John Fitzgerald Kennedy

Kennedy, John Fitzgerald (1917–63), 35th president of the United States. Kennedy was the youngest person and the first Roman Catholic ever elected to the post. Kennedy was shot in Dallas, Tex., after 1,037 days in office. After his death, a legend grew up around his youth, good looks, intelligence, idealism, and vigor that has become inseparable from his more concrete accomplishments.

Early life

Kennedy graduated cum laude from Harvard University in 1940. While serving in the Navy (1941–45), he was honored for his heroism.

Entering politics

At age 29, Kennedy was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives (1947–53). In 1953, he married socialite Jacqueline Lee Bouvier. In 1952, Kennedy was elected to the U.S. Senate; he was reelected in 1958. While convalescing from 2 spinal operations, he wrote Profiles in Courage, which won a Pulitzer Prize.

In 1956, Kennedy narrowly lost the Democratic vice-presidential nomination. In 1960, he won the presidential nomination. He and running mate Lyndon B. Johnson narrowly defeated Republicans Richard M. Nixon and Henry Cabot Lodge.

President

Kennedy changed the style of the presidency. His White House was known for its elegant receptions for artists and intellectuals and for the restoration of the White House supervised by Mrs. Kennedy. For its gracious social atmosphere and Kennedy's outstanding Cabinet appointments and new “brain trust” of political advisers, his administration was dubbed “Camelot.”

Kennedy's program was largely unsuccessful in Congress. He failed to win approval of expanded medical care for the elderly, tax reform, the creation of an urban-affairs department, comprehensive federal aid to education, and a new farm program. The major civil-rights bill he drafted passed only after his death. However, he did obtain the first major minimum-wage increase in a generation and passage of an urban-renewal and housing program. He also called for a bold new space program, and, in 1961, pledged that the United States would land a man on the moon within the decade. Kennedy was able to accomplish more through executive action, particularly in civil rights. Kennedy promoted foreign aid and freer trade, launched a new program of cooperation for economic and social development in Latin America, and created the Peace Corps to aid underdeveloped areas of the world.

In 1961 Kennedy sent military advisers and equipment to Vietnam; allowed a U.S.-backed invasion of Cuba at the Bay of Pigs, which failed; and called up U.S. army reserves after East Germany erected the Berlin Wall. In Oct. 1962 the Cuban Missile Crisis took the United States to the brink of nuclear war with the Soviet Union. Kennedy demanded that the USSR remove its missile bases from Cuba. After a tense stalemate, the missiles were removed. Afterward U.S. and Soviet leaders signed a treaty banning atomic tests in the atmosphere.

Death in Dallas

Kennedy was fatally shot as he rode in an open car through Dallas, Tex., on Nov. 22, 1963. The presumed assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, was shot to death 2 days later. Despite an investigation by a special commission headed by Chief Justice Earl Warren, the circumstances of the assassination remain a source of controversy.