Born on May 29, 1917, in Brookline, Massachusetts, John F.

Kennedy served in both the

U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate before becoming the 35th president in 1961. As
president, Kennedy faced a number of foreign crises, especially in Cuba and Berlin, but managed
to secure such achievements as the Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty and the Alliance for Progress. On
November 22, 1963, Kennedy was assassinated while riding in a motorcade in Dallas, Texas.

Early life
John Fitzgerald Kennedy was born on May 29, 1917, in Brookline, Massachusetts. Both
the Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys were wealthy and prominent Irish Catholic Boston families.
Kennedy's paternal grandfather, P.J. Kennedy, was a wealthy banker and liquor trader, and his
maternal grandfather, John E. Fitzgerald, nicknamed "Honey Fitz," was a skilled politician who
served as a congressman and as the mayor of Boston. Kennedy's mother, Rose Elizabeth
Fitzgerald, was a Boston debutante, and his father, Joseph Kennedy Sr., was a successful banker
who made a fortune on the stock market after World War I. Joe Kennedy Sr. went on to a
government career as chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission and as an
ambassador to Great Britain.
John F. Kennedy, nicknamed "Jack," was the second oldest of a group of nine
extraordinary siblings. His brothers and sisters include Eunice Kennedy, the founder of the
Special Olympics; Robert Kennedy, a U.S. Attorney General; and Ted Kennedy, one of the most
powerful senators in American history. The Kennedy children remained close-knit and
supportive of each other throughout their entire lives.
Despite his father's constant reprimands, young Kennedy was a poor student and a
mischievous boy. He attended a Catholic boys' boarding school in Connecticut called Canterbury,
where he excelled at English and history, the subjects he enjoyed, but nearly flunked Latin, in
which he had no interest. Despite his poor grades, Kennedy continued on to Choate, an elite
Connecticut preparatory school. Although he was obviously brilliant evidenced by the
extraordinary thoughtfulness and nuance of his work on the rare occasions when he applied
himself Kennedy remained at best a mediocre student, preferring sports, girls and practical
jokes to coursework.
His father wrote to him by way of encouragement, "If I didn't really feel you had the
goods I would be most charitable in my attitude toward your failings ... I am not expecting too
much, and I will not be disappointed if you don't turn out to be a real genius, but I think you can
be a really worthwhile citizen with good judgment and understanding." Kennedy was in fact very

bookish in high school, reading ceaselessly but not the books his teachers assigned. He was also
chronically ill during his childhood and adolescence; he suffered from severe colds, the flu,
scarlet fever and even more severe, undiagnosed diseases that forced him to miss months of
school at a time and occasionally brought him to the brink of death.
After graduating from Choate and spending one semester at Princeton, Kennedy
transferred to Harvard University in 1936. There, he repeated his by then well-established
academic pattern, excelling occasionally in the classes he enjoyed, but proving only an average
student due to the omnipresent diversions of sports and women. Handsome, charming and
blessed with a radiant smile, Kennedy was incredibly popular with his Harvard classmates. His
friend Lem Billings recalled, "Jack was more fun than anyone I've ever known, and I think most
people who knew him felt the same way about him." Kennedy was also an incorrigible
womanizer. He wrote to Billings during his sophomore year, "I can now get tail as often and as
free as I want which is a step in the right direction."
Nevertheless, as an upperclassman, Kennedy finally grew serious about his studies and
began to realize his potential. His father had been appointed Ambassador to Great Britain, and on
an extended visit in 1939, Kennedy decided to research and write a senior thesis on why Britain
was so unprepared to fight Germany in World War II. An incisive analysis of Britain's failures to
meet the Nazi challenge, the paper was so well-received that upon Kennedy's graduation in 1940
it was published as book, Why England Slept, selling more than 80,000 copies. Kennedy's father
sent him a cablegram in the aftermath of the book's publication: "Two things I always knew
about you one that you are smart two that you are a swell guy love dad."
Shortly after graduating from Harvard, Kennedy joined the U.S. Navy and was assigned
to command a patrol torpedo boat in the South Pacific. On August 2, 1943, his boat, PT-109, was
rammed by a Japanese warship and split in two. Two sailors died and Kennedy badly injured his
back. Hauling another wounded sailor by the strap of his life vest, Kennedy led the survivors to a
nearby island, where they were rescued six days later. The incident earned him the Navy and
Marine Corps Medal for "extremely heroic conduct" and a Purple Heart for the injuries he
suffered.
Upon his discharge from the Navy, Kennedy worked briefly as reporter for Hearst
Newspapers. Then in 1946, at the age of 29, he decided to run for the U.S. House of
Representatives from a working class district of Boston, a seat being vacated by Democrat James
Michael Curly. Bolstered by his status as a war hero, his family connections and his father's
money, Kennedy won the election handily. However, after the glory and excitement of publishing
his first book and serving in World War II, Kennedy found his work in Congress incredibly dull.
Despite serving three terms, from 1946 to 1952, Kennedy remained frustrated by what he saw as
stifling rules and procedures that prevented a young, inexperienced representative from making
an impact. "We were just worms in the House," he later recalled. "Nobody paid attention to us
nationally."

Congressman and Senator

In 1952, seeking greater influence and a larger platform, Kennedy challenged Republican
incumbent Henry Cabot Lodge for his seat in the U.S. Senate. Once again backed by his father's
vast financial resources, Kennedy hired his younger brother Robert as his campaign manager.
Robert Kennedy put together what one journalist called "the most methodical, the most
scientific, the most thoroughly detailed, the most intricate, the most disciplined and smoothly
working state-wide campaign in Massachusetts history and possibly anywhere else." In an
election year in which Republicans gained control of both Houses of Congress, Kennedy
nevertheless won a narrow victory, giving him considerable clout within the Democratic Party.
According to one of his aides, the decisive factor in Kennedy's victory was his personality: "He
was the new kind of political figure that people were looking for that year, dignified and
gentlemanly and well-educated and intelligent, without the air of superior condescension."
Shortly after his election, Kennedy met a beautiful young woman named Jacqueline
Bouvier at a dinner party and, in his own words, "leaned across the asparagus and asked her for a
date." They were married on September 12, 1953. Jack and Jackie Kennedy had three children:
Caroline Kennedy, John F. Kennedy Jr. and Patrick Kennedy.
Kennedy continued to suffer frequent illnesses during his career in the Senate. While
recovering from one surgery, he wrote another book, profiling eight senators who had taken
courageous but unpopular stances. Profiles in Courage won the 1957 Pulitzer Prize for
biography, and Kennedy remains the only American president to win a Pulitzer Prize.

Presidential Candidate and President

Kennedy's eight-year Senate career was relatively undistinguished. Bored by the
Massachusetts-specific issues on which he had to spend much of his time, Kennedy was more
drawn to the international challenges posed by the Soviet Union's growing nuclear arsenal and
the Cold War battle for the hearts and minds of Third World nations. In 1956, Kennedy was very
nearly selected as Democratic presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson's running mate, but was
ultimately passed over for Estes Kefauver from Tennessee. Four years later, Kennedy decided to
run for president.
In the 1960 Democratic primaries, Kennedy outmaneuvered his main opponent, Hubert
Humphrey, with superior organization and financial resources. Selecting Senate Majority Leader

Lyndon B. Johnson as his running mate, Kennedy faced Vice President Richard Nixon in the
general election. The election turned largely on a series of televised national debates in which
Kennedy bested Nixon, an experienced and skilled debater, by appearing relaxed, healthy and
vigorous in contrast to his pallid and tense opponent. On November 8, 1960, Kennedy defeated
Nixon by a razor-thin margin to become the 35th president of the United States of America.
Kennedy's election was historic in several respects. At the age of 43, he was the second
youngest American president in history, second only to Theodore Roosevelt, who assumed the
office at 42. He was also the first Catholic president and the first president born in the 20th
century. Delivering his legendary inaugural address on January 20, 1961, Kennedy sought to
inspire all Americans to more active citizenship. "Ask not what your country can do for you," he
said. "Ask what you can do for your country."
Kennedy's greatest accomplishments during his brief tenure as president came in the
arena of foreign affairs. Capitalizing on the spirit of activism he had helped to ignite, Kennedy
created the Peace Corps by executive order in 1961. By the end of the century, over 170,000
Peace Corps volunteers would serve in 135 countries. Also in 1961, Kennedy created the
Alliance for Progress to foster greater economic ties with Latin America, in hopes of alleviating
poverty and thwarting the spread of communism in the region.

Assassination
On November 21, 1963, President Kennedy flew to Dallas, Texas for a campaign
appearance. The next day, November 22, Kennedy, along with his wife and Texas governor John
Connally, rode through cheering crowds in downtown Dallas in a Lincoln Continental
convertible. From an upstairs window of the Texas School Book Depository building, a 24-yearold warehouse worker named Lee Harvey Oswald, a former Marine with Soviet sympathies,
fired upon the car, hitting the president twice. Kennedy died at Parkland Memorial Hospital
shortly thereafter, at the age of 46.

Colegiul National Unirea

Disciplina: American History

John F. Kennedy

Elev: Grec Claudiu

Clasa a XI-a C