Icons of the 20th Century

6. The Kennedys

A powerful family in the United States in the 50-60s of the 20th Century, that played an important role in the social and political life of the country at the time.

Famous for:

I. John F.Kennedy 

II.Jackie Kennedy

III. Robert Kennedy

I. John F. Kennedy

( May 29, 1917 - November 22, 1963)

35 President of the United States 

served from 1961 until his assassination in 1963

Political views: democratic

Religion: Roman Catholicism

Served in the Military Service (1941-1945); Rank - Lieutenant; Battles/Wars : World War II

Awards: "Navy and Marine Corps Medal", "Purple Heart", "American Defense Service Medal", "American Campaign Medal", "Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal", "World War II Victory Medal".

John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the son of Joseph Patrick Kennedy and Rose Fitzgerald, was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, on 29 May, 1917. His great grandfather, Patrick Kennedy, had emigrated from Ireland in 1849, and his grandfathers were important political figures in Boston. Kennedy's father was a highly successful businessman who later served as ambassador to Great Britain (1937-40).

John (Jack) was the second of three sons in the Kennedy family, and was always in the shadow of his older brother, Joseph Kennedy Jr., who was a football star and a leading student (Actually, Joseph was the one who was expected to have a political career, but after his death  in 1944 (aged only 29), the family expectations fell on Jack's shoulders). Jack was rather rebellious and  used to make toilet seats in the school explode with firecrackers.He graduated in June 1935, and for the school yearbook, for which he was business manager, he was voted the "Most Likely To Succeed". 

As an upperclassman at Harvard, Kennedy became a more serious student and developed an interest in political philosophy.

He joined the United States Navy in 1941 and became an intelligence officer. After USA entered the Second World War, he was sent to the South Pacific in August 1943, his boat was hit by a Japanese destroyer. Two of his crew were killed but the other six men managed to cling on to what remained of the boat. After a five hour struggle, Kennedy and what was left of his crew, managed to get to an island five miles from where the original accident took place. Kennedy suffered a back injury and was sent back to the United States in December 1943.After he recovered, he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant. After a further operation on his back he returned to civilian life in 1945.  

A member of the Democratic Party, Kennedy won election to the House of Representatives in 1946. Over the next couple of years he established himself as a loyal supporter of Harry S. Truman.

John Kennedy was elected to the Senate in 1952. The following year he married Jacqueline Bouvier, the daughter of a New York City financier. Over the next few years four children were born, but only two, Caroline and John, survived infancy.

In 1960 Kennedy entered the race to become the Democratic Party presidential candidate. Kennedy won Democratic primaries in New Hampshire, Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio, Oregon, Maryland and West Virginia. At the national convention in July 1960, Kennedy was nominated on the first ballot. He selected Lyndon B. Johnson as his running mate.

Kennedy's candidacy was controversial because no Roman Catholic had ever been elected president. If elected, at age 43, Kennedy would be the second youngest president in the United States history ( Theodore Roosevelt was only 42 when he replaced the assassinated William McKinley in 1901). In contrast, Richard Nixon, the Republican Party candidate, had served for eight years as vice president under Dwight Eisenhower. During the campaign, Kennedy used Cuba as an illustration of Republican weakness against communism. In campaign speeches Kennedy would charge that the threat of communism was now only "ninety miles from our shore". The writer Richard Helms claims that the leadership of the CIA favoured Kennedy over Richard Nixon. He admits that it was possible that CIA Director Allen Dulles leaked information to the Kennedy team. During the campaign Nixon highlighted his opponent's lack of experience but when the votes were counted, Kennedy won by 34, 226, 925 votes to 34, 108, 662.

At his inaugural address on 20th January, 1961, Kennedy challenged the people of the United States with the statement "Ask not what your country can do for you, but rather what you can do for your country." Kennedy also wanted the young people of the country to help the undeveloped world. He announced the establishment of the Peace Corps, a scheme that intended to sent 10,000 young people to serve in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Kennedy argued that this "practical, inexpensive, person-to-person program will plant trust, good will and capacity for self-help" in the undeveloped world.

In the first speech he made to the American public as their President, Kennedy made it clear that he intended to continue Eisenhower's policy of supporting the South Vietnamese government. He argued that if South Vietnam became a communist state, the whole of the non-communist world would be at risk. If South Vietnam fell, Laos, Cambodia, Burma, Philippines, New Zealand and Australia would follow. If communism was not halted in Vietnam, it would gradually spread throughout the world. This view became known as "the Domino Theory". Kennedy stated: " No other challenge is more deserving of our effort and energy... Our security may be lost piece by piece, country by country." Under his leadership, America would be willing to: "pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and access of liberty". 

When Kennedy replaced Dwight Eisenhower as president of the United States he was told about the CIA plan to invade Cuba. Robert Kennedy admitted in an interview in 1964, that Kennedy agreed with the invasion, although he has some doubts. He was afraid that he would be seen as soft on communism if he refused permission for it to go ahead. Kennedy's advisers convinced him that Fidel Castro was an unpopular 

leader and that once the invasion started the Cuban people would support the CIA-trained forces. 

On April 14th, 1961, B-26 planes began bombing Cuba's airfields. Cuba was left with only eight plains and seven pilots. Two days later five merchant ships carrying 1,400 Cuban exiles arrived at the Bay of Pigs. The attack was a total failure. Two of the ships were sunk, including the ship that was carrying most of the supplies. Two of the ships that were attempting to give air-cover were also shot down. Within seventy-two hours all the invading troops had been killed, wounded or had surrendered. 

Kennedy privately vowed after the failure to overthrow Fidel Castro, that he would "splinter" the CIA into "a thousand pieces and scatter it to the winds".While it is true that Richard Bissell and Allen Dulles did lose their jobs over the failed invasion, Kennedy did not change his policy towards Castro. 

At the beginning of September 1962, U-2 spy planes discovered that the Soviet Union was building surface-to-air missile (SAM) launch sites. There was also an increase in the number of Soviet ships arriving in Cuba which the United States government feared were carrying new supplies of weapons. President Kennedy complained to the Soviet Union about these developments and warned them that the United States would not accept offensive weapons (SAMs were considered to be defensive) in Cuba. Kennedy was in a difficult position. The public opinion showed that his own ratings had fallen to their lowest point since he became president. Kennedy feared that any trouble over Cuba would lose the Democratic Party even more votes, as it would remind voters of the Bay of Pigs disaster. One poll showed that over 62 per cent of the population were unhappy with his policies on Cuba. 

On September 27, a CIA agent overheard Castro's personal pilot tell another man in a bar that Cuba now had nuclear weapons.  U-2 spy plane photographs also showed that unusual activity was taking place at San Cristobal. However, it was not until October 15 that photographs were taken that revealed that the Soviet Union was placing long range missiles in Cuba. 

(2:07 - 3:09)

President Kennedy's first reaction to the information about the missiles in Cuba was to call a meeting to discuss what should be done. Fourteen men attended the meeting and included military leaders, experts on Latin America, representatives of the CIA, cabinet ministers and personal friends whose advice Kennedy valued. This group became known as the Executive Committee  of the National Security Council. Over the next few days they were to meet several times. The CIA and the military were in favour of a bombing raid and / or an invasion. However, the majority of the committee feared that this would lead to a nuclear war with the Soviet Union and began to favour a naval blockade of Cuba. The army positioned 125, 000 men in Florida and was told to wait for orders to invade Cuba. If the Soviet ships carrying weapons for Cuba did not turn back or refused to be searched, a war was likely to begin. 

The world waited anxiously. There were angry demonstrations outside the American Embassy in London as people protested about the possibility of nuclear war. Demonstrations also took place in other European cities. However, in the United States, polls suggested that the vast majority supported Kennedy's action. 

On October 26, Nikita Khrushchev sent Kennedy a letter in which he proposed that the Soviet Union would be willing to remove the missiles in Cuba in exchange for a promise by the United States that they would not invade Cuba. The next day a second letter from  Khrushchev arrived, demanding that the United States remove their nuclear bases in Turkey. 

While the president and his advisers were analyzing the two letters, news came through that a U-2 plane had been shot down over Cuba. The leaders of the military, reminding Kennedy of the promise he had made, argued that he should now give orders for the bombing of Cuba. Kennedy refused and instead sent a letter to Khrushchev accepting the terms of his letter. 

The Cuban Missile Crisis was the first and only nuclear confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union. The event appeared to frighten both sides and it marked a change in the development of the Cold War. 

In the 1960 presidential election campaign, John F. Kennedy argued for a new Civil Rights Act. After the election it was discovered that over 70 per cent of the African American vote went to Kennedy.

Kennedy's civil rights bill was brought before Congress in 1963 and in a speech on television on 11th June, Kennedy pointed out that:

 "The Negro baby born in America today, regardless of the section of the nation in which he is born, has about one-half as much chance of completing high school as a white baby born in the same place on the same day; one third as much chance of completing college; one third as much chance of becoming a professional man; twice as much chance of becoming unemployed; about one-seventh as much chance of earning $10,000 a year; a life expectancy which is seven years shorter; and the prospects of earning only half as much."

On 22nd November, 1963, President John F. Kennedy arrived in Dallas. It was decided that Kennedy and his party, including his wife, Jacqueline Kennedy, Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, Governor John Connally and Senator Ralph Yarborough, would travel ub a procession of cars through the business district of Dallas. A pilot car and several motorcycles rode ahead of the presidential limousine. As well as Kennedy the limousine included his wife, John Connally, his wife Nellie, Roy Kellerman, head of the Secret Service at the White House and the driver, William Greer. The next car carried eight Secret Service Agents. This was followed by a car containing Lyndon Johnson and Ralph Yarborough.

At about 12.30 p.m. the presidential limousine entered Elm Street. Soon afterwards shots rang out. John Kennedy was hit by bullets that hit him in the head and the left shoulder. Another bullet hit John Connally in the back. Ten seconds after the first shots had been fired the president's car accelerated off at high speed towards Parkland Memorial Hospital. Both men were carried into separate emergency rooms. Connally had wounds to his back, chest, wrist and thigh. Kennedy's injuries were far more serious. He had a massive wound to the head and at 1 p.m. he was declared dead. 

Within two hours of the killing, a suspect, Lee Harvey Oswald, was arrested. Throughout the time Oswald was in custody, he stuck to his story that he had not been involved in the assassination. On 24h November, while being transported by the Dallas police from the city to the country jail, Oswald was shot dead by Jack Ruby. 

The murder case is full of mystery and until that day it is unknown who really stands behind the assassination and what his reasons are. There are numerous conspiracy theories, but none of them has been proven to be true. One is certain - Lee Harvey Oswald was either a set up innocent or just a puppet, used by an Anonymous society/organisation.