive to capture Western Europe."[87] To combat Soviet efforts to take control in Middle Eastern and Asian countries like Indochina, Kennedy wanted the United States to develop nonmilitary techniques of resistance that would not create suspicions of neoimperialism or add to the country's financial burden.
The problem, as he saw it, was not simply to be anti-communist but to stand for something that these emerging nations would find appealing.
Almost every weekend that Congress was in session, Kennedy would fly back to Massachusetts to give speeches to veteran, fraternal, and civic groups, while maintaining an index card file on individuals who might be helpful for a campaign for statewide office.[89] Contemplating whether to run for Massachusetts governor or the U.S.
Senate, Kennedy abandoned interest in the former, believing that the governor "sat in an office, handing out sewer contracts."
U.S. Senate (–)
See also: United States Senate election in Massachusetts and United States Senate election in Massachusetts
As early as , Kennedy began preparing to run for the Senate in against Republican three-term incumbent Henry Cabot Lodge Jr.
with the campaign slogan "KENNEDY WILL DO MORE FOR MASSACHUSETTS".
Joe Sr. again financed his son's candidacy (persuading the Boston Post to switch its support to Kennedy by promising the publisher a $, loan), while John's younger brother Robert emerged as campaign manager. Kennedy's mother and sisters contributed as highly effective canvassers by hosting a series of "teas" at hotels and parlors across Massachusetts to reach out to women voters.[94][95] In the presidential election, Republican Dwight D.
Eisenhower carried Massachusetts by , votes, but Kennedy narrowly defeated Lodge by 70, votes for the Senate seat.[96] The following year, he married Jacqueline Bouvier.
Kennedy underwent several spinal operations over the next two years. Often absent from the Senate, he was at times critically ill and received Catholic last rites.
During his convalescence in , he published Profiles in Courage, a book about U.S. senators who risked their careers for their personal beliefs, for which he won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography in [98] Rumors that this work was ghostwritten by his close adviser and speechwriter, Ted Sorensen, were confirmed in Sorensen's autobiography.[99]
At the start of his first term, Kennedy focused on fulfilling the promise of his campaign to do "more for Massachusetts" than his predecessor.
Although Kennedy's and Lodge's legislative records were similarly liberal, Lodge voted for the Taft-Hartley Act of and Kennedy voted against it. On NBC's Meet the Press, Kennedy excoriated Lodge for not doing enough to prevent the increasing migration of manufacturing jobs from Massachusetts to the South, and blamed the right-to-work provision for giving the South an unfair advantage over Massachusetts in labor costs.[] In May , Kennedy introduced "The Economic Problems of New England",[] a point program to help Massachusetts industries such as fishing, textile manufacturing, watchmaking, and shipbuilding, as well as the Boston seaport.
Kennedy's policy agenda included protective tariffs, preventing excessive speculation in raw wool, stronger efforts to research and market American fish products, an increase in the Fish and Wildlife Service budget, modernizing reserve-fleet vessels, tax incentives to prevent further business relocations, and the development of hydroelectric and nuclear power in Massachusetts.[][][] Kennedy's suggestions for stimulating the region's economy appealed to both parties by offering benefits to business and labor, and promising to serve national defense.
Congress would eventually enact most of the program.
John f kennedy biography timeline: John F. Kennedy was the 35th president of the United States (–63), who faced a number of foreign crises, especially the Cuban missile crisis, but managed to secure such achievements as the Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty and the Alliance for Progress.
Kennedy, a Massachusetts Audubon Society supporter, wanted to make sure that the shorelines of Cape Cod remained unsullied by industrialization. On September 3, , Kennedy co-sponsored the Cape Cod National Seashore bill with his Republican colleague Senator Leverett Saltonstall.[][]
As a senator, Kennedy quickly won a reputation for responsiveness to requests from constituents (i.e., co-sponsoring legislation to provide federal loans to help rebuild communities damaged by the Worcester tornado), except on certain occasions when the national interest was at stake.[][] In , Kennedy voted in favor of the Saint Lawrence Seaway which would connect the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean, despite opposition from Massachusetts politicians who argued that the project would hurt the Port of Boston economically.
In , when the Senate voted to condemn Joseph McCarthy for breaking Senate rules and abusing an Army general, Kennedy was the only Democrat not to cast a vote against him.
Kennedy drafted a speech supporting the censure. However, it was not delivered because Kennedy was hospitalized for back surgery in Boston.[] Although Kennedy never indicated how he would have voted, the episode damaged his support among members of the liberal community in the and elections.
In , Kennedy gained control of the Massachusetts Democratic Party, and delivered the state delegation to the party's presidential nominee, Adlai Stevenson II, at the Democratic National Convention in August.
Stevenson let the convention select the vice presidential nominee. Kennedy finished second in the balloting, losing to Senator Estes Kefauver of Tennessee, but receiving national exposure.[]
In , Kennedy joined the Senate's Select Committee on Labor Rackets (also known as the McClellan Committee) with his brother Robert, who was chief counsel, to investigate racketeering in labor-management relations.[] The hearings attracted extensive radio and television coverage where the Kennedy brothers engaged in dramatic arguments with controversial labor leaders, including Jimmy Hoffa, of the Teamsters Union