A Political Biography On Jfk Essay Research
A Political Biography On Jfk Essay, Research Paper
John Fitzgerald Kennedy has changed the lives of many Americans and their future coevalss. He fought communism, seen as an evil presence in our wold, in the Soviet Union, Cuba and China. In making so, he prevented many people of the universe from being harmed. Kennedy ensured equality for all Americans, rich or hapless, black or white. He led an progress in civil and human rights, and was good liked by many of the American people. He is seen as one of the most influential Presidents of all time to hold been elected. Many people regard JFK as bequest. He changed the positions of American citizens and helped hike the economic system, non merely in the United States, but globally.
Get downing of political calling
Faced with the job of choosing, a calling, Kennedy worked for a few months in 1945 as a newsman for the Hearst newspapers, and during this clip, he covered the conference at San Francisco which established the United Nations. While there he noted the combatant Russian attitude & # 8217 ; ( Lawson, 1998, p. 1 ) and decided to prosecute a calling in political relations. Early on in 1946, he began an aggressive run against nine other campaigners for a place in the House of Representatives from the Democratic 11th Massachusetts Congressional District. His election in November of 1946 was an overpowering success. From at that place, Kennedy was re-elected in 1948 and 1950. He had a form of assorted vote, frequently differing with many of the policies of President Truman. Kennedy agreed with the disposals Fair Deal policies, contending for issues such as slum clearance and low-priced public lodging. His positions on foreign personal businesss were besides strong, and was critical of the President for non keeping the progress of communism in China. Most of Kennedy & # 8217 ; s positions on political relations were foremost generated and tempered here in the House of Representatives. U.S. Senate
In 1952, Kennedy announced his campaigning for the senate. His resistance was Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. , who was a Republican. He one time once more campaigned smartly with his new motto being & # 8221 ; Kennedy will make more for Massachusetts & # 8221 ; . ( Palmer, 1994, p.86 ) He won the election by an overpowering border. As a senator, Kennedy concentrated foremost on doing good on his run motto. At the terminal of two old ages he could name a broad array of statute law he had obtained for Massachusetts business communities. He expanded his plan to cover all of New England and succeeded in unifying the senators from the country into an effectual vote axis. At the same clip, he supported the St. Lawrence Seaway and the extension of the mutual trade plan.
In 1952, shortly after his matrimony to Jacqueline Bouvier, Kennedy was troubled by back jobs, and as it got worse in 1954 and 1955, he underwent spinal operations. During his long absence from the senate, he occupied himself by composing a survey of noteworthy Acts of the Apostless of bravery by eight United States senators. This book, published in 1956 entitled Profiles in Courage, received the Pulitzer Prize for life in 1957.
After Kennedy returned to work in May 1955, he shifted his attending more and more towards national and international issues. He had antecedently told a magazine author, with mention to critis who complain that he was non a & # 8220 ; true broad & # 8221 ; , that he would be really happy to state them that he was non broad at all. But by 1957, he was taking mildly broad places on the hard inquiry of civil autonomies. He helped set up a via media between Northern and Southern places on the civil rights measure passed in 1957. In Jackson Miss. , he honestly asserted that he accepted the Supreme Court determination of 1954 on integration of the state & # 8217 ; s public schools.
Campaign for president
Get downing in 1956, Kennedy aimed toward higher office. In the Democratic Convention of that twelvemonth he about retracted the vice-presidential nomination for Senator Estes Kefauver of Tennessee. After the election he began talking often throughout the state, and many authors began to theorize whether a Roman Catholic could be elected president.
In 1958, Kennedy was re-elected to the Senate by a border of more than 874,000 ballots. This steadfastly established him as a taking rival for the presidential nomination. In January 1960, he officially announced his campaigning. Backed once more by a formidable personal organisation, he defeated Senator Hubert H. Humphrey, Jr. , of Minnesota and other challengers in several difficult fought primaries. At the convention he deployed his forces so skilfully against those of Senator Lyndon B. Johnson of Texas and Adali E. Stevenson that he was nominated on the first ballot. He so asked Johnson to run with him for vice-president.
In accepting the nomination, Kennedy declared that & # 8220 ; We stand today on the border of a New Frontier, & # 8221 ; therefore giving a name to his plan. In the run against his republican opposition, Vice President Richard Nixon, he took places that, while center of the route, were slightly more broad than those held by Nixon, and defended them smartly in a run across the state.
When he appeared in a alone series of telecasting arguments with Vice President Nixon, his mature visual aspect undercut Republican statements that he was excessively immature and inexperient for such high office. Although public sentiment polls predicted his triumph, he was elected president by a border of merely 119,450 ballots out of the about 69 million that were cast. His electoral ballot was 303 to 219 for Nixon.
Kennedy was the first Roman Catholic to go president of the United States and, at the age of 43, the youngest adult male of all time elected to that office, though Ted Roosevelt was some months younger when he took office after the decease of William McKinley in 1901. Kennedy & # 8217 ; s Catholicism may hold helped him in the Eastern industrial provinces, and he won most of the Democratic South despite it, but the spiritual inquiry seemingly hurt him in the Middle West and West.
Presidency
Kennedy was inaugurated as president on January 20, 1961. He devoted his full inaugural reference to internal personal businesss, naming on his fellow citizens to & # 8220 ; bear the load of a long dusk battle, twelvemonth in and twelvemonth out, & # 8230 ; against the common enemies of adult male: Tyr
anny, poorness, disease, and war itself.” His reference was widely acclaimed as a authoritative political look.
Kennedy chose his cabinet to stand for the state & # 8217 ; s chief subdivisions and involvements. To reassure concern, a Republican, C. Douglas Dillon, was appointed secretary of the exchequer, and another Republican, Robert S. McNamara, who had been president of the Ford Motor Company, was named secretary of defence. Dean Rusk, who had headed the Rockefeller Foundation, became the new secretary of province, and Adali Stevenson was appointed embassador to the United Nations. Robert Francis Kennedy, the president & # 8217 ; s Brother, became lawyer general.
Prior to the election, Kennedy had planned to show to Congress a sweeping legislative plan similar to that of Franklin D. Roosevelt & # 8217 ; s first & # 8220 ; 100 days. & # 8221 ; The intimacy of the election caused him to continue more carefully, but in his first months, in office he sent Congress a record figure of messages suggesting wide plans to advance more economic growing, rehabilitate down countries, better upon urban lodging and development, reform revenue enhancement statute law, revise the farm plan, preserve and develop natural resources, assistance instruction, and supply better medical attention for the aged. In consequence, he was set uping his long-range ends. At the clip, he obtained little more from Congress than comparatively short-range statute law to assist draw the state out of a mild recession in 1961.
From at that place, president Kennedy dealt with many national and international issues. The first came approximately in June 1961, and had to make with communism, East and West Berlin, the Berlin wall, and Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev. In October 1962, Kennedy learned of Soviet missile bases under building in Cuba. From these bases, a atomic onslaught could be launched on the U.S. So a naval and air quarantine was launched on all violative arms edge for Cuba, which meant U.S. ships would hold and seek all Russian ships. After dialogues on Oct. 28, it was announced that the Soviet Union would level and retreat it & # 8217 ; s arms from Cuba. ( Lawson,1998, p 5 ) In another country of international tenseness, the United States, Britain and the Soviet Union signed a atomic test-ban pact, prohibiting atmospheric testing of atomic arms. This marked the first restriction of weaponries enlargement since the cold war had begun.
The failure of the Cuban invasion in 1961 had focused Kennedy & # 8217 ; s attending to the economic hurt of Latin America, which could do them more vulnerable to Castro-type revolutions. This led to a plan known as the Alliance for Progress, and was signed in August 1961 by the United provinces and all Latin American states except Cuba. In Southeast Asia, the sensed menace of Chinese Communist domination forced the president to beef up the defence in that country. Although little Numberss of U.S. military advisors had been sent to South Vietnam for antiguerrilla operations since 1954, they increased the Numberss under the disposal from approximately 700 to more than 15,000. On a planetary graduated table, Kennedy established the Peace Corps in March 1961. Through this plan, many immature Americans were encouraged to lend their accomplishments to & # 8220 ; sharing in the great common undertaking of conveying to adult male that nice manner of life which is the foundation of freedom and a status of peace. & # 8221 ; Back in the United States, Congress did non mind his pressing for revenue enhancement reform and assistance to instruction, and it killed his proposals for a section of urban personal businesss and for medical assistance for the elderly. However Kennedy & # 8217 ; s action on a proposed steel monetary value addition worked good, and the rising prices did non happen. Civil rights was the most hard national job to face Kennedy. In June 1963, as force per unit area for racial equity mounted, the president addressed the state, declaring a & # 8220 ; moral crisis & # 8221 ; as a consequence of discontent among inkinesss. Subsequently that month, he sent a particular message to Congress, naming for extended civil rights statute law. However, Congress delayed action and did non go through a comprehensive civil rights measure until 1964, after Kennedy & # 8217 ; s decease.
Character assassination
In November 1963, President Kennedy journeyed to Texas for a speechmaking circuit. In Dallas on November 22, he and his married woman were cheered on enthusiastically as their unfastened auto passed through the streets. Suddenly at 12:30 autopsy, an bravo fired several shootings, striking the president twice, in the base of the cervix and the caput. The president was rushed to Parkland memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead about 30 proceedingss subsequently. Within two hours, Vice President Johnson took the curse as president.
On the twenty-four hours of the blackwash, constabulary arrested Lee Harvey Oswald, a 24 twelvemonth old ex-Marine, for the president & # 8217 ; s slaying. Oswald killed Dallas police officer J. D. Tippit while defying apprehension, but two yearss subsequently Oswald himself was fatally shot by Jack Ruby, in the cellar of the Dallas constabularies station.
A committee was appointed to look into the blackwash, and on Sept. 27, 1964, they reported that Oswald had so fired the shootings that had killed the president. But it was besides stated that & # 8221 ; The commission found no grounds that either Oswald or Ruby was portion of any confederacy, domestic or foreign, to assassinate President Kennedy. & # 8221 ;
In 1979, nevertheless, the House blackwashs commission, after two old ages of probe, concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald likely was portion of a confederacy that besides may hold included members of organized offense.
As the old ages have gone by and other Presidents have written their chapters in history, John Kennedy & # 8217 ; s brief clip in office stands out in people & # 8217 ; s memories for his leading, personality, and achievements. Many esteem his imperturbability when he was faced with hard determinations like what to make about the missiles in Cuba. Others admire his ability to animate people with his facile addresss. Still others think his compassion and willingness to contend for new authorities plans to assist the hapless, aged and the ailment were most of import. Like all leaders, John F. Kennedy made errors, but he had ever been optimistic about the hereafter. He believed that people could work out their common jobs if they put their state & # 8217 ; s best involvements foremost and worked together towards a better tomorrow.
