John F. Kennedy- Rise to the Presidency
Background
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Born May 29th 1917 |
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Father was Joseph Kennedy. He was dedicated to FDR and served as Ambassador to Great Britain. |
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JFK originally attended Princeton University where he was a C student during his first two years. |
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He would transfer to Harvard and graduate with Honors. |
WWII
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After the attack on Pearl Harbor, JFK attempted to enlist in the Navy. He was rejected due to a bad back. |
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JFK worked out for 6 months to strengthen his back and pass the physical. |
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Within a year, JFK was out to sea. |
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On August 2nd, 1943 JFK was in command of PT Boat 109 |
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Late at night, his boat was split in half by a Japanese battleship. |
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2 members of the crew died. The other 10 were ordered to aid each other in swimming to an island. The trip took 5 hours. |
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Kennedy swam to nearby islands looking for help while the Japanese patrolled the waters. During one trip he passed out and only survived due to a life vest. |
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Help was eventually found by scratching a message on a coconut and having two island natives deliver it to a navy base. |
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Kennedy and his crew were rescued after 5 days. |
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JFK received a citation for valor. |
The Path to the Presidency
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JFK was elected to the House of Representatives and served from 1947 until 1953. | ||||||||||||||||
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He was then elected to the US Senate as a Senator from Massachusetts and served from 1953 until 1960. | ||||||||||||||||
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In 1953, JFK married Jacqueline Bouvier. He was 36 and she was 24. | ||||||||||||||||
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He was almost selected to be a vice presidential candidate by Adali Stevenson in 1956. | ||||||||||||||||
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In 1960, JFK ran for the Presidency of the United States. | ||||||||||||||||
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He won the Democratic Party nomination on the first ballot. | ||||||||||||||||
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JFK ran against the former Vice-President Richard Nixon. Nixon was 47 years old and Kennedy was 43. | ||||||||||||||||
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JFK's slogan was "Nixon says we've never had it so good. I say we can do better". | ||||||||||||||||
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Religion became an issue in the election. JFK was a Roman Catholic and Nixon was Protestant. No Catholics had ever been elected President. | ||||||||||||||||
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The campaign for President would include the first ever televised Presidential debate. | ||||||||||||||||
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JFK would defeat Richard Nixon by a very slim margin in the popular vote. He did however win the Electoral College quite convincingly. | ||||||||||||||||
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JFK would still have a Democratic majority in both the House and Senate however the majority had been reduced. | ||||||||||||||||
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He took office on January 20th 1961. | ||||||||||||||||