Analysis of John F Kennedy - Research Paper Example

John F Kennedy, the 35th US president, was born on May 29, 1917 in Brookline to Joseph Kennedy and Rose Fitzgerald (Weber 9). As with any other childin the society, John had a normal family background and childhood despite the fact that his parents were considered as being wealthy and politically influential. His father, Joseph, for example, was a well respected banker, a humble profession, though he was later appointed as the US ambassador to Britain in 1937. However, his grandfathers John Francis Fitzgerald, whom he is named after, and Patrick Kennedy were successful and respected politicians in Boston. John on one hand was a Boston mayor from 1906 to 1908 while Patrick on the other hand was a senate representative for Massachusetts in 1892. This may be noted as a contributing factor towards the rise and success of John Kennedy and some of his brothers in American politics (Weber 26). During his childhood, Kennedy is said to have suffered normal ailments such as chicken pox, measles and other infections that affect young children but of significance is that he was diagnosed with a rare scarlet fever infection when he was 3 years old. The infection is said to be one of the most dangerous and communicable diseases and this worried his parents a lot, especially his father, who went to the extent of promising that he would donate half of his had earned savings to charity if his son recovered from this condition. However, Kennedy was a fighter and to the surprise of many, he was able to overcome the threat within approximately three months and true to his word, Kennedy’s father fulfilled his promise by donating more than half of his entire savings to charity (Thomas 17). The Kennedy family lived in Brookline until when he was 10 years old after which they moved to New York City especially due to the success his father had in business, which made it possible to relocate to a larger and spacious house. During the 10 years before relocation, Kennedy had attended 3 schools which were; Edward Devotion School, Noble and Greenbush Lower School, and the Dexter School, where he completed his 4th grade. Once in New York, he was enrolled into Riverdale country school, where he studied up to the 7th grade after which, he joined the Canterbury school for his 8th grade (Thomas 31). Reports indicate that Kennedy was a bright student, obedient and though he was small in size, he always was courageous and determined to excel in all areas. This was however a challenging task especially since he was an Irish catholic and this did not go well with the society within which he and his family were living. Irish Catholics at that time were looked down upon by the society and this could have been a basis for discrimination. It may be important to note that even though Kennedy was American born, his great grand parents originated from Ireland and therefore, he himself had that Irish identity. The future US president had a significant share of health issues in his childhood. Apart from the scarlet fever attack, Kennedy also suffered appendicitis when he was 14 years old, which necessitated for the surgical removal of his appendix, a factor that led to his withdrawal from school for approximately 6 months to enable him recover from the comfort of his home (Thomas 40). Despite this, he was able to join Choate school for his 9th grade, where he joined his elder brother Joe, who was slightly ahead of him by 2 years. It is believed that during the first years in this school, Kennedy was felt so much uncomfortable due to the fact that his brother was far much popular owing to his involvement in sports and high academic performance. This affected Kennedy in a negative manner as he started to engage in antisocial behavior within the school surroundings, which attracted other likeminded students, who, together, formed a group which they named the Muckers club. This name was adopted from their head teacher, who had referred to the coterie of students, who included Kennedy, as muckers for blowing up a toilet using an explosive (Hamilton 22). Despite this, Kennedy was a high academic achiever and this may be supported by the fact that he was able to graduate in 1935 after completing his 12th grade in Choate not withstanding the above mentioned cases of gross misconduct. During this time, the students in Choate voted him as the most likely to succeed and this may not have been in vain as he later became one of the most powerful men on earth in his capacity as the US president. However, in the previous year before graduating, he had suffered from an inflammation of the colon, which led to him being hospitalized. Having completed his time in Choate, it was time for Kennedy to choose a career and in 1935, he and some members of his family travelled to London, where he intended to join the London School of Economics but even though he did, it is not known why he decided to go back to America later that year to enroll in Princeton University. However, his stay in Princeton was brief, reason being that he was forced to abandon his studies after he was suspected of having leukemia, which necessitated his admission to hospital in order to undergo treatment. Indeed, he was admitted for two months before he was allowed to go home to recuperate. In 1936, John joined Harvard University, where he graduated in 1940 with a science degree, and most notable is the fact that his final thesis,” Appeasement in Munich,” formed the basis of the production of a book titled “Why England Slept,” and which acquired a lot of reading thereby making it one of the runaway successes of that time (Dallek 48). His success in Harvard, especially the thesis, was basically influenced by his growing and positive attitude, which was directed towards political philosophy and also due to his father’s occupation, which sometimes provided him with the opportunity to travel to various parts of Europe. Having completed his studies, the young Kennedy, just as with other nationalistic Americans, decided to join the US Navy in 1941, where he was given an opportunity to serve his country as an intelligence officer. It is not a wonder to find that after serving the navy in that capacity for a short time, he was transferred and promoted to become the commanding officer of a PT boat (Dallek 52). Why this is not a surprise is because since his childhood, Kennedy was perceived as a person with a strong character and one who faced all challenges head on thereby culminating to his being voted for as the most likely to succeed as discussed earlier. It may be important to note that this is the period when the world was experiencing the Second World War and the US decision to participate was a significant factor in Kennedy’s life as it triggered his promotion and also exposed him to more challenges, some of which were life threatening. For example, as the commanding officer of the PT boat, Kennedy was not only a source of motivation for his officers but he was also responsible for the safety of the crew members as well as the boat itself. This is a role he played with lots of courage, which is evidenced by the events that occurred on August 2, 1943. Apparently, it is during this day that the Japanese attacked Kennedy’s boat thereby killing two of his men on the spot. However, he is always remembered for his heroic act, whereby he managed to save one of his men by dragging him with his teeth while swimming away from the wreckage and to a nearby island, which was approximately 5 miles away, not withstanding the fact that his back was badly injured during the attack. This act gained him the Navy and Marine Corps Medal in addition to other accolades such as World War 2 victory medal and American Campaign Medal, which he received for his heroic contributions during the war. However, in early 1945, just before the end of the war, Kennedy was discharged from the military, not because of failure or misconduct but in an honorable manner having maintained a clean record during his entire 5 years in the service. In deed, some sources indicate that the major reason for the discharge was that he had weakened in health especially after the 1943 assault by the Japanese, which injured his back and this may be noted later as a hindrance in his early political activities (Dallek 76). With the war gone and his military career over, Kennedy, having been born and raised in a family with high political ambitions and connections, and with his elder brother, Joseph, killed in the war, it was his time to try his hand in politics. In deed, the timing was right for his entry in politics as in 1946, the member for the House of Representatives in Massachusetts, James Michael, stepped down in order to vie for Boston Mayoral seat, which he won. This created a vacancy, which Kennedy competed for through the Democratic Party and defeated his republican opponent (Weber 46). While in this position, Kennedy became a champion for the poor people especially those like him, who were in the working class. He also came out as a strong critic of his party’s and the then President Truman’s soft stand on communism being spread by China. He served in this position for three terms i.e. by winning the elections of 1946, 1948 and 1950, after which he vied for the Senate in 1952 and won against the incumbent, who was a Republican despite the fact that the republican presidential candidate got the majority of votes in Massachusetts and the whole country at large. This means that the electorate voted him for senate without regarding his party but refused to vote for his presidential candidate. In this context, it may be true to say that he was a man with a vision and also a strategist. In 1953, at the age of 36, he became a family man by marrying Jacqueline Lee Bouvier, who was also of Irish origin (The White House n.d). However, his first term as a senator was overshadowed by his poor health as he was not able to attend all sittings due to several surgical operations that were conducted on his spine. In fact, his receiving of the last catholic rites attests to the fact that he was definitely in a critical condition and there was a possibility of him succumbing to his illness. Despite this, he never lost hope and instead, he dedicated his time, while recuperating, to write a book titled,” Profiles in Courage,” which went ahead to win the Pulitzer Prize in the year 1957. On the other hand, it is during this period, 1956, that he was nominated for vice presidency and although he lost, it is believed that this helped greatly to build his political career as it enabled him to market himself at the national level (Dallek 88). It is therefore not a wonder to find that in 1960, Kennedy decided to run for presidency against his opponent Richard Nixon (Thomas 61). However, his bid was met with mixed reactions especially due to his being a catholic. He had a difficult time convincing the electorate that he had no intentions of elevating Catholic ideologies as he was not a spokesperson or an official of the church and neither did the church speak on his behalf. In general, he was relying on his right and freedom of worship but nevertheless, some of the protestant states at that time such as West Virginia continued to oppose him on that basis. However, his bid was elevated by the inception of live televised debates, which enabled him to challenge Nixon, who failed to express himself effectively to the audience highly because of nervousness. In the end, Kennedy won the elections and was sworn in on January 20, 1961 with a call to all Americans to think in terms of what they can do for the nation and not the other way round (The White House n.d). During his time as president, Kennedy was determined to build the economy, which had continued to deteriorate in the hands of his predecessor and indeed, he succeeded right from his first year in office when the government read a $1 billion budget for the first time in history. He managed to stabilize the economy with inflation stagnating at 1% and unemployment reducing significantly. He also strengthened America’s foreign policy especially regarding threats of communism and nuclear weapons by improving defense and controlling the Russian influence on Europe and Cuba (Dallek 101). However, his life was cut short on November 22, 1963 in Dallas, Texas, by an assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, who shot him twice as he was driving past in a motorcade. He thus became the youngest person to take the presidency and the youngest president to die in office, being 46 years old at his time of death (The White House n.d). Lyndon Johnson, his vice president, was sworn in as the president a few hours after the incident. Works Cited Dallek, Robert. An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917-1963. Little, Brown and Company, 2003 Hamilton, Migel. JFK: Reckless Youth. Random House, 1993 The White House. John F. Kennedy. 30 November 2011. Thomas, Evan. John F. Kennedy: His Life. Simon & Schuster, 2007 Weber, Jill. Who Was John F. Kennedy? Perfection Learning, 2005 Read More