Kennedy example essay topic

John F. Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy was born on May 29th, 1917 and died on November the 22nd, 1963. He was the thirty-fifth President of the United States, and was assassinated in Dallas, Texas by Lee Harvey Oswald as his limousine drove by the Texas School Book Depository building and through Dealey Plaza. He was in office from 1961-1963, he was the youngest man elected President, and the youngest to die in the office. Of Irish descent, he was born in Brookline, Massachusetts. He graduated from Harvard University in 1940 and he entered the navy.

In 1943, he became commander of a PT boat in the Pacific in World War II. In action off the Solomon Islands, his boat was sheared in two and sunk, and Kennedy was credited with saving the life of at least one of his crew. After the war he was briefly a journalist. He became a congressmen from Massachusetts in 1947 until 1953. He consistently supported the domestic programs of the Truman Administration but criticized its China policy. In 1952, despite the Eisenhower Landslide, he defeated Henry Cabot Lodge for a seat in the United States Senate, where he served on the labor and Public Committee and on the Foreign Relations Committee.

In 1953, Kennedy married Jacklyn Lee Bouvier. While recuperating in 1955 from a serious operation to repair a spinal injury, he wrote Profiles in Courage, which won the Pulitzer Prize in history. In 1956 Kennedy almost gained the Democratic Nomination for Vice-President, four years later was a first ballot nominee for President. Millions watched his television debates with the Republican candidate, Richard M. Nixon. Winning by narrow margin in the popular vote, Kennedy became the first Roman Catholic President. His Inaugural Address offered the memorable injunction Ask not what your country can do for you-ask what you can do for your country.

As President, he set out to redeem his campaign pledge to get America moving again. His economic programs launched the country on its longest sustained expansion since World War II; before his death, he laid plans for massive assault on persisting pockets of privation and poverty. Responding to ever more urgent demands, he took vigorous action in the cause of the equal rights, calling for civil rights legislation. His vision of America extended to the quality of the national culture and the central role of the arts in a vital society. He wished America to resume its old mission as the first nation dedicated to the revolution of human rights. With the Alliance for Progress and the Peace Corps, he brought American idealism to the aid of developing nations.

But the hard reality of the Communist challenge remained. Shortly after his inauguration, Kennedy permitted a band of Cuban exiles, already armed and trained 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 Nations Military strength, including new efforts in outer space. confronted by this reaction, Moscow, after the erection of the Berlin Wall, relaxed its pressure in central Europe. Instead, the Russians now sought to install nuclear missiles in Cuba.

When this was discovered by air reconnaissance in October 1962, Kennedy imposed a quarantine of all offensive weapons bound for Cuba. While the world trembled on the brink of nuclear war, the Russians backed down and agreed to take missiles away. The American response to the Cuban crisis evidently persuaded Moscow of the guilty of nuclear blackmail. Kennedy now contended that both sides had a vital interest in stopping the spread of nuclear weapons and slowing the arms race-a contention which led to the test ban treaty of 1963. The months after the Cuban crisis showed significant progress toward his goal of a word 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.