John+F.+Kennedy

=Brodie Harvey=

Early Years and Education (1917-1941)
John F. Kennedy (JFK), also known as Jack, was the 35th President of the United States of America, who served in office from January 20,1961 until his assassination on November 22, 1963. He was born in Brookline, Massachusetts on May 29, 1917, where he lived until he was ten years old and the family relocated Riverdale, Bronx for two years. After a few other moves Jack spent his last four high school years at The Choate School in Wallingford,__#|Connecticut__. Despite many health problems, John graduated in 1935 and voted most likely to succeed by his peers.

In September of that year Kennedy traveled to London with the intent of studying at the London School of Economics but his health interfered and here retuned home in October. After spending the spring working as a ranch hand in Benson, Arizona, Jack enrolled in Harvard College in September of 1936. On summer break Kennedy sailed to France in July of 1937 and spent ten weeks driving through Europe.

The __#|next__ summer, June of 1938, almost exactly a year later he sailed overseas yet again; this time to work with his father and brother to work as Roosevelt's U.S. Ambassador to the Court of St. James's, at the American embassy in London. In preparation of his Harvard senior honors thesis Kennedy travelled to Europe, the Soviet Union, the Balkans, the Middle East, Czechoslovakia and Germany, returning to London as Poland was invaded on September 1st, 1939. Two days later Jack and his family were at the House of Commons to give speeches endorsing the United Kingdom’s declaration of war on Germany. Shortly after, representing his father, Kennedy helped with arrangements for American survivors of the SS Athenia, before flying back to Port Washington, New York on his first transatlantic flight.

By 1940 Kennedy had completed his thesis, “Appeasement in Munich,” and published as __Why England Slept__, despite his original intent to keep it private. That same year he graduated cum laude from Harvard with a __#|degree__ in international affairs. After his graduation he enrolled in __#|classes__ as Stanford Graduate School of Business and in 1941 helped his father complete a memoir of his three years as an American Ambassador.

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=**Presidential Years**= 

John F Kennedy was sworn in as President of the United States of America at noon on January 20, 1961.Kennedy is famous for a line in his inaugural address that states, "Ask not what your country can do for you; but what you can do for your country." Kennedy wanted to begin a mindset across mindset of peacefulness. He wanted to fight the common enemies of man, which he stated were tyranny, poverty, disease, and war itself. Kennedy faced a lot of crises while serving as President. For example, the Bay of Pigs and the Cuban Missile Crisis were two of the biggest events to happen during the Cold War, and JFK had to deal with all of the

After Kennedy graduated from university, he made the transition to the Navy, where he fought in the Pacific War. Once he had finished his Navy tour, he became a congressman in the Boston area; he advanced into the senate in 1953. In 1956, Kennedy almost gained the Democratic vote for Vice- President. He didn’t receive the ballad, however, four years later he got the vote to be run for President of the United States. Kennedy’s campaign was a historic one. It was the first time that television had been used to convey debates and information about an election. The famous Presidential debate between Kennedy and his opponent Richard M. Nixon was key to the success of Kennedy. While Nixon looked very tense and awkward on the debate, Kennedy seemed at ease and it assured the nation of their votes. Kennedy won the vote by a narrow margin. He was the first Roman-Catholic president in history. He had one of the most famous inaugural speeches; many famous quotes were spawned from this speech. The main factor that Kennedy was trying to get across with this speech was the fact that he wanted to get America back in motion. He laid down plans to get them to the economy they had during World War II. His main targets were big business and the wealthy people; he wanted to tax them very highly. Kennedy also called for equality; he called for new civil rights legislation.

As President, Kennedy wanted to resume America’s old mission of developing third world countries. He wanted America to once again be dedicated to the revolution of human rights. Along with the Alliance for Progress and the Peace Corps, he tried to develop several nations, however, the harsh reality of the Communist challenge still remained.

One of the countries that Kennedy planned on liberating was Cuba. Under the communist regime of Fidel Castro, the people of Cuba were subject to horrible living conditions. Kennedy had several Cuban exiles, who were already armed and trained, invade their home land to overthrow Castro. This is known as the Bay of Pigs, it did not turn out the way that America had hoped, and was a huge embarrassment for the country.

The Bay of Pigs lead to something much bigger known as the Cuban Missile Crisis. This occurred when an American reconnaissance mission revealed that Cub had missile silos. It was found the Russians were storing Nuclear weapons in Cuba, because it was believed that America had them in Turkey. For a short while, the world believed that they were on the verge of an all out nuclear war. However, Kennedy avoided the situation by not responding to a second telegraph and the soviets pulled the missiles out of Cuba.

After this close call, Kennedy intended to stop the spread of Nuclear weapons. He wanted to slow down the arms race, this lead to the test ban treaty of 1963. The following monts after the crisis showed significant progress toward his goal of "a world of law and free choice, banishing the world of war and coercion." His administration thus saw the beginning of new hope for both the equal rights of Americans and the peace of the world. Sadly, Kennedy’s time as President was cut short in 1963 after he was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald. He will always be remembered as bringing hope to a nation that needed it.

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