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- Essay Name : 982.txt
- Uploader :
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- Language : English
- Subject : Social Studies
- Title : John Fitzgerald Kennedy
- Grade : 92
- School System : Ballston Spa High School
- Country : USA
- Author Comments : This essay is just a basic outline of JFK
- Teacher Comments :
- Date : Handed in January 1996
- Site found at : Yahoo Search Engine
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- A. Family and Educational Background
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- John Fitzgerald Kennedy was born of May 29, 1917 and was the second son of nine children of
- Joseph Patrick Kennedy and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy. The ancestors before him were of
- Wexford County in Ireland. John F. Kennedy's father served as first chairman of the
- Securities and Exchange Commission and a US ambassador to Great Britain during Franklin D.
- Roosevelts administration. His mother was the daughter of John F. Fitzgerald who was also
- a political figure.
- John F. Kennedy attended elementary schools in Brookline and Riverdale,
- Massachusetts until the age of thirteen. After that, he was sent to the Canterbury School
- in New Milford, Connecticut. Later, he transferred to the Choate Academy in Wallingford,
- Connecticut and graduated at eighteen. For a short period of time, he attended he
- attended college at Princeton but left because he had developed a case of jaundice. In
- 1936, he enrolled in Harvard and majored in international relations and in government.
- After graduating in 1940, he enrolled in the Stanford University graduate business school
- and dropped out six months later. Soon after, he joined the navy.
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- B. Political Background
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- Kennedy ran for the US House of Representatives in 1946 and took his seat in
- Congress in 1947 and was reelected two more times in 1948 and in 1950. In 1952, with help
- from his family, Kennedy campaigned for the Senate and won. In June of 1956, Kennedy ran
- for Vice President only to lose to Estes Kefauver of Tennessee. After his loss, Kennedy
- began a new campaign for the Presidency.
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- C. Presidential Elections
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- Kennedy's running mates for the Presidency in 1960 were Richard Nixon and Harry Byrd.
- One of the major issues being debated at the time was the Cold War with The Soviet Union.
- Kennedy's good looks, wealth, and his public debates on television helped him to win over
- Nixon and Byrd. Kennedy had captured 303 electoral votes over Nixon who had 219 votes and
- Byrd who had 15 votes. He also had 114, 673 more popular votes than Nixon.
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- D. The Presidency
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- One of the major problems happening in the US during Kennedy's administration was
- the demand for equal rights for blacks. In 1961, a group of blacks and whites went to
- Montgomery, Alabama to test segregation laws. After riots broke out, US Marshals were
- sent in to set things back in order. A year later, James Meridith enrolled at the
- University of Mississippi and became the first black to study there. Soon after his
- enrollment, riots broke out and President Kennedy ordered three-thousand federal troops to
- restore order. Two people were killed during the riots. In 1963, more riots and protests
- broke out in different areas of the country. Kennedy asked Congress to pass legislation
- for civil rights laws.
- Two major foreign problems were the Bay of Pigs invasion and the Cuban missile
- crisis. In 1961, Cuban exiles invaded Cuba at the Bay of Pigs. They were promised
- military aid from the US by President Kennedy refused to give them any. Fidel Castro's
- forces stopped the invasion easily and captured the exiles. Most of them were later
- exchanged for US nonmilitary supplies.
- The Cuban missile crisis happened in 1962. Cuban leaders were afraid that the US
- would attack so they asked the USSR for more military aid. They responded by sending
- nuclear missiles and the materials necessary to build launch sites. When the US found out
- about the missiles, President Kennedy responded by ordering a naval blockade to stop
- further shipments. President demanded that the USSR take all their missiles and equipment
- off the island. For a time, we were at the brink of nuclear exchange. They agreed to
- remove everything if the US promised not to attack Cuba. President Kennedy agreed to the
- terms and the USSR took out all their weapons.
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- E. Assassination
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- In 1963, Kennedy began his reelection campaign, visiting different parts of the
- country. While riding in an open limousine through Dallas, Texas, Kennedy was shot in the
- head and the neck at 12:30 PM on November, 22. Efforts to revive him failed as they
- brought him to Parkland Memorial Hospital. The assassin was captured hours after the
- assassination in theater nearby; his name was Lee Harvey Oswald, a former US Marine. He
- was then later killed by a nightclub owner, Jack Ruby. John F. Kennedy was buried in
- Arlington National Cemetery.
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- F. Presidential Rating
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- John F. Kennedy would probably be considered a near great President. He was a well
- liked President and almost everyone loved him. He handled some foreign affairs well like
- the Cuban missile crisis but also messed up some others like the Bay of Pigs invasion. He
- also began to get Congress to pass civil rights laws for blacks. John F. Kennedy was one
- of out greater Presidents.
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