John F. Kennedy

John F. Kennedy Facts

• President No.: 35th
• When did John F. Kennedy serve? 1961-1963
• What was John F. Kennedy’s party? Democrat
• Where was John F. Kennedy from? Massachusetts
• Who was John F. Kennedy’s wife? Jaqueline Kennedy
• When was John F. Kennedy born? May 29, 1917
• When did John F. Kennedy die? November 22, 1963
• Which college did John F. Kennedy attend? Harvard University
• What was John F. Kennedy’s Jobs Before President? Journalist, author, Served in Navy, Congressman, U.S. Senator
• What was John F. Kennedy’s height? 6 feet
• What was the population when John F. Kennedy was president? 179,323,031
• What hobbies did John F. Kennedy have? Sailing, swimming, football
• What pets did John F. Kennedy have? Ponies
• What transportation did John F. Kennedy use? Helicopter, airplane, car
• How did John F. Kennedy communicate? Telephone, typed letter

John F. Kennedy Biography

John F. Kennedy was the 35th President of the United States. He served from 1961-1963. He was born on May 29, 1917 in Brookline, Massashusetts. Kennedy was the youngest man elected President as well as the youngest to die in office.

Kennedy attended Harvard and after he graduated he entered the navy. After the war, Kennedy was elected Congressman in 1947. He went on the Senate in 1953. In 1955, when Kennedy was recovering from a back surgery, he wrote “Profiles in Courage”. The book won a Pultizer Prize in history.

He met Jacqueline Bouvier and married her in September 1953. She was working for the Washington Heralds Inquiring Camera Girl. She was a charming first lady and the American public looked to her for her sense of fashion and style.

Kennedy was the first Roman Catholic President. He campaigned against Richard Nixon and won by a tight margin. The election eventually hung on the results from Cook County (Chicago), which was controlled by the Democratic Mayor, Richard Daley. Kennedy was the first “self-selected” presidents. Because of his young age, record in Congress and his religion, had he gone the “old-fashioned” route, he most likely would have been rejected.

However, he used his great charm, used his biography and used a large amount of his family’s money to win the primary Democratic votes in a few small states. He also courted the media and the strategy proved to be successful. He presented himself as the people’s choice.

Kennedy chose Lyndon Johnson, the Senate Majority Leader as his running mate. The campaign was vigorous against Richard Nixon. Kennedy won by one of the closest in the history of the US.

The inaugural address made by Kennedy may be one of the most recognized in all of history with the often quoted “Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country”.

Kennedy had an early failure with he authorized the April 1961 Cuba invasion at the Bay of Pigs. He also did not fare well at the 1961 Vienna Summit. Kennedy who usually could charm men or women with a one-on-one encounter, could not charm the Soviet Premier Khrushchev.

When Kennedy learned that in Cuba, the Soviet Union was building missile sites, Kennedy showed his leadership style. As the world watched Kennedy and Khrushchev played what seemed a real life chess game. Kennedy pledged to never invade Cuba and then Khrushchev removed the missiles. Kennedy went on to negotiating the Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty in 1963.

The situation in South Asia was another one that Kennedy had to deal with. When Kennedy became President there were a couple hundred US military personnel in South Vietnam. Kennedy increased the number to more than seventeen thousand. When Kennedy signed off on a general’s plot to overthrow Ngo Dinh Diem the die was cast.. After Diem’s assassination, South Vietnam became a so-called American protectorate.

During the Cold War it seemed that all energy and focus was on curbing the Soviet Union. Domestic policy seemed to dovetail with the foreign policy. Kennedy’s initial focus on civil rights was the concern that civil right demonstrations were used as a forum for Communist propaganda.

Kennedy got involved with the civil rights movement when police brutality was shown in the South. Kennedy sided with the black minority. In 1962, Kennedy ordered federal troops on the campus of the University of Mississippi to end racial rioting by whites.

Kennedy is attributed to giving America many youthful ideas. He was behind the Peace Corps and supported the space program, giving it the goal of putting men on the moon by the end of the decade.. Kennedy’s youth, his beautiful wife and young kids growing up in the White House, seemed to set the fashion standards for the nation.

Kennedy’s legacy is varied. He is one of the best known Presidents being assassinated at such a young age, but Kennedy was also rumored to be a womanizer and a drug abuser. The Kennedy family is constantly in the public eye and many Kennedys have had some sort of scandal associated with them including rape charges, alcoholism, womanizing and even murder.

Kennedy was shot on November 22, 1963 in Dallas Texas. There have been many different theories of his death and it has inspired many books and Hollywood movies.

Speeches

State of the Union Addresses

• 1961 State of the Union Address
• 1962 State of the Union Address
• 1963 State of the Union Address

Cuban Missile Crisis: Speeches, Letter Exchanges and Statements

John F. Kennedy Quotes

The New Frontier of which I speak is not a set of promises – it is a set of challenges. It sums up not what I intend to offer the American people, but what I intend to ask of them.

15th July, 1960. Speech accepting Democratic presidential nomination.

I am not the Catholic candidate for President. I am the Democratic Party’s candidate for President, who happens also to be a Catholic.

12th September, 1960. Speech to Greater Houston Ministerial Association.

For of those to whom much is given, much is required. And when at some future date the high court of history sits in judgment on each of us, recording whether in our brief span of service we fulfilled our responsibilites to the state, our success or failure, in whatever office we hold, will be measured by the answers to four questions: First, were we truly men of courage … Second, were we truly men of judgment … Third, were we truly men of integrity… Finally, were we truly men of dedication?

9th January, 1961. Speech to the Massachusetts State Legislature.

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 Americas, 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.
Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear and burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any for to assure the survival and the success of liberty.

20th January, 1961. Inaugural Address.

If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.

20th January, 1961. Inaugural Address.

Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate.

20th January, 1961. Inaugural Address.

All this will not be finished in the first 100 days. Nor will it be finished in the first 1,000 days, nor in the life of this Administration, nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin.

20th January, 1961. Inaugural Address.

Now the trumpet summons us again—not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need—not as a call to battle, though embattled we are—but a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle, year in and year out, ‘rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation’—a struggle against the common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease and war itself.

20th January, 1961. Inaugural Address.

And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you–ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.

20th January, 1961. Inaugural Address.

I believe this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to earth.

25th May, 1961. Address to the joint session of Congress.

Mankind must put an end to war or war will put an end to mankind.

25th September, 1961. Speech at UN General Assembly.

Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.

13th March, 1962. Speech at the White House.

There is always inequity in life. Some men are killed in a war and some men are wounded, and some men never leave the country … Life is unfair.

21st March, 1962. Press conference.

I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered together at the White House, with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone.

April 1962. Address at a White House dinner reception honoring Noble Prize winners.

My father always told me that all businessmen were sons of bitches, but I never believed it till now.

April 1962. Comment on U.S. Steel proposed price increases.

We don’t see the end of the tunnel, but I must say I don’t think it is darker than it was a year ago, and in some ways lighter.

12th December, 1962. Press conference.

If we cannot end now our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity.

10th June, 1963. Address at American University, Washington, D.C.

No one has been barred on account of his race from fighting or dying for America – there are no “white” or “colored” signs on the foxholes or the graveyards of battle.

19th June, 1963. Message to Congress on proposed civil rights bill.

All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin. And therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words “Ich bin ein Berliner.”

26th June, 1963. Address at City Hall, West Berlin.

Yesterday, a shaft of light cut into the darkness. … For the first time, an agreement has been reached on bringing the forces of nuclear destruction under international control.

26th July, 1963. Televised address in Washington.

When power leads man towards arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations. When power narrows the areas of man’s concern, poetry reminds him of the richness and diversity of his existence. When power corrupts, poetry cleanses, for art establishes the basic human truths which must serve as the touchstone of our judgement.

26th October, 1963. Address at Amherst College.

In free society art is not a weapon…Artists are not engineers of the soul.

26th October, 1963. Address at Amherst College.

Washington is a city of southern efficiency and northern charm.

Remark. Quoted in A Thousand Days, 1965, by Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.

It was involuntary. They sank my boat.

Remark when asked how he became a hero. Quoted in Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., A Thousand Days (1965). Ch. 4.