John Fitzgerald Kennedy

Biography

John Fitzgerald Kennedy was born the May 29th 1917 with Brookline, Massachusetts, crested suburbs of Boston. He is the second of a family which counts 9 children. His/her parents, Joe Kennedy, which made fortune in the years 1930, and Pink Fitzgerald, girl of the mayor of Boston, are the descendants of families originating in Ireland. His/her father, who supported Franklin Delano Roosevelt at the time of the election of 1933, became Ambassade ur the United States with the the United Kingdom in 1938.

The Kennedy young person receives an education in one of the best private schools with Wallingford, Connecticut. In September 1935, it integrates off the London School Economics under the supervision of professor Laski, but must stop its studies, because it is reached of Jaunisse. It integrates thereafter the Université of Princeton, but must again stop its studies after only six weeks and is made hospitalize at the Brigham hospital of Boston. The following year, it integrates the Université Harvard.

He visits Europe and writes his thesis on the British participation in the Accords of Munich. He is graduate with mention at 23 years and its thesis will be published under the title Why England slept .

Military service

In spring 1941, Kennedy wants to enlist in the army, but is declared inapt because of its problems of back: it is actually reached Maladie of Addison, a kind of deficiency of the glands suprarenals, which produce Hormone S osseous anti-pains, still mortal at her time.

The Ostéoporose weakens its vertebrae gradually, causing underhand back painses that Dr. Jacobson, called D Feelgood (which one can translate by “D Wellbeing”), will decrease later thanks to the injection powerful Calming S.

His/her older brother, Joseph Junior, having been enlisted by USAAF, JFK utilizes his/her father near the authorities of the US Navy which, finally, accept it. It is useful on several ships of the American fleet of the Pacific and becomes commander of a patrol with the rank of lieutenant.

The August 2nd 1943, its patrol craft, Pt 109 , is cut into two by the Japanese destroyer Amagiri with broad of the the Solomon Islands. Kennedy is projected on the bridge and is wounded with the back, which worsens its pains; he succeeds in spite of very hauling a member of his crew wounded on nearly five kilometers and putting foot on an island, where its crew will be recovered. This feat of arms is worth the to him Médaille of the Navy with the following quotation:

Kennedy will receive other decorations during the war, of which the Purple Heart. He is demobilized at the beginning of 1945 a few months before the capitulation of Japan.

Political career

After the Second world war, Kennedy begins a political career while being made elect with the Chambre of the representatives in a district with democratic majority. He is re-elected twice in spite of his positions which are not always in agreement with those of the president Harry S. Truman or of the Democratic party.

In 1952, he is candidate with the seat of senator with the slogan: “Kennedy will make some more for the Massachusetts”. He succeeds in beating his republican competitor, the outgoing senator Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. However, he is not opposed to the senator Joseph McCarthy, a family friend, who carries out a aggressive countryside with an aim of extirpating the alleged communist spies within the government. He benefits from one stay at the hospital not to vote the motion of censure against McCarthy in 1954, which will be reproached to him a long time by the left wing of the democratic party, Adlai Stevenson and Eleanor Roosevelt at the head.

Marriage

The September 12th 1953, it marries Jacqueline Lee Bouvier with which it will have four children: Arrabella (1956, dull), Caroline (1957), John Fitzgerald Kennedy Jr. (1960-1999) and Patrick (1963, deceased two days after its birth).

It is constrained to be made operate on several occasions because of problems of back and will receive even the Extrême oiling with three recoveries. For this period, it publishes a book Profiles in Courage ( Portraits of courageous men ), where it makes the biography of eight senators who risked their careers to defend their point of view. This book will receive the Prix Pulitzer in 1957.

The presidential election

Kennedy declares candidate in 1960. The Democratic party must choose between the senators Hubert Humphrey, Lyndon B. Johnson and Adlai Stevenson. Kennedy carries the primary elections in certain key States, like the Wisconsin and the Virginia-Western and obtains the nomination of his party to national Convention. Its fellow candidate will be Lyndon B. Johnson, supported by the States of the South. During the electoral campaign, the debates turn around the role of the United States in the world, of the problem of poverty, the economy and the balance of terror vis-a-vis the missiles carrying nuclear weapons of the Soviet Union, but also on the religion Catholique practiced by the candidate.

In September and in October 1960, Kennedy and the republican candidate Richard Nixon discuss for the first time on television. Nixon appears nervous, in sweat and badly shaven, moreover one recurring pain to the knee makes it suffer. Vis-a-vis a calm and controlled Kennedy, Nixon “passes” badly to the screen and arises weakened televised confrontation, whereas the citizens having followed the debate to the radio estimate that Nixon was slightly more convincing. These debates are thus regarded as founders of a certain modern policy since, for the first time, the manner of being held vis-a-vis a camera becomes an important component in an election.

The policy of Kennedy, called “New Border”, envisages the Détente towards the USSR, sending a man on the the Moon, the equality of the Blacks and the White, the revival of the economy, the fight against the Pègre and the stop of the communist expansion in the world.

The election takes place the November 8th 1960; Kennedy beats Nixon of very little. Rumors circulate thereafter on the fact that his/her father, Joe, would have used his bonds with the American Mafia so that certain decisive counties “vote well”. At 43 years, John is the youngest elected president: Theodore Roosevelt was younger at the time of its accession to the presidency, but it succeeded William McKinley, deceased in the course of mandate. He is also the first president of Catholic religion.

Presidency

1961

January 20th: nomination of John F. Kennedy like 35e President of the United States. Its speech remained in the memory of the Americans: You who, like me, are American, you do not ask what your country can do for you, but ask what you can do for your country. You who, like me, are citizens of the world, you do not ask what the United States can do for the world, but ask what you can do for the world.

February 2nd: Kennedy proposes with the Congress his industrial relations policy in order to put an end to the economic recession. It includes a program of ticket-food and an increase in the allowances for the unemployed and the people without resources.

March 1st: Kennedy signs a decree creating the Corps of Peace, one of the most outstanding institutions of his government.

March 28th: It launches a program of armament among most important in times of peace. It doubles the number of intercontinental ballistic nuclear missiles Polaris, increases the number of bomber S strategic and increases that of the other missiles; it increases also the number of divisions in state of alert and quadruple the units of fights anti Guérilla S.

16 April 18th: the Kennedy government tries to apply a plan initially prepared by Dwight Eisenhower, to reverse Fidel Castro, the communist Cuban president. With the assistance of the CIA: 1500 exiled cuban turns over in the island and tries to rejoin the population; it is a failure which is known under the name of “the invasion of bay of the pigs”. In less than two days, Kennedy refusing any air support, the government keep silent castrist or captive fact exiled and Kennedy must negotiate their release. It will be obtained after 20 months at the cost of 53 million USD in food and drugs. Kennedy, in a speech, declares only person in charge of the disaster, but into private, he declares that the CIA lied to him and handled it so that he gives the order of the total invasion of Cuba. Allen Welsh Dulles, director of the CIA, will be dismissed and the remainder of the mandate of Kennedy will be marked by a certain mistrust towards the community of the intelligence services (the CIA and FBI).

May 25th: Kennedy announces the launching of a space program so that an American puts the foot on the Moon before a Soviet. It is the speech updating the Nouvelle Border space.

August 13rd: the East-German government, under the control of the USSR, begins construction from the Berlin Wall separating the sectors East and West from the city in order to prevent the exodus of the population towards the West. Although this act is contrary with the agreement between the four great powers, Kennedy does not prevent it and will not make large thing during its extension on 155 km of borders.

September 3rd: Kennedy signs the law on the minimum wage and extends his scope of application.

September 30th: a black student is registered for the first time at the university of state of the the Mississippi; demonstrators oppose desegregation and the Minister for justice, Robert Kennedy - brother of the president - uses: 23000 federal agents to counter the demonstrators. The scuffles make two dead among the demonstrators and 160 wounded among the police force.

1962

September 12th: he makes his speech We choose to go to the Moon , which influences in a major way the American space policy.

October 14th: planes - American spies U2 photograph Soviet sites of missiles in construction with Cuba. Kennedy is confronted with a dilemma: either it tackles the sites by risking a nuclear confrontation with the USSR, or it does not do anything and the United States must live under the threat of tactical nuclear weapons close to them. Kennedy decides a blockade of the island and starts negotiations with the president of the Soviet Council of Ministers Nikita Khrouchtchev. An agreement will be found after several weeks of diplomatic negotiations, the United States beginning not to invade Cuba and to withdraw their missiles established in Turkey.

1963

June 11th: Kennedy makes a speech on the civic rights: “We are, at the same time as country and people, vis-a-vis a crisis of the values morals”.

June 26th: Kennedy visits Western Berlin and makes a speech remained famous during which it will launch the sentence Ich bin ein Berliner (“I am a Berliner”).

August 28th: Kennedy meets Martin Luther King and the other leaders of the movement for the civic rights after a demonstration, which gathers more: 250000 Americans, in front of the memorial with the president Lincoln.

October: Kennedy considers a disengagement of the American military advisers to the Vietnam and an increase in the assistance for the drive of the South Vietnamese forces.

October 7th: Kennedy signs the Traité prohibition of the nuclear tests , the first allowing to consider a disarmament.

November 21st: It prepares its policy of “fight against poverty” for its action plan to be implemented in 1964.

November 22nd: It starts the countryside for its re-election by a voyage to Texas, which had voted mainly for Nixon, therefore republican. The presidential plane Air Force One lands on the airport of Dallas Love Field , where Kennedy and his wife are accommodated cordially. Towards 12:30, whereas the presidential procession moves towards Dealey Plaza , several shots are drawn, the governor John Connally is touched, Kennedy is reached in full head. He will die little of time after at the Parkland hospital. Its assassination to date remains, for much, unsolved, feeding the most insane rumors and assumptions.

November 25th: The President is buried with the military cemetery of Arlington

1964

September 27th: The board of inquiry indicated by Lyndon Johnson, known under the name of Commission Warren, concludes that the assassin of Kennedy, Lee Oswald, acted only.

Foreign politics

The mandate of Kennedy is marked by the Cold war between the Soviet Union and the United States and the major crises intended to counter the communist expansion. Of the beginning of its presidency, he thinks that the world can improve by peaceful means and it created the regiments of peace. This program, which always exists, makes it possible American volunteers to help the countries underdeveloped in the fields of education, agriculture, health and the building.

Kennedy developed close bonds of friendship with the United Kingdom and the FRG. However, the relations with Canada will be weak, John Diefenbaker not supporting Kennedy and reciprocally. Next Canadian the Prime Minister Pearson will get along very well with him and accepts the installation of American nuclear bases in Canada. The relations with France of De Gaulle are weak, but the two leaders have a large respect for each one and French people admire Kennedy.

The Crise of the missiles of Cuba watch that the risk of a nuclear war is not negligible, from where an attitude more measured in Europe, even when East Germany launches the construction of the Berlin Wall and that the countries of the Eastern bloc will make their borders almost tight. After an attempt at withdrawal, Kennedy will try despite everything to contain the Soviet expansion by sending military advisers, then troops, with the Vietnam. But, in October 1963, Kennedy a memorandum ordering signs the withdrawal of: 1000 soldiers of Vietnam before the end of 1963 and of all the American soldiers, without exception, before the end of 1965. This memorandum will be cancelled by Lyndon B. Johnson.

Kennedy signs a treaty of prohibition of the nuclear tests in the atmosphere to fight against the proliferation of the armaments and the long-term effects of the radioactive fallout. The United States, the United Kingdom and the USSR will be the first signatories and Kennedy will consider that it is one of the major actions of its government.

Interior policy

Kennedy militates for the racial Déségrégation, while taking for model Abraham Lincoln. He supports Martin Luther King, and meets it at the time of its walk on Washington, cd. in 1963.

One of the most important problems to which Kennedy must face is that to put an end to discriminatory measurements against the ethnic minorities which remain legal in certain States. A stop of 1954 of the Supreme court of the United States prohibits the segregation in the public schools, but remained dead letter in many States of the south. In addition, of discriminatory measurements remain always in force in other public places, such as the urban transport, the cinemas and the restaurants.

It makes much for the Space conquest, while launching the Programme Apollo ( We choose to go to the moon ).

On the social plan, its program Nouvelle Border aims at improving the fate of the modest classes and the Civic right of its black fellow-citizens. On these objectives, Kennedy often encounters, which is current in the United States, a Congress whose majority is not that of its political current. Here, however, the Congress is in democratic majority, but the latter is dominated by the democrats of the south, preserving Southerners hostile with the disappearance of the segregation.

Assassination

At the time of a pre-election visit of John F. Kennedy to Dallas, a presidential procession crosses the city at low speed, greeted by piled up crowd. Whereas the Limousine décapotée of the President passes on Dealey Plaza, of the shots burst. The president is initially wounded with the neck, while the governor Connally, sitting in front of him, is wounded with the chest, then a ball reaches the president with the head. At once transported with the Parkland Hospital , the president is stated died after half an hour of effort of reanimation vain. The world is dismayed by learning the news.

According to the official investigations, Lee Harvey Oswald assassinated the president, though the second investigation (that of HSCA) estimated that there had been conspiracy, which many people still believe.

The assassinations of president Kennedy, Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy, the brother of the former president, in 1968 make disappear three personalities headlights representative of a certain social progress during the years 1960.

Kennedy is buried in the national cemetery of Arlington, close to Washington, cd..

Anecdotes

May 29th 1962: Marilyn Monroe sings Happy birthday to celebrate the 45e birthday of the president to the Madison Square Garden. This sequence recorded by television belongs to the great moments of the little story and feeds pewters on the connection between it and Kennedy.

At the time of the official trip of the President accompanied by his wife with Paris, in June 1961, the success of Jackie is such as the President presented himself in the following way at the time of a reception: “I am the man who accompanies Jacqueline Kennedy in Paris”.

It was marked that when, at the time of a speech held with Western Berlin, president Kennedy pronounced his famous sentence: Ich bin ein Berliner , with the laughter was interfered with the cries approval because ein Berliner indicates a Boule of Berlin in German. It is about a urban Légende: this declaration collected an ovation in which no laughter is distinguished and, in any event, if a Berliner can indicate a fritter indeed, it is about a term used only out of Berlin. But the correct form would have been Ich bin Berliner .

Another legend urban circulating on Internet evokes coincidences between the life of Abraham Lincoln and that of Kennedy; these bringings together are at the price of some approximations, or even inventions.

Homages

The portrait of JFK is engraved on the part of a half-dollar. Its name was given to very many sites and buildings, such as the international airport of New York ( JFK Airport ), the theater of Washington ( Kennedy Center ) or centers it space shooting of Florida (Kennedy Space Center or Space center Kennedy). In Yukon, in Canada, a mountain was baptized in 1965 Mont Kennedy in his honor. This mountain of: 4238 meters was climbed for the first time in March 1965 by Robert Kennedy, George Senner and Jim Wittaker, the first American to have reached the top of the Everest. Once at the top, Robert Kennedy deposited a metal tube there containing the speech of nomination of JFK.

A Porte-avions was named in its honor in 1968: the US John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

Quotations

You do not ask what your country can do for you, but ask what you can do for your country. (Speech of nomination, January 20th, 1961)

, final sentence of the marked speech on June 26th, 1963 in West Berlin wedged in the middle of East Germany to announce clearly that E. - U. would not tolerate that is called into question the statute of the Western sector of the divided metropolis.

In last analysis, our common bond basic is that we live all the same small planet, we breathe all the same air, we cherish all the future of our children, and we all are mortals. (Speech with American University, Washington, D.C., June 10th, 1963)

In a time of movements and changes, it is truer than ever than knowledge is the capacity.

There are three true things: God, the human stupidity and the laughter. Since the two first exceed our understanding, we must arrange ourselves as well as possible with the third.

Never sacrifice your political convictions to be in the air of time.

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