John F.

Kennedy
His Part in Changing America’ s History
By Ronit Sethi
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Early Years
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John Fitzgerald Kennedy was born on May 29,

1917, in Brookline Massachusetts. His two
parents, Rose and Joseph Kennedy were both
wealthy politicians. When he was born, the
doctors had already sensed that there would be
something wrong with this boy, and that was the
case.
A couple of years later, Kennedy turned out
having 3 other brothers, and 5 sisters. He was
soon given the nickname “Jack,” Jack Kennedy.
When Jack was 10 years old, his family moved
to New York City, because his father believed
that there would be less prejudice to their race.
At age 14, he attended Choate School in
Connecticut. He was an average student, but
always fell into the shadow of his older brother,
This is a picture of Kennedy and his brothers and sisters. They
Joseph Kennedy. However, John was a great are in age order. As you can see, the one farthest to the right is
athlete, especially in swimming. Joseph Kennedy. And the one left to him is Jack.
 Jack’ s College Life
After years, Jack had finally graduated from
Choate School. He was now set to find a
college just right for him. Since many of his
Choate friends were going to Princeton
University in New Jersey, he decided to enter
too. Unfortunately, Kennedy was diagnosed
with a disease called Addison’ s disease, and
the doctors were trying to control it. After a
very long treatment, the doctors said it was
okay that Kennedy was released, but couldn’ t
enter Princeton now, because of his medical
records. Instead, entered Harvard University,
nearby Joseph Kennedy Sr.’ s college. Jack
was now in the same college as his older
brother.
While John Kennedy was in college, his
father was made an ambassador (highly
ranked official) to Great Britain. Kennedy
had become engaged into politics. He wanted
to volunteer in the U.S. Navy to help fight in
the upcoming World War II. During his final
year of Harvard, John wrote a paper called
about the Adolf Hitler and the war. His father
helped him publish the paper into one of the
most famous books of the time, Why England
Slept.

This picture is of the of the Harvard Swim team. In

this photo, Kennedy is in the back row, third person
from the left.
 In the Marines
During the fall of 1941, John F. Kennedy decided to
enter the U.S. Navy. The Japanese had performed the
bombing of Pearl Harbor, and now America was against
the Japanese and some parts of Europe. Kennedy was
ready to make a difference in the war. He had earned the
rank of Second Lieutenant and was training to command
a motor torpedo (PT) boat. In April 1943, the U.S. let
him in charge of it and with a crew of 12, he worked in
the South Pacific Ocean. Before August 2, 1943,
Kennedy and his crew were working in the Solomon
Islands with a whole other fleet of boats. As they were
patrolling the area, a Japanese boat crashed into the PT,
and had killed 2 soldiers. Kennedy and the crew waited
on the remains of the vessel and searched for help.
Finally when Kennedy and the others couldn’ t take it any
longer, Kennedy ordered everyone to swim to an island.
He had towed some of the dying men, but after a swim of
3 miles, they had made it to land. After days of waiting,
the crew received help from native people and were
rescued. Kennedy was given an award, and was known as
a brave, leading, courageous man.
 Aiming for President
After hearing all of this news, Kennedy next
decided to try to aim for vice president. He ran
against Richard Nixon in four debates, and just
barely won the election by 112,000 votes. The
most difficult parts for Kennedy during this
election was his religion (prejudice), and his
age, which caused many people to believe he
was inexperienced. Also, a part of it was
Kennedy’ s health, which would worsen by
minute. Kennedy often needed to go to the
doctor and had lots of back pain, which
sometimes caused him to walk on crutches.
However, the good thing during this time period
was that they had invented a drug to control the
symptoms, and it was somewhat effective on
Kennedy.
Unfortunately, Kennedy’ s brother Joseph had
died fighting in the war as a navy pilot. Joseph
Sr. (Kennedy’s father) wanted the oldest one in
the family to be engaged into politics. Kennedy
was made to be that one. Kennedy really didn’ t
want to become a politician like his parents but
found himself greatly liking it. Even his friends
at college had said that he was most likely to
succeed. John tried out for Congress as a
Democrat, and luckily received a seat and was
allowed to represent a part of Boston. Next, to
continue his political career, Kennedy aimed for
a U.S. senator. In this election, Kennedy won by
about 70000 votes. Finally after entering the
Senate, Kennedy was married to a beautiful
woman named Jacqueline Lee Bouvier.
Kennedy’s years as a senator passed and some
people even believed he should try to become
vice president.
 Presidential
Accomplishments
 One immediate accomplishment Kennedy made was the passing of the New Frontier program. This program would be a key
to taking the economy in the right path, providing international aid, increasing the national defense, and investing on space
exploration.
 Once of Kennedy’ s considerations was to strengthen the United States, and make the national economy strong, while
helping other countries too, with their economical crises. The New Frontier was passed nearly after he became
president, to do exactly that.
 Another accomplishment that Kennedy made was creating the Peace Corps. The Peace Corps were a government agency that
would train Americans who wanted to volunteer around the world for different issues and crises, just like Kennedy had in
World War II.
 An enormous accomplishment on Kennedy’ s part was managing the Cold War. The Cold War was not exactly a war, it was a
conflict with the Soviet Union and communism (dictatorship). Kennedy and all of America didn’ t exactly like the way that the
Soviet Union was controlling other countries. Nikita Khrushchev, a leader of the Soviet Union, was allowing missiles to be
sent to Cuba for defense. And since Cuba was so close to the United States, Kennedy felt as if it was dangerous. Kennedy held
up a blockade, but the Soviet Union was ready to declare nuclear war and Kennedy didn’ t want that to happen; it would be
even worse. Kennedy had tried to send some soldiers to Cuba to try to stop the Cold War, but that was one of Kennedy’ s
biggest failures as president. Finally, leader Nikita Khrushchev agreed to stop sending the missiles to Cuba if Kennedy would
never allow America to invade Cuba, and the missiles would be left in Turkey. Kennedy agreed, and the Cuban Missile Crisis
was over. However, the Cold War was still continuing.
 Another one of Kennedy’ s accomplishments was involved in the Civil Rights Movement. Kennedy realized that there were
many people against segregation and he had to do something about it. He held up some laws that helped, but overall, he
hadn’ t done much to change the way that blacks were being treated. He had supported Martin Luther King Jr. and other blacks
who spoke out, and had made a small difference in this.
 Kennedy’ s Assassination
On November 22, 1963, Kennedy was parading
through the streets of Dallas, Texas in his
convertible. Kennedy’ s plans was to go to
Austin next to talk about civil rights. In the car,
was his wife, and Texas Governor John Conally.
Midway through the parade, at exactly 12:30
p.m., 3 shots rang out somewhere from the
crowd, and one hit Kennedy in the head. Within
half an hour, he was dead. As soon as the
assassination was over, police were desperate to
find his murderer. They had caught a man named
Lee Harvey Oswald. Oswald had actually lived
in the Soviet Union and opposed U.S. policies.
After Oswald was put into custody, Oswald was
killed by Jack Ruby, a Dallas bar owner. The
news about Kennedy’ s assassination spread in
less than an hour.
 Remembering John F.
Kennedy
Kennedy was remembered as a hero
over the next couple of years. Over
time, historians tried to find clues
about Kennedy’ s assassination, or his
general life. After discovering some
of his actions, some people think that
Kennedy wasn’ t the actual hero that
they had all imagined. But when you
think back at Kennedy, and all of his
supportive, and helpful actions, you
realize that he has changed our world
and did his part to make it a better
place.
 Timeline of Kennedy’ s Life
1917 1939 1940 1941 1943 1946 1952 1953 1956 1957 1960 1961 1962 1963

Marries
Receives Successfully
Jack is born on Jacqueline
Pulitzer forces the
May 29 in Lee
Prize for Soviet Union to
Brookline, Bouvier
Pro file s in remove
Massachusetts Co urag e missiles from
Enters the
Cuba
U.S. Navy Defeats
Richard
Travels in Nixon to
Europe become the
thirty-fifth
president of
Graduates from Wins election as Is considered a the United Is assassinated on
Harvard a U.S. possible vice States November 22 in
University; representative presidential Dallas, Texas
publishes from candidate for the Faces possible conflict
Why England Massachusetts Democratic with the Soviet Union
Slept Party after the building of the
Berlin Wall; orders the
invasion of Cuba’s Bay
Wins election as a
of Pigs by U.S.-trained
U.S. senator from
Cuban exiles in an
Massachusetts
unsuccessful attempt to
Captains PT overthrow Cuban leader
109 in the Fidel Castro
South Pacific
Ocean
 Resources
• John F. Kennedy By Michael
Burgan

• Our Presidents: John F.

Kennedy By Judith E.
Harper

• Wikipedia.com