The 35th President of The United States, John F. Kennedy

John F. Kennedy: In the November 22, 1963, when he was just reaching its first thousand days in office, John Fitzgerald Kennedy was shot dead by a man while his motorcade passed through Dallas, Texas. Kennedy was the youngest man ever elected president; and was the youngest to die. Of Irish descent, was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, on May 29, 1917. Graduated from Harvard in 1940, he enlisted in the navy. In 1943, when his ship was hit by bombs and sunk by a Japanese destroyer, Kennedy, despite his serious injuries, he led the survivors through perilous waters to safety. Back from the war, he became democratic congressman from the Boston area, moving in 1953 to the Senate. He married Jacqueline Bouvier on September 12, 1953. In 1955, while recovering from a back operation, he wrote "Profiles in value," which won the Pulitzer Prize in history. In 1956 Kennedy almost won the Democratic nomination for Vice President, and four years later was candidate in the first ballot for President. Millions watched his television debates with the Republican candidate, Richard M. Nixon. Winning by a narrow margin of popular vote, Kennedy became the first Roman Catholic president.

His inaugural speech offered as memorable phrase: "Ask not what your country can do for you - ask yourself what you can do for your country." As president, he pursuant power fulfill its campaign pledge to get America moving again. His economic programs launched the country into its longest sustained expansion since World War II; before his death, he left plans for a massive assault on persisting pockets of privation and poverty. Responding to even more urgent demands, he took vigorous action in the cause of equal rights, calling for new civil rights legislation. His vision of America extended to the quality of national culture and the central role of the arts in a vital society. The hope that America summarize its old mission as the first nation dedicated to human rights revolution. With the Alliance for Progress and the Peace Corps, he brought American idealism to the aid of developing countries. But the harsh reality of the Communist challenge remained. Shortly after its inception, Kennedy permitted a band of Cuban exiles armed and trained, to invade their homeland (Cuba).

The attempt to overthrow the regime of Fidel Castro was a failure. Shortly thereafter, the Soviet Union renewed its campaign against West Berlin. Kennedy said strengthening relations with Berlin and increasing the military strength of the nation, including new efforts in outer space. Confronted by this reaction, Moscow, after the building of the Berlin Wall, decreased its pressure on 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 on all offensive weapons limited to Cuba. While the world trembled at the threat of nuclear war, the Russians backed down and agreed to remove the missiles. The American response to the Cuban crisis evidently persuaded Moscow of the failure of nuclear blackmail. Kennedy said that both sides now had a vital interest in stopping the spread of nuclear weapons and slowing the arms race - a conflict that led to the treaty Test Ban 1963. The months after the Cuban crisis showed significant progress toward his goal "of a world of law and free choice, forbidding the world of war and coercion." His administration thus saw the beginning of a new hope for equal rights of American and world peace.