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John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), also known as JFK, was the 35th president of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963. He was the youngest person elected president at 43 years.^[a] Kennedy served at the height of the Cold War, and the majority of his foreign policy concerned relations with the Soviet Union and Cuba. A Democrat, Kennedy represented Massachusetts in both houses of the United States Congress prior to his presidency.

Born into the prominent Kennedy family in Brookline, Massachusetts, Kennedy graduated from Harvard University in 1940, joining the U.S. Naval Reserve the following year. During World War II, he commanded PT boats in the Pacific theater. Kennedy’s survival following the sinking of PT-109 and his rescue of his fellow sailors made him a war hero and earned the Navy and Marine Corps Medal, but left him with serious injuries. After a brief stint in journalism, Kennedy represented a working-class Boston district in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1947 to 1953. He was subsequently elected to the U.S. Senate, serving as the junior senator for Massachusetts from 1953 to 1960. While in the Senate, Kennedy published his book, Profiles in Courage, which won a Pulitzer Prize. Kennedy ran in the 1960 presidential election. His campaign gained momentum after the first televised presidential debates in American history, and he was elected president, narrowly defeating Republican opponent Richard Nixon, the incumbent vice president.

Kennedy’s presidency saw high tensions with communist states in the Cold War. He increased the number of American military advisers in South Vietnam, and the Strategic Hamlet Program began during his presidency. In 1961, he authorized attempts to overthrow the Cuban government of Fidel Castro in the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion and Operation Mongoose. In October 1962, U.S. spy planes discovered Soviet missile bases had been deployed in Cuba. The resulting period of tensions, termed the Cuban Missile Crisis, nearly resulted in nuclear war. In August 1961, after East German troops erected the Berlin Wall, Kennedy sent an army convoy to reassure West Berliners of U.S. support, and delivered one of his most famous speeches in West Berlin in June 1963. In 1963, Kennedy signed the first nuclear weapons treaty. He presided over the establishment of the Peace Corps, Alliance for Progress with Latin America, and the continuation of the Apollo program with the goal of landing a man on the Moon before 1970. He supported the civil rights movement but was only somewhat successful in passing his New Frontier domestic policies.

On November 22, 1963, Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas. His vice president, Lyndon B. Johnson, assumed the presidency. Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested for the assassination, but he was shot and killed by Jack Ruby two days later. The FBI and the Warren Commission both concluded Oswald had acted alone, but conspiracy theories about the assassination persist. After Kennedy’s death, Congress enacted many of his proposals, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Revenue Act of 1964. Kennedy ranks highly in polls of U.S. presidents with historians and the general public. His personal life has been the focus of considerable sustained interest following public revelations in the 1970s of his chronic health ailments and extramarital affairs. Kennedy is the most recent U.S. president to have died in office.

Early life and education

John Fitzgerald Kennedy was born outside Boston in Brookline, Massachusetts, on May 29, 1917,^[3] to Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., a businessman and politician, and Rose Kennedy (née Fitzgerald), a philanthropist and socialite.^[4] His paternal grandfather, P. J. Kennedy, was an East Boston ward boss and Massachusetts state legislator.^[5] Kennedy’s maternal grandfather and namesake, John F. Fitzgerald, was a U.S. congressman and two-term mayor of Boston.^[6] All four of his grandparents were children of Irish immigrants.^[1] Kennedy had an older brother, Joseph Jr., and seven younger siblings: Rosemary, Kathleen, Eunice, Patricia, Robert, Jean, and Ted.^[7]

Kennedy’s father amassed a private fortune and established trust funds for his nine children that guaranteed lifelong financial independence.^[8] His business kept him away from home for long stretches, but Joe Sr. was a formidable presence in his children’s lives. He encouraged them to be ambitious, emphasized political discussions at the dinner table, and demanded a high level of academic achievement. John’s first exposure to politics was touring the Boston wards with his grandfather Fitzgerald during his 1922 failed gubernatorial campaign.^[9][10] With Joe Sr.’s business ventures concentrated on Wall Street and Hollywood and an outbreak of polio in Massachusetts, the family decided to move from Boston to the Riverdale neighborhood of New York City in September 1927.^[11][12] Several years later, his brother Robert told Look magazine that his father left Boston because of job signs that read: “No Irish Need Apply.”^[13] The Kennedys spent summers and early autumns at their home in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, a village on Cape Cod,^[14] where they swam, sailed, and played touch football.^[15] Christmas and Easter holidays were spent at their winter retreat in Palm Beach, Florida.^[16] In September 1930, Kennedy, 13 years old, was sent to the Canterbury School in New Milford, Connecticut, for 8th grade. In April 1931, he had an appendectomy, after which he withdrew from Canterbury and recuperated at home.^[17]

In September 1931, Kennedy started attending Choate, a preparatory boarding school in Wallingford, Connecticut.^[18] Rose had wanted John and Joe Jr. to attend a Catholic school, but Joe Sr. thought that if they were to compete in the political world, they needed to be with boys from prominent Protestant families.^[19] John spent his first years at Choate in his older brother’s shadow and compensated with rebellious behavior that attracted a clique. Their most notorious stunt was exploding a toilet seat with a firecracker. In the next chapel assembly, the headmaster, George St. John, brandished the toilet seat and spoke of “muckers” who would “spit in our sea,” leading Kennedy to name his group “The Muckers Club,” which included roommate and lifelong friend Lem Billings.^[20][21] Kennedy graduated from Choate in June 1935, finishing 64th of 112 students.^[12] He had been the business manager of the school yearbook and was voted the “most likely to succeed.”^[20]

Kennedy intended to study under Harold Laski at the London School of Economics, as his older brother had done. Ill health forced his return to the U.S. in October 1935, when he enrolled late at Princeton University, but had to leave after two months due to gastrointestinal illness.^[22]

In September 1936, Kennedy enrolled at Harvard College.^[23] He wrote occasionally for The Harvard Crimson, the campus newspaper, but had little involvement with campus politics, preferring to concentrate on athletics and his social life. Kennedy played football and was on the JV squad during his sophomore year, but an injury forced him off the team, and left him with back problems that plagued him for the rest of his life. He won membership in the Hasty Pudding Club and the Spee Club, one of Harvard’s elite “final clubs“.^[24][25]

In July 1938, Kennedy sailed overseas with his older brother to work at the American embassy in London, where his father was serving as President Franklin D. Roosevelt‘s ambassador to the Court of St. James’s.^[26] The following year, Kennedy traveled throughout Europe, the Soviet Union, the Balkans, and the Middle East in preparation for his Harvard senior honors thesis.^[27] He then went to Berlin, where a U.S. diplomatic representative gave him a secret message about war breaking out soon to pass on to his father, and to Czechoslovakia before returning to London on September 1, 1939, the day that Germany invaded Poland; the start of World War II.^[28] Two days later, the family was in the House of Commons for speeches endorsing the United Kingdom’s declaration of war on Germany. Kennedy was sent as his father’s representative to help with arrangements for American survivors of the torpedoing of SS Athenia before flying back to the U.S. on his first transatlantic flight.^[29][30]

While Kennedy was an upperclassman at Harvard, he began to take his studies more seriously and developed an interest in political philosophy. He made the dean’s list in his junior year.^[31] In 1940, Kennedy completed his thesis, “Appeasement in Munich”, about British negotiations during the Munich Agreement. The thesis was released on July 24, under the title Why England Slept.^[32] The book was one of the first to offer information about the war and its origins, and quickly became a bestseller.^[33] In addition to addressing Britain’s unwillingness to strengthen its military in the lead-up to the war, the book called for an Anglo-American alliance against the rising totalitarian powers. Kennedy became increasingly supportive of U.S. intervention in World War II, and his father’s isolationist beliefs resulted in the latter’s dismissal as ambassador.^[34]

In 1940, Kennedy graduated cum laude from Harvard with a Bachelor of Arts in government, concentrating on international affairs.^[35] That fall, he enrolled at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and audited classes,^[36] but he left after a semester to help his father complete his memoirs as an American ambassador. In early 1941, Kennedy toured South America.^[37][38]

U.S. Naval Reserve (1941–1945)

Kennedy planned to attend Yale Law School, but canceled when American entry into World War II seemed imminent.^[39] In 1940, Kennedy attempted to enter the army’s Officer Candidate School. Despite months of training, he was medically disqualified due to his chronic back problems. On September 24, 1941, Kennedy, with the help of the director of the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) and the former naval attaché to Joe Sr., Alan Kirk, joined the United States Naval Reserve. He was commissioned an ensign on October 26, 1941,^[40] and joined the ONI staff in Washington, D.C.^[41][42][43]

In January 1942, Kennedy was assigned to the ONI field office at Headquarters, Sixth Naval District, in Charleston, South Carolina.^[42] His hope was to be the commander of a PT (patrol torpedo) boat, but his health problems seemed almost certain to prevent active duty. Kennedy’s father intervened by providing misleading medical records and convincing PT officers that his presence would bring publicity to the fleet.^[44] Kennedy completed six months of training at the Naval Reserve Officer Training School in Chicago and at the Motor Torpedo Boat Squadrons Training Center in Melville, Rhode Island.^[41][45] His first command was PT-101 from December 7, 1942, until February 23, 1943.^[42] Unhappy to be assigned to the Panama Canal, far from the fighting, Kennedy appealed to Massachusetts senator David Walsh, who arranged for him to be assigned to the South Pacific.^[44]

Commanding PT-109 and PT-59

Main article: Patrol torpedo boat PT-109

In April 1943, Kennedy was assigned to Motor Torpedo Squadron TWO,^[41] and on April 24 he took command of PT-109,^[46] then based on Tulagi Island in the Solomons.^[42] On the night of August 1–2, in support of the New Georgia campaign, PT-109 and fourteen other PTs were ordered to block or repel four Japanese destroyers and floatplanes carrying food, supplies, and 900 Japanese soldiers to the Vila Plantation garrison on the southern tip of the Solomon’s Kolombangara Island. Intelligence had been sent to Kennedy’s Commander Thomas G. Warfield expecting the arrival of the large Japanese naval force that would pass on the evening of August 1. Of the 24 torpedoes fired that night by eight of the American PTs, not one hit the Japanese convoy.^[47] On that moonless night, Kennedy spotted a Japanese destroyer heading north on its return from the base of Kolombangara around 2:00 a.m., and attempted to turn to attack, when PT-109 was rammed suddenly at an angle and cut in half by the destroyer Amagiri, killing two PT-109 crew members.^{[48][49][42][b]} Avoiding surrender, the remaining crew swam towards Plum Pudding Island, 3.5 miles (5.6 km) southwest of the remains of PT-109, on August 2.^[42][51] Despite re-injuring his back in the collision, Kennedy towed a badly burned crewman to the island with a life jacket strap clenched between his teeth.^[52] From there, Kennedy and his subordinate, Ensign George Ross, made forays through the coral islands, searching for help.^[53] When they encountered an English-speaking native with a canoe, Kennedy carved his location on a coconut shell and requested a boat rescue. Seven days after the collision, with the coconut message delivered, the PT-109 crew were rescued.^[54][55]

Almost immediately, the PT-109 rescue became a highly publicized event. The story was chronicled by John Hersey in The New Yorker in 1944 (decades later it was the basis of a successful film).^[55] It followed Kennedy into politics and provided a strong foundation for his appeal as a leader.^[56] Hersey portrayed Kennedy as a modest, self-deprecating hero.^[57] For his courage and leadership, Kennedy was awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal, and the injuries he suffered during the incident qualified him for a Purple Heart.^[56]

After a month’s recovery Kennedy returned to duty, commanding the PT-59. On November 2, Kennedy’s PT-59 took part with two other PTs in the rescue of 40–50 marines. The 59 acted as a shield from shore fire as they escaped on two rescue landing craft at the base of the Warrior River at Choiseul Island, taking ten marines aboard and delivering them to safety.^[58] Under doctor’s orders, Kennedy was relieved of his command on November 18, and sent to the hospital on Tulagi.^[59] By December 1943, with his health deteriorating, Kennedy left the Pacific front and arrived in San Francisco in early January 1944.^[60] After receiving treatment for his back injury at the Chelsea Naval Hospital in Massachusetts from May to December 1944, he was released from active duty.^[61][41] Beginning in January 1945, Kennedy spent three months recovering from his back injury at Castle Hot Springs, a resort and temporary military hospital in Arizona.^[62][63] On March 1, 1945, Kennedy retired from the Navy Reserve on physical disability and was honorably discharged with the full rank of lieutenant.^[64] When later asked how he became a war hero, Kennedy joked: “It was easy. They cut my PT boat in half.”^[65]

On August 12, 1944, Kennedy’s older brother, Joe Jr., a navy pilot, was killed on an air mission. His body was never recovered.^[66][67] The news reached the family’s home in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, a day later. Kennedy felt that Joe Jr.’s reckless flight was partly an effort to outdo him.^[68][69] To console himself, Kennedy set out to assemble a privately published book of remembrances of his brother, As We Remember Joe.^[70