John F. Kennedy E-Book

50MINUTES

• Herausgeber: 50Minutes.com
• Kategorie: Sachliteratur, Reportagen, Biografien
• Serie: History
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 37

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2017

Beschreibung

Keen to learn but short on time? Get to grips with the life of John F. Kennedy in next to no time with this concise guide.

50Minutes.com provides a clear and engaging analysis of John F. Kennedy. At a time when the Cold War was in full swing and the threat of Communism loomed dangerously over the Western world, a man full of youth and energy and the promise of renew al was elected to the White House. Kennedy’s presidency would see the start of the Vietnam War, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the establishment of the Peace Corps and the beginnings of the space programme, but would be cut tragically short by his assassination in Dallas in 1963. 

In just 50 minutes you will:
   • Learn about John F. Kennedy’s troubled childhood and rise to prominence in politics
   • Understand the domestic and foreign policy challenges that punctuated his presidency
   • Discover the tragic circumstances surrounding his assassination and the mystery of how and why it happened that persists to this day

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Leseprobe

John F. Kennedy

Key information

Born: 29 May 1917 in Brookline (Massachusetts).Died: 22 November 1963 in Dallas (Texas).Political party: Democrat.Date of election: 8 November 1960.Length of presidency: Two years, ten months and two days.Main achievements:The space programThe fight against CommunismThe New FrontierThe Peace Corps.

Introduction

Considered one of the greatest American presidents, alongside the likes of Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) and Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945), John F. Kennedy was nonetheless a long way from contributing to the development of his country in the same way his two prestigious predecessors had. A fierce opponent of Communism, his presidency was mainly marked by the context of the Cold War (1945-1990) and by the disruptions that this war led to. His foreign policy initiatives would very soon bring the limits of America’s youngest president into focus.

While he is considered as one of the best-loved American presidents, his popularity comes just as much from his brutal assassination as from his charm, and from the myth that surrounds the man and the Kennedy dynasty. Retrospectively, Kennedy seems more of a popular celebrity than a head of state. However, he was destined to achieve power from a very young age, thus following the ambition of his father, a blithe politician who often chose style over substance. His skilful use of media, his sense of humour, his talent for rhetoric and above all, the financial power of his father all allowed John F. Kennedy to construct a myth around himself, and he only became more elusive when he married Jackie. But he was nonetheless a formidable politician who had an elevated vision of his role and personified the hope of the 1960s. He reflected Americans’ aspirations: not who they really were, but who they would like to be.

Biography

The Kennedy dynasty

Born in 1917, John F. Kennedy was from a wealthy Boston family, a powerful group of self-made men who lived only through and for their honour and their dynasty. His paternal grandfather, Patrick Joseph Kennedy (1858-1929), was a key figure in the region, while his father, Joseph Patrick Kennedy (1888-1969) established the family’s dominance in the town and, eventually, across the country. A Harvard graduate who could not wait to make money, the latter entered the world of finance, became the country’s youngest bank president at the age of 25 and made his first million before his 30th birthday. In 1914, he married Rose Fitzgerald (1890-1995), the daughter of a well-known Catholic from Boston. They would have nine children together – John F. Kennedy was the second eldest.

Joseph Patrick Kennedy was an omniscient patriarch, who continued to assert his power through money more so than through politics, to such an extent that he willingly associated with the Mafia and imported whisky during Prohibition (1920-1933). Claiming to have predicted the Wall Street Crash of 1929, he earned several million dollars by skilfully playing the markets. He then entered the film industry and featured, in the second half of the 1950s, in Fortune magazine’s ranking of the 20 wealthiest Americans.

The Kennedy family, photo taken in 1931.

The young rebel with fragile health

It was in this lively household, both suffocating and reassuring, that John, nicknamed ‘Jack’, grew up. It was a household in which the often absent father was the head of the family, forcing Rose to ensure that her husband’s wishes were respected. The aim that was supposed to guide the children was to do the family name proud. While his brothers and sisters submitted to their tyrannical father’s strict rules, John stood out. Disorganised and chronically late, he often argued with his mother about matters of discipline and religion.

But his childhood was particularly troubled by health problems. At the age of two and a half, he caught scarlet fever. His grandfather’s political influence, however, enabled him to be treated in one of the best hospitals in Boston, and therefore to survive this epidemic, which caused the death of hundreds of children in the area. Asthma, blood problems, bad eyesight, poor hearing: John had a string of health problems. But it was his back problems, likely linked to the Addison’s disease he suffered from, that caused him the most pain and would require him, as an adult, to wear a corset and have many delicate operations.