Spanish Revolution Essay, Research Paper

John Fitzgerald Kennedy, was the 35th president of the United States. He was the youngest man

and the first Roman Catholic ever elected to the presidency. Rich, handsome, elegant, and

articulate, he aroused great admiration at home and abroad. His term of office as president was

too short, however, to say what his place in history might have been Kennedy was born in

Brookline, Massachusetts, on May 29, 1917. His father, Joseph P. Kennedy was a businessman

who became a multimillionaire, head of the Securities and Exchange Commission, and

ambassador to Great Britain. Kennedy graduated from Choate School in Wallingford,

Connecticut. He then briefly attended Princeton University, and then entered Harvard University

in 1936. At Harvard he wrote an honors thesis on British foreign policies in the 1930s. It was

published in 1940, the year he graduated, under the title Why England Slept. In 1941, shortly

before the United States entered World War II, Kennedy joined the U.S. Navy. He attended a

school to learn about the Patrol Torpedo boat. Kennedy was sent to the islands of the South

Pacific Ocean where he was in charge of a Torpedo boat, everybody called him Skipper John

Kennedy, the boat was called PT 109. The boat had been in battle and and it was dirty. The

engines were in need of repair. J.F.K went to work, and soon the PT 109 was ready for war.

J.F.K said, “the torpedos would sink any ship on the sea”.(wagnerpg.4) Near an old pier the PT

boats waited every day. When night came, they were ready for war. They drifted out into the

ocean and listened for the sound of engines of enemy ships, for three or more nights they did that

but they didn’t find anything. One night in early autumm four enemy ships had been spotted near

an island. The PT boats waited for dark so they wouldn’t be seen. Slowly the PT 109 rode the

black waves and every man of the crew listened. The crew could here the sound of an engine off

in the distance as they came towards it. Then in an instant the PT 109 was hit by an enemy’s

torpedo. With a loud crash it split the PT 109 in half. J.F.K was thrown in the water with the rest

of the crew. J.F.K called out for his crew some of them answered. J.F.K. climbed up on the half

of the boat that was floating and helped people up into the the boat. In the distance they could

see an island, but they knew that there were enemy ships on that island. To the south lay the the

Plum Pudding Island. They swam to the island looking for help. They finally found some people

that took them to meet with eleven men of the PT 109. J.F.K. was sent to a hospital for back

injuries where he stayed for 3 weeks. During Kennedy’s stay in the hospital he worked on a book

of biographical studies of American political heroes. The book was published in 1956 under the

title Profiles in Courage, it won a Pulitzer Prize for biography in 1957. This faith in activism was

to become a hallmark of his presidency. On September 12, 1953, Kennedy married Jacqueline

Bouvier. The couple had three children: Caroline Bouvier, John Fitzgerald Junior, and a second

son who died at birth in August 1963. In 1956, Kennedy tryed unsuccessfully for the Democratic

vice-presidential nomination. After that, he set his sights on the presidency, especially after his

re-election to the Senate in 1958. He continued during these years to support a firmly

anti-Communist foreign policy. By 1960, Kennedy was one of many Democratic nominy’s for

president. He put together, however, a well-financed, highly organized campaign and won on the

first ballot. As a Northerner and a Roman Catholic, he recognized his lack of strength in the

South and chose Sen. Lyndon Baines Johnson of Texas as his running mate. Kennedy also

performed well in a series of television debates with his Republican opponent, Vice-President

Richard M. Nixon. Kennedy promised tougher defense policies and better health, housing, and

civil rights programs. His New Frontier, he pledged, would bring the nation out of its economic

slump. Kennedy won the election for presidency, but by a very narrow margin. By far the tensest

overseas confrontation of the Kennedy years occurred with the Cuban Missile Crisis. In October

1962, U.S. intelligence discovered that the Russians were constructing missile sites in Cuba.

Resolving to show his mettle, he ordered a naval and air quarantine on shipments of weapons to

Cuba. At first armed conflict seemed likely. But the Soviets pulled back and promised not to set

up the missiles; the United States then said they would not attack Cuba. The Soviets and

Americans signed a treaty barring testing of nuclear weapons. Kennedy however remained as

ready as ever to stop Communist advances. As you can see Kennedy had quite a few

accomplishments in his short life. Kennedy went to Princeton and Harvard, wrote two award

winning books, fought bravely in World War two, became president of the U.S., developed the

Peace Corps and stopped the Cuban Missile Crisis. Kennedy was not perfect, though. Everyone

from Frank Sinatra down has said that Judith Campbell Exner was a beautifal women. She was

well known by the FBI to be the mistress of Kennedy. It was Sinatra who first introduced Exner

to Kennedyin 1960. Although JFK is now thought of as having many mistresses,Exner was his

main one. No biography of JFK since 1977 has not mentioned Exner. FBI Director J. Edgar

Hoover had Exner followed, not for any law enforcement purpose, but rather to be able to

blackmail JFK, just as Hoover had blackmailed every previous President, going back to Warren

G. Harding, the president who had first appointed Hoover. Judith Campbell Exner was a friend

of Mafia Don Sam Giancana. Exner has been treated unfairly by history. She never sought to

capitalize off the fact that she was JFK’s mistress. She kept this hidden for years. Jackie knew

about her, though. Once, when Jackie found a woman’s pink panties in her pillow case, she

turned to JFK in bed and said, “Would you find out who these belong to, because they are not my

size?”.(Green pg.2) Kennedy was shot and killed as his motorcade rolled through Dallas, Texas

November 22, 1963. He was only 47 years old. Many people still remember excatly what they

were doing the moment they heard of his death. Many wonder the impact he may have had on

this country of ours if he had continued to serve as President.

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