Kennedy, John Fitzgerald

I

Introduction

Kennedy, John Fitzgerald (1917-1963), 35th President of the United States (1961-1963). John F. Kennedy was the youngest person ever to be elected president. He was also the first Roman Catholic president and the first president to be born in the 20th century.

Kennedy was assassinated before he completed his third year in office; therefore his achievements, both foreign and domestic, were somewhat curtailed. Nevertheless, his influence had spread worldwide, and his handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 is widely accepted to have prevented a nuclear confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union. Perhaps no other president has been as popular, with young people in particular admiring him. He brought to the presidency an awareness of the cultural and historical traditions of the United States and an appreciation of intellectual excellence. Because Kennedy so eloquently expressed the values of mid-20th-century America, and of the post-World War II world in general, his presidency had an importance and an aura beyond its immediate legislative and political achievements.

II

Early Life of John F. Kennedy

John Fitzgerald Kennedy was born on May 29, 1917, in Brookline, Massachusetts. He was the second of nine children of Joseph Patrick Kennedy. The Kennedy family had long been active in politics; both of his grandfathers had been prominent Boston politicians. Although Joseph Kennedy never held elective office, he held positions in the federal administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, including a tumultuous period as ambassador to the United Kingdom between 1938 and 1940.

A

Education of John F. Kennedy

John Kennedy’s education was disrupted by frequent illnesses, but he eventually graduated from Harvard in 1940. He used his undergraduate thesis at Harvard as the basis for a book, Why England Slept (1940), a study of Britain’s policy of appeasement as a logical response to German rearmament prior to World War II. The book gained attention in England and the United States. For a few months he attended Stanford University’s business school and then he travelled in South America.

B

John F. Kennedy’s Military Service

The United States finally entered World War II in December 1941 after Japan attacked the US naval base at Pearl Harbor. Kennedy hoped to fight in the war but in the spring of 1941 he was rejected by the US Army because of a back injury he had received playing American football at Harvard. Determined to see active service, he passed the US Navy physical examination after a five-month programme of special exercise.

Early in 1943 Kennedy became commander of PT Boat 109 in the south Pacific. In August 1943 the boat was rammed by a Japanese destroyer in waters off New Georgia in the Solomon Islands. The boat was sliced in half and 2 of the 13 men aboard were killed. Kennedy and the other survivors swam to a small island 5 km (3 mi) away. Kennedy towed a wounded crew member by clenching the long strap of the injured man’s life jacket between his teeth.

For the next four days, Kennedy swam along a water route that he knew American ships used. He finally encountered friendly natives on Cross Island. They took his message for help, carved on a coconut shell, to a US infantry patrol and Kennedy and his crew were finally rescued. For his “courage, endurance, and excellent leadership” Kennedy received the US Navy and Marine Corps Medal. Then, because of an attack of malaria and the recurrence of his back disorder, Kennedy returned to the United States for medical treatment.