John F. Kennedy
A Harvard-educated naval officer and Massachusetts senator, the first Catholic president, killed in Dallas in the third year of his only term.
Biography
Kennedy was the second son of a wealthy and politically ambitious family; his father was ambassador to Britain while he was an undergraduate. Chronic illness interrupted his schooling repeatedly. His Harvard thesis on British rearmament was published in 1940 as “Why England Slept”. He commanded a patrol torpedo boat in the Pacific, and was decorated after PT-109 was rammed and sunk in 1943.
He entered the House in 1947, the Senate in 1953, and won the 1960 election over Richard Nixon by roughly one tenth of one percent of the popular vote, after the first televised presidential debates.
His presidency covered the failed Bay of Pigs landing, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Berlin Wall, the first American in orbit and the commitment to land on the Moon, the Peace Corps, a large proposed tax cut, the escalation of the American advisory presence in Vietnam, and the civil-rights bill he sent to Congress in June 1963. He was assassinated in Dallas on 22 November 1963.
Education
- The Choate School, Connecticut, Graduated (1935)
- Princeton University (1935)
- Harvard College, A.B. in government, cum laude (1940)
- Stanford Graduate School of Business (1940)
Military service
United States Naval Reserve, 1941–1945; lieutenant; commanded PT-109 and PT-59 in the Solomon Islands; Navy and Marine Corps Medal and Purple Heart.
Offices held before the presidency
- United States Representative from Massachusetts, 1947–1953
- United States Senator from Massachusetts, 1953–1960