John F. Kennedy

1. John F. Kennedy John F. Kennedy By: Carleigh Mikszan 1st Period Peer Leadership 12-13-07

2. JFK’sBackground • Born as the second of nine children of Rose Fitzgerald and Joseph P. Kennedy in Brookline, Massachusetts in May 29, 1917 • He came from a large and wealthy Irish Catholic family that already held a strong presence in politics. • His father, Joseph P. Kennedy, was ambassador to Great Britain from 1937 to 1940. • Lived in the shadow of his brother Joseph • Kennedy was married on Sept. 12, 1953, to Jacqueline Lee Bouvier, • Had three children: Caroline, John Fitzgerald, Jr. (died in a 1999 plane crash), and Patrick Bouvier (died in infancy).

3. JFK’sEDUCATION • Attended Brookline's public Edward Devotion School from kindergarten through the beginning of 3rd grade. • then Noble and Greenough Lower School and its successor, the Dexter School, a private school for boys, through 4th grade. • He was also a member of Scout Troop 2 at Bronxville from 1929 to 1931 and was to be the first Scout to become President.

4. JFK’sEDUCATION CONT. • In 8th Grade Kennedy was sent fifty miles away to Canterbury School, a lay Catholic boarding school for boys in New Milford, Connecticut. • In late April 1931, he had appendicitis requiring an appendectomy , after which he withdrew from Canterbury and recuperated at home. In September 1931, Kennedy was sent over sixty miles away to The Choate School, an elite private university preparatory boarding school for boys in Wallingford, Connecticut for 9th through 12th grades • He graduated from Choate in June 1935. • he ranked only 64th in a class of 112 . • His superlative in his yearbook was "Most likely to succeed".

5. JFK’sEDUCATION CONT. • In October 1935, Kennedy enrolled at Princeton University, but was then hospitalized for two months observation for possible leukemia at Peter Bent Birmingham in Boston in January and February 1936. • After recuperating, Kennedy enrolled as a freshman at Harvard College in September 1936 , residing in Winthrop House during his sophomore through senior years.

6. JFK’SCAREER(S) • In the spring of 1941,he volunteered for the Army, but was rejected because of his weak back • During the summer, he took strengthening exercises, and in September he was accepted by the Navy. • In March 1943, as a lieutenant (junior grade), he took command of a PT (torpedo) boat in the Solomon Islands. • While his boat was cruising west of New Georgia on the night of August 2, it was rammed and sunk by a Japanese destroyer. • Kennedy was thrown across the deck onto his back, but he rallied the survivors and managed to get them to an island. • He received the Purple Heart and the Navy and Marine Corps Medal, but his earlier back injury had been aggravated, and he contracted malaria. After an operation on his back, he was discharged early in 1945.

7. JFK’SCAREER(S) CONT. • Faced with the problem of choosing a career, Kennedy worked for several months in 1945 as a reporter for the Hearst newspapers, covering the conference at San Francisco that established the United Nations. There he noted the "belligerent Russian attitude." • He decided on a political career and returned to Boston. • In so choosing, he took the place of his brother Joseph, who had seemed destined for politics but had been killed in World War II.

8. JFK’SCAREER(S) CONT. • His opportunity came when James M. Curley vacated his seat in the House of Representatives from the overwhelmingly Democratic 11th Massachusetts Congressional District to become mayor of Boston. • Early in 1946, Kennedy announced his candidacy in the June Democratic primary. • Rivals referred to Kennedy as the “poor little rich kid” and an outsider • But he campaigned interminably, depending on a strong organization of personal followers rather than on regular Democratic party workers. • In the primary he nearly doubled the vote of his nearest opponent, and his election in November was little more than a formality.

9. JFK’SCAREER(S) CONT. • In April 1952, Kennedy announced his candidacy for the Senate against the Republican incumbent, Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. • Beginning in 1956, Kennedy aimed toward higher office. In the Democratic Convention of that year he almost wrested the vice-presidential nomination from Sen. Estes Kefauver of Tennessee. • After the election he began speaking frequently throughout the country, and many writers began to speculate whether a Roman Catholic could be elected president. • In 1958, Kennedy was reelected to the Senate by a margin of more than 874,000 votes. • This firmly established him as a leading contender for the presidential nomination. In January 1960 he formally announced his candidacy. • Backed again by a formidable personal organization, he defeated Sen. Hubert H. Humphrey, Jr., of Minnesota and other rivals in several hard-fought primaries. • At the convention he marshaled his forces so skillfully against those of Sen. Lyndon B. Johnson of Texas and Adlai E. Stevenson that he was nominated on the first ballot.

10. JFK’SCAREER(S) CONT. • In accepting the nomination, Kennedy declared that "We stand today on the edge of a New Frontier," thus giving a name to his program. • In the campaign against his Republican opponent, Vice President Richard M. Nixon, he took positions that, while middle-of-the-road, were somewhat more liberal than those held by Nixon, and defended them vigorously in an exhaustive campaign across the nation. • Although public opinion polls predicted his victory, he was elected president by a margin of only 119,450 votes out of the nearly 69,000,000 that were cast. His electoral vote was 303 to 219 for Nixon.

11. MAJOR EVENTSThe Bay of Pigs • The first international bombshell of Kennedy's administration exploded in April 1961, when a force of anti-Castro Cubans, trained and directed by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, failed in an attempt to establish a beachhead in Cuba at the Bay of Pigs. • The invasion had been planned before Kennedy took office, and he allowed it to proceed with important modifications limiting the degree of American support. • The Cuban debacle, for which Kennedy accepted "sole responsibility," was a stunning setback for the new administration. It resulted in criticism and anti-American feeling abroad. However, in the United States, leaders of both parties rallied behind the president.

12. MAJOR EVENTS CONT.The Berlin Issue • From the late spring of 1961 until the late fall of 1962, President Kennedy engaged in a great test of strength with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev. The confrontation began on the question of Berlin, when in June 1961 the president spent two days in Vienna discussing that major issue with the Soviet leader. • For some time Khrushchev had threatened to sign a peace treaty with the East German government that would give it control over access routes to Berlin. Kennedy wanted to make sure that Khrushchev "understood our strength and determination." • In the months that followed, the crisis over Berlin was intensified by Communist construction of a wall that prevented East Berliners from escaping to the West. • Kennedy responded by obtaining large additional sums for armaments and ordering many National Guard and reserve units of the armed forces into active service. However, Khrushchev did not sign a peace treaty with East Germany, so the crisis subsided.

13. MAJOR EVENTS CONT.The Cuban Crisis • On Oct. 16, 1962, the president was shown photographs of Soviet missile bases under construction in Cuba. From these bases a nuclear attack could be launched on much of the United States and the Western Hemisphere. • In a dramatic radio and television address on October 22, President Kennedy announced a United States naval and air quarantine on all offensive weapons bound for Cuba. This meant that U.S. warships would halt and search Russian ships.

14. MAJOR EVENTS CONT.The Cuban Crisis Cont. • On October 28, after an exchange of notes between President Kennedy and Premier Khrushchev, it was announced that the Soviet Union would dismantle and withdraw its offensive weapons in Cuba. • On this basis the United States ended its quarantine, and the crisis came to an end. • During the missile confrontation, Kennedy received widespread international support, and later was credited with having achieved a turning point favorable to the West in the cold war.

15. JFK’SCONTRIBUTIONS • RACING TO THE MOON- "I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth. No single space project...will be more exciting, or more impressive to mankind, or more important...and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish...."President John F. Kennedy, 1961

16. CONTRIBUTIONS CONT. • During the missile confrontation, Kennedy received widespread international support, and later was credited with having achieved a turning point favorable to the West in the cold war. • Civil Rights!

17. How JFK embodied the 7 Habits • Habit 1. BE PROACTIVE- Whether it was during JFK’s Presidency or during his youth, he always took responsibility for his choices and actions. He also was not easily offended, bounced back when something went wrong, and always found a way to make things happen. • When he was a Child he was sick often with illnesses such as: appendicitis, jaundice, and possible leukemia, but he was always able to recover and bounce back even stronger. • During the Bay of Pigs, JFK took complete responsibility for the debacle that set his administration extremely far back.

18. How JFK embodied the 7 Habits cont. • Habit 2. BEGIN WITH THE END IN MIND- Throughout JFK’s career as a lieutenant, senator, and president, JFK always knew his goals and missions that he wanted to end up with. • After being extremely successful as a lieutenant and a senator, JFK wanted to partake in higher office. With hard work and determination, he was able to become the 35th President of the U.S. • While he was president, JFK knew he wanted an American to go to the moon. He jumped right in with the race to space, and he and his administration were able to send Neil Armstrong to the moon in 1961.

19. How JFK embodied the 7 Habits cont. • Habit3. PUT FIRST THINGS FIRST- During JFK’s presidency, he always prioritized and did the most important things first. • JFK focused on the most dangerous threat to the United states, Cuba and Khrushchev, and then moved on the events such as going to the moon, foreign aid, and national issues. • QUOTES

20. How JFK embodied the 7 Habits cont. • Habit 6. Synergize- During JFK’s Presidency, he got involved with many foreign affairs, because he knew that together you can achieve more. • The failure of the Cuban invasion in 1961 focused Kennedy's attention on the necessity of meeting the needs of Latin American nations, whose economic distress made them vulnerable to Castro-type revolutions. He proposed that these republics join with the United States in a ten-year plan for developing the Americas.

21. SOURCES • http://history1900s.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?zi=1/XJ/Ya&sdn=history1900s&cdn=education&tm=18&gps=93_6_1020_545&f=10&tt=14&bt=0&bts=0&zu=http%3A//ap.grolier.com/article%3Fassetid%3D0229520-00%26templatename%3D/article/article.html • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_F._Kennedy • http://www.nasm.si.edu/exhibitions/gal114/SpaceRace/sec300/sec300.htm • http://www.jfklibrary.org/ • http://www.quotationspage.com/quotes/John_F._Kennedy