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John Fitzgerald Kennedy
John Fitzgerald Kennedy 35th president of the United States, the youngest
person ever to be elected president. He was also the first Roman Catholic
president and the first president to be born in the 20th century.
Kennedy was assassinated before he completed his third year as president.
Therefore his achievements were limited. Nevertheless, his influence was
worldwide, and his handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis may have prevented
war. Young people especially liked him. No other president was so popular.
He brought to the presidency an awareness of the cultural and historical
traditions of the United States. Because Kennedy expressed the values of
20th-century America, his presidency was important beyond its political
achievements. John Kennedy was born in Brookline, Massachusetts. He was
the second of nine children.
Kennedy announced his candidacy early in 1960. By the time the Democratic
National Convention opened in July, he had won seven primary victories. His
most important had been in West Virginia, where he proved that a Roman
Catholic could win in a predominantly Protestant state.
When the convention opened, it appeared that Kennedy’s only serious
challenge for the nomination would come from the Senate majority leader,
Lyndon B. Johnson of Texas. However, Johnson was strong only among
Southern delegates. Kennedy won the nomination on the first ballot and then
persuaded Johnson to become his running mate.
Two weeks later the Republicans nominated Vice President Richard Nixon for
president and Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., who was ambassador to the United
Nations and whom Kennedy had defeated for the Senate in 1952, for vice
president. In the fast-paced campaign that followed, Kennedy made stops in
46 states and 273 cities and towns, while Nixon visited every state and 170
urban areas.
Another important element of the campaign was the support Kennedy received
from blacks in important Northern states, especially Illinois and
Pennsylvania. They supported him in part because he and Robert Kennedy had
tried to get the release of the civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr.
King, who had been jailed for taking part in a civil rights demonstration
in Georgia, was released soon afterward.
The election drew a record 69 million voters to the polls, but Kennedy won
by only 113,000 votes. Kennedy was inaugurated on January 20, 1961. In his
inaugural address he emphasized America’s revolutionary heritage. 2"The
same … beliefs for which our forebears fought are still at issue around the
globe," Kennedy said.
3"Let the word go forth from this time and place to friend and foe alike,
that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans—born in
this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace,
proud of our ancient heritage—and unwilling to witness or permit the slow
undoing of those human rights to which this nation has always been
committed and to which we are committed today at home and around the
world."
Kennedy challenged Americans to assume the burden of "defending freedom in
its hour of maximum danger." The words of his address were, 4"Ask not what
your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country."
Kennedy sought with considerable success to attract brilliant young people
to government service. His hope was to bring new ideas and new methods into
the executive branch. As a result many of his advisers were teachers and
scholars. Among them were McGeorge Bundy and Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.,
both graduates of Harvard.
Kennedy’s most influential adviser was Theodore C. Sorenson, a member of
Kennedy’s staff since his days in the Senate. Sorenson wrote many of
Kennedy’s speeches and exerted a strong influence on Kennedy’s development
as a political liberal, 5 a person who believes that the government should
directly help people to overcome poverty or social discrimination.
The president and Mrs. Kennedy attempted to make the White House the
cultural center of the nation. Writers, artists, poets, scientists, and
musicians were frequent dinner guests. On one occasion the Kennedy’s held a
reception for all the American winners of the Nobel Prize, people who made
outstanding contributions to their field during the past year. At the party
the president suggested that more talent and genius was at the White House
that night than there had been since Thomas Jefferson had last dined there
alone.
At a meeting with the leader of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
(USSR), Nikita Khrushchev, Kennedy asked the name of a medal Khrushchev was
wearing. When the premier identified it as the Lenin Peace Medal, Kennedy
remarked, 6"I hope you keep it." On another occasion he told a group of
Republican business leaders, 7"It would be premature to ask for your
support in the next election and inaccurate to thank you for it in the
past." Even in great crises, Kennedy retained his sense of humor.
Kennedy’s first year in office brought him considerable success in enacting
new legislation. Congress passed a major housing bill, a law increasing the
minimum wage, and a bill granting federal aid to economically depressed
areas of the United States. The most original piece of legislation Kennedy
put through Congress was the bill creating the Peace Corps, an agency that
trained American volunteers to perform social and humanitarian service
overseas. The program’s goal was to promote world peace and friendship with
developing nations. The idea of American volunteers helping people in
foreign lands touched the idealism of many citizens. Within two years,
Peace Corps volunteers were working in Asia, Africa, and Latin America,
living with the people and working on education, public health, and
agricultural projects.
However, after his initial success with Congress, Kennedy found it
increasingly difficult to get his programs enacted into law. Although the
Democrats held a majority in both houses, Southern Democrats joined with
conservative Republicans to stop legislation they disliked. The Medicare
bill, a bill to make medical care for the aged a national benefit, was
defeated. A civil rights bill and a bill to cut taxes were debated, and
compromises were agreed to, but even the compromises were delayed. A bill
to create a Cabinet-level Department of Urban Affairs was soundly defeated,
partly because Kennedy wanted the economist Robert C. Weaver, a black man,
to be the new secretary. Southern Congressmen united with representatives
from mostly rural areas to defeat the bill.
Kennedy did win approval of a bill to lower tariffs and thus allow more
competitive American trade abroad. Congress also authorized the purchase of
$100 million in United Nations bonds, and the money enabled the
international organization to survive a financial crisis. Further, Congress
appropriated more than $1 billion to finance sending a man to the moon by
1970 which was accomplished in 1969.
The major American legal and moral conflict during Kennedy’s three years in
office was in the area of civil rights. Black agitation against
discrimination had become widespread and well organized. Although Kennedy
was in no way responsible for the growth of the civil rights movement, he
attempted to aid the black cause by enforcing existing laws. Kennedy
particularly wanted to end discrimination in federally financed projects or
in companies that were doing business with the government.
In September 1962 Governor Ross R. Barnett of Mississippi ignored a court
order and prevented James H. Meredith, a black man, from enrolling at the
state university. On the night of September 29, even as the president went
on national television to appeal to the people of Mississippi to obey the
law, rioting began on the campus. After 15 hours of rioting and two deaths,
Kennedy sent in troops to restore order. Meredith was admitted to the
university, and troops and federal marshals remained on the campus to
insure his safety.
In June 1963, when Governor George C. Wallace of Alabama prevented two
blacks from enrolling at the University of Alabama, Kennedy federalized the
Alabama National Guard to enforce the law. The students were enrolled at
the university. Three months later, Kennedy again used the National Guard
to prevent Wallace from interfering with integration in the public schools
of Birmingham, Tuskegee, and Mobile.
Kennedy also asked Congress to pass a civil rights bill that would
guarantee blacks the right to vote, to attend public school, to have equal
access to jobs, and to have access to public accommodations. Kennedy told
the American people, 8"Now the time has come for this nation to fulfill its
promises … to act, to make a commitment it has not fully made in this
century to the proposition that race has no place in American life or law."
Public opinion polls showed that Kennedy was losing popularity because of
his advocacy of civil rights. Privately, he began to assume that the South
would oppose him in the next election, but he continued to speak out
against segregation, the practice of separating people of different races.
To a group of students in Nashville, Tennessee, he said, 9 "No one can deny
the complexity of the problem involved in assuring all of our citizens
their full rights as Americans. But no one can gainsay the fact that the
determination to secure those rights is in the highest tradition of
American freedom."
In 1959, after several attempts, a revolution led by Fidel Castro finally
overthrew the Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista y Zaldivar. During the next
two years, Castro was to become increasingly hostile to the United States.
The new regime’s agricultural reform laws provoked U.S. companies that
operated sugar plantations. Companies that were not controlled by Cuban
stockholders were not allowed to operate plantations, and sugar production
was de-emphasized in favor of food crops. In 1960 the Castro government
nationalized, or took over ownership of, an estimated $1 billion in
properties owned by U.S. companies and citizens, and the Eisenhower
administration imposed a trade embargo.
When Castro began to proclaim his belief in Communism, Cuba became part of
the Cold War, or struggle between the United States and its allies and the
nations led by the USSR that involved intense economic and diplomatic
battles but not direct military conflict. Many Cubans fled to the United
States. During the Eisenhower administration the Central Intelligence
Agency (CIA) had begun to train Cuban exiles secretly for an invasion of
Cuba. When Kennedy became president, he approved the invasion.
In April 1961 more than 1000 Cuban exiles made an amphibious landing in
Cuba at a place called the Bay of Pigs. Their plan was to move inland and
join with anti-Castro forces to stage a revolt simultaneously, but instead
Castro’s forces were there to meet the invaders. The revolt in the interior
did not happen, and air support, promised by the CIA, never came. The
exiles were defeated and the survivors were taken prisoner.
On December 25, 1962, 1113 prisoners were released in exchange for food and
medical supplies valued at a total of approximately $53 million.
Most other Latin American countries had the same bad social, economic, and
political conditions that had led to Castro’s success in Cuba. Many of
these nations seemed ripe for a revolution that could easily be exploited
by the Communists. Upon taking office, President Kennedy looked for a
program that would accelerate change in Latin America by strengthening
democratic institutions. In March 1961 he introduced the Alliance for
Progress, and in August it was established by the charter of Punte del Este.
The Alliance for Progress was to be a Latin American version of the
Marshall Plan, the United States plan to fund a cooperative, long-term
program to rebuild Europe following World War II. All Latin American
nations except Cuba joined the Alliance for Progress, pledging 10"to bring
our people accelerated economic progress and broader social justice within
the framework of personal dignity and individual liberty." The United
States promised $20 billion for the first ten years. The Alliance for
Progress and President Kennedy’s particular concern for democratic
institutions brought the United States renewed popularity in Latin America.
On June 3, 1961, in Vienna, Austria, Kennedy and Khrushchev met and
reviewed relationships between the United States and the USSR, as well as
other questions of interest to the two states. Two incidents contributed to
hostility at the meeting. The first was the shooting down of a U.S. spy
plane in Soviet air space, and the second was the failed Bay of Pigs
invasion of Cuba in early 1961. The results of the conference made it clear
that Khrushchev had construed Kennedy’s failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion
as a sign of weakness. No agreements were reached on any important issues.
In fact, the Soviet premier made it clear that the Soviet Union intended to
pursue an even more aggressive policy toward the United States.
Kennedy’s last words to Khrushchev in Vienna were, 11"It’s going to be a
cold winter." He reported to the American people that the Soviet premier
was a "tough-minded" leader who did not understand the intentions of the
United States. The leaders had spent a "very sober two days."
In August 1961, to prevent East Germans from fleeing to the West, the
Communists ordered a wall built on the border between East and West Berlin.
West Berlin had been under the control of the United States, France, and
Britain since the end of World War II, although the city lay deep inside
East Germany, a state that was an ally of the USSR. Kennedy and other
Western leaders protested, but the wall was built.
Kennedy had already asked for more military spending and had called up
reserve troops for duty in Europe. When East German soldiers began blocking
the Allied route through East Germany into Berlin, Kennedy sent a force of
1500 soldiers marching along the route into West Berlin. The troops went
uncontested. Communist interference stopped, allowing Allied forces travel
to and from Berlin .
Amongst other problems President Kennedy faced, none was more serious than
this one. The Cuban Missile Crisis was perhaps the world’s closest approach
to nuclear war. In 1960 Soviet Premier Khrushchev decided to supply Cuba
with nuclear missiles that would put the eastern United States within range
of nuclear missile attack. Khrushchev, when asked, denied that any missiles
were being supplied to Cuba, but in the summer of 1962 U.S. spy planes
flying over Cuba photographed Soviet-managed construction work and spotted
the first missile on October 14.
For seven days President Kennedy consulted secretly with advisers,
discussing the possible responses while in public his administration
carried on as though nothing was wrong. Finally, on October 22, Kennedy
told the nation about the discovery of the missiles, demanded that the
Soviet Union remove the weapons, and declared the waters around Cuba a
quarantine zone. Kennedy called upon Khrushchev 12"to halt and eliminate
this clandestine, reckless and provocative threat to world peace and to
stable relations between our two nations" and warned that an attack from
Cuba on any nation in the western hemisphere would be considered an attack
by the USSR on the United States itself.
At the same time, United States troops were sent to Florida to prepare for
invading Cuba, and air units were alerted. American vessels blockaded Cuba
with orders to search all suspicious-looking Soviet ships and to turn back
any that carried offensive weapons.
For several tense days Soviet vessels en route to Cuba avoided the
quarantine zone, while Khrushchev and Kennedy discussed the issue through
diplomatic channels. Khrushchev, realizing his weak military position, sent
a message on October 26 in which he agreed to Kennedy’s demands to remove
all missiles. The following day, before the United States had responded to
the first note, Khrushchev sent another, trying to negotiate other terms.
Kennedy decided to respond to the first message, and on October 28,
Khrushchev agreed to dismantle and remove the weapons from Cuba and offered
the United States on-site inspection. In return Kennedy secretly promised
not to invade Cuba and to remove older missiles from Turkey. Kennedy called
off the blockade but Cuba, angry at Soviet submission, refused to permit
the promised inspection. However, U.S. spy planes revealed that the missile
bases were being dismantled. Nuclear war had been avoided.
This was perhaps Kennedy’s greatest moment as president. Many felt that
both World War I and World War II had begun because of weak responses to
acts of aggression, and Kennedy may have prevented World War III by
displaying courage and strength.
On November 22, 1963, President and Mrs. Kennedy were in Dallas, Texas,
trying to win support in a state that Kennedy had barely carried in 1960.
As the motorcade approached an underpass, two shots were fired in rapid
succession. One bullet passed through the president’s neck and struck
Governor Connally in the back. The other bullet struck the president in the
head. Kennedy fell forward, and his car sped to Parkland Hospital. At 1:00
PM, he was pronounced dead. He had never regained consciousness.
Less than two hours after the shooting, aboard the presidential plane at
the Dallas airport, Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in as the 36th president of
the United States.
That afternoon, Lee Harvey Oswald, who was employed in the warehouse, was
arrested in a Dallas movie theater and charged with the murder.
On November 24 the body of President Kennedy was carried on a horse-drawn
carriage from the White House to the Rotunda of the Capitol. Hundreds of
thousands of people filed past the coffin of the slain president. The grave
was
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