Happy Birthday JFK
On May 29, 1917 (95 years ago today) John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States, was born in Brookline, Massachusetts.
In September 1936, a 19 year old John F. Kennedy enrolled at Harvard College, where he tried out for the football, golf, and swim teams and earned a spot on the varsity swim team. The next year he sailed to France, bringing his own his convertible, and spent ten weeks driving through Europe with his friend Lemoyne Billings. The following June, Kennedy sailed overseas with his father and brother Joe to work with his father, who was then Franklin D. Roosevelt's U.S. Ambassador to the Court of St. James's, at the American embassy in London. In 1939 he toured Europe, the Soviet Union, the Balkans, and the Middle East in preparation for his Harvard senior honors thesis. He then went to Czechoslovakia and Germany before returning to London on September 1, 1939, the day Germany invaded Poland. On September 3, 1939, 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 SS Athenia, before flying back to the U.S. from Foynes, Ireland, to Port Washington, New York on his first transatlantic flight.
As an upperclassman at Harvard, Kennedy became a more serious student and developed an interest in political philosophy. In his junior year he made the Dean's List and in 1940 Kennedy completed his thesis, entitled "Appeasement in Munich", about British participation in the Munich Agreement. His father had the thesis published and it became a bestseller under the title Why England Slept. Graduating from Harvard in 1940, he entered the Navy. In 1943, when his PT boat was rammed and sunk by a Japanese destroyer, Kennedy led the survivors through perilous waters to safety.
Back from the war, he became a Democratic Congressman from the Boston area, and in 1952 he was elected to the Senate. He married Jacqueline Bouvier on September 12, 1953. In 1955, while recuperating from a back operation, he wrote Profiles in Courage, which won the Pulitzer Prize in history.
In 1956 Kennedy almost gained the Democratic nomination for Vice President, and four years later was a first-ballot nominee for President. Aided by his performance in the first televised debates with the Republican candidate, Richard M. Nixon, he won the election by a narrow margin in the popular vote, becoming the first Roman Catholic President.
His Inaugural Address offered the memorable phrase: "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country." He had intended that his presidency would address a number of domestic issues, but he faced more urgent demands in international matters. At home he called for new civil rights legislation and challenged his nation to land a man on the moon. He began the Peace Corps, as he battled the challenge of Communist influences.
Shortly after his inauguration, Kennedy okayed a plan for a band of Cuban exiles to invade their homeland. The attempt to overthrow the regime of Fidel Castro was a failure. Soon thereafter, the Soviet Union renewed its campaign against West Berlin. Kennedy replied by reinforcing the Berlin garrison and increasing the Nation's military strength. The Russians sought to install nuclear missiles in Cuba. When this was discovered by air reconnaissance in October 1962, Kennedy imposed a quarantine on all offensive weapons bound for Cuba. While the world trembled on the brink of nuclear war, a settlement was ultimately negotiated in which the Russians backed down and agreed to take the missiles away in return for the removal of American missiles in Turkey. The two sides signed a nuclear test ban treaty of 1963.
Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas. Lee Harvey Oswald was charged with the crime, but was shot and killed two days later by Jack Ruby before a trial could take place. The FBI, the Warren Commission, and the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) all concluded that Oswald was the lone assassin, but many dispute this conclusion and are doubtful of a number of findings, including the "magic bullet theory." A film of the assassination taken by Abraham Zapruder raises serious doubt about the "lone gunman" theory.
Kennedy's romanticized legacy has been tarnished with the passage of time amid revelations about his numerous extra-marital affairs a number of women, including Marilyn Monroe, Gunilla von Post, Judith Campbell Exner (a woman with connections to mobster Sam Giancana), Mary Pinchot Meyer, Marlene Dietrich, and Mimi Alford. Some doctors have speculated that the drugs Kennedy required for Addison's disease had the side effect of increasing his libido and virility. Kennedy supposedly remarked to UK Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, "I wonder how it is for you, Harold? If I don't have a woman for three days, I get terrible headaches." According to one of his biographers Richard Reeves, much of this was covered up by a loyal staff. Reeves wrote "the logistics of Kennedy's liaisons ... required secrecy and devotion rare in the annals of the energetic service demanded by successful politicians."
In September 1936, a 19 year old John F. Kennedy enrolled at Harvard College, where he tried out for the football, golf, and swim teams and earned a spot on the varsity swim team. The next year he sailed to France, bringing his own his convertible, and spent ten weeks driving through Europe with his friend Lemoyne Billings. The following June, Kennedy sailed overseas with his father and brother Joe to work with his father, who was then Franklin D. Roosevelt's U.S. Ambassador to the Court of St. James's, at the American embassy in London. In 1939 he toured Europe, the Soviet Union, the Balkans, and the Middle East in preparation for his Harvard senior honors thesis. He then went to Czechoslovakia and Germany before returning to London on September 1, 1939, the day Germany invaded Poland. On September 3, 1939, 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 SS Athenia, before flying back to the U.S. from Foynes, Ireland, to Port Washington, New York on his first transatlantic flight.
As an upperclassman at Harvard, Kennedy became a more serious student and developed an interest in political philosophy. In his junior year he made the Dean's List and in 1940 Kennedy completed his thesis, entitled "Appeasement in Munich", about British participation in the Munich Agreement. His father had the thesis published and it became a bestseller under the title Why England Slept. Graduating from Harvard in 1940, he entered the Navy. In 1943, when his PT boat was rammed and sunk by a Japanese destroyer, Kennedy led the survivors through perilous waters to safety.
Back from the war, he became a Democratic Congressman from the Boston area, and in 1952 he was elected to the Senate. He married Jacqueline Bouvier on September 12, 1953. In 1955, while recuperating from a back operation, he wrote Profiles in Courage, which won the Pulitzer Prize in history.
In 1956 Kennedy almost gained the Democratic nomination for Vice President, and four years later was a first-ballot nominee for President. Aided by his performance in the first televised debates with the Republican candidate, Richard M. Nixon, he won the election by a narrow margin in the popular vote, becoming the first Roman Catholic President.
His Inaugural Address offered the memorable phrase: "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country." He had intended that his presidency would address a number of domestic issues, but he faced more urgent demands in international matters. At home he called for new civil rights legislation and challenged his nation to land a man on the moon. He began the Peace Corps, as he battled the challenge of Communist influences.
Shortly after his inauguration, Kennedy okayed a plan for a band of Cuban exiles to invade their homeland. The attempt to overthrow the regime of Fidel Castro was a failure. Soon thereafter, the Soviet Union renewed its campaign against West Berlin. Kennedy replied by reinforcing the Berlin garrison and increasing the Nation's military strength. The Russians sought to install nuclear missiles in Cuba. When this was discovered by air reconnaissance in October 1962, Kennedy imposed a quarantine on all offensive weapons bound for Cuba. While the world trembled on the brink of nuclear war, a settlement was ultimately negotiated in which the Russians backed down and agreed to take the missiles away in return for the removal of American missiles in Turkey. The two sides signed a nuclear test ban treaty of 1963.
Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas. Lee Harvey Oswald was charged with the crime, but was shot and killed two days later by Jack Ruby before a trial could take place. The FBI, the Warren Commission, and the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) all concluded that Oswald was the lone assassin, but many dispute this conclusion and are doubtful of a number of findings, including the "magic bullet theory." A film of the assassination taken by Abraham Zapruder raises serious doubt about the "lone gunman" theory.
Kennedy's romanticized legacy has been tarnished with the passage of time amid revelations about his numerous extra-marital affairs a number of women, including Marilyn Monroe, Gunilla von Post, Judith Campbell Exner (a woman with connections to mobster Sam Giancana), Mary Pinchot Meyer, Marlene Dietrich, and Mimi Alford. Some doctors have speculated that the drugs Kennedy required for Addison's disease had the side effect of increasing his libido and virility. Kennedy supposedly remarked to UK Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, "I wonder how it is for you, Harold? If I don't have a woman for three days, I get terrible headaches." According to one of his biographers Richard Reeves, much of this was covered up by a loyal staff. Reeves wrote "the logistics of Kennedy's liaisons ... required secrecy and devotion rare in the annals of the energetic service demanded by successful politicians."