John F. Kennedy
Born May 29, 1917 — Died November 22, 1963
John Fitzgerald Kennedy — widely known by his initials JFK — was the 35th President of the United States, the youngest person ever elected to the office, and the first Catholic to hold it. His presidency, lasting less than three years before his assassination in Dallas on November 22, 1963, became so laden with idealism, tragedy, and retrospective myth that it permanently altered the way Americans think about political leadership. His handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis, his early commitment to the space program, and his posthumously enacted civil rights legislation left material legacies — but it is the image of youth, wit, and possibility cut short that most powerfully defines Kennedy's place in the national memory.
Privilege, War, and Political Ambition
Born on May 29, 1917, in Brookline, Massachusetts, Kennedy was the second of nine children born to Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., a wealthy financier, movie producer, and later U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom, and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, daughter of the former Mayor of Boston. He grew up in exceptional wealth, divided between Boston, New York, and Palm Beach, attending Choate and Princeton before transferring to Harvard, where he graduated in 1940. His senior thesis, on Britain's failure to rearm before World War II, was published as Why England Slept and became a bestseller.
During World War II, Kennedy commanded the patrol torpedo boat PT-109 in the Pacific. When a Japanese destroyer rammed and destroyed the vessel in August 1943, Kennedy led his surviving crew to safety through hours of swimming in shark-infested waters, an act of heroism that received national attention and formed the foundational legend of his public career. Returning home a decorated veteran, he entered politics, winning a congressional seat from Massachusetts in 1946 and then a Senate seat in 1952 — defeating the heavily favored Republican incumbent Henry Cabot Lodge Jr.
1960 Election and the New Frontier
The 1960 presidential race against Vice President Richard Nixon became one of the most consequential in American history. Kennedy's campaign introduced modern media politics: his televised debate performances, in which his poise and telegenic appearance contrasted sharply with Nixon's uncomfortable manner, are widely credited with swinging undecided voters and demonstrating that television had permanently altered electoral politics. Kennedy won by one of the narrowest popular vote margins in history — 112,000 votes out of nearly 69 million cast — and was inaugurated on January 20, 1961, delivering one of the most celebrated inaugural addresses in American history, including the immortal line: "Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country."
His administration's domestic agenda, branded the "New Frontier," confronted civil rights, poverty, and education reform with varying effectiveness against a resistant Congress. Kennedy moved cautiously on civil rights early in his term but was pushed toward a more decisive stance by the Freedom Riders, the Birmingham protests, and the response of Public Safety Commissioner Bull Connor. He submitted a sweeping Civil Rights Bill to Congress in June 1963; it was enacted after his death as the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Did You Know?
Kennedy is one of only two U.S. Presidents to have won a Pulitzer Prize (the other being Abraham Lincoln's speeches have been given honorary recognition but never the prize itself). Kennedy won the Pulitzer for Biography in 1957 for Profiles in Courage, a study of eight senators who risked their careers by taking principled but unpopular positions — though the book's authorship has long been the subject of debate, with speechwriter Ted Sorensen widely credited with most of the writing.
The Cuban Missile Crisis and Assassination
The defining crisis of Kennedy's presidency came in October 1962, when U.S. reconnaissance aircraft confirmed the presence of Soviet nuclear missiles under construction in Cuba. The thirteen-day Cuban Missile Crisis brought the United States and Soviet Union to the brink of nuclear war. Kennedy rejected the military's preference for immediate air strikes, instead choosing a naval blockade and direct back-channel negotiations with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev. The crisis resolved when the Soviets withdrew the missiles in exchange for a U.S. pledge not to invade Cuba and a secret agreement to remove American Jupiter missiles from Turkey. It remains the closest the world has come to nuclear war. Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963, while riding in a presidential motorcade through Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas. He was struck by two bullets and pronounced dead at Parkland Memorial Hospital thirty minutes later. He was forty-six years old. Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested for the killing; Oswald himself was murdered two days later by Jack Ruby, and the Warren Commission's conclusion that Oswald acted alone has been disputed ever since. Kennedy was buried at Arlington National Cemetery, where an eternal flame marks his grave. His life and career — including the presidency — are explored in detail in Robert Dallek's An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917–1963 , the most thorough single-volume biography.