John F. Kennedy (1917 to 1963)

Joseph and Rose invested a lot of time in their relationship with their children and placed great emphasis on their good education. Especially the father Joseph bred a great ambition for all of them. John's sister Eunice later remembered: "I was twenty-four before I knew that I didn't have to gain something every day." It was not common at that time for a father to care so much for the children.

John first attended a Catholic boarding school for boys. There he was interested in English and history while Latin did not really interest him. So his grades were only average. Even then he was more interested in sports and girls and read many books.  

Already in his youth he was often chronically ill, suffering from severe colds, flu, scarlet fever and other undiagnosed diseases. Thus, he missed many school lessons and was occasionally so ill that one had to expect his death.

In 1936 John F. Kennedy transferred to Harvard University. There his academic pattern was repeated. He was excellent where something interested him and otherwise only mediocre. Because of his charming and kind nature and his bright smile he was very popular with his classmates. He quickly had the reputation of an incorrigible philanderer.

But John F. Kennedy now began to study seriously. His father became ambassador to Great Britain and during an extended visit in 1939 Kennedy decided to write a thesis on why Great Britain went so unprepared into the war against Germany during World War II. This later became the bestseller: "Why England Sleept" and sold over 80'000 copies. His father wrote him: "There are two things I always knew about you: first, that you are smart, second, that you are a great guy I love.

After graduating from Harvard, Kennedy joined the US Navy and became commander of a patrol torpedo boat in the South Pacific. On August 2, 1943, his boat, PT-109, was rammed by a Japanese warship and split in two. Two sailors died and Kennedy was seriously injured in the back. Kennedy pulled another wounded sailor by the strap of his life jacket and led the survivors to an island where they were rescued. For his "extremely heroic behavior" and his injuries he received the Purple Heart medal.  

His older brother who was the pilot was less fortunate and died when his plane exploded in August 1944. Thus, he was the oldest of the children still alive and his father now considered him the man who could one day become President of the United States.

After his discharge from the Navy, Kennedy worked briefly as a reporter and then, at the age of 29, decided to run for the U.S. House of Representatives. Strengthened by his status as a war hero, his family connections and the family's money, Kennedy won the election as a Democrat.  

But after the fame of his book and war heroics, Kennedy found his life in Congress extremely boring. Although he served three terms from 1946 to 1952, Kennedy remained frustrated and colorless. He once said, "We were just worms in this house" and "No one paid any attention to us on a national level.

To gain greater political influence, Kennedy ran for the Senate in 1952 and challenged Republican incumbent Henry Cabot Lodge for his seat in the U.S. Senate.  

Again supported by his financially strong father, Kennedy hired his younger brother Robert as campaign manager. Robert led a brilliant campaign in John's favor and with his narrow victory, the Democrats won both houses. His radiant personality and reputation made him increasingly important in American politics.

After the successful election Kennedy met a beautiful young woman named Jacqueline Bouvier at a dinner party. He could not resist her beauty and asked for a date. They married on September 12, 1953, and John and Jackie had three children: Caroline, John Jr. and Patrick Kennedy.

Kennedy continued to be frequently ill during his time in the Senate. While recovering from surgery, he wrote another book and created a profile of eight senators who had taken courageous but unpopular positions. With the book "Profiles in Courage" John F. Kennedy won the 1957 Pulitzer Prize for Biography.

Kennedy's eight-year career in the Senate was again unspectacular. The same boredom plagued John F. Kennedy as before in the House of Representatives, since it was all about Massachusetts-specific issues.

He was much more interested in international challenges. The growing nuclear arsenal of the Soviet Union and the Cold War struggle for the hearts and minds of Third World nations were more of his interests.

In the 1960 Democratic primaries Kennedy triumphed over his main opponent, Hubert Humphrey, with superior organization and his father's financial resources. With the election of the majority leader in the Senate, Lyndon B. Johnson, as his running mate as vice president, he went into the battle.

There was a series of debates which were broadcast on television. His opponent from the Republicans was Richard Nixon. He seemed young, fresh and had a great charisma. His opponent Richard Nixon on the other hand was pale and tensed. On November 8, 1960 Kennedy won by a razor-thin margin and became the 35th President of the United States of America.

Kennedy's election was historic. At the age of 43, he was the second youngest American president in history, after Theodore Roosevelt, who took office. With his legendary inaugural address on January 20, 1961, Kennedy tried to motivate all Americans to become more active citizens. "Ask not what your country can do for you," he said. "Ask what you can do for your country."

Foreign Affairs

Kennedy's focus during his term as president was on foreign policy. In 1961 he founded the Peace Corps by executive decree. By the end of the 20th century, over 170,000 volunteers were serving in 135 countries. To strengthen economic relations with Latin America, he founded the "Alliance for Progress". He saw this as the best way to prevent the spread of communism in the region.

One setback was the invasion of the Bay of Pigs. The action planned by the CIA to overthrow Fidel Castro in Cuba went wrong and was extremely embarrassing for John F. Kennedy.

However, the biggest crisis during his presidency was the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962, when Kennedy discovered that the Soviet Union had moved ballistic nuclear missiles to Cuba, he blocked the island. After some of the toughest days in history, when the world was on the brink of nuclear annihilation, the Soviet Union agreed to remove the missiles in return for Kennedy's promise not to invade Cuba and to remove missiles from Turkey.

Domestic Policy

The most controversial domestic policy issue of Kennedy's presidency was civil rights. He received only lukewarm support for civil rights reforms from his own party in Congress, which continued to advocate discrimination against blacks.

In late 1963, following the march on Washington and Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Had a Dream" speech, Kennedy finally sent a civil rights bill to Congress. As one of the last acts of his presidency, Kennedy's law was finally passed in 1964 as the groundbreaking Civil Rights Act.

On November 21, 1963, President Kennedy and his wife traveled to Fort Worth, Texas, for an election campaign appearance. The next day, John F. Kennedy and Texas Governor John Connally drove through the cheering crowd in a convertible in downtown Dallas. From a window on the top floor of the Texas School Book Depository, the 24-year-old warehouse worker named Lee Harvey Oswald, a former Marine with Soviet sympathies, shot the President twice. Kennedy died shortly thereafter at Parkland Memorial Hospital at the age of 46.

The death of John F. Kennedy was a shock for America and the Western world. In opinion polls, Kennedy, along with Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln, is one of the most popular American presidents of all time.