John F. Kennedy

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ohn F. Kennedy was born May 29, 1917 into a rich Boston family of Irish-Catholics. He was one of eight siblings that enjoyed a childhood of the most elite private schools, boats, servants, and summer homes. During his adolescence, John or "Jack" Kennedy suffered from many serious illnesses, this however, did not seem to stop him, he strove for the best.

To prove he could make his own way Kennedy wrote a best-selling book while attending college at Harvard and after graduating he entered World War II through joining the U.S. Navy. Commanding a small motor-torpedo boat in the South Pacific Kennedy and his crew participated to free thousands of islands from Japanese control. While the sailors were sleeping on August, 1943 his boat was rammed by a Japanese destroyer. With the crew's ten survivors, including one badly burned, they went on a three mile swim to take shelter on a tiny island hiding from the enemies for days until managing to send for help. Because of this Kennedy received the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps Medal for Valor and a Purple Heart for the rescue of his crew and the injuries he received, this had made him a hero.

After the Navy, Kennedy worked for a short time as a reporter for the Hearst newspaper while he began his career in politics with the hopes from his father of one day becoming president after the death of his brother Joseph who was killed in the war. In 1946, the twenty-nine year old John F. Kennedy won an election into the U.S. Congress representing a working-class Boston district. Serving three terms in the U.S. House of Representatives he earned a reputation as a conservative Democrat. He was re-elected in 1948 and again in 1950 until 1952 when he ran for the U.S. Senate defeating Henry Cabot Lodge Jr., a Republican from Massachusetts whose family had a long line of history in politics.

That same year, he met Jacqueline Bouvier at a dinner party; she was a twenty-four year old and writer for the Washington Times-Herald. A year later the two were married having their first child, Caroline, who was born in 1957 and then their second child, John Jr., was born. Even though President Kennedy was possibly the busiest man in the country he still found time to laugh and play with his children.

In 1956, he was on a pursuit for the vice presidential spot alongside a presidential hopeful, Adlai Stevenson. He lost the spot to Estes Kefauver, a senator from Tennessee but in the end this defeat proved to be in his favor. With the exposure Kennedy got at the 1956 national Democratic convention it made him a serious candidate for the 1960 Democratic presidential nomination. One of Kennedy's claims was that the U.S. was on the wrong side with the Soviet Union as a basis of themes to get into the Democratic nomination for the 1960 presidential election.

Making his way into the 1960 election Kennedy's chief rival Hubert Humphrey was defeated along with Lyndon B. Johnson. This put forty-seven year old Republican vice president Richard Nixon against forty-three year old Kennedy. Kennedy faced to main problems, his age and his religion, but with that still in mind a poll put Nixon and Kennedy with a tie of forty-seven percent with six percent still undecided. Getting even more public attention they did many televised debates which were watched