Kennedy
John Fitzgerald Kennedy was the 35th
President of the United States, the
youngest person ever to be elected
President, the first Roman Catholic and the
first 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 the United States from entering into another
world war.Kennedy
was especially admired by the younger people and he was perhaps
the most
popular president in history.Kennedy expressed the values of 20th century
America and his presidency
had an importance beyond its political
achievements.John Fitzgerald Kennedy was born in Brookline, Massachusetts where
he was
one of nine children.The Kennedy family was very wealthy and
providedmeans for the Kennedy children to pursue whatever they chose and John
F.
Kennedy chose politics.
John
F. Kennedy was elected to
Congress in 1942 and as a new member Kennedy supported
legislation that would
serve the interests of his elements.Kennedy usually backed bills sponsored by
his party but would sometimes
show independence by voting with the
Republicans.He also joined with the Republicans in criticizing the
Truman
administration’s handling of China.In China, the Nationalist
government of Chiang Kai-shek, which had been
supported by the United States,
was unable to withstand the advance of Communist
forces under Mao Zedong.By
the end of 1949 government troops had been overwhelmingly defeated,
and
Chiang led his forces into exile on Taiwan.The triumphant Mao formed the
People’s Republic of China.Truman’s critics, including Kennedy, charged that the
administration
had failed to support Chiang Kai-shek againstthe
Communists.
Despite
Kennedy’s wavering within his own party
platform, John F. Kennedy easily won
reelection to Congress in 1948 and
1950.In 1952 he decided to run against functioning Republican Senator
Henry
Cabot Lodge, Jr.Kennedy was little known outside his congressional
district therefore he
began his campaign two years before the election,
meeting with hundreds of
thousands of people in Massachusetts."Kennedy
defeated Lodge by 70,000"1 votes despite the fact that
Dwight D.
Eisenhower, the Republican Presidential candidate, carried the state
by just
over 200,000 votes.
As
a candidate for the Senate, Kennedy promised
the voters that he would do more
for Massachusetts than Lodge had ever
done.During his first two years as senator he backed legislation beneficial
to
the Massachusetts textile, fishing, watch, and transportation
industries.In 1953, however, he defied regional interests and supported the
Saint
Lawrence Seaway project and later in 1955 he was the only New
England senator to
support renewal of the Reciprocal Trade Agreement Act that
gave the President
the power to lower U. S. tariffs, or taxes on import
goods, in exchange for
similar concessions from other
countries.
In 1957 Kennedy became a member of
the powerful Senate Foreign Relations
Committee, and he later won a place
on the Senate Committee on Improper
Activities in the Labor Management
Field.In 1958 he spent many of his weekends campaigning for reelection
in
Massachusetts senatorial contest.Kennedy wanted the 1960 Democratic
presidential nomination, and almost as
soon as the 1956 election was over, he
began working toward it.
Kennedy
announced his candidacy early in 1960
and by the time the Democratic National
Convention opened in July, he had
won seven primary victories.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 and 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., 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.The two
candidates faced each other in four nationally televised debates.Kennedy’s
manner, especially in the first debate, seemed to eliminate
the charge that
he was too young and inexperienced to serve as president, and
many believe
these debates gave Kennedy the edge he needed for
victory.
The
election drew a record 69 million voters to the polls,
but Kennedy won by only
113,000 votes which made it the closest popular
vote in 72 years.Because Kennedy won most of the larger states in the
Northeastern United
States, he received 303 electoral votes to Nixon’s
219.Kennedy was inaugurated on January 20, 1961.In his inaugural address he
emphasized America’s revolutionary
heritage,"The same beliefs for which our
forebears fought are still at issue
around the globe,"2 Kennedy said."Let the
word go forth from this time and place to friend and foe
alike, that the
torch has been passed to a new generations of Americans."3Kennedy called for "a
new world of law, where the strong are just
and the weak secure and the peace
preserved."
Kennedy’s
first year in office brought him considerable
success in enacting new
legislation.Congress passed a major housing bill, a
law increasing minimum wage, and
a bill granting federal aid to economically
depressed areas of the United
States.Kennedy put legislation through
Congress which was a bill creating the
Peace Corps, an agency that
trained American volunteers to perform social and
humanitarian service
oversees and promote world peace, which was important at
the time because of
unsettling foreign affairs.
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 would become increasingly
hostile to
the United States.When Castro began to proclaim his belief in
Communism, Cuba became part
of the Cold War, or struggle between the U. S.
and its allies and the nations
led by the USSR that involved intense economic
and diplomatic battles.
Many
Cubans began to flee to the United
States and during the Eisenhower
administration the CIA had begun to train
Cuban exiles secretly for an invasion
of Cuba.In April 1961 more than "1000
Cuban exiles made an amphibious
landing"5 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 materialize, and air support,
promised
by the CIA, never came.The exiles were defeated and the survivors
were taken prisoner.Castro began to demand money for their release but Kennedy
refused to
negotiate with Castro.Kennedy did take steps to encourage both
businesses and private citizens
to reach an agreement with Castro and to
contribute to the ransom.On December 25, 1962, "1113 prisoners were released in
exchange for
food and medical supplies valued at a total of approximately $53
million.
On
June 3, 1961, in Vienna, Austria, Kennedy and USSR
leader Nikata Khrushchev met
and reviewed relationships between the U. S. and
the USSR, as well as other
questions of interest to the two states.Two
incidents contributed to hostility at the meeting, first being 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 and the Soviet premier
made it clear that the Soviet Union untended to
pursue an even more aggressive
policy toward the United
States.
Amongst
other problems President Kennedy faced, none was more
serious than the Cuban
Missile Crisis.In 1960 Soviet Premier Khrushchev
supplied Cuba with nuclear missiles
that would put the eastern United States
within range of nuclear missile attack.During 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 Kennedy consulted with
advisors, discussing the possible
responses.On October 22, Kennedy told the
nation about the discovery of the
missiles, demanded that the Soviet Union
remove the missiles, and declared the
waters around Cuba a quarantine
zone.
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 one
of two
messages to Kennedy in which he agreed to remove the missiles.The
following day, before the United States could respond to the first
note a
second was sent by Khrushchev to try and negotiate terms.Kennedy responded to
the first message and an agreement was met for the
Soviet missiles to be
dismantled and removed from Cuba.In return Kennedy secretly promised not to
invade Cuba and to remove
older missiles from Turkey.This was perhaps
Kennedy’s greatest moment as president.Many feel that because of Kennedy’s
aggression that perhaps WWIII was
avoided.
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.On his way to a luncheon in
Dallas, Kennedy and his wife sat in an open
convertible at the head of a
motorcade.Lyndon Johnson was two cars behind the president, and Texas Governor
John
B. Connally and his wife were sitting with the Kennedy’s.As the
motorcade approached an underpass, two shots were fired, one
bullet passed
through the president’s neck and struck Governor Connally in the
back, with
the other bullet striking the president in the head.The car sped to nearby
Parkland Hospital where at 1:00 PM Kennedy was
pronounced
dead.
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.The bullets that killed Kennedy were fired
from a sixth-story window of a
nearby warehouse.That afternoon, Lee Harvey
Oswald, was arrested in a Dallas movie theater
and charged with murder.Two
days later, as the suspect was being transferred from one jail to
another,
Jack Ruby sprang out from a group of reporters and as millions watched
on
television, fired a revolver into Oswald’s left side.Oswald died in the same
hospital to which the President had been taken.
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.A state funeral was held the next day
where "representatives of 92
nations attended."7It has been estimated that as
many as "1 million people"8 lined
the streets of Washington as the funeral
procession made its way slowly to
Arlington National Cemetery.The grave
was marked by an eternal flame lighted by his wife and
brothers.Five days
after the funeral, President Johnson appointed Chief Justice of
the Supreme
Court Earl Warren chairman of a committee to investigate Kennedy’s
death.The
findings of the commission were announced on September 27, 1964,
which stated
that investigators had found "no evidence of conspiracy in
the
assassination."9Their report concluded that "the shots which killed
President
Kennedy were fired by Lee Harvey Oswald."