The portrait of John F. Kennedy

Résumé du document

John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917-1963), often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963. The youngest ever elected to the presidency and the first of the Roman Catholic faith, John F. Kennedy won the election of November 1960 by a razor-thin margin, but after taking the charge of office he received the support of most Americans. They admired his winning personality, his lively family, his intelligence, and his tireless energy. During times of political stress, John F Kennedy displayed courage by using his intuition and not personal beliefs to secure the goodwill of the country. It was this strong characteristic of John F Kennedy that made him a respected and honoured legend in the history of America.

Extraits

[...] This meant that U.S. warships would halt and search Russian ships. Kennedy expressed American determination in these words: "This secret, swift and extraordinary build-up of Communist missiles - in an area well known to have a special and historical relationship to the United States and the nations of the Western Hemisphere - is a deliberately provocative and unjustified change in the status quo which cannot be accepted by this country, if our courage and our commitments are ever again to be trusted by either friend or foe." The United States put the quarantine into effect and kept its armed forces at combat readiness. [...]

[...] The U.S. space program, however, surged ahead during Kennedy's administration, scoring dramatic gains that benefited American prestige worldwide. An assassin's bullet cut short Kennedy's term as president. On Nov the young president was shot to death while riding in a motorcade in Dallas, Texas. As the nation joined in mourning, dignitaries from around the world gathered at his funeral in Washington to pay their respects. Mayor Willy Brandt of West Berlin expressed the world's sense of loss when he said, flame went out for all those who had hoped for a just peace and a better life." Early Years Kennedy was descended from Irish forebears who immigrated to Boston. [...]

[...] In 1958, Kennedy was re-elected to the Senate by a margin of more than 874,000 votes. This firmly established him as a leading contender for the presidential nomination. In January 1960, he formally announced his candidacy. Backed again by a formidable personal organization, he defeated Senator Hubert H. Humphrey, Jr., of Minnesota and other rivals in several hard-fought primaries. At the convention he marshalled his forces so skilfully against those of Senator Lyndon B. Johnson of Texas and Adlai E. Stevenson that he was nominated on the first ballot. [...]

[...] The question of nuclear testing, however, furnished President Kennedy with his greatest success in easing cold war tensions. On Aug after lengthy negotiations, the United States, Britain, and the Soviet Union signed a limited nuclear test-ban treaty, forbidding atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons. This treaty, which subsequently was signed by most other nations of the world, marked the first limitation of arms expansion since the cold war began. In October, the same three powers agreed to refrain from placing nuclear weapons in outer space. [...]

[...] The commission's report, made public on Sept held that Oswald fired the shots that killed the president. Further, to allay suspicions that the murder was a conspiratorial plot, it stated that the committee ‘found no evidence' that either Oswald or Ruby "was part of any conspiracy, domestic or foreign, to assassinate President Kennedy." In 1979, however, the House assassinations committee, after approximately two years of investigation, concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald probably was part of a conspiracy that also may have included members of organized crime. [...]