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264-508: John F. Kennedy 's tenure as the 35th president of the United States began with his inauguration on January 20, 1961, and ended with his assassination on November 22, 1963. Kennedy, a Democrat from Massachusetts , took office following his narrow victory over Republican incumbent vice president Richard Nixon in the 1960 presidential election . He was succeeded by Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson . Kennedy's time in office

528-537: A " playboy ", describing his performance in the Senate and the House as "pathetic" on another occasion, saying that he was "smart enough, but he doesn't like the grunt work". Author John T. Shaw acknowledges that while his Senate career is not associated with acts of "historic statesmanship" or "novel political thought," Kennedy made modest contributions as a legislator, drafting more than 300 bills to assist Massachusetts and

792-538: A Bachelor of Arts in government, concentrating on international affairs . That fall, he enrolled at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and audited classes, but he left after a semester to help his father complete his memoirs as an American ambassador. In early 1941, Kennedy toured South America. Kennedy planned to attend Yale Law School , but canceled when American entry into World War II seemed imminent. In 1940, Kennedy attempted to enter

1056-708: A Protestant school in Concord, New Hampshire ; Portsmouth Priory , a Benedictine Catholic school in Portsmouth, Rhode Island ; then, in September 1942, to Milton Academy , a preparatory school near Boston in Milton, Massachusetts , for 11th and 12th grades. Kennedy graduated from Milton in May 1944. Kennedy later said that, during childhood, he was "going to different schools, always having to make new friends, and that I

1320-659: A bachelor's degree in political science . In September 1948, he enrolled at the University of Virginia School of Law in Charlottesville . Kennedy adapted to this new environment, being elected president of the Student Legal Forum, where he successfully produced outside speakers including James M. Landis , William O. Douglas , Arthur Krock , Joseph McCarthy , and his brother John F. Kennedy. Kennedy's paper on Yalta , written during his senior year,

1584-420: A badly burned crewman to the island with a life jacket strap clenched between his teeth. From there, Kennedy and his subordinate, Ensign George Ross, made forays through the coral islands, searching for help. When they encountered an English-speaking native with a canoe, Kennedy carved his location on a coconut shell and requested a boat rescue. Seven days after the collision, with the coconut message delivered,

1848-689: A basic understanding: the Soviet Union would withdraw their missiles from Cuba, subject to United Nations verification, in exchange for a U.S. pledge not to invade Cuba. Kennedy also informally proposed that the Jupiter MRBMs in Turkey would be removed "within a short time after this crisis was over". On the last night of the crisis, President Kennedy was so grateful for his brother's work in averting nuclear war that he summed it up by saying, "Thank God for Bobby." Kennedy authored his account of

2112-561: A closed casket, as he wanted the funeral to keep with tradition, but he changed his mind after seeing the cosmetic, waxen remains. The ten-month investigation by the Warren Commission concluded that the president had been assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald and that Oswald had acted alone. On September 27, 1964, Kennedy issued a statement through his New York campaign office: "As I said in Poland last summer, I am convinced Oswald

2376-471: A direct threat to the "free world." Between 1960 and 1963, twenty-four countries gained independence as the process of decolonization continued. Many of these nations sought to avoid close alignment with either the United States or the Soviet Union, and in 1961, the leaders of India , Yugoslavia , Indonesia , Egypt , and Ghana created the Non-Aligned Movement . Kennedy set out to woo

2640-621: A dispute over free movement of Allied personnel. The crisis was defused largely through a backchannel communication the Kennedy administration had set up with Soviet spy Georgi Bolshakov . In 1963, French President Charles de Gaulle was trying to build a Franco-West German counterweight to the American and Soviet spheres of influence. To Kennedy's eyes, this Franco-German cooperation seemed directed against NATO 's influence in Europe. To reinforce

2904-530: A draft dodger; Roosevelt eventually did make the statement that Humphrey avoided service. Concerned that John Kennedy was going to receive the Democratic Party's nomination, some supporters of Lyndon Johnson, who was also running for the nomination, revealed to the press that John had Addison's disease , saying that he required life-sustaining cortisone treatments. Though in fact a diagnosis had been made, Robert tried to protect his brother by denying

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3168-766: A drop in unemployment rates during Kennedy's tenure. Kennedy adopted Keynesian economics and proposed a tax cut bill that was passed into law as the Revenue Act of 1964 . Kennedy also established the Peace Corps and promised to land an American on the Moon and return him safely to Earth, thereby intensifying the Space Race with the Soviet Union. Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963, while visiting Dallas , Texas. The Warren Commission concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in assassinating Kennedy, but

3432-480: A gifted politician with an ability to obtain compromises, tempering aggressive positions of key figures in the hawk camp. The trust the president placed in him on matters of negotiation was such that his role in the crisis is today seen as having been of vital importance in securing a blockade , which averted a full military engagement between the United States and the Soviet Union. On October 27, Kennedy secretly met with Soviet Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin . They reached

3696-538: A junior after receiving credit for his time in the V-12 program. He worked hard to make the Harvard Crimson football team as an end ; he was a starter and scored a touchdown in the first game of his senior year before breaking his leg in practice. He earned his varsity letter when his coach sent him in wearing a cast during the last minutes of a game against Yale . Kennedy graduated from Harvard in 1948 with

3960-538: A leading candidate for the Democratic nomination for the presidency by appealing to poor, African American, Hispanic , Catholic , and young voters . His main challenger in the race was Senator Eugene McCarthy . Shortly after winning the California primary around midnight on June 5, 1968, Kennedy was shot by Sirhan Sirhan , a 24-year-old Palestinian, allegedly in retaliation for his support of Israel following

4224-543: A little legal experience before he goes out to practice law." Pressed by the Senate Judiciary Committee about his inexperience, Kennedy responded: "In my estimation I think that I have had invaluable experience ... I would not have given up one year of experience that I have had over the period since I graduated from law school for experience practicing law in Boston." According to Bobby Baker ,

4488-566: A military strike that might have led to nuclear war . Allegations that the Kennedys knew of plans by the CIA to kill Fidel Castro , or approved of such plans, have been debated by historians over the years. The " Family Jewels " documents, declassified by the CIA in 2007, suggest that before the Bay of Pigs Invasion, the attorney general personally authorized one such assassination attempt. But there

4752-591: A naval blockade of Cuba in order to intercept arms shipments. On October 23, in a unanimous vote, the OAS approved a resolution that endorsed the blockade and called for the removal of the Soviet nuclear weapons from Cuba. That same day, Adlai Stevenson presented the U.S. case to the UN Security Council, though the Soviet Union's veto power precluded the possibility of passing a Security Council resolution. On

5016-508: A philanthropist and socialite. His paternal grandfather, P. J. Kennedy , was an East Boston ward boss and Massachusetts state legislator . Kennedy's maternal grandfather and namesake, John F. Fitzgerald , was a U.S. congressman and two-term mayor of Boston . All four of his grandparents were children of Irish immigrants. Kennedy had an older brother, Joseph Jr. , and seven younger siblings: Rosemary , Kathleen , Eunice , Patricia , Robert , Jean , and Ted . Kennedy's father amassed

5280-620: A philanthropist and socialite. He was the seventh of their nine children. Robert described his position in the family hierarchy by saying, "When you come from that far down, you have to struggle to survive." His parents were members of two prominent Irish-American families that were active in the Massachusetts Democratic Party . All four of Kennedy's grandparents were children of Irish immigrants. His eight siblings were Joseph Jr. , John , Rosemary , Kathleen , Eunice , Patricia , Jean , and Ted . Starting from

5544-481: A plan to overthrow Castro's regime though an invasion of Cuba by a counter-revolutionary insurgency composed of U.S.-trained, anti-Castro Cuban exiles led by CIA paramilitary officers. Kennedy had campaigned on a hardline stance against Castro, and when presented with the plan that had been developed under the Eisenhower administration, he enthusiastically adopted it regardless of the risk of inflaming tensions with

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5808-537: A politician, and at that time he suffered from extreme shyness. Kennedy found "most of his fellow congressmen boring, preoccupied as they all seemed to be with their narrow political concerns." The arcane House rules and customs, which slowed legislation, exasperated him. Kennedy served in the House for six years, joining the influential Education and Labor Committee and the Veterans' Affairs Committee . He concentrated his attention on international affairs, supporting

6072-484: A preparatory boarding school in Wallingford, Connecticut . Rose had wanted John and Joe Jr. to attend a Catholic school , but Joe Sr. thought that if they were to compete in the political world, they needed to be with boys from prominent Protestant families. John spent his first years at Choate in his older brother's shadow and compensated with rebellious behavior that attracted a clique. Their most notorious stunt

6336-414: A private fortune and established trust funds for his nine children that guaranteed lifelong financial independence. His business kept him away from home for long stretches, but Joe Sr. was a formidable presence in his children's lives. He encouraged them to be ambitious, emphasized political discussions at the dinner table, and demanded a high level of academic achievement. John's first exposure to politics

6600-734: A private, backchannel connection to Soviet GRU officer Georgi Bolshakov , he relayed important diplomatic communications between the U.S. and Soviet governments. Most significantly, this connection helped the U.S. set up the Vienna Summit in June 1961, and later to defuse the tank standoff with the Soviets at Berlin's Checkpoint Charlie in October. Kennedy's visit with his wife to West Berlin in February 1962 demonstrated U.S. support for

6864-635: A relentless crusade against organized crime and the Mafia , sometimes disagreeing on strategy with FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover . Through speeches and writing, Kennedy alerted the country to the existence of a "private government of organized crime with an annual income of billions, resting on a base of human suffering and moral corrosion". He established the first coordinated program involving all 26 federal law enforcement agencies to investigate organized crime. The Justice Department targeted prominent Mafia leaders like Carlos Marcello and Joey Aiuppa ; Marcello

7128-402: A result of the first debate. The debates are now considered a milestone in American political history—the point at which the medium of television began to play a dominant role. Kennedy's campaign gained momentum after the first debate, and he pulled slightly ahead of Nixon in most polls. On Election Day, Kennedy defeated Nixon in one of the closest presidential elections of the 20th century. In

7392-428: A roll-call vote. The deputy and assistant attorneys general Kennedy chose included Byron White and Nicholas Katzenbach . Author James W. Hilty concludes that Kennedy "played an unusual combination of roles—campaign director, attorney general, executive overseer, controller of patronage , chief adviser, and brother protector" and that nobody before him had had such power. To a great extent, President Kennedy sought

7656-469: A senator "the most corrupting job in the world." He complained that they were all too quick to cut deals and please campaign contributors to ensure their political futures. Kennedy, with the luxury of a rich father who could finance his campaigns, could remain independent of any special interest, except for those in his home state of Massachusetts that could align against his reelection. According to Robert Caro , Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson viewed Kennedy as

7920-422: A series of televised debates . An estimated 70 million Americans, about two-thirds of the electorate, watched the first debate on September 26. Kennedy had met the day before with the producer to discuss the set design and camera placement. Nixon, just out of the hospital after a painful knee injury, did not take advantage of this opportunity and during the debate looked at the reporters asking questions and not at

8184-416: A series of " teas " at hotels and parlors across Massachusetts to reach out to women voters. In the presidential election, Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower carried Massachusetts by 208,000 votes, but Kennedy narrowly defeated Lodge by 70,000 votes for the Senate seat. The following year, he married Jacqueline Bouvier . Kennedy underwent several spinal operations over the next two years. Often absent from

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8448-583: A sizable Black population, Kennedy was not particularly sensitive to the problems of African Americans. Robert Kennedy later reflected, "We weren't thinking of the Negroes of Mississippi or Alabama—what should be done for them. We were thinking of what needed to be done in Massachusetts." Most historians and political scientists who have written about Kennedy refer to his U.S. Senate years as an interlude. According to Robert Dallek , Kennedy called being

8712-471: A solidly middle-class family in Boston, his father amassed a fortune and established trust funds for his nine children that guaranteed lifelong financial security. Turning to politics, Joe Sr. became a leading figure in the Democratic Party and had the money and connections to play a central role in the family's political ambitions. During Robert's childhood, his father dubbed him the "runt" of

8976-525: A teenager, Kennedy secured a clerking job at the same East Boston bank where his father had once worked. Kennedy was bored by the drudgery, though he enjoyed taking the Boston subway and encountering, for the first time, "common folk". He began to notice inequity in the wider world. On a trip to the family's home in Hyannis Port, Kennedy began questioning his father about the poverty he glimpsed from

9240-535: A tilt away from Pakistan , but made little progress in bringing India closer to the United States. Kennedy hoped to minimize Soviet influence in Egypt through good relations with President Gamal Abdel Nasser , but Nasser's hostility towards Saudi Arabia and Jordan closed off the possibility of closer relations. In Southeast Asia, Kennedy helped mediate the West New Guinea dispute , convincing Indonesia and

9504-422: A time when the U.S. and Soviet Union faced the potential for an escalating nuclear arms race." Kennedy also made two announcements: 1.) that the Soviets had expressed a desire to negotiate a nuclear test ban treaty, and 2.) that the U.S. had postponed planned atmospheric tests. "If we cannot end our differences," he said, "at least we can help make the world a safe place for diversity." The Soviet government broadcast

9768-402: A translation of the entire speech and allowed it to be reprinted in the controlled Soviet press. The following month, Kennedy sent W. Averell Harriman to Moscow to negotiate a test-ban treaty with the Soviets. Each party sought a comprehensive test ban treaty, but a dispute over the number of on-site inspections allowed in each year prevented a total ban on testing. Ultimately, the United States,

10032-431: A trial basis, for a month or so", Hoover extended the clearance so that his men were "unshackled" to look for evidence in any areas of King's life they deemed worthy. The wiretapping continued through June 1966 and was revealed in 1968, days before Kennedy's death. Relations between the Kennedys and civil-rights activists could be tense, partly due to the administration's decision that a number of complaints King filed with

10296-615: A very sensitive time in U.S.-Japan relations , shortly after the massive Anpo protests against the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty had highlighted anti-American grievances. Kennedy won over a highly skeptical Japanese public and press with his cheerful, open demeanor, sincerity, and youthful energy. Most famously, Kennedy scored a public relations coup during a nationally televised speech at Waseda University in Tokyo. When radical Marxist student activists from Zengakuren attempted to shout him down, he calmly invited one of them on stage and engaged

10560-550: A victory over a moderate Republican ticket such as Nelson Rockefeller and George Romney , Kennedy supporters attempted to force the issue by running a draft movement during the New Hampshire primary . This movement gained momentum after Governor John W. King 's endorsement and infuriated Johnson. Kennedy received 25,094 write in votes for vice president in New Hampshire, far surpassing Senator Hubert Humphrey,

10824-644: A village on Cape Cod , where they swam, sailed, and played touch football. Christmas and Easter holidays were spent at their winter retreat in Palm Beach, Florida . In September 1930, Kennedy, 13 years old, was sent to the Canterbury School in New Milford, Connecticut , for 8th grade. In April 1931, he had an appendectomy , after which he withdrew from Canterbury and recuperated at home. In September 1931, Kennedy started attending Choate ,

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11088-400: A volunteer mission known as Operation Aphrodite . Robert was most affected by his father's reaction to his eldest son's passing. He appeared completely heartbroken, and his peer Fred Garfield commented that Kennedy developed depression and questioned his faith for a short time. After his brother's death, Robert gained more attention, moving higher up the family patriarchy. On December 15, 1945,

11352-552: A way to redefine American relations with the Third World . His use of war rhetoric for peaceful ends made his appeal for the new idea compelling to public opinion. On March 1, 1961, Kennedy signed Executive Order 10924 that officially started the Peace Corps. He appointed his brother-in-law, Sargent Shriver , to serve the agency's first director. Due in large part to Shriver's effective lobbying efforts, Congress approved

11616-439: A whites-only snack bar. After winning the 1960 presidential election, president-elect John F. Kennedy appointed his younger brother as U.S. attorney general . The choice was controversial, with publications including The New York Times and The New Republic calling him inexperienced and unqualified. He had no experience in any state or federal court, causing the president to joke, "I can't see that it's wrong to give him

11880-541: Is considered an icon of modern American liberalism . Born into the prominent Kennedy family in Brookline, Massachusetts , Kennedy attended Harvard University , and later received his law degree from the University of Virginia . He began his career as a correspondent for The Boston Post and as a lawyer at the Justice Department , but later resigned to manage his brother John's successful campaign for

12144-586: Is deposited in the Law Library's Treasure Trove. He graduated from law school in June 1951, finishing 56th in a class of 125. Upon graduating from Harvard, Kennedy sailed on the RMS ; Queen Mary with a college friend for a tour of Europe and the Middle East, accredited as a correspondent for The Boston Post , filing six stories. Four of these stories, submitted from Palestine shortly before

12408-432: Is evidence to the contrary, such as that Kennedy was informed of an earlier plot involving the CIA's use of Mafia bosses Sam Giancana and John Roselli only during a briefing on May 7, 1962, and in fact directed the CIA to halt any existing efforts directed at Castro's assassination. Biographer Thomas concludes that "the Kennedys may have discussed the idea of assassination as a weapon of last resort. But they did not know

12672-519: Is not perfect. But we have never had to put a wall up to keep our people in, to prevent them from leaving us." In remarks to his aides on the Berlin Wall, Kennedy noted that "it's not a very nice solution, but a wall is a hell of a lot better than a war." In the aftermath of the Bay of Pigs invasion, Cuban and Soviet leaders feared that the United States was planning another invasion of Cuba, and Khrushchev increased economic and military assistance to

12936-436: Is often claimed that television viewers overwhelmingly believed Kennedy, appearing to be the more attractive of the two, had won, while radio listeners (a smaller audience) thought Nixon had defeated him. However, only one poll split TV and radio voters like this and the methodology was poor. Pollster Elmo Roper concluded that the debates raised interest, boosted turnout, and gave Kennedy an extra two million votes, mostly as

13200-535: Is the law. FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover viewed civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. as an upstart troublemaker, calling him an "enemy of the state". In February 1962, Hoover presented Kennedy with allegations that some of King's close confidants and advisers were communists . Concerned about the allegations, the FBI deployed agents to monitor King in the following months. Kennedy warned King to discontinue

13464-719: The 1953 Worcester tornado ), except on certain occasions when the national interest was at stake. In 1954, Kennedy voted in favor of the Saint Lawrence Seaway which would connect the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean, despite opposition from Massachusetts politicians who argued that the project would hurt the Port of Boston economically. In 1954, when the Senate voted to condemn Joseph McCarthy for breaking Senate rules and abusing an Army general, Kennedy

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13728-580: The 1960 Democratic primaries , but Kennedy's victory in the heavily- Protestant state of West Virginia prompted Humphrey's withdrawal from the race. At the 1960 Democratic National Convention , Kennedy fended off challenges from Stevenson and Senator Lyndon B. Johnson of Texas to win the presidential nomination on the first ballot of the convention. Kennedy chose Johnson to be his vice-presidential running mate, despite opposition from many liberal delegates and Kennedy's own staff, including his brother Robert F. Kennedy . Kennedy believed that Johnson's presence on

13992-442: The 1960 presidential election . He was appointed United States attorney general at the age of 35, one of the youngest cabinet members in American history. Kennedy served as John's closest advisor until the latter's assassination in 1963 . Kennedy's tenure is known for advocating for the civil rights movement , the fight against organized crime , and involvement in U.S. foreign policy related to Cuba . He authored his account of

14256-798: The American embassy in London , where his father was serving as President Franklin D. Roosevelt 's ambassador to the Court of St. James's . The following year, Kennedy traveled throughout Europe, the Soviet Union , the Balkans , and the Middle East in preparation for his Harvard senior honors thesis. He then went to Berlin, where a U.S. diplomatic representative gave him a secret message about war breaking out soon to pass on to his father, and to Czechoslovakia before returning to London on September 1, 1939,

14520-530: The Boston Council from 1946 to 1955 as district vice chairman, member of the executive board, vice-president, and National Council Representative. To appeal to the large Italian-American voting bloc in Massachusetts, Kennedy delivered a speech in November 1947 supporting a $ 227 million aid package to Italy. He maintained that Italy was in danger from an "onslaught of the communist minority" and that

14784-753: The Cuban Missile Crisis in a book titled Thirteen Days . As attorney general, Kennedy authorized the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to wiretap Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference on a limited basis. After his brother's assassination, he remained in office during the presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson for several months. He left to run for the U.S. Senate from New York in 1964 and defeated Republican incumbent Kenneth Keating , overcoming criticism that he

15048-499: The Democratic presidential nomination . Though some questioned Kennedy's age and experience, his charisma and eloquence earned him numerous supporters. Kennedy faced several potential challengers, including Senate Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson, Adlai Stevenson II , and Senator Hubert Humphrey . Kennedy traveled extensively to build his support. His campaign strategy was to win several primaries to demonstrate his electability to

15312-473: The Fish and Wildlife Service budget, modernizing reserve-fleet vessels , tax incentives to prevent further business relocations, and the development of hydroelectric and nuclear power in Massachusetts. Kennedy's suggestions for stimulating the region's economy appealed to both parties by offering benefits to business and labor, and promising to serve national defense. Congress would eventually enact most of

15576-718: The Greyhound Company and demanded that it obtain a coach operator who was willing to drive a special bus for the continuance of the Freedom Ride from Birmingham to Montgomery, on the circuitous journey to Jackson, Mississippi. Later, during the attack and burning by a white mob of the First Baptist Church in Montgomery, which King and 1,500 sympathizers attended, the attorney general telephoned King to ask for his assurance that they would not leave

15840-569: The National Defense Education Act in 1959 to eliminate the requirement that aid recipients sign a loyalty oath and provide supporting affidavits. Kennedy cast a procedural vote against President Eisenhower's bill for the Civil Rights Act of 1957 and this was considered by some to be an appeasement of Southern Democratic opponents of the bill. Kennedy did vote for Title III of the act, which would have given

16104-864: The Naval Reserve Officer Training School in Chicago and at the Motor Torpedo Boat Squadrons Training Center in Melville, Rhode Island . His first command was PT-101 from December 7, 1942, until February 23, 1943. Unhappy to be assigned to the Panama Canal , far from the fighting, Kennedy appealed to Massachusetts senator David Walsh , who arranged for him to be assigned to the South Pacific . In April 1943, Kennedy

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16368-532: The Netherlands to agree to a plebiscite to determine the status of Dutch New Guinea . Having chaired a subcommittee on Africa of the U.S. Senate's Foreign Relations Committee , Kennedy had developed a special interest in Africa. During the election campaign, Kennedy managed to mention Africa nearly 500 times, often attacking the Eisenhower administration for losing ground on that continent, and stressed that

16632-605: The Organization of American States to expel Cuba. Kennedy dismissed Dulles as director of the CIA and increasingly relied on close advisers like Sorensen, Bundy, and Robert Kennedy as opposed to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the CIA, and the State Department. In late-1961, the White House formed the Special Group (Augmented), headed by Robert Kennedy and including Edward Lansdale , Secretary Robert McNamara, and others. The group's objective—to overthrow Castro via espionage, sabotage, and other covert tactics—was never pursued. In November 1961, he authorized Operation Mongoose (also known as

16896-435: The PT-109 crew were rescued. Almost immediately, the PT-109 rescue became a highly publicized event. The story was chronicled by John Hersey in The New Yorker in 1944 (decades later it was the basis of a successful film ). It followed Kennedy into politics and provided a strong foundation for his appeal as a leader. Hersey portrayed Kennedy as a modest, self-deprecating hero. For his courage and leadership, Kennedy

17160-425: The Saturday Evening Post ("The Amazing Kennedys") helped raise the Kennedy profile. "Two boyish young men from Boston," wrote a Look magazine reporter, "have become hot tourist attractions in Washington." Kennedy left the committee in September 1959 in order to manage his brother's presidential campaign. The following year, Kennedy published The Enemy Within , a book which described the corrupt practices within

17424-452: The South Vietnamese government. The Viet Cong began assuming a predominant presence in late 1961, initially seizing the provincial capital of Phuoc Vinh. After a mission to Vietnam in October, presidential adviser General Maxwell D. Taylor and Deputy National Security Adviser Walt Rostow recommended the deployment of 6,000 to 8,000 U.S. combat troops to Vietnam. Kennedy increased the number of military advisers and special forces in

17688-420: The Soviet Union , manifested by proxy contests in the global state of tension known as the Cold War . Like his predecessors, Kennedy adopted the policy of containment , which sought to stop the spread of communism. President Eisenhower's New Look policy had emphasized the use of nuclear weapons to deter the threat of Soviet aggression. By 1960, however, public opinion was turning against New Look because it

17952-413: The Truman Doctrine as the appropriate response to the emerging Cold War . He also supported public housing and opposed the Labor Management Relations Act of 1947 , which restricted the power of labor unions. Though not as vocally anti-communist as Joseph McCarthy , Kennedy supported the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 , which required communists to register with the government, and he deplored

18216-432: The U.S. House of Representatives from 1947 to 1953. He was subsequently elected to the U.S. Senate , serving as the junior senator for Massachusetts from 1953 to 1960. While in the Senate, Kennedy published his book, Profiles in Courage , which won a Pulitzer Prize . Kennedy ran in the 1960 presidential election . His campaign gained momentum after the first televised presidential debates in American history, and he

18480-401: The U.S. Naval Reserve the following year. During World War II , he commanded PT boats in the Pacific theater . Kennedy's survival following the sinking of PT-109 and his rescue of his fellow sailors made him a war hero and earned the Navy and Marine Corps Medal , but left him with serious injuries. After a brief stint in journalism, Kennedy represented a working-class Boston district in

18744-412: The U.S. Navy commissioned the destroyer USS  Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. , and shortly thereafter granted Kennedy's request to be released from naval-officer training to serve aboard Kennedy starting on February 1, 1946, as a seaman apprentice on the ship's shakedown cruise in the Caribbean . On May 30, 1946, he received his honorable discharge from the Navy. For his service in the Navy, Kennedy

19008-535: The United States Supreme Court . Kennedy went on to work as an aide to Adlai Stevenson II during the 1956 presidential election which helped him learn how national campaigns worked, in preparation for a future run by his brother, John. Unimpressed with Stevenson, he reportedly voted for incumbent Dwight D. Eisenhower . Kennedy was also a Massachusetts delegate at the 1956 Democratic National Convention , having replaced Tip O'Neil at

19272-427: The conservative coalition of Northern Republicans and Southern Democrats. The failed initiatives include federal aid to education, medical care for the aged, and aid to economically depressed areas. Though initially reluctant to pursue civil rights legislation, in 1963 Kennedy proposed a major civil rights bill that ultimately became the Civil Rights Act of 1964 . The economy experienced steady growth, low inflation and

19536-535: The party bosses , who controlled most of the delegates, and to prove to his detractors that a Catholic could win popular support. Victories over Senator Humphrey in the Wisconsin and West Virginia primaries gave Kennedy momentum as he moved on to the 1960 Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles. When Kennedy entered the convention, he had the most delegates, but not enough to ensure that he would win

19800-579: The " Trollope ploy ;" the U.S. would respond to the Khrushchev's first message and ignore the second. Kennedy managed to preserve restraint when a Soviet missile unauthorizedly downed a U.S. Lockheed U-2 reconnaissance aircraft over Cuba, killing the pilot Rudolf Anderson . On October 27, Kennedy sent a letter to Khrushchev calling for the removal of the Cuban missiles in return for an end to the blockade and an American promise to refrain from invading Cuba. At

20064-429: The " Ugly American " and " Yankee imperialism ," especially in the emerging nations of post-colonial Africa and Asia. In the first twenty-five years, more than 100,000 Americans served in 44 countries as part of the program. Most Peace Corps volunteers taught English in schools, but many became involved in activities like construction and food delivery. Kennedy's foreign policy was dominated by American confrontations with

20328-583: The " loss of China ." During a speech in Salem, Massachusetts on January 30, 1949, Kennedy denounced Truman and the State Department for contributing to the "tragic story of China whose freedom we once fought to preserve. What our young men had saved [in World War II], our diplomats and our President have frittered away." Having served as a boy scout during his childhood, Kennedy was active in

20592-491: The 1,500 U.S.-trained Cuban exile invasion force, known as Brigade 2506 , landed on the beach at Playa Girón in the Bay of Pigs and immediately came under heavy fire. The goal was to spark a widespread popular uprising against Castro, but no such uprising occurred. Although the Eisenhower administration plan had called for an American airstrike to hold back the Cuban counterattack until the invaders were established, Kennedy rejected

20856-430: The 1967 Six-Day War . Kennedy died 25 hours later. Sirhan was arrested, tried, and convicted, though Kennedy's assassination, like his brother's , continues to be the subject of widespread analysis and numerous conspiracy theories . Robert Francis Kennedy was born outside Boston in Brookline, Massachusetts , on November 20, 1925, to Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. , a politician and businessman, and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy ,

21120-466: The Attorney General powers to enjoin, but Majority Leader Lyndon B. Johnson agreed to let the provision die as a compromise measure. Kennedy also voted for the "Jury Trial Amendment." Many civil rights advocates criticized that vote as one which would weaken the act. A final compromise bill, which Kennedy supported, was passed in September 1957. As a senator from Massachusetts, which lacked

21384-544: The Berlin issue, where Dean Acheson took the lead in recommending a military buildup alongside NATO allies. In a July 1961 speech, Kennedy announced his decision to add $ 3.25 billion to the defense budget, along with over 200,000 additional troops, stating that an attack on West Berlin would be taken as an attack on the U.S. On August 13, 1961, the Soviet Union and East Berlin began blocking further passage of East Berliners into West Berlin and erected barbed wire fences across

21648-508: The CIA's involvement in Lumumba's death. In fact, Kennedy wasn't even aware Lumumba had been killed until February 13, 1961. On October 2, 1962, Kennedy signed United Nations bond issue bill to ensure U.S. assistance in financing United Nations peacekeeping operations in the Congo and elsewhere. Around this time, the Kennedy administration was making private attempts to convince Tshombe to reunite

21912-692: The Communist Party. Kennedy revealed that Cohn had called the wrong Annie Lee Moss and he requested the file on Moss from the FBI. FBI director J. Edgar Hoover had been forewarned by Cohn and denied him access, calling Kennedy "an arrogant whippersnapper". When Democrats gained a Senate majority in January 1955, Kennedy became chief counsel and was a background figure in the televised Army–McCarthy hearings of 1954 into McCarthy's conduct. The Moss incident turned Cohn into an enemy, which led to Kennedy assisting Democratic senators in ridiculing Cohn during

22176-514: The Cuban Missile Crisis has received wide praise from many scholars, although some critics fault the Kennedy administration for precipitating the crisis with its efforts to remove Castro. Khrushchev, meanwhile, was widely mocked for his performance, and was removed from power in October 1964. According to Anatoly Dobrynin, the top Soviet leadership took the Cuban outcome as "a blow to its prestige bordering on humiliation." Troubled by

22440-533: The Cuban Project). In March 1962, Kennedy rejected Operation Northwoods , proposals for false flag attacks against American military and civilian targets, and blaming them on the Cuban government in order to gain approval for a war against Cuba. However, the administration continued to plan for an invasion of Cuba in the summer of 1962. In the aftermath of the Bay of Pigs invasion, Kennedy announced that he would meet with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev at

22704-847: The Freedom Riders out of jail, but they refused, which upset him. On May 29, 1961, Kennedy petitioned the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) to issue regulations banning segregation, and the ICC subsequently decreed that by November 1, bus carriers and terminals serving interstate travel had to be integrated. Kennedy's attempts to end the Freedom Rides early were tied to an upcoming summit with Nikita Khrushchev in Vienna and Charles de Gaulle in Paris. He believed

22968-655: The Greater Houston Ministerial Association on September 12: "I am not the Catholic candidate for president. I am the Democratic Party candidate for president who also happens to be a Catholic. I do not speak for my Church on public matters—and the Church does not speak for me." He promised to respect the separation of church and state , and not to allow Catholic officials to dictate public policy. The Kennedy and Nixon campaigns agreed to

23232-516: The House of Representatives and the Senate. Nevertheless, 29 House Democrats were displaced, each of whom was a Kennedy progressive. According to one study, "For the first time in a century a party taking over the Presidency failed to gain in the Congress." Kennedy was the first person born in the 20th century to be elected president, and, at age 43, the youngest person elected to the office. He

23496-569: The June 1961 Vienna summit . The summit would cover several topics, but both leaders knew that the most contentious issue would be that of Berlin , which had been divided into two cities with the start of the Cold War. The enclave of West Berlin lay within Soviet-allied East Germany , but was supported by the U.S. and other Western powers. The Soviets wanted to reunify Berlin under the control of East Germany, partly due to

23760-655: The Justice Department between 1961 and 1963 be handled "through negotiation between the city commission and Negro citizens". Kennedy played a large role in the response to the Freedom Riders protests. He acted after the Anniston bus bombing to protect the Riders in continuing their journey, sending John Seigenthaler , his administrative assistant, to Alabama to try to calm the situation. Kennedy called

24024-619: The Juvenile Delinquency and Youth Offenses Control Act was signed into law. Kennedy expressed the administration's commitment to civil rights during a May 6, 1961, speech at the University of Georgia School of Law : Our position is quite clear. We are upholding the law. The federal government would not be running the schools in Prince Edward County any more than it is running the University of Georgia or

24288-562: The Mafia's gambling operations. Convictions against organized crime figures rose by 800 percent during his term. Kennedy worked to shift Hoover's focus away from communism, which Hoover saw as a more serious threat, to organized crime. According to James Neff , Kennedy's success in this endeavor was due to his brother's position, giving the attorney general leverage over Hoover. Biographer Richard Hack concluded that Hoover's dislike for Kennedy came from his being unable to control him. He

24552-802: The McClellan Committee by their focus on Hoffa and the Teamsters. They believed Kennedy covered for Walter Reuther and the United Automobile Workers (UAW), a union which typically would back Democratic office seekers. Amidst the allegations, Kennedy wrote in his journal that the two senators had "no guts" as they never addressed him directly, only through the press. Although the Rackets investigations produced few criminal prosecutions, glossy magazines began running glowing spreads: Life ("Young Man with Tough Questions" ) and

24816-747: The McClellan Committee) with his brother Robert, who was chief counsel, to investigate racketeering in labor-management relations. The hearings attracted extensive radio and television coverage where the Kennedy brothers engaged in dramatic arguments with controversial labor leaders, including Jimmy Hoffa , of the Teamsters Union . The following year, Kennedy introduced a bill to prevent the expenditure of union dues for improper purposes or private gain; to forbid loans from union funds for illicit transactions; and to compel audits of unions, which would ensure against false financial reports. It

25080-712: The National Security Action Memorandum (NSAM) – "Subversive Insurgency (War of Liberation)". " Operation Ranch Hand ", a large-scale aerial defoliation effort, began on the roadsides of South Vietnam initiating the use of the herbicide Agent Orange on foliage and to combat guerrilla defendants . Initially under consideration as to whether or not the use of the chemical would violate the Geneva Convention , Secretary of State Dean Rusk argued to Kennedy that "[t]he use of defoliant does not violate any rule of international law concerning

25344-556: The New England region (some of which became law). In 1958 , Kennedy was re-elected to the Senate, defeating his Republican opponent, Boston lawyer Vincent J. Celeste, with 73.6 percent of the vote, the largest winning margin in the history of Massachusetts politics. In the aftermath of his re-election, Kennedy began preparing to run for president by traveling throughout the U.S. with the aim of building his candidacy for 1960. On January 2, 1960, Kennedy announced his candidacy for

25608-484: The Pacific. He oversaw a professional advertising campaign that ensured ads went up in just the right places the campaign had a virtual monopoly on [Boston] subway space, and on window stickers ("Kennedy for Congress") for cars and homes and was the force behind the mass mailing of Hersey's PT-109 article. Though Republicans took control of the House in the 1946 elections , Kennedy defeated his Republican opponent in

25872-517: The Senate in 1952 against Republican three-term incumbent Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. with the campaign slogan "KENNEDY WILL DO MORE FOR MASSACHUSETTS". Joe Sr. again financed his son's candidacy (persuading the Boston Post to switch its support to Kennedy by promising the publisher a $ 500,000 loan), while John's younger brother Robert emerged as campaign manager. Kennedy's mother and sisters contributed as highly effective canvassers by hosting

26136-415: The Senate majority secretary and a protégé of Lyndon Johnson, president-elect Kennedy did not want to name his brother attorney general, but their father overruled him. At the behest of vice president-elect Johnson, Baker persuaded the influential Southern senator Richard Russell Jr. to allow a voice vote to confirm the president's brother in January 1961, as Kennedy "would have been lucky to get 40 votes" on

26400-619: The Senate, he was at times critically ill and received Catholic last rites . During his convalescence in 1956, he published Profiles in Courage , a book about U.S. senators who risked their careers for their personal beliefs, for which he won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography in 1957. Rumors that this work was ghostwritten by his close adviser and speechwriter , Ted Sorensen , were confirmed in Sorensen's 2008 autobiography. At

26664-629: The South and warned of the danger of racial tensions above the Mason–Dixon line. "In the North", he said, "I think you have had de facto segregation , which in some areas is bad or even more extreme than in the South", adding that people in "those communities, including my own state of Massachusetts, concentrated on what was happening in Birmingham, Alabama or Jackson, Mississippi, and didn't look at what

26928-547: The South, and blamed the right-to-work provision for giving the South an unfair advantage over Massachusetts in labor costs. In May 1953, Kennedy introduced "The Economic Problems of New England", a 36-point program to help Massachusetts industries such as fishing , textile manufacturing , watchmaking , and shipbuilding , as well as the Boston seaport. Kennedy's policy agenda included protective tariffs , preventing excessive speculation in raw wool, stronger efforts to research and market American fish products, an increase in

27192-666: The Soviet Union that interfered with U.S. access rights in West Berlin would be regarded as an act of war. The two leaders also discussed the situation in Laos, the Congo Crisis , China's fledgling nuclear program , a potential nuclear test ban treaty, and other issues. Shortly after Kennedy returned home, the Soviet Union announced its intention to sign a treaty with East Berlin that would threaten Western access to West Berlin. Kennedy, depressed and angry, assumed that his only option

27456-454: The Soviet Union's first strike capability and even the nuclear imbalance. Kennedy himself did not believe that the deployment of missiles to Cuba fundamentally altered the strategic balance of the nuclear forces; more significant for him was the political and psychological implications of allowing the Soviet Union to maintain nuclear weapons in Cuba. Kennedy faced a dilemma: if the U.S. attacked

27720-459: The Soviet Union. The assassination was judged as having a profound impact on Kennedy. Michael Beran assesses the assassination as having moved Kennedy away from reliance on the political system and to become more questioning. Larry Tye views Kennedy following the death of his brother as "more fatalistic, having seen how fast he could lose what he cherished the most." In the wake of the assassination of his brother and Lyndon Johnson's ascension to

27984-407: The Soviet Union. A secret review conducted by Lyman Kirkpatrick of the CIA concluded that the failure of the invasion resulted less from a decision against airstrikes and had more to do with the fact that Cuba had a much larger defending force and that the operation suffered from "poor planning, organization, staffing and management". The Kennedy administration banned all Cuban imports and convinced

28248-715: The Soviet Union. Kennedy was unwilling to send more than a token force to neighboring Thailand , a key American ally. By the end of the year, Harriman had helped arrange the International Agreement on the Neutrality of Laos , which temporarily brought an end to the crisis, but the Laotian Civil War continued. Though he was unwilling to commit U.S. forces to a major military intervention in Laos, Kennedy did approve CIA activities in Laos designed to defeat communist insurgents through bombing raids and

28512-587: The Soviet Union. Some advisors, including Schlesinger, Under Secretary of State Chester Bowles , and former Secretary of State Dean Acheson , opposed the operation, but Bundy and McNamara both favored it, as did the Joint Chiefs of Staff , despite serious reservations. Kennedy approved the final invasion plan on April 4, 1961. On April 15, 1961, eight CIA-supplied B-26 bombers left Nicaragua to bomb Cuban airfields. The bombers missed many of their targets and left most of Castro's air force intact. On April 17,

28776-955: The Soviets publicly withdrawing their missiles from Cuba and the U.S. secretly withdrawing some missiles based in Italy and Turkey. To contain Communist expansion in Asia, Kennedy increased the number of American military advisers in South Vietnam by a factor of 18; a further escalation of the American role in the Vietnam War would take place after Kennedy's death. In Latin America , Kennedy's Alliance for Progress aimed to promote human rights and foster economic development. In domestic politics, Kennedy had made bold proposals in his New Frontier agenda, but many of his initiatives were blocked by

29040-434: The Teamsters and other unions that he had helped investigate. Kennedy went to work on the presidential campaign of his brother, John. In contrast to his role in his brother's previous campaign eight years prior, Kennedy gave stump speeches throughout the primary season, gaining confidence as time went on. His strategy "to win at any cost" led him to call on Franklin D. Roosevelt Jr. to attack Senator Hubert Humphrey as

29304-630: The Teamsters' pension fund , and sentenced to five years in prison. Hoffa spent the next three years unsuccessfully appealing his 1964 convictions, and began serving his aggregate prison sentence of 13 years (eight years for bribery, five years for fraud) on March 7, 1967, at the Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary in Pennsylvania. In his first press conference as attorney general in 1961, Kennedy spoke of an "alarming increase" in juvenile delinquency . In May 1961, Kennedy

29568-556: The Truman administration before a Brooklyn grand jury. On June 6, 1952, he resigned to manage his brother John's U.S. Senate campaign in Massachusetts . JFK's victory was of great importance to the Kennedys, elevating him to national prominence and turning him into a serious potential presidential candidate. John's victory was also equally important to Robert, who felt he had succeeded in eliminating his father's negative perceptions of him. In December 1952, at his father's behest, Kennedy

29832-525: The U.S. Senate in 1952 . The following year, Kennedy worked as an assistant counsel to the Senate committee chaired by Senator Joseph McCarthy . He gained national attention as the chief counsel of the Senate Labor Rackets Committee from 1957 to 1959, where he publicly challenged Teamsters President Jimmy Hoffa over the union's corrupt practices. Kennedy resigned from the committee to conduct his brother's successful campaign in

30096-458: The U.S. alliance with West Germany, Kennedy travelled to West Germany in June 1963. On June 26, Kennedy toured West Berlin, culminating in his famous " Ich bin ein Berliner " ("I am a Berliner") speech in front of hundreds of thousands of enthusiastic Berliners. Kennedy used the construction of the Berlin Wall as an example of the failures of communism: "Freedom has many difficulties, and democracy

30360-502: The U.S. should be on the side of anti-colonialism and self-determination. Kennedy considered the Congo Crisis to be one of the most important foreign policy issues facing his presidency. The Republic of the Congo was given its independence from Belgian colonial rule on June 30, 1960, and was almost immediately torn apart by what President Kennedy described as "civil strife, political unrest and public disorder." Former Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba had been murdered early in 1961 despite

30624-577: The United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union agreed to a limited treaty that prohibited atomic testing on the ground, in the atmosphere, or underwater, but not underground. The Limited Nuclear Test Ban treaty was signed in Moscow on August 5, 1963, by U.S. Secretary Dean Rusk, Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko , and British Foreign Secretary Alec Douglas-Home . The U.S. Senate approved the treaty on September 23, 1963, by an 80–19 margin. Kennedy signed

30888-401: The United States' presumed influence in Europe. Nevertheless, de Gaulle was quite impressed with the young president and his family. Kennedy picked up on this in his speech in Paris, saying that he would be remembered as "the man who accompanied Jackie Kennedy to Paris." On June 4, 1961, the president met with Khrushchev in Vienna, where he made it clear that any treaty between East Berlin and

31152-485: The Vienna summit. To deal with the crisis, he formed an ad hoc body of key advisers, later known as EXCOMM , that met secretly between October 16 and 28. The members of EXCOMM agreed that the missiles must be removed from Cuba, but differed as to the best method. Some favored an airstrike, possibly followed by an invasion of Cuba, but Robert Kennedy and others argued that a surprise airstrike would be immoral and would invite Soviet reprisals. The other major option that emerged

31416-667: The Warrior River at Choiseul Island , taking ten marines aboard and delivering them to safety. Under doctor's orders, Kennedy was relieved of his command on November 18, and sent to the hospital on Tulagi. By December 1943, with his health deteriorating, Kennedy left the Pacific front and arrived in San Francisco in early January 1944. After receiving treatment for his back injury at the Chelsea Naval Hospital in Massachusetts from May to December 1944, he

31680-421: The admittance of the institution's first African American student, James Meredith . The attorney general had hoped that legal means, along with the escort of federal officers, would be enough to force Governor Ross Barnett to allow Meredith's admission. He also was very concerned there might be a "mini-civil war" between federal troops and armed protesters. President Kennedy reluctantly sent federal troops after

31944-406: The aftermath, he took full responsibility for the failure, saying: "We got a big kick in the leg and we deserved it. But maybe we'll learn something from it." Kennedy's approval ratings climbed afterwards, helped in part by the vocal support given to him by Nixon and Eisenhower. Outside the United States, however, the operation undermined Kennedy's reputation as a world leader, and raised tensions with

32208-424: The allegation, saying that John had never had "an ailment described classically as Addison's disease." After securing the nomination, John Kennedy nonetheless chose Johnson as his vice-presidential nominee. Robert, who favored labor leader Walter Reuther, tried unsuccessfully to convince Johnson to turn down the offer, leading him to view Robert with contempt afterward. Robert had already disliked Johnson prior to

32472-595: The antagonistic argument that marked Hoffa's testimony. Kennedy's investigations convinced him that Hoffa had worked with mobsters, extorted money from employers, and raided Teamster pension funds. During the hearings, Kennedy received criticism from liberal critics and other commentators both for his outburst of impassioned anger and doubts about the innocence of those who invoked the Fifth Amendment . Senators Barry Goldwater and Karl Mundt wrote to each other and complained about "the Kennedy boys" having hijacked

32736-470: The area, from 11,000 in 1962 to 16,000 by late 1963, but he was reluctant to order a full-scale deployment of troops. However, Kennedy, who was wary about the region's successful war of independence against France, was also eager to not give the impression to the Vietnamese people that the United States was acting as the region's new colonizer, even stating in his journal at one point that the United States

33000-701: The army's Officer Candidate School . Despite months of training, he was medically disqualified due to his chronic back problems. On September 24, 1941, Kennedy, with the help of the director of the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) and the former naval attaché to Joe Sr., Alan Kirk, joined the United States Naval Reserve . He was commissioned an ensign on October 26, 1941, and joined the ONI staff in Washington, D.C. In January 1942, Kennedy

33264-473: The assassination gave rise to a wide array of conspiracy theories . Kennedy was the first Roman Catholic elected president, as well as the youngest candidate ever to win a U.S. presidential election. Historians and political scientists tend to rank Kennedy as an above-average president. In January 1960, Kennedy formally announced his candidacy in that year's presidential election. Senator Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota emerged as Kennedy's primary challenger in

33528-426: The base of Kolombangara around 2:00 a.m., and attempted to turn to attack, when PT-109 was rammed suddenly at an angle and cut in half by the destroyer Amagiri , killing two PT-109 crew members. Avoiding surrender, the remaining crew swam towards Plum Pudding Island , 3.5 miles (5.6 km) southwest of the remains of PT-109 , on August 2. Despite re-injuring his back in the collision, Kennedy towed

33792-418: The bottle;" if it fell to communism, Eisenhower believed other Southeast Asian countries would as well. The Joint Chiefs proposed sending 60,000 American soldiers to uphold the friendly government, but Kennedy rejected this strategy in the aftermath of the failed Bay of Pigs invasion. He instead sought a negotiated solution between the government and the left-wing insurgents, who were backed by North Vietnam and

34056-607: The breakaway Katanga that he led with the Congo, in advance of UN intervention. Fulgencio Batista , a Cuban dictator friendly towards the United States, had been forced out office in 1959 by the Cuban Revolution . Many in the United States, including Kennedy himself, had initially hoped that Batista's successor, Fidel Castro would preside over democratic reforms. Dashing those hopes, by the end of 1960 Castro had embraced Marxism , confiscated American property, and accepted Soviet aid. The Eisenhower administration had created

34320-512: The building until the U.S. Marshals and National Guard he sent had secured the area. King proceeded to berate Kennedy for "allowing the situation to continue". King later publicly thanked him for dispatching the forces to break up the attack that might otherwise have ended his life. Kennedy then negotiated the safe passage of the Freedom Riders from the First Baptist Church to Jackson, where they were arrested. He offered to bail

34584-553: The cabinet and leading members of Congress about the situation, Kennedy announced on national television that the U.S. had discovered evidence of the Soviet deployment of missiles to Cuba. He called for the immediate withdrawal of the missiles, as well as the convening of the United Nations Security Council and the Organization of American States (OAS). Finally, he announced that the U.S. would begin

34848-568: The cabinet remained an important body, Kennedy generally relied more on his staffers within the Executive Office of the President . Unlike Eisenhower, Kennedy did not have a chief of staff , but instead relied on a small number of senior aides, including appointments secretary Kenneth O'Donnell . National Security Advisor McGeorge Bundy was the most important adviser on foreign policy, eclipsing Secretary of State Rusk. Ted Sorensen

35112-440: The camera. Kennedy wore a blue suit and shirt to cut down on glare and appeared sharply focused against the gray studio background. Nixon wore a light-colored suit that blended into the gray background; in combination with the harsh studio lighting that left Nixon perspiring, he offered a less-than-commanding presence. By contrast, Kennedy appeared relaxed, tanned, and telegenic, looking into the camera whilst answering questions. It

35376-515: The campaign. Not wanting to concede any state as "unwinnable," Nixon undertook a fifty-state strategy , while Kennedy focused the states with the most electoral votes. Major issues in the campaign included the economy, Kennedy's Catholicism , Cuba , and whether the Soviet space and missile programs had surpassed those of the U.S. On November 8, 1960, Kennedy defeated Nixon in one of the closest presidential elections in American history. Kennedy won

35640-674: The campus newspaper, but had little involvement with campus politics, preferring to concentrate on athletics and his social life. Kennedy played football and was on the JV squad during his sophomore year, but an injury forced him off the team, and left him with back problems that plagued him for the rest of his life. He won membership in the Hasty Pudding Club and the Spee Club , one of Harvard's elite " final clubs ". In July 1938, Kennedy sailed overseas with his older brother to work at

35904-541: The city and helped repair the strained relationship between the administration and its special envoy in Berlin, Lucius D. Clay . As his brother's confidant, Kennedy oversaw the CIA 's anti- Castro activities after the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion in Cuba , which included covert operations that targeted Cuban civilians . He also helped develop the strategy during the Cuban Missile Crisis to blockade Cuba instead of initiating

36168-504: The city, which were quickly upgraded to the Berlin Wall . Kennedy acquiesced to the wall, though he sent Vice President Johnson to West Berlin to reaffirm U.S. commitment to the enclave's defense. In the following months, in a sign of rising Cold War tensions, both the U.S. and the Soviet Union ended a moratorium on nuclear weapon testing. A brief stand-off between U.S. and Soviet tanks occurred at Checkpoint Charlie in October following

36432-533: The conduct of chemical warfare and is an accepted tactic of war. Precedent has been established by the British during the emergency in Malaya in their use of aircraft for destroying crops by chemical spraying." John F. Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), also known as JFK , was the 35th president of the United States , serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963. He

36696-468: The continued international publicity of race riots would tarnish the president heading into international negotiations. This attempt to curtail the Freedom Rides alienated many civil rights leaders who, at the time, perceived him as intolerant and narrow-minded. Historian David Halberstam wrote that the race question was for a long time a minor ethnic political issue in Massachusetts where the Kennedy brothers came from, and had they been from another part of

36960-418: The convention that concluded the Treaty of Peace with Japan . In 1951, Kennedy was admitted to the Massachusetts Bar . That November, he started work as a lawyer in the Internal Security Division of the U.S. Department of Justice , which prosecuted espionage and subversive-activity cases. In February 1952, he was transferred to the Criminal Division to help prepare fraud cases against former officials of

37224-532: The counsel of his younger brother, with Robert being the president's closest adviser and confidant. Kennedy exercised widespread authority over every cabinet department, leading the Associated Press to dub him "Bobby—Washington's No. 2-man." The president once remarked about his brother, "If I want something done and done immediately I rely on the Attorney General. He is very much the doer in this administration, and has an organizational gift I have rarely if ever seen surpassed." As attorney general, Kennedy pursued

37488-544: The country was the "initial battleground in the communist drive to capture Western Europe." To combat Soviet efforts to take control in Middle Eastern and Asian countries like Indochina , Kennedy wanted the United States to develop nonmilitary techniques of resistance that would not create suspicions of neoimperialism or add to the country's financial burden. The problem, as he saw it, was not simply to be anti-communist but to stand for something that these emerging nations would find appealing. Almost every weekend that Congress

37752-452: The country, "they might have been more immediately sensitive to the complexities and depth of black feelings". In an attempt to better understand and improve race relations, Kennedy held a private meeting on May 24, 1963, in New York City with a black delegation coordinated by prominent author James Baldwin . The meeting became antagonistic, and the group reached no consensus. The black delegation generally felt that Kennedy did not understand

38016-418: The crisis in a book titled Thirteen Days (posthumously published in 1969). At a summit meeting with Japanese prime minister Hayato Ikeda in Washington D.C. in 1961, President Kennedy promised to make a reciprocal visit to Japan in 1962, but the decision to resume atmospheric nuclear testing forced him to postpone such a visit, and he sent Robert in his stead. Kennedy arrived in Tokyo in February 1962 at

38280-422: The day that Germany invaded Poland ; the start of World War II . Two days later, the family was in the House of Commons for speeches endorsing the United Kingdom's declaration of war on Germany. Kennedy was sent as his father's representative to help with arrangements for American survivors of the torpedoing of SS  Athenia before flying back to the U.S. on his first transatlantic flight. While Kennedy

38544-427: The days after the assassination of his brother. He was to go there for the purposes of cultural diplomacy but was also told to meet with Russian diplomat Georgi Bolshakov and deliver a message. Walton told Bolshakov that Robert and Jackie Kennedy believed there was a conspiracy involved in the killing of President Kennedy and informed him that Robert Kennedy shared the views of his brother in his approach to peace with

38808-536: The deployment of the missiles in Cuba as a way to close the " missile gap " and provide for the defense of Cuba. By late 1962, both the United States and the Soviet Union possessed intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) capable of delivering nuclear payloads, but the U.S. maintained well over 100 ICBMs, as well as over 100 submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBMs). By contrast, the Soviet Union did not possess SLBMs, and had less than 25 ICBMs. The placement of missiles in Cuba thus threatened to significantly enhance

39072-408: The director "in a way that he couldn't lie to me, and they [the CIA] hadn't". An hour after the president was shot, Robert Kennedy received a phone call from the newly ascended President Johnson before Johnson boarded Air Force One . RFK remembered their conversation starting with Johnson demonstrating sympathy before the president stated his belief that he should be sworn in immediately; RFK opposed

39336-425: The early years of his administration. Full text   [REDACTED] Kennedy spent the eight weeks following his election choosing his cabinet, staff and top officials. He retained J. Edgar Hoover as Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Allen Dulles as Director of Central Intelligence . C. Douglas Dillon , a business-oriented Republican who had served as Eisenhower's Undersecretary of State ,

39600-459: The end of the British Mandate , provided a first-hand view of the tensions in the land. He was critical of British policy on Palestine and praised the Jewish people he met there, calling them "hardy and tough." Kennedy predicted that "before too long," the United States and Great Britain would be looking for a Jewish state to preserve a "toehold" of democracy in the region. He held out some hope after seeing Arabs and Jews working side by side but, in

39864-452: The end, feared that the hatred between the groups was too strong and would lead to a war. In June 1948, Kennedy reported on the Berlin Blockade . He wrote home about the experience: "It is a very moving and disturbing sight to see plane after plane take off amidst a torrent of rain particularly when I was aboard one." In September 1951, a few months after Kennedy graduated from law school, The Boston Post sent him to San Francisco to cover

40128-411: The eventual vice-presidential nominee. The potential need for a Johnson–Kennedy ticket was ultimately eliminated by the Republican nomination of conservative Barry Goldwater . With Goldwater as his opponent, Johnson's choice of vice president was all but irrelevant; opinion polls had revealed that, while Kennedy was an overwhelming first choice among Democrats, any choice made less than a 2% difference in

40392-425: The extent of the Soviet military build-up. On October 14, 1962, the spy planes took photographs of intermediate-range ballistic missile sites being built in Cuba by the Soviets. The photos were shown to Kennedy on October 16, and a consensus was reached that the missiles were offensive in nature. Following the Vienna Summit, Khrushchev came to believe that Kennedy would not respond effectively to provocations. He saw

40656-497: The failed Bay of Pigs Invasion and Operation Mongoose . In October 1962, U.S. spy planes discovered Soviet missile bases had been deployed in Cuba. The resulting period of tensions, termed the Cuban Missile Crisis , nearly resulted in nuclear war . In August 1961, after East German troops erected the Berlin Wall , Kennedy sent an army convoy to reassure West Berliners of U.S. support, and delivered one of his most famous speeches in West Berlin in June 1963. In 1963, Kennedy signed

40920-424: The fall general election campaign, the Republican nominee and incumbent Vice President Richard Nixon held a six-point lead in the polls. Major issues included how to get the economy moving again, Kennedy's Catholicism, the Cuban Revolution , and whether the space and missile programs of the Soviet Union had surpassed those of the U.S. To address fears that his being Catholic would impact his decision-making, he told

41184-531: The family and wrote him off; focusing greater attention on his two eldest sons, Joseph Jr., and John. His parents involved their children in discussions of history and current affairs at the family dinner table. "I can hardly remember a mealtime," Kennedy reflected, "when the conversation was not dominated by what Franklin D. Roosevelt was doing or what was happening in the world...Since public affairs had dominated so much of our actions and discussions, public life seemed really an extension of family life." Kennedy

41448-565: The federal courts. Among them was Thurgood Marshall , who later joined the Supreme Court. Ivy League undergraduate colleges were attended by 9% of the appointees; 19% attended Ivy League law schools. In terms of religion, 61% were Catholics, 38% were Protestant, and 11% were Jewish. Almost all (91%) were Democrats, but few had extensive experience in electoral politics. An agency to enable Americans to volunteer in developing countries appealed to Kennedy because it fit in with his campaign themes of self-sacrifice and volunteerism, while also providing

41712-474: The first nuclear weapons treaty . He presided over the establishment of the Peace Corps , Alliance for Progress with Latin America, and the continuation of the Apollo program with the goal of landing a man on the Moon before 1970. He supported the civil rights movement but was only somewhat successful in passing his New Frontier domestic policies. On November 22, 1963, Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas . His vice president, Lyndon B. Johnson , assumed

41976-405: The flexible response strategy would allow the U.S. to counter Soviet influence without resorting to war. At the same time, he ordered a massive build-up of the nuclear arsenal to establish superiority over the Soviet Union. In pursuing this military build-up, Kennedy shifted away from Eisenhower's deep concern for budget deficits caused by military spending. In contrast to Eisenhower's warning about

42240-429: The full extent of racism in the United States, and only alienated the group more when he tried to compare his family's experience with discrimination as Irish Catholics to the racial injustice faced by African Americans. In September 1962, Kennedy sent a force of U.S. Marshals, U.S. Border Patrol agents, and deputized federal prison guards to the University of Mississippi , to enforce a federal court order allowing

42504-408: The general election, taking 73 percent of the vote. As a congressman, Kennedy had a reputation for not taking much interest in the running of his office or his constituents' concerns, with one of the highest absenteeism rates in the House, although much was explained by illness. George Smathers , one of his few political friends at the time, claimed that he was more interested in being a writer than

42768-487: The general public can only regard it as a tragedy that politics has prevented the recommendations of the McClellan committee from being carried out this year," Kennedy announced. That same year, Kennedy joined the Senate's Foreign Relations Committee . There he supported Algeria's effort to gain independence from France and sponsored an amendment to the Mutual Defense Assistance Act that would provide aid to Soviet satellite nations. Kennedy also introduced an amendment to

43032-458: The general public. His personal life has been the focus of considerable sustained interest following public revelations in the 1970s of his chronic health ailments and extramarital affairs . Kennedy is the most recent U.S. president to have died in office . John Fitzgerald Kennedy was born outside Boston in Brookline, Massachusetts , on May 29, 1917, to Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. , a businessman and politician, and Rose Kennedy ( née Fitzgerald),

43296-399: The hearings. The animosity grew to the point where Cohn had to be restrained after asking Kennedy if he wanted to fight him. For his work on the McCarthy committee, Kennedy was included in a list of Ten Outstanding Young Men of 1954, created by the U.S. Junior Chamber of Commerce. His father had arranged the nomination, his first national award. In 1955, Kennedy was admitted to practice before

43560-473: The idea since he felt "it would be nice" for President Kennedy's body to return to Washington with the deceased president still being the incumbent. Eventually, the two concluded that the best course of action would be for Johnson to take the oath of office before returning to Washington. In his 1971 book We Band of Brothers , aide Edwin O. Guthman recounted Kennedy admitting to him an hour after receiving word of his brother's death that he thought he would be

43824-497: The island. The Soviet Union planned to allocate in Cuba 49 medium-range ballistic missiles , 32 intermediate-range ballistic missiles , 49 light Il-28 bombers and about 100 tactical nuclear weapons . The Kennedy administration viewed the growing Cuba-Soviet alliance with alarm, fearing that it could eventually pose a threat to the United States. Kennedy did not believe that the Soviet Union would risk placing nuclear weapons in Cuba, but he dispatched CIA U-2 spy planes to determine

44088-509: The large number of East Germans who had fled to West Berlin. Khrushchev had clashed with Eisenhower over the issue but had tabled it after the 1960 U-2 incident ; with the inauguration of a new U.S. president, Khrushchev was once again determined to bring the status of West Berlin to the fore. Kennedy's handling of the Bay of Pigs crisis convinced him that Kennedy would wither under pressure. Kennedy, meanwhile, wanted to meet with Khrushchev as soon as possible in order to reduce tensions and minimize

44352-636: The latter, who was quickly confirmed by the Senate. A second vacancy arose later in 1962 due to the retirement of Felix Frankfurter . Kennedy quickly appointed Goldberg, who easily won confirmation by the Senate. Goldberg resigned from the court in 1965 to accept appointment as ambassador to the United Nations , but White remained on the court until 1993, often serving as a key swing vote between liberal and conservative justices. The president handled Supreme Court appointments. Other judges were selected by Attorney General Robert Kennedy. Including new federal judgeships created in 1961, 130 individuals were appointed to

44616-563: The leaders and people of the Third World, expanding economic aid and appointing knowledgeable ambassadors. His administration established the Food for Peace program and the Peace Corps to provide aid to developing countries in various ways. The Food for Peace program became a central element in American foreign policy, and eventually helped many countries to develop their economies and become commercial import customers. During his presidency, Kennedy sought closer relations with Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru through increased economic and

44880-402: The long-term dangers of radioactive contamination and nuclear weapons proliferation , Kennedy and Khrushchev agreed to negotiate a nuclear test ban treaty, originally conceived in Adlai Stevenson's 1956 presidential campaign. In their Vienna summit meeting in June 1961, Khrushchev and Kennedy had reached an informal understanding against nuclear testing, but further negotiations were derailed by

45144-466: The morning of October 24, over 150 U.S. ships were deployed to enforce the blockade against Cuba. Several Soviet ships approached the blockade line, but they stopped or reversed course to avoid the blockade. On October 25, Khrushchev offered to remove the missiles if the U.S. promised not to invade Cuba. The next day, he sent a second message in which he also demanded the removal of PGM-19 Jupiter missiles from Turkey . EXCOMM settled on what has been termed

45408-456: The national popular vote, by most accounts , Kennedy led Nixon by just two-tenths of one percent (49.7% to 49.5%), while in the Electoral College , he won 303 votes to Nixon's 219 (269 were needed to win). Fourteen electors from Mississippi and Alabama refused to support Kennedy because of his support for the civil rights movement ; they voted for Senator Harry F. Byrd of Virginia, as did an elector from Oklahoma. Forty-three years old, Kennedy

45672-495: The nations of the world to join to fight what he called the "common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease, and war itself." He added: All this will not be finished in the first one hundred days. Nor will it be finished in the first one thousand days, nor in the life of this Administration, nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin." In closing, he expanded on his desire for greater internationalism: "Finally, whether you are citizens of America or citizens of

45936-515: The nations of the world to join to fight what he called the "common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease, and war itself." To these admonitions he added: All this will not be finished in the first one hundred days. Nor will it be finished in the first one thousand days, nor in the life of this Administration, nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin." In closing, he expanded on his desire for greater internationalism: "Finally, whether you are citizens of America or citizens of

46200-474: The news. Shortly after the call from Hoover, Kennedy phoned McGeorge Bundy at the White House, instructing him to change the locks on the president's files. He ordered the Secret Service to dismantle the hidden taping system in the Oval Office and cabinet room. He scheduled a meeting with CIA director John McCone and asked if the CIA had any involvement in his brother's death. McCone denied it, with Kennedy later telling investigator Walter Sheridan that he asked

46464-425: The nomination. Stevenson—the 1952 and 1956 presidential nominee—remained very popular, while Johnson also hoped to win the nomination with support from party leaders. Kennedy's candidacy also faced opposition from former President Harry S. Truman , who was concerned about Kennedy's lack of experience. Kennedy knew that a second ballot could give the nomination to Johnson or someone else, and his well-organized campaign

46728-410: The one "they would get" as opposed to his brother. In the days following the assassination, he wrote letters to his two eldest children, Kathleen and Joseph, saying that as the oldest Kennedy family members of their generation, they had a special responsibility to remember what their uncle had started and to love and serve their country. He was originally opposed to Jacqueline Kennedy's decision to have

46992-425: The particulars of the Harvey -Rosselli operation – or want to." Concurrently, Kennedy served as the president's personal representative in Operation Mongoose , the post–Bay of Pigs covert operations program the president established in November 1961. Mongoose was meant to incite revolution in Cuba that would result in Castro's downfall. During the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962, Kennedy proved himself to be

47256-590: The perils of the military-industrial complex , Kennedy focused on rearmament. From 1961 to 1964 the number of nuclear weapons increased by 50 percent, as did the number of B-52 bombers to deliver them. The new ICBM force grew from 63 intercontinental ballistic missiles to 424. He authorized 23 new Polaris submarines, each of which carried 16 nuclear missiles. Meanwhile, he called on cities to prepare fallout shelters for nuclear war. In January 1961, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev declared his support for wars of national liberation . Kennedy interpreted this step as

47520-406: The permanent establishment of the Peace Corps program on September 22, 1961. Tanganyika (present-day Tanzania ) and Ghana were the first countries to participate in the program. Kennedy took great pride in the Peace Corps, and he ensured that it remained free of CIA influence, but he largely left its administration to Shriver. Kennedy also saw the program as a means of countering the stereotype of

47784-423: The popular vote by a narrow margin of 120,000 votes out of a record 68.8 million ballots cast. He won the electoral vote by a wider margin, receiving 303 votes to Nixon's 219. 14 unpledged electors from two states— Alabama and Mississippi —voted for Senator Harry F. Byrd of Virginia, as did one faithless elector in Oklahoma . In the concurrent congressional elections, Democrats retained wide majorities in both

48048-434: The powers resumed negotiations over a test ban treaty. Negotiations were facilitated by the Vatican and by the shuttle diplomacy of editor Norman Cousins. On June 10, 1963, Kennedy delivered a commencement address at the American University in Washington, D.C. Also known as "A Strategy of Peace", not only did Kennedy outline a plan to curb nuclear arms, but he also "laid out a hopeful, yet realistic route for world peace at

48312-401: The presence of a United Nations peacekeeping force (supported by Kennedy); Moïse Tshombe , leader of State of Katanga , declared its independence from the Congo and the Soviet Union responded by sending weapons and technicians to underwrite their struggle. The crisis, exacerbated by Cold War tensions, continued well into the 1960s. Kennedy and his incoming advisers were apparently unaware of

48576-472: The presidency . Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested for the assassination, but he was shot and killed by Jack Ruby two days later. The FBI and the Warren Commission both concluded Oswald had acted alone, but conspiracy theories about the assassination persist. After Kennedy's death, Congress enacted many of his proposals, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Revenue Act of 1964 . Kennedy ranks highly in polls of U.S. presidents with historians and

48840-440: The presidency, with the office of vice president now vacant, Kennedy was viewed favorably as a potential candidate for the position in the 1964 presidential election. Johnson faced pressure from some within the Democratic Party to name Kennedy as his running mate, which Johnson staffers referred to internally as the "Bobby problem." It was an open secret that they disliked each other, and Johnson had no intention of remaining in

49104-468: The presidency. After Joe's death, the assignment fell to JFK as the second eldest. Boston mayor Maurice J. Tobin discussed the possibility of John becoming his running mate in 1946 as a candidate for Massachusetts lieutenant governor , but Joe Sr. preferred a congressional campaign that could send John to Washington, where he could have national visibility. At the urging of Kennedy's father, U.S. Representative James Michael Curley vacated his seat in

49368-410: The president's direction, Kennedy used the power of federal agencies to influence U.S. Steel not to institute a price increase, and announced a grand jury probe to investigate possible collusion and price fixing by U.S. Steel in collaboration with other major steel manufacturers. The Wall Street Journal wrote that the administration had set prices of steel "by naked power, by threats, by agents of

49632-400: The president's direction, Robert Kennedy privately informed Soviet Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin that the U.S. would remove the Jupiter missiles from Turkey "within a short time after this crisis was over." Few members of EXCOMM expected Khrushchev to agree to the offer, but on October 28 Khrushchev publicly announced that he would withdraw the missiles from Cuba. Negotiations over the details of

49896-415: The presidential campaign, seeing him as a threat to his brother's ambitions. In October, just a few weeks before the election, Kennedy was involved in securing the release of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. from a jail in Atlanta . He spoke with Georgia Governor Ernest Vandiver and later Judge Oscar Mitchell, after the judge had sentenced King for violating his probation when he protested at

50160-406: The presidential nomination, Kennedy gave his well-known " New Frontier " speech: For the problems are not all solved and the battles are not all won—and we stand today on the edge of a New Frontier. ... But 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. At the start of

50424-502: The program. Kennedy, a Massachusetts Audubon Society supporter, wanted to make sure that the shorelines of Cape Cod remained unsullied by industrialization. On September 3, 1959, Kennedy co-sponsored the Cape Cod National Seashore bill with his Republican colleague Senator Leverett Saltonstall . As a senator, Kennedy quickly won a reputation for responsiveness to requests from constituents (i.e., co-sponsoring legislation to provide federal loans to help rebuild communities damaged by

50688-473: The ratified treaty on October 7, 1963. The treaty represented an important deescalation of Cold War tensions, but both countries continued to build their respective nuclear stockpiles. The U.S. and the Soviet Union also reached an agreement whereby the U.S. sold millions of bushels of wheat to the Soviet Union. When briefing Kennedy, Eisenhower emphasized that the communist threat in Southeast Asia required priority. Eisenhower considered Laos to be "the cork in

50952-517: The recruitment of the Hmong people . As a U.S. congressman in 1951, Kennedy became fascinated with Vietnam after visiting the area as part of a fact-finding mission to Asia and the Middle East, even stressing in a subsequent radio address that he strongly favored "check[ing] the southern drive of communism." As a U.S. senator in 1956, Kennedy publicly advocated for greater U.S. involvement in Vietnam. During his presidency, Kennedy continued policies that provided political, economic, and military support to

51216-438: The release of the 1,189 survivors. After twenty months, Cuba released the captured exiles in exchange for a ransom of $ 53 million worth of food and medicine. Despite the lack of direct U.S. military involvement, the Soviet Union, Cuba, and the international community all recognized that the U.S. had backed the invasion. Kennedy focused primarily on the political repercussions of the plan rather than military considerations. In

51480-400: The request of his brother John, joining in what was ultimately an unsuccessful effort to help JFK get the vice-presidential nomination . From 1957 to 1959, he made a name for himself while serving as the chief counsel to the U.S. Senate's Select Committee on Improper Activities in Labor and Management (also known as the Senate Rackets Committee) under chairman John L. McClellan . Kennedy

51744-411: The resumption of nuclear testing. In his address to the United Nations on September 25, 1961, Kennedy challenged the Soviet Union "not to an arms race, but to a peace race." Unsuccessful in his efforts to reach a diplomatic agreement, Kennedy reluctantly announced the resumption of atmospheric testing on April 25, 1962. Soviet-American relations improved after the resolution of the Cuban Missile Crisis, and

52008-404: The risk of nuclear war. Prior to the summit, Harriman advised Kennedy, "[Khrushchev's] style will be to attack you and see if he can get away with it. Laugh about it, don't get into a fight. Rise above it. Have some fun." On the way to the summit, Kennedy stopped in Paris to meet French President Charles de Gaulle , who advised him to ignore Khrushchev's abrasive style. The French president feared

52272-468: The school yearbook and was voted the "most likely to succeed." Kennedy intended to study under Harold Laski at the London School of Economics , as his older brother had done. Ill health forced his return to the U.S. in October 1935, when he enrolled late at Princeton University , but had to leave after two months due to gastrointestinal illness. In September 1936, Kennedy enrolled at Harvard College . He wrote occasionally for The Harvard Crimson ,

52536-405: The schools in my home state of Massachusetts. In this case, in all cases, I say to you today that if the orders of the court are circumvented, the Department of Justice will act. We will not stand by or be aloof—we will move. I happen to believe that the 1954 decision was right. But my belief does not matter. It is now the law. Some of you may believe the decision was wrong. That does not matter. It

52800-567: The shadow of another Kennedy. At the time, Johnson privately said of Kennedy, "I don't need that little runt to win", while Kennedy privately said of Johnson that he was "mean, bitter, vicious—an animal in many ways." An April 1964 Gallup poll reported Kennedy as the vice-presidential choice of 47 percent of Democratic voters. Coming in a distant second and third were Adlai Stevenson with 18 percent and Hubert Humphrey with 10 percent. Although Johnson confided to aides on several occasions that he might be forced to accept Kennedy in order to secure

53064-441: The sites, it might lead to nuclear war with the U.S.S.R., but if the U.S. did nothing, it would be faced with the increased threat from close-range nuclear weapons (positioned approximately 90 mi (140 km) away from the Florida coast). The U.S. would also appear to the world as less committed to the defense of the Western Hemisphere. On a personal level, Kennedy needed to show resolve in reaction to Khrushchev, especially after

53328-450: The situation on campus turned violent. The ensuing Ole Miss riot of 1962 resulted in 300 injuries and two deaths, but Kennedy remained adamant that black students had the right to the benefits of all levels of the educational system. Kennedy saw voting as the key to racial justice and collaborated with Presidents Kennedy and Johnson to create the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 , which helped bring an end to Jim Crow laws . Throughout

53592-420: The southern tip of the Solomon's Kolombangara Island. Intelligence had been sent to Kennedy's Commander Thomas G. Warfield expecting the arrival of the large Japanese naval force that would pass on the evening of August 1. Of the 24 torpedoes fired that night by eight of the American PTs, not one hit the Japanese convoy. On that moonless night, Kennedy spotted a Japanese destroyer heading north on its return from

53856-400: The spring of 1964, Kennedy worked alongside Senator Hubert Humphrey and Senate Minority Leader Everett Dirksen in search of language that could work for the Republican caucus and overwhelm the Southern Democrats' filibuster . In May, a deal was secured that could obtain a two-thirds majority in the Senate—enough to end debate. Kennedy did not see the civil rights bill as simply directed at

54120-448: The start of his first term, Kennedy focused on fulfilling the promise of his campaign to do "more for Massachusetts" than his predecessor. Although Kennedy's and Lodge's legislative records were similarly liberal, Lodge voted for the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 and Kennedy voted against it. On NBC 's Meet the Press , Kennedy excoriated Lodge for not doing enough to prevent the increasing migration of manufacturing jobs from Massachusetts to

54384-415: The state delegation to the party's presidential nominee, Adlai Stevenson II , at the Democratic National Convention in August. Stevenson let the convention select the vice presidential nominee . Kennedy finished second in the balloting, losing to Senator Estes Kefauver of Tennessee, but receiving national exposure. In 1957, Kennedy joined the Senate's Select Committee on Labor Rackets (also known as

54648-445: The state security police". Yale law professor Charles Reich wrote in The New Republic that the Justice Department had violated civil liberties by calling a federal grand jury to indict U.S. Steel so quickly, then disbanding it after the price increase did not occur. As one of the president's closest White House advisers, Kennedy played a crucial role in the events surrounding the Berlin Crisis of 1961 . Operating mainly through

54912-413: The strike because it would emphasize the American sponsorship of the invasion. CIA director Allen Dulles later stated that they thought the president would authorize any action required for success once the troops were on the ground. The invading force was defeated within two days by the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces ; 114 were killed and over 1,100 were taken prisoner. Kennedy was forced to negotiate for

55176-547: The strongly Democratic 11th congressional district of Massachusetts to become mayor of Boston in 1946. Kennedy established legal residency at 122 Bowdoin Street across from the Massachusetts State House . Kennedy won the Democratic primary with 42 percent of the vote, defeating nine other candidates. According to Fredrik Logevall, Joe Sr. spent hours on the phone with reporters and editors, seeking information, trading confidences, and cajoling them into publishing puff pieces on John, ones that invariably played up his war record in

55440-559: The student in an impromptu debate. Kennedy's calmness under fire and willingness to take the student's questions seriously won many admirers in Japan and praise from the Japanese media, both for himself and on his brother's behalf. When President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas on November 22, 1963, Robert Kennedy was at home with aides from the Justice Department. J. Edgar Hoover called and told him his brother had been shot. Hoover then hung up before he could ask any questions. Kennedy later said he thought Hoover had enjoyed telling him

55704-522: The suspected associations. In response, King agreed to ask suspected communist Jack O'Dell to resign from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), but he refused to heed to the request to ask Stanley Levison , whom he regarded as a trusted advisor, to resign. In October 1963, Kennedy issued a written directive authorizing the FBI to wiretap King and other leaders of the SCLC, King's civil rights organization. Although Kennedy only gave written approval for limited wiretapping of King's phones "on

55968-402: The ticket would appeal to Southern voters, and he thought that Johnson could serve as a valuable liaison to the Senate. Incumbent Vice President Richard Nixon easily won the 1960 Republican Party presidential primaries . Nixon chose Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. , the chief U.S. delegate to the United Nations , as his running mate. Both presidential nominees traveled extensively during the course of

56232-459: The train window. "Couldn't something be done about the poor people living in those bleak tenements?" he asked. Six weeks before his 18th birthday in 1943, Kennedy enlisted in the United States Naval Reserve as a seaman apprentice . He was released from active duty in March 1944, when he left Milton Academy early to report to the V-12 Navy College Training Program at Harvard College in Cambridge, Massachusetts from March to November 1944. He

56496-483: The two of them as "misfits", a commonality that drew him to Kennedy, along with an unwillingness to conform to how others acted even if doing so meant not being accepted. He had an early sense of virtue; he disliked dirty jokes and bullying, once stepping in when an upperclassman tried bothering a younger student. The headmaster at Milton would later summarize that he was a "very intelligent boy, quiet and shy, but not outstanding, and he left no special mark on Milton". As

56760-478: The war and its origins, and quickly became a bestseller. In addition to addressing Britain's unwillingness to strengthen its military in the lead-up to the war, the book called for an Anglo-American alliance against the rising totalitarian powers. Kennedy became increasingly supportive of U.S. intervention in World War II, and his father's isolationist beliefs resulted in the latter's dismissal as ambassador. In 1940, Kennedy graduated cum laude from Harvard with

57024-419: The withdrawal continued, but the U.S. ended the naval blockade on November 20, and most Soviet soldiers left Cuba by early 1963. The U.S. publicly promised never to invade Cuba and privately agreed to remove its missiles in Italy and Turkey; the missiles were by then obsolete and had been supplanted by submarines equipped with UGM-27 Polaris missiles. In the aftermath of the crisis, a Moscow–Washington hotline

57288-547: The world, ask of us here the same high standards of strength and sacrifice which we ask of you. The address reflected Kennedy's confidence that his administration would chart a historically significant course in both domestic policy and foreign affairs. The contrast between this optimistic vision and the pressures of managing daily political realities would be one of the main tensions of the early years of his administration. Robert F. Kennedy Robert Francis Kennedy (November 20, 1925 – June 6, 1968), also known as RFK ,

57552-424: The world, ask of us here the same high standards of strength and sacrifice which we ask of you. The address reflected Kennedy's confidence that his administration would chart a historically significant course in both domestic policy and foreign affairs. The contrast between this optimistic vision and the pressures of managing daily political realities at home and abroad would be one of the main tensions running through

57816-431: The younger Kennedy became the "assistant president" who advised on all major issues. McNamara and Dillon also emerged as important advisers from the cabinet. Kennedy scrapped the decision-making structure of Eisenhower, preferring an organizational structure of a wheel with all the spokes leading to the president; he was ready and willing to make the increased number of quick decisions required in such an environment. Though

58080-465: Was "more and more becoming colonists in the minds of the people." In late 1961, Kennedy sent Roger Hilsman , then director of the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR), to assess the situation in Vietnam. There, Hilsman met Sir Robert Grainger Ker Thompson , head of the British Advisory Mission to South Vietnam, and the Strategic Hamlet Program was formed. It was approved by Kennedy and South Vietnam President Ngo Dinh Diem . It

58344-493: Was a naval blockade , designed to prevent further arms shipments to Cuba. Though he had initially favored an immediate air strike, the president quickly came to favor the naval blockade the first method of response, while retaining the option of an airstrike at a later date. EXCOMM voted 11-to-6 in favor of the naval blockade, which was also supported by British ambassador David Ormsby-Gore and Eisenhower, both of whom were consulted privately. On October 22, after privately informing

58608-554: Was a " carpetbagger " from Massachusetts . In office, Kennedy opposed U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War and raised awareness of poverty by sponsoring legislation designed to lure private business to blighted communities (i.e., Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration project ). He was an advocate for issues related to human rights and social justice by traveling abroad to eastern Europe, Latin America, and South Africa , and formed working relationships with Martin Luther King Jr., Cesar Chavez , and Walter Reuther . In 1968 , Kennedy became

58872-465: Was a friend of William Randolph Hearst , arranged a position for his son as a special correspondent for Hearst Newspapers ; the assignment kept Kennedy's name in the public eye and "expose[d] him to journalism as a possible career." That May he went to Berlin as a correspondent, covering the Potsdam Conference and other events. Kennedy's elder brother Joe Jr. had been the family's political standard-bearer and had been tapped by their father to seek

59136-493: Was a key advisor on domestic issues who also wrote many of Kennedy's speeches. Other important advisers and staffers included Larry O'Brien , Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. , press secretary Pierre Salinger , General Maxwell D. Taylor , and W. Averell Harriman . Kennedy maintained cordial relations with Vice President Johnson, who was involved in issues like civil rights and space policy, but Johnson did not emerge as an especially influential vice president. William Willard Wirtz Jr.

59400-406: Was able to earn the support of just enough delegates to win the presidential nomination on the first ballot. Kennedy ignored the opposition of his brother Robert, who wanted him to choose labor leader Walter Reuther , and other liberal supporters when he chose Johnson as his vice-presidential nominee. He believed that the Texas senator could help him win support from the South . In accepting

59664-531: Was adrift while trying to prove himself to his family. Kenneth O'Donnell and Larry O'Brien (who worked on John's congressional campaigns) urged Kennedy to consider running for Massachusetts Attorney General in 1954, but he declined. After a period as an assistant to his father on the Hoover Commission , Kennedy rejoined the Senate committee staff as chief counsel for the Democratic minority in February 1954. That month, McCarthy's chief counsel Roy Cohn subpoenaed Annie Lee Moss , accusing her of membership in

59928-535: Was also the first Roman Catholic elected to the presidency. Kennedy placed Clark Clifford in charge of his transition effort. Kennedy was inaugurated as the nation's 35th president on January 20, 1961, on the East Portico of the United States Capitol . Chief Justice Earl Warren administered the oath of office . In his inaugural address, Kennedy spoke of the need for all Americans to be active citizens, famously saying: "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country." He also invited

60192-401: Was an American politician and lawyer. He served as the 64th United States attorney general from January 1961 to September 1964, and as a U.S. senator from New York from January 1965 until his assassination in June 1968, when he was running for the Democratic presidential nomination. Like his brothers John F. Kennedy and Ted Kennedy , he was a prominent member of the Democratic Party and

60456-431: Was an upperclassman at Harvard, he began to take his studies more seriously and developed an interest in political philosophy . He made the dean's list in his junior year. In 1940, Kennedy completed his thesis, "Appeasement in Munich", about British negotiations during the Munich Agreement . The thesis was released on July 24, under the title Why England Slept . The book was one of the first to offer information about

60720-412: Was appointed Secretary of Defense. Rejecting liberal pressure to choose Stevenson as Secretary of State, Kennedy instead turned to Dean Rusk , a restrained former Truman official, to lead the Department of State. Stevenson accepted a non-policy role as the ambassador to the United Nations. In spite of concerns over nepotism , Kennedy's father insisted that Robert F. Kennedy become Attorney General, and

60984-441: Was appointed by family friend Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy as one of 15 assistant counsel to the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations . Kennedy disapproved of McCarthy's aggressive methods of garnering intelligence on suspected communists. He resigned in July 1953, but "retained a fondness for McCarthy". The period of July 1953 to January 1954 saw him at "a professional and personal nadir", feeling that he

61248-402: Was assigned to Motor Torpedo Squadron TWO, and on April 24 he took command of PT-109 , then based on Tulagi Island in the Solomons . On the night of August 1–2, in support of the New Georgia campaign , PT-109 and fourteen other PTs were ordered to block or repel four Japanese destroyers and floatplanes carrying food, supplies, and 900 Japanese soldiers to the Vila Plantation garrison on

61512-441: Was assigned to the ONI field office at Headquarters, Sixth Naval District , in Charleston, South Carolina . His hope was to be the commander of a PT (patrol torpedo) boat , but his health problems seemed almost certain to prevent active duty. Kennedy's father intervened by providing misleading medical records and convincing PT officers that his presence would bring publicity to the fleet. Kennedy completed six months of training at

61776-407: Was awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal , and the injuries he suffered during the incident qualified him for a Purple Heart . After a month's recovery Kennedy returned to duty, commanding the PT-59 . On November 2, Kennedy's PT-59 took part with two other PTs in the rescue of 40–50 marines. The 59 acted as a shield from shore fire as they escaped on two rescue landing craft at the base of

62040-509: Was convicted in Chattanooga, Tennessee , of attempted bribery of a grand juror during his 1962 conspiracy trial in Nashville and sentenced to eight years in prison and a $ 10,000 fine. After learning of Hoffa's conviction by telephone, Kennedy issued congratulatory messages to the three prosecutors. While on bail during his appeal, Hoffa was convicted in a second trial held in Chicago , on July 26, 1964, on one count of conspiracy and three counts of mail and wire fraud for improper use of

62304-400: Was deported to Guatemala , while Aiuppa was convicted of violating of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 . In 1961, Kennedy worked to secure the passage of anti-racketeering legislation (Wire Act, Travel Act, and Interstate Transportation of Paraphernalia Act) to prohibit interstate gambling. The Federal Wire Act specifically targeted the use of wire communications and sought to disrupt

62568-504: Was easy. They cut my PT boat in half." On August 12, 1944, Kennedy's older brother, Joe Jr. , a navy pilot, was killed on an air mission. His body was never recovered. The news reached the family's home in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, a day later. Kennedy felt that Joe Jr.'s reckless flight was partly an effort to outdo him. To console himself, Kennedy set out to assemble a privately published book of remembrances of his brother, As We Remember Joe . In April 1945, Kennedy's father, who

62832-417: Was elected president, narrowly defeating Republican opponent Richard Nixon , the incumbent vice president. Kennedy's presidency saw high tensions with communist states in the Cold War. He increased the number of American military advisers in South Vietnam , and the Strategic Hamlet Program began during his presidency. In 1961, he authorized attempts to overthrow the Cuban government of Fidel Castro in

63096-412: Was eligible for the American Campaign Medal and the World War II Victory Medal . Throughout 1946, Kennedy became active in his brother John's campaign for the U.S. House seat vacated by James Michael Curley ; he joined the campaign full-time after his naval discharge. Schlesinger wrote that the election served as an entry into politics for both Robert and John. In September, Kennedy entered Harvard as

63360-424: Was established to ensure clear communications between the leaders of the two countries. The Cuban Missile Crisis brought the world closer to nuclear war than at any point before or since. In the end, "the humanity" of the two men prevailed. The crisis improved the image of American willpower and the president's credibility. Kennedy's approval rating increased from 66% to 77% immediately thereafter. Kennedy's handling of

63624-417: Was exploding a toilet seat with a firecracker. In the next chapel assembly, the headmaster, George St. John, brandished the toilet seat and spoke of "muckers" who would "spit in our sea," leading Kennedy to name his group "The Muckers Club," which included roommate and lifelong friend Lem Billings . Kennedy graduated from Choate in June 1935, finishing 64th of 112 students. He had been the business manager of

63888-406: Was given authority over testimony scheduling, areas of investigation, and witness questioning by McClellan, a move that was made by the chairman to limit attention to himself and allow outrage by organized labor to be directed toward Kennedy. In a famous scene, Kennedy and his brother John (also a member of the Senate Rackets Committee) squared off with Teamsters Union president Jimmy Hoffa during

64152-512: Was implemented in early 1962 and involved some forced relocation, village internment, and segregation of rural South Vietnamese into new communities where the peasantry would be isolated from communist insurgents. It was hoped that these new communities would provide security for the peasants and strengthen the tie between them and the central government. By November 1963, the program waned and officially ended in 1964. On January 18, 1962, Kennedy formally authorized escalated involvement when he signed

64416-479: Was in session, Kennedy would fly back to Massachusetts to give speeches to veteran, fraternal, and civic groups, while maintaining an index card file on individuals who might be helpful for a campaign for statewide office. Contemplating whether to run for Massachusetts governor or the U.S. Senate , Kennedy abandoned interest in the former, believing that the governor "sat in an office, handing out sewer contracts." As early as 1949, Kennedy began preparing to run for

64680-399: Was marked by Cold War tensions with the Soviet Union and Cuba . In Cuba, a failed attempt was made in April 1961 at the Bay of Pigs to overthrow the government of Fidel Castro . In October 1962, the Kennedy administration learned that Soviet ballistic missiles had been deployed in Cuba; the resulting Cuban Missile Crisis carried a risk of nuclear war , but ended in a compromise with

64944-540: Was named chairman of the President's Committee on Juvenile Delinquency and Youth Crime (PCJD), with lifelong friend David Hackett as director. After visits to blighted communities, Kennedy and Hackett concluded that delinquency was the result of racial discrimination and lack of opportunities. The committee held that government must not impose solutions but empower the poor to develop their own. The PCJD provided comprehensive services (education, employment, and job training) that encouraged self-sufficiency. In September 1961,

65208-433: Was needed to be done in our home, our own town, or our own city." The ultimate solution "is a truly major effort at the local level to deal with the racial problem—Negroes and whites working together, within the structure of the law, obedience to the law, and respect for the law." Between December 1961 and December 1963, Kennedy also expanded the United States Department of Justice Civil Rights Division by 60 percent. At

65472-444: Was not effective in stemming communist-inspired Third World revolutions. Fearful of the possibility of a global nuclear war , Kennedy implemented a new strategy known as flexible response . This strategy relied on conventional arms to achieve limited goals. As part of this policy, Kennedy expanded the United States special operations forces , elite military units that could fight unconventionally in various conflicts. Kennedy hoped that

65736-454: Was raised at the Kennedy Compound in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts ; La Querida in Palm Beach, Florida ; and Bronxville, New York ; as well as London , where his father served as the U.S. ambassador to the Court of St James's from 1938 to 1940. When the Kennedy family returned to the United States just before the outbreak of World War II in Europe, Robert was shipped off to an assortment of boarding schools in New England : St. Paul's ,

66000-445: Was reelected to the Teamsters presidency, RFK told reporters the government's case against Hoffa had not been changed by what he called "a small group of teamsters" supporting him. The following year, it was leaked that Hoffa had claimed to a Teamster local that Kennedy had been "bodily" removed from his office, the statement being confirmed by a Teamster press agent and Hoffa saying Kennedy had only been ejected. On March 4, 1964, Hoffa

66264-403: Was released from active duty. Beginning in January 1945, Kennedy spent three months recovering from his back injury at Castle Hot Springs , a resort and temporary military hospital in Arizona. On March 1, 1945, Kennedy retired from the Navy Reserve on physical disability and was honorably discharged with the full rank of lieutenant. When later asked how he became a war hero, Kennedy joked: "It

66528-426: Was relentless in his pursuit of Teamsters Union president Jimmy Hoffa, due to Hoffa's known corruption in financial and electoral matters, both personally and organizationally, creating a so-called "Get Hoffa" squad of prosecutors and investigators. The enmity between the two men was intense, with accusations of a personal vendetta—what Hoffa called a "blood feud"—exchanged between them. On July 7, 1961, after Hoffa

66792-429: Was relocated to Bates College in Lewiston, Maine from November 1944 to June 1945, where he received a specialized V-12-degree along with 15 others. During the college's winter carnival , Robert built a snow replica of a Navy boat. He returned to Harvard in June 1945, completing his post-training requirements in January 1946. Kennedy's oldest brother Joseph Jr. died in August 1944, when his bomber exploded during

67056-436: Was selected as Secretary of the Treasury. Kennedy balanced the appointment of the relatively conservative Dillon by selecting liberal Democrats to hold two other important economic advisory posts; David E. Bell became the Director of the Bureau of the Budget , while Walter Heller served as the Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers . Robert McNamara , who was well known as one of Ford Motor Company 's " Whiz Kids ",

67320-399: Was solely responsible for what happened and that he did not have any outside help or assistance. He was a malcontent who could not get along here or in the Soviet Union." He added, "I have not read the report, nor do I intend to. But I have been briefed on it and I am completely satisfied that the Commission investigated every lead and examined every piece of evidence. The Commission's inquiry

67584-447: Was the youngest person elected president. Kennedy served at the height of the Cold War , and the majority of his foreign policy concerned relations with the Soviet Union and Cuba . A Democrat , Kennedy represented Massachusetts in both houses of the United States Congress prior to his presidency. Born into the prominent Kennedy family in Brookline, Massachusetts , Kennedy graduated from Harvard University in 1940, joining

67848-451: Was the youngest person ever elected to the presidency (though Theodore Roosevelt was a year younger when he succeeded to the presidency after the assassination of William McKinley in 1901). Kennedy was sworn in as the 35th president at noon on January 20, 1961. In his inaugural address , he spoke of the need for all Americans to be active citizens: "Ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country." He asked

68112-409: Was the first major labor relations bill to pass either house since the Taft–Hartley Act of 1947 and dealt largely with the control of union abuses exposed by the McClellan Committee but did not incorporate tough Taft–Hartley amendments requested by President Eisenhower. It survived Senate floor attempts to include Taft-Hartley amendments and passed but was rejected by the House. "Honest union members and

68376-641: Was the last surviving member of Kennedy's cabinet, and died on April 24, 2010. Kennedy made two appointments to the United States Supreme Court . After the resignation of Charles Evans Whittaker in early 1962, President Kennedy assigned Attorney General Kennedy to conduct a search of potential successors, and the attorney general compiled a list consisting of Deputy Attorney General Byron White , Secretary of Labor Arthur Goldberg , federal appellate judge William H. Hastie , legal professor Paul A. Freund , and two state supreme court justices. Kennedy narrowed his choice down to Goldberg and White, and he ultimately chose

68640-449: Was the only Democrat not to cast a vote against him. Kennedy drafted a speech supporting the censure. However, it was not delivered because Kennedy was hospitalized for back surgery in Boston. Although Kennedy never indicated how he would have voted, the episode damaged his support among members of the liberal community in the 1956 and 1960 elections. In 1956, Kennedy gained control of the Massachusetts Democratic Party , and delivered

68904-412: Was thorough and conscientious." After a meeting with Kennedy in 1966, historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. wrote: "It is evident that he believes that [the Warren Commission's report] was a poor job and will not endorse it, but that he is unwilling to criticize it and thereby reopen the whole tragic business." According to Soviet archives, William Walton was sent to the Soviet Union by Robert Kennedy in

69168-404: Was to prepare the country for nuclear war, which he personally thought had a one-in-five chance of occurring. President Kennedy called Berlin "the great testing place of Western courage and will." In the weeks immediately after the Vienna summit, more than 20,000 people fled from East Berlin to the western sector in reaction to statements from the Soviet Union. Kennedy began intensive meetings on

69432-592: Was touring the Boston wards with his grandfather Fitzgerald during his 1922 failed gubernatorial campaign. With Joe Sr.'s business ventures concentrated on Wall Street and Hollywood and an outbreak of polio in Massachusetts , the family decided to move from Boston to the Riverdale neighborhood of New York City in September 1927. Several years later, his brother Robert told Look magazine that his father left Boston because of job signs that read: " No Irish Need Apply ." The Kennedys spent summers and early autumns at their home in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts ,

69696-416: Was very awkward ... [a]nd I was pretty quiet most of the time. And I didn't mind being alone." At Milton Academy, Kennedy met and became friends with David Hackett . Hackett admired Kennedy's determination to bypass his shortcomings, and remembered him redoubling his efforts whenever something did not come easy to him, which included athletics, studies, success with girls, and popularity. Hackett remembered

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