John was born on May 29, 1917 in Brookline, Massachusetts. He had the good fortune of being born into a family of some esteem. His father, Joseph, had made a fortune from humble beginnings. It is suspected, however, that a great deal of Joseph's fortune came from bootlegging during the times of Prohibition. Nevertheless, Joseph had important political connections and a good reputation in high society, even serving as ambassador to the United Kingdom under President Fraklin D. Roosevelt. John's mother, Rose, was the daughter of a mayor of the city of Boston. John had eight siblings. Among them were Joe Jr., who aspired to be President one day, and Robert, who would serve as Attorney General in John's administration. Joe Jr. was always his father's favorite son when the young Kennedys were growing up, and many of the other siblings were jealous of Joe. John, in particular, always wanted to prove that he could do just as much as Joe could.
John did not stray far from home to go to college; he went to Harvard and graduated in 1940. During his time at Harvard, he wrote the book Why England Slept, analyzing the United Kingdom's lack of readiness for World War II. Why England Slept became a bestseller, though it was originally intended only to be John's senior essay project. After college, Kennedy entered the Navy and became a skipper on a PT boat. He had a hard time entering the Armed Forces because of a bad health history: he had suffered numerous diseases including scarlet fever and bronchitis. Kennedy and his crew were placed in the Pacific Theater of the war, and a Japanese destroyer rammed the vessel, sinking it. Kennedy's coolness under fire saved the crew from disaster and they swam to safety on an island. Kennedy himself dragged one badly burned crew member through the water to safety. John was awarded the Purple Heart as well as the Navy Medal of Valor. His brother Joe was killed in action during the war, which was a major blow to his family.
After his military service, John turned his eyes to a political career after a short stint as a journalist. In 1946, he won his first seat in the House of Representatives. Six years later, he would become a United States Senator. Kennedy did not accomplish much while he served in Congress, mainly because of further health problems. Kennedy suffered from malaria, which he contracted during the war, and Addison's disease. Later he also had to have surgery on his bad back. While recovering from that surgery, Kennedy wrote the Pulitzer Prize-winning book Profiles In Courage. This book told the stories of unsung heroes in American history who made decisions based on morals instead of votes or popularity. Kennedy was a candidate to be Adlai Stevenson's running mate in 1956, but he lost. However, four years later he won the Democratic Party's nomination for President.
Kennedy ran a very shrewd campaign for President. He was running against a popular Richard M. Nixon and he knew that it would take a lot to beat him. Kennedy was somewhat like candidate Al Smith in 1928 in that he faced an anti-Catholic prejudice. Another soft spot for Kennedy was his age. Kennedy was very young, and many considered this a disadvantage. Kennedy's young, vibrant image had actually been an advantage in many of his earlier campaigns and he wasn't about to let it hinder his run for the presidency. He resolved to challenge his opponent to a series of televised debates. Though Nixon brought better arguments to the table, Kennedy's image during the debates greatly improved the public's opinion of him. Nixon, on the other hand, looked very weary and he lost a lot of support. Kennedy was the first politician to use the television to his advantage. It's quite ironic that Kennedy became popular because of his youthful, energetic image despite his horrific medical history.
Kennedy continued his smart politics during his presidency. In his early administration, he began laying out groundwork for the legislation he would encourage. He quickly gained a reputation as a civil rights activist. He founded the Peace Corps and set the stage for other legislation which he would implement in his second term. Of course, Kennedy would never make it to a second term, so much of this legislation was passed under the administration of Lyndon Johnson. Kennedy also made the claim that we would send a man to the moon within a decade and began laying out plans for what would become NASA. Still, his most important actions during his short term as President would be how he dealt with the Soviet Union, Cuba, and communism.
The island nation of Cuba fell under the rule of Communist leader Fidel Castro while Dwight D. Eisenhower was still President. The people of America were afraid of having a Communist presence only 90 miles from their shores. The leaders of the CIA and Eisenhower had been planning to overthrow Castro for some time. Kennedy inherited these plans from Eisenhower's administration and he agreed to an invasion. The plan was to have Cuban exiles return to Cuba and overthrow Castro's regime, with the help of American training and supplies. This invasion, which would be known as the Bay of Pigs invasion, failed horribly and embarrassed the American government.
Having failed, Kennedy needed to save face. The Soviets built the Berlin Wall in 1961. Kennedy traveled there personally and delivered the infamous line "Ich bin ein Berliner". The Soviet Union threatened to end Allied occupation of Berlin, and both sides sent troops to Berlin to show they meant business. The Soviets eventually backed down, and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev was impressed with the young President's confidence and assertiveness. The ball was now in Khrushchev's court once again.
The Soviet Union began assembling nuclear missiles in Cuba in 1962. When this news was made public, there was a lot of panicking among the American public. Kennedy knew that this situation had to be defused quickly. The American government set up a blockade preventing the entry of any Soviet boats into Cuba. Though Khrushchev was gaining respect for Kennedy, he was not expecting such a gutsy move. In meetings, Khrushchev had commented that he was old enough to be Kennedy's father, and originally refused to take him seriously. Khrushchev made a promise to America, "We will bury you", as the world escalated ever closer to nuclear war. Kennedy and his advisors saw that the Soviet Union was in no condition to have a war, and gave Khrushchev the chance to remove missiles from Cuba if America removed its missiles from Turkey. This gave Khrushchev an easy way out, even though that agreement was secret. The threat of nuclear war had been removed.
Though he was a very successful president, Kennedy did not even finish one full term. On November 22, 1963, Kennedy was shot in Dallas, Texas, while riding in an open convertible in a motorcade. Kennedy was dying in front of hundreds, and in the arms of his wife. What actually happened remains a mystery to this day. A man by the name of Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested as a suspect. Oswald suspiciously met his end as well when he was being transferred from a temporary holding cell. Oswald was killed by Jack Ruby, the owner of a nightclub in Dallas. The American government placed Earl Warren and the Warren Commission in charge of the official investigation of Kennedy's death and they determined that Oswald acted alone. Many people do not accept the Warren Commission's report because the facts about the assassination are unclear. Regardless of who actually killed the President, the whole nation mourned the loss of a great man that day. Every American alive that day remembered where they were when they found out that Kennedy had been killed. This is a testament to Kennedy's popularity and the legacy he has left on the history of the United States.
Jack Kennedy is generally viewed as a war hero for his actions as commander of PT-109 in the Solomon Islands. Indeed, he was awarded the purple heart and the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal for acts of heroism following the loss of PT-109. However, his detractors at the time, and later on as he tried to use his war record to counter charges that he was too young and too weak to stand up to the cold-war Soviets during a run for the US presidency, charge that his loss of PT-109 was nothing short of criminal negligence.
Lt. Kennedy took command of PT-109 on April 24, 1943. Although he was new and untested, the boat and several members of her crew had seen combat in the waters near Guadalcanal and other parts of the Solomon Islands. PT boats operated in divisions of up to four boats, often lying in wait for Japanese supply convoys known as the Tokyo Express. These convoys, made up of troop and supply ships guarded by destroyers and sometimes aircraft, needed to pass through the narrow straits between the reefs and islands of the archipelago. The maneuverability and small size of the PT boats let them effectively harass the Japanese shipping with torpedoes.
On the night of August 1, 1943, PT-109 with Lt. Kennedy at the helm took part in an operation in the Iron Bottom Sound, so named because of the volume of shipping that was sunk there. The boat was in one of four PT-boat divisions that were ordered to intercept the so-called Tokyo Express which was expected to pass through the area. Each PT boat division included a boat that was equipped with radar, which the Imperial Navy didn't aquire until the following year. In fact, at one point PT-109 was equipped with an unauthorized radar set, although it was probably not working that night and one of the other boats was using its rader. After picking up shipping on radar, one division would set off to attack while the others would race off to various locations where they would 'lay up' in wait for the passing convoy.
That night, a Japanese convoy comprised of five destroyers was passing through the area as it returned from a supply mission. The division of which Lt. Kennedy was a part detected the convoy, which it misidentified as landing craft, and set off to ambush it. Two boats attacked while Lt. Kennedy and another craft raced to 'lay up' in front of the convoy. After the convoy was alerted to the presence of the attackers by a misfired torpedo, they brought all their considerable firepower to bear on the PT boats, which fled unscathed. Lt. Kennedy's and two other boats, still believing that they had encountered landing craft, decided that the sheer volume of fire meant that artillery from a shore battery had spotted them, and they fled from the scene. After requesting additional orders from base, three PT boats led by Lt. Kennedy who knew how to reach the destination, went to another location to lay up in wait for the convoy.
When they reached the designated area they patrolled at low speed. It's probable that the radar-equipped boat was the one that was no longer part of the group. Lt. Kennedy, using only one of his boat's three engines, was in the lead running the boat at an idle. This tactic may have been designed to minimize the boat's wake which could be visible from the air even on the darkest nights, due to phosphorescent plankton in the water which glow when disturbed.
The other two boats in the group caught sight of a Japanese Fubuki-class destroyer approximately 700 yards from PT-109 and bearing down on it at a high rate of speed. It sliced clean through Lt. Kennedy's boat, splitting it almost in half lengthwise and killing two crewmen instantly while dumping others into the sea, which was spotted with burning fuel. Just before the ramming, one boat attempted to fire its torpedos at the destroyer, but they wouldn't fire. It gave chase after the ramming and fired its other two torpedos, but was forced to flee after the destroyer turned towards it and lit it up with a spotlight then bracketed it with its guns. After being detected, the second boat fled, zigzagging and laying a smoke-screen until it encountered another Japanese destroyer. It was able to hit the destroyer with a torpedo, but returned to base since it had no more torpedos and the destroyers were alerted to its presence. A third boat caught sight of this destroyer, which was limping home at 5 knots, but missed with two torpedos.
Before the ramming, the night appeared calm on board the PT-109. Then, 200-300 yards off the starboard bow, the bow lookout spotted a dark shape. He alerted Lt. Kennedy, and they initially mistook the shape for another PT boat. It may have been difficult for the crew to correctly identify a blacked-out Japanese destroyer bearing down on them head-on in the dark, especially when they were expecting to encounter slower landing craft, which would have taken longer to arrive at the ambush point. Some say that the crew's, and ultimately Jack Kennedy's negligence were to blame for the catastrophy. In less than ten seconds it closed the distance and sliced them apart. Lt. Kennedy tried to maneuver his boat, but the single engine turning at slow speed wasn't up to the task. PT-109 became the only PT boat ever rammed by an enemy ship.
The Amagiri was a destroyer captained at the time by Lieutenant Commander Kohei Hanami - then 32 years of age and the youngest destroyer captain in the Imperial Navy. While he was steaming towards home after a skirmish with American PT boats, his lookouts noticed another PT boat nearly dead in the water, 3000 yards away. Commander Hanami turned his warship towards the PT boat and decided to close the distance, given the PT boats' reputation for being hard to hit with gunfire and the speed with which they could deploy their torpedos. With, presumably, the gunners' fingers on their triggers, the Amagiri rushed towards PT-109 at close to 40 knots, which didn't notice her until it was too late to get out of the way.
The events that took place over the next seven days are what earned Jack Kennedy his reputation for heroism. After his boat was split in twain, Lt. Kennedy ordered all hands off what was left of the deck, since it was on fire. Luckily, the destroyer's wake had dispersed most of the flaming fuel and the fire soon burned itself out. Lt. Kennedy and some of the crew returned to the wreck and they discovered that five crewmen were still in the water some ways from the wreck. Most were wearing flotation gear, but some were injured and burned. Lt. Kennedy swam towards a group of three, two of whom had been burned, while two other uninjured crewmen swam out to assist the other two who were overcome by smoke. Lt. Kennedy towed one burned man back to the wreck by holding a rope in his teeth as he swam. This arduous swim took more than an hour. He then swam back for the other two, one of whom was burned, and he and the uninjured man towed the burned man back to the wreck after Lt. Kennedy gave up his life-belt to the uninjured man. The other two men were also rescued successfully, and the entire crew, save the two who were killed in the ramming, survived.
The crew had flare guns, but didn't use them for fear of alerting any Japanese that might still be in the area. They floated on the wreckage until dawn with no sign of rescue, when it became apparent that despite the PT boat's watertight compartments, the wreckage was about to sink. Lt. Kennedy made the decision to abandon the wreckage and try to reach a small, uninhabited island that appeared to be about 4 miles away. Time was of the essence since the wreckage was drifting towards the island of Gizo (sometimes spelled Ghizo) which they knew to be occupied by the enemy. Two crewmembers could not swim, and one was badly burned and incapable of reaching the island. The non-swimmers floated on a long 2x8 while the remaining crewmembers pushed and towed them towards land. Lt. Kennedy took it upon himself to tow the badly burned man to land, the same one he had initially towed to the wreckage. They all arrived safe ashore with nothing more than the clothes on their backs (Lt. Kennedy wore only underwear), seven handguns, three knives, and a flashlight.
In the evening, over the span of two hours Lt. Kennedy alternately waded along reefs and swam until he reached a stretch of water known to be frequented by PT boats. There were none in the vicinity, and signs of fighting in the far distance indicated that they were elsewhere, too far to reach. During the return journey, he was caught in a powerful current and ended up far out of his way. He was not able to make it back to the others until dawn. He started to suffer the effects of malaria, and several days went by with no sign of rescue. Another crewmember, also an officer and the strongest swimmer besides Lt. Kennedy, duplicated Lt. Kennedy's attempt to attract the notice of a passing PT boat, but wasn't able to find anybody. Heeding Lt. Kennedy's warnings about the current, he was able to avoid being washed in the wrong direction and returned unharmed.
Food on the islet, which was nothing more than coconut meat and the occasional seabird, ran out and the group decided to swim to another island. Lt. Kennedy again towed the badly injured man, pressing ahead through a powerful current, and the entire crew reached their destination safely. A New Zealand warplane fired upon a nearby island, which indicated that it might be occupied by the enemy. Nevertheless, setting out in search of food, Lt. Kennedy and the other officer swam to that island and found a box containing some Japanese food rations including crackers and candy. They also discovered and commandeered a canoe belonging to some islanders. The next night, Lt. Kennedy used the canoe to search for American PT boats, with no success.
When he returned, he found the crew conversing with two islanders. The islanders were extremely helpful, and even showed them where another canoe was cached. They agreed to take a message written on a coconut-husk via canoe to the American coastwatcher sentries. While waiting for them to return, Lt. Kennedy and the other officer set out in the canoe in hopes of finding a PT boat. The canoe sunk and they were washed up on a reef, receiving minor injuries. Eventually, the natives returned with a message from the Americans detailing how to proceed with the rescue (which was dangerous in enemy waters). Seven days after PT-109 was rammed by an enemy destroyer and two of her crew were killed, the remaining crewmembers were rescued.
Jack Kennedy, son of a wealthy and controversial political appointee, was both lionized in the so-called elite New York press (mostly at the behest of his powerful father) and grumbled about (probably by those with political leanings different from the Kennedy family) in the officer's clubs in the South Pacific. It got to the point that even Douglas MacArthur (no shrinking violet, and about as far from Joe Kennedy politically as it's possible to get) called for his court martial. In any event, the Navy saw fit to put an end to speculation and award Lt. Kennedy a medal for heroism.
A contrarian view of the life of John F. Kennedy, the thirty-fifth President of the United States of America
John Fitzgerald Kennedy was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, on the 29th May 1917, the second son of Joseph Patrick Kennedy and Rose Fitzgerald. His father was a former bootlegger with extensive contacts with organised crime who had used his money to buy his way into Franklin Roosevelt's administration, ultimately becoming the US ambassador to the United Kingdom where he became known for his pro-Nazi sympathies.
Commonly known as Jack and later often simply as JFK, he attended the Choate School in Connecticut before spending a year studying under Harold Laski at the London School of Economics. Although he had a place at Princeton University, illness prevented him from attending the beginning of term in 1935. Initially denied late admission until his father fixed the problem, he only attended the university for a month before illness again forced him to give up his studies. Recuperating in Arizona, he changed his mind and decided to try Harvard instead.
At Harvard he was very much in the shadow of his older brother Joe, the varsity football star who was swanning around the Harvard campus telling people that "When I become President, I will take you to the White House with me". Meanwhile his younger brother Jack was failing to make the swim team and boasted an unimpressive academic record, largely relying on additional tutoring services or attendance at 'cram school' to get him through his exams. The one thing that he did excel at was charming women; "I can now get my tail as often and as free as I want" he once bragged to his friend Lem Billings.
He eventually managed to graduate, with his thesis, despite being described as "badly written" being apparently sufficient (at least for an ambassador's son) for him to do so magnum cum laude. JFK though about attending Yale Law School, but illness once again put paid to that so he went to Sanford University in California, but was there for only there a term before illness again forced him back to the east coast to see his doctors.
Kennedy at war
In the autumn of 1940 JFK was drafted into the US Army but since he was enrolled at Stanford University this didn't take effect until 1941. His health was however poor and he failed the physical exams for both the Army and the Navy officer candidate schools. John was however determined to participate in the war and so Papa Joe arranged for some friendly doctors to give him the necessary clean bill of health and he joined the Office of Naval Intelligence as an ensign in October 1941. Despite being declared unfit for duty in April 1942, the US Navy agreed in June 1942 to his request for transfer to sea duty and after attending midshipman school, when his father again intervened to ensure that his son won a posting to his desired motor torpedo boat command (the glamorous naval equivalent of being a fighter pilot.)
However the navy seemed reluctant to assign him to active command and JFK was not particularly happy when he was posted to Rhode Island as an instructor. A quiet word with his grandfather Honey Fitz who just happened to know the chairman of the Senate Naval Affairs Committee, one David Walsh, ensured that he was eventually transferred to the South Pacific where he was to spend seventeen months on active service.
JFK was eventually placed in command of PT 109 and sent out on a mission to intercept a Japanese convoy and on the 2nd August 1943 was run over by a Japanese destroyer. This left JFK and his surviving crew adrift in the sea, but they managed to swim to dry land where they spent seven days avoiding detection by the enemy before being rescued. Being Joe Kennedy's son his experiences attracted considerable press coverage and won for JFK the Navy and Marine Corps Medal and the Purple Heart. It is however worth nothing that this was the only occasion in the entire war when a PT boat managed to get itself rammed by an enemy vessel. (Generally speaking PT boats were fast enough to get out of the way.) "He wasn't a particularly good boat commander" was how his commanding officer explained the incident, whilst General Douglas MacArthur wanted him court-martialled for incompetence.
Nevertheless JFK managed to escape censure and later made the rank of lieutenant becoming a PT instructor in Florida. After a further operation on his back he was honourably discharged in March 1945.
Politics is like war. It takes three things to win. The first is money and the second is money and the third is money. Joe Kane
The pivotal moment in JFK's life was when his older brother Joe got blown up in 1941. This meant that JFK was now the focus of his father's ambition, who told him that it was now his responsibility to run for Congress. "It was like being drafted" was how JFK himself described the experience. The subsequent rapid progress of his political career is an object lesson in the importance of money in the American political system.
When it was decided that JFK would contest the 11th Congressional District in Massachusetts, papa Joe spent something between $250,000 and $300,000 simply to get his son nominated as the Democratic party candidate. This was a phenomenal amount of money at the time and as Joe himself admitted "With that sort of money I could elect my chauffeur". As with all of JFK's election campaigns no one is quite sure where all the money went, as a lot of it was simply passed around in brown paper envelopes as out-right electoral bribes. It was a similar story when JFK ran for the senate against the Republican Henry Cabot Lodge in 1952; "Cabot was simply overwhelmed by money" as Dwight Eisenhower put it. This time around papa Joe pumped several million dollars into the campaign, his principal contribution being the $500,000 he 'lent' to John J. Fox, the owner of the near-bankrupt Boston Post in order to obtain that newspaper's endorsement. As JFK himself was to later admit "You know, we had to buy that paper or I'd have been licked."
Kennedy the Congressman
Despite the impression later given by the Kennedy machine, JFK was not, by any stretch of the imagination, a 'liberal'. Indeed, he was described by Tip O'Neill as "only nominally a Democrat" and JFK himself admitted that "I am not a liberal at all, I'm a realist". In fact his principal political platform was anti-communism and he was on good terms with Joe McCarthy whom he once described as "a great American patriot". When the Senate finally voted to condemn McCarthy, JFK couldn't bring himself to vote against his old friend and simply abstained (he claimed he was to ill to vote), becoming the only Democrat in the Senate who failed to vote against McCarthy. Indeed his politics were largely indistinguishable from those of his future presidential opponent Richard Nixon; Hubert Humphrey (who was very much a liberal) went so far as to call JFK the 'Democratic Nixon', whilst JFK himself openly congratulated Richard Nixon when he beat the left-wing Democrat Helen Gahagan Douglas in a contest for the Senate in 1950, and had even personally contributed $1,000 in cash (courtesy of papa Joe) to Nixon's campaign funds.
It is undisputable that JFK's record in Congress was largely undistinguished; he turned up and voted and that was about it. The reason for this was quite simple; he never accomplished much in the House of Representatives because he spent all his time there building his campaign for the Senate, and he never achieved anything as a Senator because he was too busy running for president.
Having tried and failed to win nomination as the Democratic Vice Presidential candidate in 1956, JFK decided to make a bid for the Democratic presidential nomination for 1960. This was complicated by the fact that Adlai Stevenson (for reasons of his own) declined to formally run, but indicated that he was willing to accept the nomination if asked. Therefore the Kennedy machine put a great deal of effort into winning the nomination on the first ballot, knowing that if they failed to do so, that Stevenson would likely emerge as the compromise candidate. Once again papa Joe's money was needed to grease the political wheels, as winning nomination as the Democratic candidate for the presidency wasn't that easy for JFK as much of the party would have preferred to nominate an actual liberal.
Kennedy the womaniser
The White House has been the home of many a serial adulterer but probably none so prolific as John Fitzgerald Kennedy. His most famous 'conquests' include Marilyn Monroe (shared with brother Bobby) and Judith Campbell Exener (shared with Mafia boss Sam Giancana), but it would be a sheer impossibility to enumerate the long succession of secretaries, campaign workers, waitresses, stewardesses, actresses etc etc that JFK bedded during his life. Nor was he averse to hiring call girls should the need arise and he famously prepared for his televised debates with Nixon by having a prostitute sent to his room.
This of course, represented some inner compulsion and JFK once claimed to Harold Macmillan that he needed to bed a new girl once every three days otherwise he would get a headache. But like many womanisers it doesn't appear as if he was a very capable lover as Za Za Gabor, although she would later deny it, once described her experience with JFK as the "most uneventful two minutes of my life".
His womanising was more than simply a personal quirk, it was potentially damaging to both his political career and the national interest. His naval career was somewhat marred by the affair he had an affair with one Inga Arvad who was suspected of being a Nazi agent, and whilst he was president his many 'affairs' included a former New York prostitute named Suzy Chang, who later became part of the same 'stable' of girls as
