Fascinating and contradictory character, John F. Kennedy is one of the most memorable American politicians of the second half of the twentieth century. After becoming the first Catholic who became president of the United States, promoted a policy of reforms for his country regain global primacy, questioned by Soviet space successes. Their political projects were cut short by his assassination in 1963, an assassination whose motives have never been fully clarified and that has given rise to many conjectures. The untimely death of President (whose family has been surrounded by an aura of doom, because many of its members died in tragic circumstances) helped to give his figure a mythical character.
John Kennedy
American history of the Kennedy clan dates back to 1848 when an Irishman named Patrick Kennedy came to the promise land of the United States and was established as a cooper. One of his grandsons, Joseph Patrick Kennedy, took over half a century after discrete assets assembled by his grandfather and his father built him one of the greatest fortunes in America.
A powerful clan
Joseph Patrick Kennedy, Joe familiarly called, was from childhood a great business acumen and a strong desire to thrive. Married to Rose, an enterprising young daughter of John Fitzgerald, former mayor of Boston, began to amass their wealth in this city, founded on housing management, stock market speculation and the film industry. Joe was smart, cool and extremely clever to money matters, as he helped Roosevelt during his presidential campaign, won during the Prohibition, a special permit for importation of liquor for "therapeutic purposes", when their holds were filled The law was repealed and Joe could send all the liquor bought at a low price as if it were gold. At the outset of the economic crisis of 1929, was among the few who surfaced, and she could even get some gains.For John, it soon became clear he had nothing to deal with his brother Joe, a muscular lad, intelligent, bright and great personal magnetism verb. On the contrary, he was rather wimpy, shy and introverted. While studying at the Canterbury School in Connecticut and then at Harvard University, the shadow of Joe, "preferred", plans to continue on the conscience of John Fitzgerald Kennedy. At the same time as his brother harvested academic success in Britain, he contracted hepatitis and was forced to interrupt their studies for long periods. Eventually recover, but despite efforts to draw attention, never got much success in the classroom. Harvard scored only notable in the final stage of his career and only in economics and political science. The sport was getting more interest these intellectual disciplines and at no time was attracted by the political career for which he seemed destined for his older brother.
It was because of this tour when John began to be seriously interested in politics. Back in the United States turned in his studies and obtained significantly improve their academic qualifications. He became interested in the various conflicts, culminating in the Second World War, and especially the attitude of Britain towards Europe. Of all those notes came the subject of his thesis, Why England Slept (Why England slept), the title taken from the speeches of Churchill and earned a magna cum laude graduate in June 1940. Later he published a book summarizing this research, and he sold eighty thousand copies.
Commander in World War II
Life optimistic Kennedy suffered from World War II, a sharp turn. Isolationist posture Joseph Patrick Kennedy and his lack of cooperation with the British government forced him to leave the embassy. His sympathies were well known by General Franco, and back to Boston earned a deserved reputation for his anti-Semitic animosity toward European Jews many refugees in their homeland.At the start of World War II, his brother Joe enlisted in the aviation and he wanted to join the Navy, for which he had to overcome medical barriers arising from a back injury he suffered as a child. He was twenty years old when he was appointed commander of a PT boat operating in the Pacific.
young Marine in uniform Kennedy
The two officers and ten soldiers under his command shared with him many successes fighting the Japanese. But on August 2, 1943, while serving a mission for which they had volunteered, a Japanese destroyer approached in the middle of the night and left the patrol boat in half. Several crew members died in the crash. The survivors stayed adrift for fifteen hours and John behaved commendably to drag up the coast to one of its soldiers wounded in the legs. Although some have attributed the mishap to a recklessness of John, the fact is that the young commander Kennedy was considered a war hero.
The convalescence was long. His back injury had worsened and John thought that his was not physically battered for too many dreams of political glory. However, fate came to meet him: his brother Joe died on August 12, 1944 in a plane crash while trying to destroy the bases of the German V-1 flying bombs and V-2. The patriarch looked to him and decided to occupy the post of Joe's struggle to win the U.S. presidency.
A brilliant political career:
John quickly took outstanding place in the American political scene. Legislative action, however, was muted. Was characterized first by a retroactive disapproval Roosevelt administration and the presentation of several social projects, rejected in most cases . The highlight of this first stage of his political life was his outspoken support of all international aid: the loan to Britain, the aid to Greece and Turkey, the Marshall Plan and other related measures. In 1949, surprised with a speech hostile to U.S. policy carried out in China, because of which, he said, the United States had lost the ability to get a non-communist China. The critical tone of government policy and anti-cruelty resembling showed that, from a year later, would use the Wisconsin senator Joseph McCarthy.
Kennedy at the Democratic convention of 1958
In April 1952, at thirty-five, his father urged him to stand for the senator from Massachusetts. Again, the clan went on a frenzy of activity: it was to contest the post to Henry Cabot Lodge, who held since 1935. Rivers of ink and dollars . His images sheathed state. The nightly television aired "The coffee in the house of Kennedy, " which showed the unity and strength of the clan, peace and elegance of the home. Banquets were held in Palm Beach and Hyannis Port, two strongholds of Florida, millions of personalized Christmas cards cluttering emails, and charities (in particular, support for mentally handicapped centers, one of which his sister was hospitalized Rosemary) did not fail to note in the newspapers.
One of those banquets invited a newspaper reporter in Washington who had known a year earlier: Jacqueline Lee Bouvier. Jacqueline soon love to the wannabe senator and his family, it perfectly combines beauty with their language skills (he spoke several languages), and the charm of French origin with the dowry of his father, a famous New York financial. The wedding was held in Boston on September 12, 1953, attended by 1200 guests, who formed in line to greet Jack and Jackie. Jacqueline Kennedy became from that day on one of the best assets of the future president.
The wedding of John Kennedy and Jacqueline Bouvier
In October 1954, John Kennedy was forced to withdraw from political life. The former back ailment, which had been involved, worsened, and the use of crutches (hidden in the car during his campaigns) was becoming increasingly necessary. He had surgery to join misplaced vertebrae. After surgery, he retired in Hyannis Port with substantial historical documentation of the files of the Senate and devoted his time to writing a new book, Profiles in courage. The work contained eight portraits of nineteenth-century American politicians and was published a year later to critical acclaim and audience. In 1957 obtained by this work, the Pulitzer Prize . But his illness has not subsided and, in February 1955, had to undergo further surgery, after which he recovered. He returned to public life willing to submit his candidacy for vice president of the Democratic Party. However, he was defeated by Estes Kefauver.
The overwhelming victory of Eisenhower intimidated the Democrats, who saw Kennedy the candidate for 1960 presidential elections. His absence from Washington will benefit in a sense, because in December 1954, when the Senate condemned McCarthy, was not required to appear before the censors. According to his later collaborator Robert Sorensen, Kennedy did not approve the McCarthyite mindset, but not adhered to the Liberals. His brother Bob was part of the committee chaired by McCarthy as a legal adviser, and he himself had composed. However, nobody seemed to hear Eleanor Roosevelt when she wondered aloud whether the Liberals would give their vote to a man who had not even been sentenced to McCarthy.
Kennedy campaign
But liberals, and even non-liberals, they gave it. In 1960 the Guild increased its activity, but the final triumph was a personal conquest of Kennedy. In recent years he had made new and influential friends and was surrounded by efficient staff, recovered mostly from Harvard. He had just published his third book, The Strategy of Peace, and had time to delve into all issues of concern to his country currently subject to reform. The core of his campaign crystallized around the idea of a new era that America had to start the so-called "New Frontier", evoking the pioneering spirit of the conquest of the West. With their presence, Kennedy began to instill hope of renewal to a country tired of an administration stagnant since the New Deal of Roosevelt. Neat, slightly disheveled, walked her young image in the world, along with a state Jackie and her three year old daughter, Caroline. With its slogan "Kennedy is in change", swept the primaries and, although very scarce margin, November 8 achieved victory over Nixon.
In the chair:
When the January 21, 1961 took office, no one doubted that Kennedy would realize his motto. One of his first acts was to recommend the release of black leader Martin Luther King, who was serving a sentence to hard labor in Georgia. Later, their action in favor of racial integration was branded hesitant, but despite the rejection of his project was the subject of civil rights legislation in Congress (in general all of his projects found in Congress strongly opposed) left its mark among blacks, who came to compare it with the legendary president Abraham Lincoln.
Kennedy in a speech on
In the thousand and thirty-seven days ruled, Kennedy left the impression of change. Once installed in the Oval Office, escorted by Dean Rusk and Secretary of State and his brother Bob as attorney general, his reformist measures followed. Federal aid to education system, the impetus given to the culture and the arts and, above all, the economic recovery, which led to a marked increase in consumption and private investment (which, in turn, allowed aerospace catch up of the country for the Soviet Union) were just some of his most celebrated innovations.
Their program, a liberal, was based primarily on economic recovery, improving the administration, the diversification of means of defense and the establishment of an alliance for the development of the Americas. This last objective resulted in the formation of a common front with the countries of Central and South America, the Alliance for Progress, founded on the following points: 1) support the democracies against dictatorships, 2) long credit arrangements term, 3) stabilization of export prices, 4) land reform programs, 5) incentives for private investment; 6) technical assistance and exchange of information and students; 7) arms control, and 8) strengthening the Organization of American States. To carry out this policy, Kennedy summoned the leaders of the hemisphere inviting them to formally join the Alliance. Everyone was dazzled by this young man full of hopes and ideas of regeneration and reform. But you did not attend the meeting: Fidel Castro, who in 1959 was head of the Cuban government.
With Eisenhower as president, the CIA had prepared a plan to invade the island of Cuba, while guerrillas were trained in anti-Guatemala. The inability of American leaders had closed the doors to the Cuban leader, pushing him to radicalize the revolution. The United States had done nothing to help Cuba in its need for economic progress, and when Kennedy took office it was too late.
The president refused to accept the plan of attack by the CIA on several occasions, but ended up giving in to pressure from the military. In April 1961 the operation began, but the resistance of the troops Castro and the Cuban people made the landing at the Bay of Pigs in a spectacular failure. Kennedy and his administration suffered a blow and Castro announced that Cuba had become a socialist republic, the invasion was, therefore, quite the opposite effect to that intended.
With regard to the USSR, Kennedy tried a certain approach was displayed in June 1961 in an interview with Nikita Khrushchev which took place in Vienna. But the abortive invasion of the Bay of Pigs, the erection of the Berlin Wall and, above all, the discovery of a missile base in Cuba with nuclear charge installed by the Soviets broke off negotiations.
Kennedy signs the order of naval blockade of Cuba
Kennedy's mettle is revealed when Soviet leader demanded the dismantling of those bases, for several months agonizing it was feared that the conflict would start a nuclear war, but eventually gave Khrushchev and the so-called missile crisis but rather an undoubted success for the U.S. president.
Despite everything, then there would be a definite understanding between the two superpowers, as expressed in 1963 with the signing of the Treaty of Moscow on the control and reduction of atmospheric nuclear tests. As for the Alliance for Progress, originally intended to promote the emergence and consolidation of democratic regimes in the Americas did not prevent the spread of militarism and support of the United States to dictatorial governments that supported the positions of Washington. Do not forget that the first incursion of the CIA in Vietnam was carried out under its mandate. If their goals were indeed democratic, they were not both the means to achieve them. The main architect of the politician had been someone so unworthy of credit as his father. In this regard Truman, addressing a Catholic afraid of Kennedy, said: "I do not fear the pope, but to Dad".
Jacqueline Kennedy moments before the murder
In 1963, Kennedy began preparing the ground for the next election and began a tour of various cities. On November 22, 1963 John Kennedy and his wife, followed by Vice President Lyndon Johnson came into Dallas. It was part of his campaign in the most reluctant of the country for his reelection in 1964. When I hit the streets in an open car, shots rang out above the cheers and reaped his life. Shortly after he died in hospital, sparking the consternation of the world .
According to the Warren report, the author of the assassination was Lee Harvey Oswald, from the height of a building fire with a rifle with telescopic sights repetition. However, there are serious doubts about the accuracy of this release, and have since been identified as guilty from the mafia to the Ku Klux Klan racist society, through the trust oil and weapons and the CIA. The enigma remains open and will probably never be resolved.
Kennedy's funeral
