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In Brookline, Massachusetts, John F. Kennedywas the second of nine children. His parents, Joseph and Rose Kennedy, were members of two of Boston’s most prominent Irish Catholic political families.
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He studied Laws in Harvard. After he has been in Princeton but for a problem of health
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He graduated in political science with the thesis " Why England slept on the attitude of Britain against Hitler's warmongering ? "
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Thanks to the influence of his father , managed to be assigned as commander of a torpedo boat in the Pacific, where he carried out several missions risk until, on August 2, 1943 , the Japanese destroyer Amagiri split the vessel into two
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Kennedy helped some of his marooned crew back to safety, and was awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal for heroism.
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His older brother, Joe Jr., was not so fortunate: He was killed in August 1944 when his Navy airplane exploded on a secret mission against a German rocket-launching site.
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Abandoning plans to be a journalist, Jack left the Navy by the end of 1944.
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He was back in Boston preparing for a run for Congress in 1946.
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He entered the 80th Congress in January 1947, at the age of 29, and immediately attracted attention for his youthful appearance and relaxed, informal style.
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In 1952 ran successfully for the Senate, defeating the popular Republican incumbent Henry Cabot Lodge Jr.
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They met at a party and lived a love at distance then they got married.
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Two years later, he was forced to undergo a painful operation on his back. While recovering from the surgery, Jack wrote another best-selling book. Which won the Pulitzer Prize for biography.
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After nearly earning his party’s nomination for vice president (under Adlai Stevenson) in 1956, Kennedy announced his candidacy for president
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In his inaugural address, given on January 20, 1961, the new president called on his fellow Americans to work together in the pursuit of progress and the elimination of poverty
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Kennedy’s famous closing words expressed the need for cooperation and sacrifice on the part of the American people
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In the general election , Kennedy faced a difficult battle agains this opponent Republican , Richard Nixon , a two- term vice president under the popular Dwight D. Eisenhower.
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Offering a young, energetic alternative to Nixon and the status quo, Kennedy benefited from his performance (and telegenic appearance) in the first-ever televised debates, watched by millions of viewers. In November’s election.
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by a narrow margin–less than 120,000 out of some 70 million votes cast–becoming the youngest man and the first Roman Catholic to be elected president of the United States.
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With his beautiful young wife and their two small children Kennedy lent an unmistakable aura of youth and glamour.
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An early crisis in the foreign affairs arena occurred in April 1961, when Kennedy approved the plan to send 1,400 CIA-trained Cuban exiles in an amphibious landing at the Bay of Pigs in Cuba.
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Intended to spur a rebellion that would overthrow the communist leader Fidel Castro, the mission ended in failure, with nearly all of the exiles captured or killed.
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Kennedy met with Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev in Vienna to discuss the city of Berlin, which had been divided after World War II between Allied and Soviet control.
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Two months later, East German troops began erecting a wall to divide the city. Kennedy sent an army convoy to reassure West Berliners of U.S. support.
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During his first year in office, Kennedy oversaw the launch of the Peace Corps, which would send young volunteers to underdeveloped countries all over the world.
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Kennedy was slow to commit himself to the civil rights cause, but was eventually forced into action, sending federal troops to support the desegregation of the University of Mississippi after riots there left two dead and many others injured.
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The following summer, Kennedy announced his intention to propose a comprehensive civil rights bill and endorsed the massive March on Washington that took place that August.
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During the Cuban missile crisis. After learning that the Soviet Union was constructing a number of nuclear and long-range missile sites in Cuba that could pose a threat to the continental United States.
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Kennedy announced a naval blockade of Cuba. The tense standoff lasted nearly two weeks before Khrushchev agreed to dismantle Soviet missile sites in Cuba in return for America’s promise not to invade the island and the removal of U.S. missiles from Turkey and other sites close to Soviet borders.
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Kennedy won his greatest foreign affairs victory when Khrushchev agreed to join him and Britain’s Prime Minister Harold Macmillan in signing a nuclear test ban treaty. In Southeast Asia, however, Kennedy’s desire to curb the spread of communism led him to escalate U.S. involvement in the conflict in Vietnam, even as privately he expressed his dismay over the situation.
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The president and his wife landed in Dallas; he had spoken in San Antonio, Austin and Fort Worth the day before. From the airfield, the party then traveled in a motorcade to the Dallas Trade Mart, the site of Jack’s next speaking engagement
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Shortly after 12:30 p.m., as the motorcade was passing through downtown Dallas, shots rang out; Kennedy was struck twice, in the neck and head, and was pronounced dead shortly after arriving at a nearby hospital.
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Known to have Communist sympathies, was arrested for the killing but was shot and fatally wounded two days later by local nightclub owner Jack Ruby while being led to jail.
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Almost immediately, alternative theories of Kennedy’s assassination emerged–including conspiracies run by the KGB, the Mafia and the U.S. military-industrial complex, among others. A presidential commission led by Chief Justice Earl Warren concluded that Oswald had acted alone, but speculation and debate over the assassination has persisted.
