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Wikipedia , JFK legend destroyed ! I wonder why ? Perhaps it has some thingg

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Mar 19, 2007, 3:29:12 PM3/19/07

to do with telling the truth ?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_F._Kennedy
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John F. Kennedy
>From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
"JFK" redirects here. For other uses of "JFK", see JFK
(disambiguation). For other persons named "John Kennedy", see John
Kennedy (disambiguation).
John Fitzgerald Kennedy

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

35th President of the United States
In office
January 20, 1961 – November 22, 1963
Vice President(s) Lyndon B. Johnson
Preceded by Dwight D. Eisenhower
Succeeded by Lyndon B. Johnson

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

United States Senator
from Massachusetts
In office
January 3, 1953 – December 22, 1960
Preceded by Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr.
Succeeded by Benjamin A. Smith

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Member of the United States House of Representatives from
Massachusetts's 11th congressional district
In office
1947 – 1953
Preceded by James Michael Curley
Succeeded by Thomas P. O'Neill, Jr.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Born May 29, 1917
Brookline, Massachusetts
Died November 22, 1963 (aged 46)
Dallas, Texas
Political party Democratic
Spouse Jacqueline Lee Bouvier Kennedy
Religion Roman Catholic
Signature
John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), also
referred to as John F. Kennedy, JFK, John Kennedy or Jack Kennedy, was
the 35th President of the United States. He served from 1961 until his
assassination in 1963. His leadership during the USS PT-109 incident
during the Second World War in the South Pacific was a turning point
in his life. Kennedy represented the state of Massachusetts from 1947
to 1960, first as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, and
then, in the U.S. Senate. Kennedy (Democrat) was elected president of
the United States in 1960, at age 43, against Richard Nixon
(Republican) in one of the closest elections in American history. He
is the only Roman Catholic to be elected President of the country. He
was also the first former Boy Scout to become a president.

Major events during his presidency include the Bay of Pigs Invasion,
the Cuban Missile Crisis, the building of the Berlin Wall, the Space
Race, early events of the Vietnam War and the American Civil Rights
Movement.

John F. Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963 in Dallas,
Texas, United States. Lee Harvey Oswald, charged with the crime, was
himself murdered, two days later, by Jack Ruby — before an Oswald
trial could be convened. The Warren Commission concluded that Oswald
had acted alone in killing the president. However, the House Select
Committee on Assassinations, in 1979, concluded that there may have
been a conspiracy, primarily due to audio and sound analyis of
gunshots in Dealey Plaza that were recorded by the Dallas Police
Department when a police motorcycle microphone was inadvertently stuck
open. They also reviewed thousands of documents and evidence, and
called witnesses before the committee.[1] For the public at large, the
entire subject remains controversial and shrouded in mystery with
multiple allegation theories. The assassination itself proved to be a
defining moment in U.S. history due to its traumatic impact on the
psyche of the nation and its ensuing political fallout; a historical
fallout that influenced, and continues to influence, the temperament
of American society. President Kennedy is now regarded as an icon of
American hopes and aspirations to ever new generations of Americans.
[2]

Contents [hide]
1 Early life and education
2 Military service
3 Early political career
4 1960 presidential election
5 Presidency (1961–1963)
5.1 Foreign policy
5.1.1 Cuba and the Bay of Pigs Invasion
5.1.2 Cuban Missile Crisis
5.1.3 Latin America and Communism
5.1.4 Peace Corps
5.1.5 Vietnam
5.1.6 West Berlin Speech
5.1.7 Nuclear Test Ban Treaty
5.1.8 Ireland
5.2 Domestic policy
5.2.1 Civil rights
5.2.2 Space program
5.3 Cabinet
5.4 Supreme Court appointments
6 Image, social life and family
7 Assassination
8 Burial
9 Legacy
9.1 Memorials
10 Criticism
11 Trivia
12 See also
13 Kennedy in fiction and song
14 Kennedy portrayed in film and television
15 References
15.1 Primary sources
15.2 Secondary sources
15.3 Other sources
16 Media
17 External links

[edit] Early life and education
Kennedy was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, the second son of Joseph
P. Kennedy, Sr. and Rose Fitzgerald; Rose, in turn, was the eldest
child of John "Honey Fitz" Fitzgerald, a prominent figure in Boston
politics who was the city's mayor and a three-term member of Congress.

Kennedy lived in Brookline for his first ten years, attending Edward
Devotion School, a public school, from kindergarten through the
beginning of 3rd grade, then Noble and Greenough Lower School and its
successor, Dexter School, a private school for boys, through 4th
grade.

In September 1927, Kennedy moved with his family to a rented 20-room
mansion in Riverdale, New York, then two years later, moved five miles
northeast to a 21-room mansion on a six-acre estate in Bronxville, New
York, purchased in May 1929. Kennedy spent summers with his family at
their home in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, purchased in 1929, and
Christmas and Easter holidays with his family at their winter home in
Palm Beach, Florida, purchased in 1933. He attended Riverdale Country
School, a private school for boys in Riverdale, for 5th through 7th
grade.

For 8th grade in September 1930, Kennedy was sent fifty miles away to
Canterbury School, a lay Catholic boarding school for boys in New
Milford, Connecticut. In late April 1931, he had appendicitis
requiring an appendectomy, after which he withdrew from Canterbury and
recuperated at home. In September 1931, Kennedy was sent over sixty
miles away to The Choate School, an elite private university
preparatory boarding school for boys in Wallingford, Connecticut for
9th through 12th grades, following his older brother Joe who was two
years ahead of him. In January 1934, during his junior year at Choate,
he became ill, lost a lot of weight and was hospitalized at Yale-New
Haven Hospital until Easter and spent most of June 1934 hospitalized
at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota for evaluation of colitis.

He graduated from Choate in June 1935, and in September 1935 sailed on
the SS Normandie on his first trip abroad with his parents and his
sister Kathleen to London with the intent of studying for a year with
Professor Harold Laski at the London School of Economics (LSE) as his
older brother Joe had done, but after a brief hospitalization with
jaundice, then less than a week at LSE, he sailed back to America
three weeks after he had arrived in London. In October 1935, Kennedy
enrolled late and spent six weeks at Princeton University, but was
then hospitalized for two months observation for possible leukemia at
Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston in January and February 1936,
recuperated at the Kennedy winter home in Palm Beach in March and
April, spent May and June working as a ranch hand on a 40,000-acre
cattle ranch outside Benson, Arizona, then July and August racing
sailboats at the Kennedy summer home in Hyannis Port.

In September 1936, he enrolled as a freshman at Harvard College,
residing in Winthrop House during his sophomore through senior years,
again following two years behind his older brother Joe. In early July
1937, Kennedy took his convertible, sailed on the SS Washington to
France, and spent ten weeks driving with a friend through France,
Italy, Germany, Holland and England. In late June 1938, Kennedy sailed
with his father and his brother Joe on the SS Normandie to spend July
working with his father at the American embassy in London and August
with his family at a villa near Cannes. From February through
September 1939, Kennedy went on a major seven-month tour of Europe,
the Soviet Union, the Balkans and the Middle East to gather background
information for his senior thesis. He spent the last ten days of
August in Czechoslovakia and Germany before returning to London on
September 1, 1939, the day Germany invaded Poland. On September 3,
1939, Kennedy, along with his brother Joe, his sister Kathleen, and
his parents were in the Strangers Gallery of the House of Commons to
hear speeches in support of the United Kingdom's declaration of war on
Germany. Kennedy was sent as his father's representative to help with
arrangements for American survivors of the SS Athenia, before flying
back to the U.S. on Pan Am's Dixie Clipper from Foynes, Ireland to
Port Washington, New York on his first transatlantic flight at the end
of September.

In 1940, Kennedy wrote his honors thesis, entitled "Appeasement in
Munich" about the British dealings concerning the Munich Agreement. He
initially intended for his thesis to be only for college use, but his
father encouraged him to publish it in a book. He graduated cum laude
from Harvard with a degree in international affairs in June 1940. His
thesis was published in July 1940 as a book, entitled Why England
Slept,[3] and became a bestseller.[4]

>From September to December 1940, Kennedy was enrolled and audited
classes at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. In early 1941,
Kennedy helped his father work on a memoir about his father's three
years as ambassador. In May and June 1941, Kennedy traveled throughout
South America.

[edit] Military service
Main article: Motor Torpedo Boat PT-109
In the spring of 1941, Kennedy volunteered for the U.S. Army, but was
rejected, mainly because of his troublesome back. Nevertheless, in
September of that year, the U.S. Navy accepted him, due to the
influence of the director of the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI), a
former naval attaché to the Ambassador, his father. As an ensign, he
served in the office which supplied bulletins and briefing information
for the Secretary of the Navy. It was during this assignment that the
attack on Pearl Harbor occurred. He attended the Naval Reserve
Officers Training School and Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron Training
Center before being assigned for duty in Panama and eventually the
Pacific theater. He participated in various commands in the Pacific
theater and earned the rank of lieutenant, commanding a patrol torpedo
(PT) boat.[5]

Lt. Kennedy on his navy patrol boat, the PT-109.On August 2, 1943,
Kennedy's boat, the PT-109, was taking part in a nighttime patrol near
New Georgia in the Solomon Islands when it was rammed by the Japanese
destroyer Amagiri.[6][7] Kennedy was thrown across the deck, injuring
his already-troubled back. Still, Kennedy towed a wounded man three
miles (5 km) in the ocean, arriving at an island where his crew was
subsequently rescued. Kennedy said that he blacked out for periods of
time during the life-threatening ordeal. For these actions, Kennedy
received the Navy and Marine Corps Medal under the following citation:

“ For heroism; the rescue of three men following the ramming and
sinking of his motor torpedo boat while attempting a torpedo attack on
a Japanese destroyer in the Solomon Islands area on the night of Aug 1–
2, 1943. Lt. KENNEDY, Capt. of the boat, directed the rescue of the
crew and personally rescued three men, one of whom was seriously
injured. During the following six days, he succeeded in getting his
crew ashore, and after swimming many hours attempting to secure aid
and food, finally effected the rescue of the men. His courage,
endurance and excellent leadership contributed to the saving of
several lives and was in keeping with the highest traditions of the
United States Naval Service. ”

Kennedy's other decorations in World War II included the Purple Heart,
Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal and the World War II Victory Medal. He
was honorably discharged in early 1945, just a few months before Japan
surrendered. The incident was popularized when he became president,
and would be the subject of several magazine articles, books, comic
books, TV specials and a feature length movie, making the PT-109 one
of the most famous U.S. Navy ships of the war. Scale models and even
G.I. Joe figures based on the incident were still being produced in
the 2000s. The coconut which was used to scrawl a rescue message given
to Solomon Islander scouts who found him was kept on his presidential
desk and is still at the John F. Kennedy library.

During his presidency, Kennedy privately admitted to friends that he
didn't feel that he deserved the medals he had received, because the
PT-109 incident had been the result of a botched military operation
that had cost the lives of two members of his crew. When asked by
interviewers how he became a war hero, Kennedy's grim reply was: "It
was involuntary. They sank my boat."

In May 2002, a National Geographic expedition found what is believed
to be the wreckage of the PT-109 in the Solomon Islands. One of the
Kennedy family also returned to the islands to give a gift to the
scouts who are still alive today, but were turned away when they
traveled to the inauguration because of communication problems. The
Australian coastwatcher who dispatched the natives was also invited to
the White House.[8]

[edit] Early political career
After World War II, Kennedy thought about being a journalist for a
while before deciding to run for political office. Prior to the war,
he hadn't really thought about being a politician primarily because
his older brother, Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr., had been tabbed by the
family as the future politician and, hopefully, the future President.
Tragically, Joe was killed in World War II, making John next in line
to fulfill his father's political ambitions. In 1946, Representative
James Michael Curley vacated his seat in an overwhelmingly Democratic
district to become mayor of Boston, and Kennedy ran for the seat,
beating his Republican opponent by a large margin. He was a
congressman for six years but had a mixed voting record, often
diverging from President Harry S. Truman and the rest of the
Democratic Party. In 1952, he defeated incumbent Republican Henry
Cabot Lodge, Jr. for the U.S. Senate. Kennedy married Jacqueline Lee
Bouvier on September 12, 1953. He underwent several spinal operations
in the following two years, nearly dying (receiving the Catholic
faith's "last rites" four times during his life), and was often absent
from the Senate. During this period, he published Profiles in Courage,
highlighting eight instances in which U.S. Senators risked their
careers by standing by their personal beliefs. The book was awarded
the 1957 Pulitzer Prize for Biography.[9]

In 1956, after Adlai Stevenson left the choice of a Vice Presidential
nominee to the Democratic convention, Kennedy finished 2nd in that
balloting to Senator Estes Kefauver of Tennessee. Kennedy, however,
got valuable public exposure from that episode. His father, Joseph
Kennedy Sr., pointed out that it was just as well that John did not
get that nomination, as some people sought to blame anything they
could on Catholics, even though it was privately known that any
Democrat would have trouble running against Eisenhower in 1956.

John F. Kennedy voted for final passage of the Civil Rights Act of
1957 after having earlier voted for the "Jury Trial Amendment," which
effectively rendered the Act toothless because convictions for
violations could not be obtained. Staunch segregationists such as
senators James Eastland and John McClellan and Mississippi Governor
James Coleman were early supporters in Kennedy's presidential campaign.
[10] In 1958, Kennedy was re-elected to a second term in the United
States Senate defeating his Republican opponent, Boston lawyer Vincent
J. Celeste, by a wide margin.

Sen. Joseph McCarthy was a friend of the Kennedy family: Robert F.
Kennedy worked on the staff of McCarthy's committee, and McCarthy
dated Patricia Kennedy. In 1954, when the Senate was poised to condemn
McCarthy, John Kennedy had a speech drafted calling for the censure of
McCarthy, but never delivered it. When the Senate rendered its highly
publicized decision to censure McCarthy on December 2, 1954, Senator
Kennedy was hospitalized, and never indicated then or later how he
would have voted. The episode seriously affected Kennedy in the
liberal community, especially with Eleanor Roosevelt, as late as the
1960 election.[11][12]

Years later it was revealed that in September 1947, during his first
term as a congressman, when he was 30 years old, Kennedy had been
diagnosed by Sir Daniel Davis at The London Clinic with Addison's
disease, a rare endocrine disorder. This and other medical disorders
were kept from the press and public throughout Kennedy's lifetime.[13]

[edit] 1960 presidential election
Main article: United States presidential election, 1960

John and Jackie Kennedy campaigning in Appleton, Wisconsin in March
1960.On January 2, 1960, Kennedy declared his intent to run for
President of the United States. In the Democratic primary election, he
faced challenges from Senator Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota and Senator
Wayne Morse of Oregon. Kennedy defeated Humphrey in Wisconsin and West
Virginia and Morse in Maryland and Oregon, although Morse's candidacy
is often forgotten by historians. Kennedy also defeated token
opposition (often write in candidates) in New Hampshire, Indiana, and
Nebraska. In West Virginia, Kennedy made a visit to a coal mine, and
talked to the mine workers to win their support; most people in that
conservative, mostly Protestant state were deeply suspicious about
Kennedy being a Catholic. Kennedy emerged as a universally acceptable
candidate for the party after that victory.

With Humphrey and Morse out of the race, Kennedy's main opponent at
the convention in Los Angeles was Senator Lyndon B. Johnson of Texas.
Adlai Stevenson, the Democratic nominee in 1952 and 1956, was not
officially running, but had broad grassroots support inside and
outside the convention hall. Senator Stuart Symington of Missouri was
also a candidate, as were several favorite sons. On July 13, 1960, the
Democratic convention nominated Kennedy as its candidate for
President. Kennedy asked Johnson to be his Vice Presidential
candidate, despite opposition from many liberal delegates and
Kennedy's own staff, including Robert Kennedy. He needed Johnson's
strength in the South to win what was considered likely to be the
closest election since 1916. Major issues included how to get the
economy moving again, Kennedy's Catholicism, Cuba and whether both the
Soviet space and missile programs had surpassed those of the U.S. To
allay fears that his Catholicism would impact his decision-making, he
said in a famous speech in Houston, Texas (to the Greater Houston
Ministerial Association), on September 12, 1960, "I am not the
Catholic candidate for President. I am the Democratic Party's
candidate for President who also happens to be a Catholic. I do not
speak for my Church on public matters — and the Church does not speak
for me."[14] Kennedy also brought up the point of whether one-quarter
of Americans were relegated to second-class citizenship just because
they were Catholic.

In September and October, Kennedy debated Republican candidate Vice
President Richard Nixon in the first televised U.S. presidential
debates. During the debates, Nixon looked tense and uncomfortable,
while Kennedy was composed, which led the television audience to deem
Kennedy the winner, although radio listeners in general thought Nixon
had won or the debate was a draw.[15] Nixon did not wear make-up
during the debate unlike Kennedy. The debates are considered a
political landmark: the point at which the medium of television played
an important role in politics.[16]

[edit] Presidency (1961–1963)
John Kennedy was sworn in as the 35th President on January 20, 1961.
In his inaugural address he spoke of the need for all Americans to be
active citizens. He famously remarked, "Ask not what your country can
do for you, ask what you can do for your country." He also asked the
nations of the world to join together to fight what he called the
"common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease, and war
itself."[17] In closing, he expanded on his desire for greater
internationalism: "Finally, whether you are citizens of America or
citizens of the world, ask of us the same high standards of strength
and sacrifice which we ask of you."

The arms of John F. Kennedy, granted by the Chief Herald of Ireland.
[edit] Foreign policy

[edit] Cuba and the Bay of Pigs Invasion
Main article: Bay of Pigs Invasion
Prior to Kennedy's election to the Presidency, the Eisenhower
Administration created a plan for the overthrow of the Fidel Castro
regime in Cuba. Central to such a plan (structured and detailed by the
CIA with minimal input from the State Department) was the arming of a
counter-revolutionary insurgency composed of anti-Castro Cubans.[18]
U.S. trained Cuban insurgents were to invade Cuba and instigate an
uprising among the Cuban people in hopes of achieving the goal of
removing Castro from power. On April 17, 1961, Kennedy gave approval
for the previously planned invasion of Cuba to proceed. With support
from the CIA, in what is known as the Bay of Pigs Invasion, 1,500 U.S.-
trained Cuban exiles, called "Brigade 2506", returned to the island in
the hope of deposing Castro. However, the CIA proceeded to allow the
troops to go even though Kennedy did not authorize air support. By
April 19, Castro's government had captured or killed most of the
invading exiles and Kennedy was forced to negotiate for the release of
the 1,189 survivors. The failure of the plan originated in a lack of
dialogue among the military leadership, a result of which was the
complete lack of naval support in the face of organised artillery
troops on the island who easily incapacitated the exile force at the
landing beaches.[19] After 20 months, Cuba released the captured
exiles in exchange for $53 million worth of food and medicine. The
incident was a major embarrassment for Kennedy, but he took full
personal responsibility for the debacle. Furthermore, the incident
made Castro wary of the U.S. and untrusting, leading him to believe
that another invasion such as that one would occur.[20][21]

[edit] Cuban Missile Crisis
Main article: Cuban Missile Crisis

Kennedy's Cabinet meets during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Meeting Nikita Khrushchev in 1961.The Cuban Missile Crisis began on
October 14, 1962, when American U-2 spy planes took photographs of a
Soviet intermediate-range ballistic missile site under construction in
Cuba. They were shown to Kennedy on October 16. America would soon be
posed with a serious nuclear threat. Here Kennedy faced a dilemma: if
the U.S. attacked the sites, it might lead to nuclear war with the
U.S.S.R.. However, if the U.S. did nothing, it would endure the
perpetual threat of nuclear weapons within its region—in such close
proximity that if the weapons were launched pre-emptively, the U.S.
might have been unable to retaliate. Another fear was that the U.S.
would appear to the world as weak in its own hemisphere. Many military
officials and cabinet members pressed for an air assault on the
missile sites, but Kennedy ordered a naval blockade in which the U.S.
Navy inspected all ships. He began negotiations with the Soviets. He
ordered the Soviets to remove all "defensive" material that was being
built off the Cuban island. Without doing so, the Soviet and Cuban
peoples would face naval blockades. A week later, he and Soviet
Premier Nikita Khrushchev reached an agreement. Khrushchev agreed to
remove the missiles while the U.S. publicly promised never to invade
Cuba — as long as U.N. inspections were allowed for verification;
Kennedy also secretly promised to remove U.S. ballistic Jupiter
missiles from Turkey within six months, although these missiles were
already stated for removal. Following this incident, which brought the
world closer to nuclear war than at any point before or since, Kennedy
was more cautious in confronting the Soviet Union.[22]

[edit] Latin America and Communism
Arguing that "those who make peaceful revolution impossible, make
violent revolution inevitable," Kennedy sought to contain communism in
Latin America by establishing the Alliance for Progress, which sent
foreign aid to troubled countries in the region and sought greater
human rights standards in the region. He worked closely with Puerto
Rican Governor Luis Muñoz Marín for the development of the Alliance of
Progress, as well as developments in the autonomy of the Commonwealth
of Puerto Rico.

[edit] Peace Corps
As one of his first presidential acts, Kennedy created the Peace
Corps. Through this program, Americans volunteered to help
underdeveloped nations in areas such as education, farming, health
care and construction.

[edit] Vietnam
In South East Asia, Kennedy followed Eisenhower's lead by using
limited military action to fight the Communist forces ostensibly led
by Ho Chi Minh. Proclaiming a fight against the spread of Communism,
Kennedy enacted policies providing political, economic, and military
support for the unstable French-installed South Vietnamese government,
which included sending 16,000 military advisors and U.S. Special
Forces to the area. Kennedy also agreed to the use of napalm,
defoliants, free-fire zones and jet planes. U.S. involvement in the
area continually escalated until regular U.S. forces were directly
fighting the Vietnam War in the next administration. The Kennedy
Administration increased military support, but the South Vietnamese
military was unable to make headway against the pro-independence Viet-
Minh and Viet Cong forces. By July 1963 Kennedy faced a crisis in
Vietnam. The Administration's response was to assist in the coup
d'état of the Catholic President of South Vietnam, Ngo Dinh Diem.[23]
In 1963, South Vietnamese generals overthrew the Diem government,
arresting Diem and later killing him (though the exact circumstances
of his death remain unclear).[24] Kennedy sanctioned Diem's overthrow.
One reason for the support was a fear that Diem might negotiate a
neutralist coalition government which included Communists, as had
occurred in Laos in 1962. Dean Rusk, Secretary of State, remarked
"This kind of neutralism...is tantamount to surrender."

It remains a point of controversy among historians whether or not
Vietnam would have escalated to the point it did had Kennedy served
out his full term and possibly been re-elected in 1964.[25] Fueling
this speculation are statements made by Kennedy's and Johnson's
Secretary of Defense Robert MacNamara that Kennedy was strongly
considering pulling out of Vietnam after the 1964 election.[26]
Additional evidence is Kennedy's National Security Action Memorandum
(NSAM) #263 on October 11 that gave the order for withdrawal of 1,000
military personnel by the end of 1963. Nevertheless, given the stated
reason for the overthrow of the Diem government, such action would
have been a dramatic policy reversal, but Kennedy was generally moving
in a less hawkish direction in the Cold War since his acclaimed speech
about World Peace at American University the previous June 10.

After Kennedy's assassination, new President Lyndon B. Johnson
immediately reversed Kennedy's order to withdraw 1,000 military
personnel by the end of 1963 with his own NSAM #273 on November 26.

[edit] West Berlin Speech

Kennedy meeting with West Berlin governing mayor Willy Brandt, March
1961Under simultaneous and opposing pressures from the Allies and the
Soviets, Germany was divided. The Berlin Wall separated West and East
Berlin, the latter being under the control of the Soviets. On June 26,
1963, Kennedy visited West Berlin and gave a public speech criticizing
communism. Kennedy used the construction of the Berlin Wall as an
example of the failures of communism: "Freedom has many difficulties
and democracy is not perfect, but we have never had to put a wall up
to keep our people in." The speech is known for its famous phrase "Ich
bin ein Berliner". Nearly five-sixths of the population was on the
street when Kennedy said the famous phrase. He remarked to aides
afterwards: "We'll never have another day like this one."[27]

[edit] Nuclear Test Ban Treaty
Troubled by the long-term dangers of radioactive contamination and
nuclear weapons proliferation, Kennedy pushed for the adoption of a
Limited or Partial Test Ban Treaty, which prohibited atomic testing on
the ground, in the atmosphere, or underwater, but did not prohibit
testing underground. The United States, the United Kingdom and the
Soviet Union were the initial signatories to the treaty. Kennedy
signed the treaty into law in August 1963.

[edit] Ireland
Further information: The Ireland Funds

President Kennedy in motorcade in Ireland on June 27, 1963.On the
occasion of his visit to Ireland in 1963, President Kennedy joined
with Irish President Éamon de Valera to form The American Irish
Foundation. The mission of this organization was to foster connections
between Americans of Irish descent and the country of their ancestry.
Kennedy furthered these connections of cultural solidarity by
accepting a grant of armorial bearings from the Chief Herald of
Ireland.

He also visited the original cottage where previous Kennedys had lived
before emigrating to America, and said: "This is where it all
began ...".

On December 22, 2006, the Irish Justice Department released
declassified police documents that indicated that Kennedy was the
subject of three death threats during this visit.[28]

[edit] Domestic policy
Kennedy called his domestic program the "New Frontier". It ambitiously
promised federal funding for education, medical care for the elderly,
and government intervention to halt the recession. Kennedy also
promised an end to racial discrimination. In 1963, he proposed a tax
reform which included income tax cuts, but this was not passed by
Congress until 1964, after his death. Few of Kennedy's major programs
passed Congress during his lifetime, although, under his successor
Johnson, Congress did vote them through in 1964–65.

As President, Kennedy oversaw the last pre-Furman federal execution,
and last, to date, military execution. In both cases he refused to ask
for commutation of the death sentences (Iowa governor Harold Hughes
personally contacted Kennedy to request clemency for Victor Feguer,
who was sentenced to death under federal law in Iowa, and executed on
March 15, 1963).

[edit] Civil rights

Kennedy during the State of the Union address, 1963.The turbulent end
of state-sanctioned racial discrimination was one of the most pressing
domestic issues of Kennedy's era. The U.S. Supreme Court had ruled in
1954 that racial segregation in public schools would no longer be
permitted. However, many schools, especially in southern states, did
not obey the Supreme Court's injunction. Segregation on buses, in
restaurants, movie theaters, bathrooms, and other public places
remained. Kennedy supported racial integration and civil rights, and
during the 1960 campaign he telephoned Coretta Scott King; wife of the
jailed Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., which perhaps drew some
additional black support to his candidacy.

In 1962, James Meredith tried to enroll at the University of
Mississippi, but he was prevented from doing so by white students.
Kennedy responded by sending some 400 federal marshals and 3,000
troops to ensure that Meredith could enroll in his first class.
Kennedy also assigned federal marshals to protect Freedom Riders.

As President, Kennedy initially believed the grassroots movement for
civil rights would only anger many Southern whites and make it even
more difficult to pass civil rights laws through Congress, which was
dominated by Southern Democrats, and he distanced himself from it. As
a result, many civil rights leaders viewed Kennedy as unsupportive of
their efforts.

On June 11, 1963, President Kennedy intervened when Alabama Governor
George Wallace blocked the doorway to the University of Alabama to
stop two African American students, Vivian Malone and James Hood, from
enrolling. George Wallace moved aside after being confronted by
federal marshals, Deputy Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach, and the
Alabama National Guard. That evening Kennedy gave his famous civil
rights address on national television and radio.[29] Kennedy proposed
what would become the Civil Rights Act of 1964.[30][31]

[edit] Space program

President Kennedy looks at the space craft Friendship 7, the
spacecraft which made three earth orbits, piloted by astronaut John
Glenn, February 23, 1962, Cape Canaveral, Florida, Hangar S. Photo by
Cecil Stoughton.Kennedy was eager for the United States to lead the
way in the space race. Sergei Khrushchev says Kennedy approached his
father, Nikita, twice about a "joint venture" in space exploration—in
June 1961 and Autumn 1963. On the first occasion, Russia was far ahead
of America in terms of space technology. Kennedy first made the goal
for landing a man on the Moon in speaking to a Joint Session of
Congress on May 25, 1961, saying

"First, I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving
the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and
returning him safely to the earth. No single space project in this
period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the
long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or
expensive to accomplish."[32]

Kennedy later made a speech at Rice University in September 1962, in
which he said

"No nation which expects to be the leader of other nations can expect
to stay behind in this race for space"

and

"We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things,
not because they are easy, but because they are hard."[33]

On the second approach to Khrushchev, the Russian was persuaded that
cost-sharing was beneficial and American space technology was forging
ahead. The U.S. had launched a geostationary satellite and Kennedy had
asked Congress to approve more than $22 billion for the Apollo
Project, which had the goal of landing an American man on the moon
before the end of the decade. Khrushchev agreed to a joint venture in
Autumn 1963, but Kennedy died in November before the agreement could
be formalized. On July 20, 1969, almost six years after Kennedy's
death, the Project Apollo's goal was realized when Neil Armstrong and
Buzz Aldrin became the first men to land on the moon.

[edit] Cabinet
The Kennedy Cabinet
OFFICE NAME TERM

President John F. Kennedy 1961–1963
Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson 1961–1963

State Dean Rusk 1961–1963
Treasury C. Douglas Dillon 1961–1963
Defense Robert S. McNamara 1961–1963
Justice Robert F. Kennedy 1961–1963
Postmaster General J. Edward Day 1961–1963
John A. Gronouski 1963
Interior Stewart L. Udall 1961–1963
Agriculture Orville L. Freeman 1961–1963
Commerce Luther H. Hodges 1961–1963
Labor Arthur J. Goldberg 1961–1962
W. Willard Wirtz 1962–1963
HEW Abraham A. Ribicoff 1961–1962
Anthony J. Celebrezze 1962–1963

[edit] Supreme Court appointments
Kennedy appointed the following Justices to the Supreme Court of the
United States:

Byron Raymond White — 1962
Arthur Joseph Goldberg — 1962

[edit] Image, social life and family
Further information: Kennedy political family

John F. Kennedy with wife Jacqueline and children, 1962.Kennedy and
his wife "Jackie" were very young in comparison to earlier Presidents
and first ladies, and were both extraordinarily popular in ways more
common to pop singers and movie stars than politicians, influencing
fashion trends and becoming the subjects of numerous photo spreads in
popular magazines.

The Kennedys brought new life and vigor — a favorite word of Kennedy —
to the atmosphere of the White House.[citation needed] They believed
that the White House should be a place to celebrate American history,
culture, and achievement, and they invited artists, writers,
scientists, poets, musicians, actors, Nobel Prize winners and athletes
to visit, notwithstanding Kennedy's own well-known middle-brow
intellectual and aesthetic tastes.[citation needed] Jacqueline also
bought new art and furniture, and eventually restored all the rooms in
the White House.

The White House also seemed like a more fun, youthful place, because
of the Kennedys' two young children, Caroline and John Jr. (who came
to be known in the popular press as "John-John", although years later
Jacqueline Kennedy denied that the family called him by that name).
[citation needed] Outside the White House lawn the Kennedys
established a preschool, swimming pool and tree house. Jackie did not
like the children to be photographed, and during her frequent absences
Kennedy asked photographers to come and photograph the children in the
Oval Office. He was quoted as saying, "Jackie's not here, so you'd
better come over right away."[citation needed] The resulting photos
are probably the most famous of the children, and especially John Jr.,
after he was photographed playing underneath the President’s desk.

The President was closely tied to popular culture. Things such as
"Twisting at the White House" and "Camelot" (the popular Broadway
play) were part of the JFK culture. Vaughn Meader's "First Family"
comedy album—an album parodying the President, First Lady, their
family and administration—sold about 4 million copies. On May 19,
1962, Marilyn Monroe sang for the president at a large birthday party
in Madison Square Garden.

Behind the glamorous facade, the Kennedys also suffered many personal
tragedies. Jacqueline suffered a miscarriage in 1955 and gave birth to
a stillborn daughter, Arabella Kennedy, in 1956. The death of their
newborn son, Patrick Bouvier Kennedy, in August 1963, was a great
loss. Since Kennedy's death, allegations have been made that Kennedy
carried on numerous extramarital dalliances during his presidency with
women such as Hollywood actress Marilyn Monroe and socialite Mary
Pinchot Meyer. [1]

The charisma of Kennedy and his family led to the figurative
designation of "Camelot" for his administration, credited by his widow
to his affection for the contemporary Broadway musical of the same
name. She gave an interview to Theodore H. White, where she mentioned
the musical Camelot,[34] and White later said that he had "found the
headline".

[edit] Assassination
Main article: John F. Kennedy assassination

President Kennedy, Jackie, and Governor John Connally in the
Presidential limousine shortly before the assassinationPresident
Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas at 12:30 p.m. CST on November 22,
1963, while on a political trip through Texas. He was struck by at
least two bullets. Texas Governor John Connally, seated ahead of
Kennedy, was also struck by a bullet, but survived.

Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested in a theatre about 80 minutes after the
assassination and charged at 7:00 p.m. for killing a Dallas policeman
by "murder with malice", and also charged at 11:30 p.m. for the murder
of Kennedy (there being no charge for "assassination" of a president
at that time). Oswald denied shooting anyone; he claimed that he was
being set up as a "patsy", and that photographs of him holding the
alleged murder weapon were fabrications. Oswald was fatally shot less
than two days later on Sunday, November 24 in a Dallas police station
by Jack Ruby, in front of TV cameras in the first live murder ever
seen by U.S. audiences. Consequently, Oswald's guilt or innocence was
never determined in a court of law, and some critics (such as New
Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison, and conspiracy researchers
Mark Lane and David S. Lifton) contend that Oswald was either part of
a conspiracy, or framed, or that he was not involved at all.

Five days after Oswald was killed, on November 29, President Lyndon B.
Johnson created the Warren Commission—chaired by Chief Justice Earl
Warren—to investigate the assassination. It concluded that Oswald was
the lone assassin. A later investigation in the 1970s by the House
Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) also concluded that Oswald
was the assassin, but that there was a "probable conspiracy" as well.
[35]

The assassination was captured on film, most famously by Dallas dress
manufacturer Abraham Zapruder, directly to the north of the limousine
and east of the grassy knoll, as well as by Orville Nix to the south
of the motorcade route.

On February 19, Presidents Day, 2007 new film footage[36] relating to
the JFK assassination was donated to the Sixth Floor Museum by George
Jefferies, an amateur photographer. The film does not show the
assassination, having been taken roughly 90 seconds beforehand and a
couple of blocks away. The only detail relevant to the investigation
of the assassination is a clear view of Kennedy's bunched collar —
which has led to different calculations about how low in the back
Kennedy was first shot.

Less than a year later the President's supposed former mistress Mary
Pinchot Meyer was shot dead on the streets of Washington in what still
is an unsolved murder.[[2]] Immediately her house was searched for her
diary, and was there attained by CIA counterintelligence chief James
Jesus Angleton, who supposedly then destroyed it, or handed it over
for destruction.[[3]] [4]

[edit] Burial

Kennedy's grave at Arlington National CemeteryOn March 14, 1967,
Kennedy's body was moved to a permanent burial place and memorial at
Arlington National Cemetery. Kennedy is buried with his wife and their
deceased minor children, and his brother, the late Senator Robert
Kennedy is also buried nearby. His grave is lit with an "Eternal
Flame". In the film The Fog of War, then Secretary of Defense Robert
McNamara claims that he picked the location in the cemetery — a
location which Jackie agreed was suitable. Kennedy and William Howard
Taft are the only two U.S. Presidents buried at Arlington.

[edit] Legacy

Kennedy's casket departs the White House.Television became the primary
source by which people were kept informed of events surrounding John
F. Kennedy's assassination. Newspapers were kept as souvenirs rather
than sources of updated information. U.S. networks switched to 24-hour
news coverage for the first time ever. Kennedy's state funeral
procession and the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald were all broadcast live
in America and in other places around the world.

The assassination had an effect on many people, not only in the U.S.,
but also among the world population. Many vividly remember where they
were when first learning of the news that Kennedy was assassinated.
U.N. Ambassador Adlai Stevenson said of the assassination, "all of
us... will bear the grief of his death until the day of ours."

Ultimately, the death of President Kennedy and the ensuing confusion
surrounding the facts of his assassination are of political and
historical importance insofar as they marked a decline in the faith of
the American people in the political establishment — a point made by
commentators from Gore Vidal to Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.

Coupled with the murder of his own brother, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, D-
N.Y., and that of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., the five tumultuous
years from 1963 to 1968 signalled a growing disillusionment within the
well of hope for political and social change which so defined the
lives of those who lived through the 1960s. Kennedy's introduction of
the U.S. to the Vietnam War preceded President Johnson's escalation of
a conflict which contributed to a decade of national difficulties and
disappointment on the political landscape. The Watergate scandal of
President Richard Nixon's administration is widely recognized as being
the final stroke in this process of diminishing trust in the
government.

On March 14, 1967, Kennedy's body was moved to a permanent burial
place and memorial at Arlington National Cemetery. Kennedy is buried
with his wife and their deceased minor children, Patrick Bouvier
Kennedy and an unnamed stillborn daughter; his brother Robert is also
buried nearby. His grave is lit with an "Eternal Flame". In the film
The Fog of War, then Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara claims that
he picked the location in the cemetery — a location which Jackie
agreed was suitable. Kennedy and William Howard Taft are the only two
U.S. Presidents buried at Arlington.

Many of Kennedy's speeches (especially his inaugural address) are
considered iconic; and despite his relatively short term in office and
lack of major legislative changes during his term, Americans regularly
vote him as one of the best Presidents, in the same league as Abraham
Lincoln, George Washington and Franklin D. Roosevelt. Some excerpts of
Kennedy's inaugural address are engraved on a plaque at his grave at
Arlington.

Kennedy is also sometimes credited with giving American Catholics the
full recognition they deserved as American citizens.[citation needed]
He is also seen as responsible for giving Catholics full opportunities
in politics outside of the Northeast.[citation needed]

[edit] Memorials

Kennedy has appeared on the U.S. half-dollar coin since 1964Kennedy's
legacy has been memorialized in various aspects of American culture.
They include:

Kennedy came third (behind Martin Luther King, Jr. and Mother Teresa)
in a Gallup list of the most admired people of the twentieth century.
[37][38][39]
New York International Airport was renamed John F. Kennedy
International Airport on December 24, 1963. Short forms of this,
particularly "JFK," have replaced its former commonly used nickname
"Idlewild."
The John F. Kennedy Expressway, a major expressway in Chicago, was
renamed after the President by unanimous vote of the city council,
just days after the president's assassination.
Kennedy Blvd (Florida State Road 60) in Tampa, Florida was renamed
after the President in 1964 by unanimous vote of Tampa City Council
following his visit to Tampa on November 18, 1963, less than a year
earlier. His motorcade made use of the roadway during that rare visit
only four days before his assassination. It was chosen for such a
renaming because Kennedy had used about five miles of Grand Central
Avenue for his motorcade leading through the center of the business
district.
NASA's Launch Operations Center at Cape Canaveral was renamed the John
F. Kennedy Space Center. Cape Canaveral itself was likewise renamed
Cape Kennedy, but reverted to its original name in 1973.
A Kennedy memorial at Runnymede, U.K., where the Magna Carta was
signed, is on a plot of land that is now U.S. territory.
A stretch of Interstate 95 in Maryland, running from the Baltimore
Beltway to the State Line, where it becomes the Delaware Turnpike, had
been dedicated by President Kennedy on November 14, 1963, just eight
days before his assassination. It was soon renamed the John F. Kennedy
Memorial Highway.
The U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy was named on April
30, 1964, and is in active service until March 23, 2007.
The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library opened in 1979 as Kennedy's
official presidential library.
John F. Kennedy University opened in Pleasant Hill, California, in
1964 as a school for adult education.
The John F. Kennedy National Historic Site preserves his home in
Brookline.
At Harvard University:
The Harvard Institute of Politics serves as a living memorial which
promotes public service in his name.
The School of Government is known as the John F. Kennedy School of
Government.
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts opened in 1971 in
Washington, D.C. as a living memorial to him.
A new, unnamed bridge spanning the Ohio River between Louisville,
Kentucky and Jeffersonville, Indiana, completed four days ahead of
Kennedy's assassination, was afterwards quickly named the John F.
Kennedy Memorial Bridge.
Hundreds of schools across the U.S. were also renamed in his honor.
Philadelphia Municipal Stadium was renamed John F. Kennedy Stadium in
1964, and stood until 1992.
He was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in
1963.
Since 1964, Kennedy's portrait has appeared on the United States half
dollar coin, replacing Benjamin Franklin.
At the southwest outskirts of Jerusalem is Yad Kennedy, reached by
following the winding mountain roads past Aminadav Moshav. On top of
an 825 m. high mountain is a monument in the shape of a cut tree
trunk, symbolizing a life cut short. 51 columns, each bearing the
emblem of a state of the Union, plus the District of Columbia,
encircle the mountaintop memorial. An eternal flame burns in the very
centre. The site was opened in 1966 with funds donated by Jewish
communities in the USA. The monument and adjoining picnic grounds are
part of the John F. Kennedy Peace Forest.
In the Solomon Islands, an island is named the Kennedy Island.
The city of Evansville, Indiana observed John F. Kennedy Day on
November 22, 2003 to mark the 40th anniversary of his death.
He is recognized as an Honorary brother of Alpha Phi Omega, through
the University of Maryland, College Park chapter. He was supposed to
receive his initiatory honors, which he accepted to receive, on
November 25, 1963, 3 days after his assassination. His initiatory
honors are displayed in the local APO Epsilon Mu chapter's office to
this day.[citation needed]
One of the five residential towers at the University of Massachusetts
Amherst is named "Kennedy" tower in his honor.
In February 2007, Kennedy's name, along with his wife's, was on board
the SELENE spacecraft.

[edit] Criticism

A right-wing anti-Kennedy handbill/poster circulated on November 21,
1963 in Dallas, Texas — one day before the assassination of John F.
KennedyIt is argued that his reputation is undeserved.[citation
needed] His immense popularity, according to some, was the result of
the optimistic beginnings of many programs declared to be of great
benefit to the United States, its people, and various global issues,
and the national trauma of his assassination.[citation needed] The
Civil Rights Act which he sent to Congress in June 1963 was, in large
part, conceived by his brother, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy,
and it was signed into law by his successor, Lyndon B. Johnson, in
1964.

Others point out that Kennedy started the process which led to the
U.S. getting involved in a complete war in Vietnam.[citation needed]
They point to Kennedy sending 16,000 military advisers and introducing
napalm, defoliants, strategic hamlet, free-fire zones and jet planes
to the Vietnam conflict, which the previous administration was not
willing to do.[citation needed]

According to the US Senate Church Committee, Kennedy had an affair
with Judith Campbell Exner, who was simultaneously having an affair
with Sam Giancana, the boss of the Chicago Mafia, while Giancana was
conspiring with the CIA to assassinate Fidel Castro.[citation needed]

Seymour Hersh's The Dark Side of Camelot (1998) presents a critical
analysis of the Kennedy administration, stating that Kennedy "was
probably one of the unhealthiest men ever to sit in the Oval Office,"
because of Addison's Disease and a bad back, as well as recurring
childhood illnesses and venereal infections.[citation needed] Robert
Dallek's An Unfinished Life (2003) is a more traditional biography but
contains a lot of detail about Kennedy's health issues.[citation
needed]

Thomas Reeves' A Question of Character: A Life of John F. Kennedy is a
sharply critical analysis of Kennedy's "revisionism".[citation
needed]Noam Chomsky, in his book Rethinking Camelot: JFK, the Vietnam
War, and US Political Culture (1993), presents a thesis on the Kennedy
administration in opposition to the one that lingers in the memory of
many Americans.[citation needed]

[edit] Trivia
Kennedy's superlative in his Choate Rosemary Hall yearbook was "Most
likely to become President".
Through the election of 2004, Kennedy is the last Democrat from
outside the South to be elected, and the last president to be elected
while serving in the U.S. Senate.
Through 2006, at age 43, Kennedy is the youngest person ever elected
President of the United States, but he was not the youngest ever to
serve as President (Theodore Roosevelt, while Vice President and at
age 42, was elevated to the Presidency following the assassination of
President William McKinley in 1901. Roosevelt was subsequently elected
to a full term as President in his own right when he was 46).
No person born in the 20th century had yet served as president until
Kennedy did. However, four subsequent presidents (LBJ, Nixon, Ford,
and Reagan), all also born in the 20th century, were born before him.
Kennedy was a collector of scrimshaw carvings made by sailors from
bones of whales and other marine mammals. His interest in scrimshaw
helped to popularize this particular folk art.
Kennedy was a very fast reader and often read two to three books per
day. He was also a master orator. In a speech given in December 1961,
Kennedy set a record as the world's fastest public speaker by speaking
327 words in one minute. This record is still listed in the Guinness
Book of World Records.
The commander of his PT boat squadron was future Attorney General John
N. Mitchell.
Through 2006, Kennedy has been the only Roman Catholic president in
the history of the United States. Among Catholics, only Al Smith and
John Kerry, also Democrats, have been major-party nominees for
President.
Kennedy died the very same day as The Chronicles of Narnia author C.S.
Lewis and Brave New World writer Aldous Huxley.
Kennedy's life and assassination appears to have strange parallels
with Abraham Lincoln's. See: Lincoln Kennedy Coincidences (urban
legend).

[edit] See also
Family:

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
Caroline Kennedy
John F. Kennedy, Jr.
Kennedy political family
History of:

U.S. presidential election, 1960
History of the United States (1945–1964)
State funeral of John F. Kennedy
Jesuit Ivy
Political policy:

Peace Corps
Kennedy Doctrine
Staff:

Evelyn Lincoln, personal secretary to the President
Assassination:

John F. Kennedy assassination
Nellie Connally
John Connally
Zapruder film, primary film of assassination
Orville Nix, photographer of second film of assassination
Kennedy assassination theories
Robert F. Kennedy assassination
Kennedy curse
Memorials/legacy:

John F. Kennedy Eternal Flame
John F. Kennedy Memorial at Runnymede, England
John F. Kennedy Memorial near Jerusalem, Israel
Kennedy Memorial Trust
Kennedy half dollar
Five cents John Kennedy, postage stamp
List of people on stamps of Ireland
John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
John Fitzgerald Kennedy Library in Boston
Coincidence/trivia:

Lincoln/Kennedy Coincidences
Coincidence theory
"Senator, you are no Jack Kennedy" retort by Senator Lloyd Bentsen,
1988 VP debate
G.I. Joe figure as PT-109 commander
JFK Reloaded

[edit] Kennedy in fiction and song
Cartoons and comic books

In the South Park episode Weight Gain 4000, Kennedy's assassination is
parodied when schoolteacher Mr. Garrison goes into the Book Depository
in an attempt to shoot Kathie Lee Gifford during a motorcade.
In an episode of The Simpsons, Homer Simpson and Abraham Lincoln sneak
up on Lee Harvey Oswald and, in doing so, prevent the assassination of
President Kennedy.
"Superman" N0170 and Action Comics N0's 285 and 309 published by DC
Comics, where President Kennedy appears as himself within fictional
comic story lines.
On the cartoon show Clone High, one of the main characters is a young,
aggressive, hyper macho clone of Kennedy's who seems to very much look
up to his forefather and namesake. Like Kennedy, he was outgoing,
charismatic, a ladies man and athletic. Unfortunately, the clone only
recognized those aspects of Kennedy's personality, and when told that
Kennedy was a caring leader who inspired a generation of young people,
the clone responded "I thought he was a macho womanizing stud who
"conquered the moon".
Kennedy's ghost appears in the comic book Hellblazer, in an arc titled
"Damnation's Flame", where he accompanies protagonist John Constantine
across a Hellish version of America.
Kennedy's assassination is parodied in the cartoon Robot Chicken, when
a mongoose is shown to shoot President Kennedy and, in doing so,
frames Lee Harvey Oswald.
Films and television productions

In the 1985 movie Back to the Future, a character called Marty, who
has traveled through time to 1955, asks someone directions to a house.
The man responds that the house is a block past maple, and Marty
answers, "that's right past John F. Kennedy drive", to which the man
responds with, "who the hell is John F. Kennedy?".
In the 1997 episode "Tikka to Ride" of the British comedy series Red
Dwarf, the main characters accidentally foil the Kennedy
assassination, causing severe problems with their own time. They
return, and after several failed attempts to correct the timeline,
enlist the help of Kennedy, who survives to become his own second
gunman. Kennedy dresses like a police officer, a reference to the
Badge man photograph, and shoots from the "Grassy Knoll".
On the soap opera Passions (1997-2007), Rebecca Hotchkiss Crane stated
that her mother Pamela Osburn committed adultery with Kennedy.
In Bubba Ho-tep (2002), a black character, played by Ossie Davis,
claims to be JFK.
Songs

Several popular songs have mentioned him. These include:
"April Sun In Cuba" by Dragon, talks about the Cuba Missile Crisis at
the Time of President Kennedy... with the lyrics "See Castro in the
alley way, Talkin' 'bout missile love, Talkin' 'bout J.F.K., And the
way he shook him up".
"I Shall Be Free" by Bob Dylan, in which Dylan imagines Kennedy
calling him on the phone.
"PT-109" by Jimmy Dean in 1962 became a Top 10 single and was written
in honor of President Kennedy.
Warmth of the Sun" by The Beach Boys, written as a tribute to
Kennedy.
"Harvey and Sheila" by Allan Sherman, a comedy recording to the tune
of "Hava Nagila," filled with initials involving the protagonists,
contains the lyrics "And on Election Day, worked for JFK!", but, after
they "moved to West L.A.," "switched to the G.O.P.".
"Crucifixion" and "That was the President" by Phil Ochs.
"Love Me, I'm a Liberal" by Phil Ochs, a satire in which he says he
cried when Kennedy and Medgar Evers were shot, but not when Malcolm X
was.
"Abraham, Martin and John" by Dion, a memorial to Kennedy, his brother
Robert, Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King.
"Foreign Policy" by The Buckinghams released in 1968 has a portion of
a speech made by JFK on the flip side of "Susan".
"Sympathy for the Devil" by the Rolling Stones, in which lead singer
Mick Jagger, in character as Satan, says that "you and me" killed the
Kennedys. The lyrics were changed from "Kennedy" to "Kennedy's" when
Robert Kennedy was assassinated during the recording session for the
song.
"She Is Always Seventeen" by Harry Chapin, referencing Kennedy's
inauguration.
"The Day John Kennedy Died" by Lou Reed, in which Reed lists some
things he dreamed he forgot.
"Life in a Northern Town" by The Dream Academy.
"We Didn't Start the Fire" by Billy Joel, in which Kennedy and Nixon
are the only two people mentioned twice.
Glenn Danzig wrote a song about the assassination called Bullet for
his band at that time, The Misfits.
"Civil War" by Guns 'n Roses contains the lyrics "and in my first
memory they shot Kennedy...".
In the live version of "Something to Believe In" by Bon Jovi, Jon adds
a lyric that says "for John F. Kennedy, for Robert Kennedy, for Martin
Luther King, for all those who believe, say 'hey, hey, hey, hey...'"
"Dallas 1 P.M." by Saxon. References by the English Heavy Metal band
to the events of the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
"The Brain of JFK" by Pearl Jam.
"President Kennedy" by Son House.
"Purple Toupee" by They Might Be Giants Contains the line "I remember
the book depository where they crowned the king of Cuba", a reference
to Kennedy's assassination.
"Glad I'm Not A Kennedy" by Shona Laing conjures up the whole Kennedy
family myth.
"Born In The 50's" by The Police has the line "my mother cried...when
President Kennedy died...she said it was the Communists...but I knew
better".
"Little Bones" by the Tragically Hip has the line "So is football
Kennedy style".
"A built-in remedy for Kruschev and Kennedy..." by Queen in the song
"Killer Queen".
"Last Straw" by Jack's Mannequin includes the lyric "I won't wait for
you forever, while you run around like JFK".
Yolanda Adams' song "The Things We Do" on her album "Mountain High,
Valley Low" includes audio of Kennedy's inauguration speech at the
beginning and Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech at the
end.
The Postal Service's song "Sleeping In" opens with the lines "Last
week I had the strangest dream where everything was exactly how it
seemed where there wasn't any mystery of who shot John F. Kennedy"
referring to his assassination.
"He Was a Friend of Mine" by the Byrds makes specific reference to his
assassination.

[edit] Kennedy portrayed in film and television
Film:

PT 109 (1963): played by Cliff Robertson
JFK (1991): Film about the assassination; Kennedy played by Steve
Reed
Malcolm X (1992): played by Steve Reed
Ruby (1992): played by Gérard David and Kevin Wiggins
Forrest Gump (1994): played by Jed Gillin
Thirteen Days (2000): played by Bruce Greenwood
Timequest (2002): played by Victor Slezak
C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America (2004): through use of
historical archive footage, he is the Republican candidate for
President of the Confederacy in 1960, winning against Democrat Richard
Nixon. He ran on a platform of possible abolitionism of slavery and
women's suffrage, but was still assassinated.
TV:

The Missiles of October (1974, TV): played by William Devane
The Private Files of J. Edgar Hoover (1977): played by William Jordan
Johnny, We Hardly Knew Ye (1977, TV): played by Paul Rudd
Young Joe, the Forgotten Kennedy (1977, TV): played by Sam Chew Jr.
King (1978, TV): played by William Jordan
Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy (1981, TV): played by James Franciscus
Blood Feud (1983, TV): played by Sam Groom
Kennedy (1983, TV): played by Martin Sheen
Prince Jack (1985): played by Robert Hogan
Robert Kennedy & His Times (1985, TV): played by Cliff De Young
J. Edgar Hoover (1987, TV): played by Art Hindle
LBJ: The Early Years (1987, TV): played by Charles Frank
Onassis: The Richest Man in the World (1988, TV): played by David
Gillum
The Kennedys of Massachusetts (1990, TV): played by Steven Weber
A Woman Named Jackie (1991, TV): played by Stephen Collins
Sinatra (1992, TV): played by James F. Kelly
J.F.K.: Reckless Youth (1993, TV): played by Patrick Dempsey
Norma Jean & Marilyn (1996, TV): played by Perry Stephens
Red Dwarf: Tikka to Ride (1997, TV): played by Michael Shannon
The Rat Pack (1998, TV): played by William L. Petersen
Bonanno: A Godfather's Story (1999, TV): played by Matt Norklun
Jackie Bouvier Kennedy Onassis (2000, TV): played by Tim Matheson, who
at the time was also playing a fictional vice president on the series
The West Wing
How to Marry a Billionaire: A Christmas Tale (2000, TV): played by
Dabney Coleman
Jackie, Ethel, Joan: The Women of Camelot (2001, TV): played by Daniel
Hugh Kelly
Power and Beauty (2002, TV): played by Kevin Anderson
RFK (2002, TV): played by Martin Donovan
America's Prince: The John F. Kennedy Jr. Story (2003, TV): played by
Randy Triggs
Days That Shook the World episode JFK (2003, TV): played by Karl J.
Morris

[edit] References

[edit] Primary sources
Goldzwig, Steven R. and Dionisopoulos, George N., eds. In a Perilous
Hour: The Public Address of John F. Kennedy, text and analysis of key
speeches (1995)

[edit] Secondary sources
Brauer, Carl. John F. Kennedy and the Second Reconstruction (1977)
Burner, David. John F. Kennedy and a New Generation (1988)
Dallek, Robert (2003). An Unfinished Life : John F. Kennedy, 1917 –
1963. Brown, Little. ISBN 0-316-17238-3.
Collier, Peter & Horowitz, David. The Kennedys (1984)
Freedman, Lawrence. Kennedy's Wars: Berlin, Cuba, Laos and Vietnam
(2000)
Fursenko, Aleksandr and Timothy Naftali. One Hell of a Gamble:
Khrushchev, Castro and Kennedy, 1958–1964 (1997)
Giglio, James. The Presidency of John F. Kennedy (1991), standard
scholarly overview of policies
Harper, Paul, and Joann P. Krieg eds. John F. Kennedy: The Promise
Revisited (1988), scholarly articles on presidency
Harris, Seymour E. The Economics of the Political Parties, with
Special Attention to Presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy (1962)
Heath, Jim F. Decade of Disillusionment: The Kennedy–Johnson Years
(1976), general survey of decade
Hersh, Seymour. The Dark Side of Camelot (1997), highly negative
assessment
House Select Committee on Assassinations. Final Assassinations Report
(1979)
Kunz, Diane B. The Diplomacy of the Crucial Decade: American Foreign
Relations during the 1960s (1994)
O'Brien, Michael. John F. Kennedy: A Biography (2005), the most
detailed biography
Parmet, Herbert. Jack: The Struggles of John F. Kennedy (1980)
Parmet, Herbert. JFK: The Presidency of John F. Kennedy (1983)
Piper, Michael Collins. Final Judgment (2004: sixth edition). American
Free Press.
Reeves, Richard. President Kennedy: Profile of Power (1993), balanced
assessment of policies
Reeves, Thomas. A Question of Character: A Life of John F. Kennedy
(1991) hostile assessment of his character flaws
Schlesinger, Arthur, Jr. A Thousand Days: John F. Kennedy in the White
House (1965), by a close advisor
Schlesinger, Arthur, Jr. Robert Kennedy And His Times (2002)
Smith, Jean Edward. Kennedy and Defense: The Formative Years. Air
University Review (Mar.–Apr. 1967) [5]
Smith, Jean Edward. The Defense of Berlin, Baltimore. Johns Hopkins
Press (1963)
Smith, Jean Edward. The Wall as Watershed, Arlington, Virginia.
Institute for Defense Analysis (1966)
Smith, Jean Edward. The Bay of Pigs: The Unanswered Questions. The
Nation, pp. 360–363 (April 13, 1964)
Sorensen, Theodore. Kennedy (1966), by a close advisor
Walsh, Kenneth T. Air Force One: A History of the Presidents and Their
Planes (2003)

[edit] Other sources
^ http://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/select-committee-report/part-1b.html
^ American Experience: John F. Kennedy, PBS. Retrieved on 2007-2-25.
^ Why England Slept. Museum Store. John F Kennedy Presidential Library
and Museum. Retrieved on 2006-09-19.; Jean Edward Smith, "Kennedy and
Defense: The Formative Years," Air University Review, (Mar.–Apr.,
1967). http://www.airpower.maxwell.af.mil/airchronicles/aureview/1967/mar-apr/smith.html
^ http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=24144268
^ http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq60-2.htm
^ Hove, Duane (2003) American Warriors: Five Presidents in the Pacific
Theater of World War II Bard Street Press ISBN 1-57249-307-0
^ http://www.americanwarriorsfivepresidents.com/
^ Ted Chamberlain (July 11, 2002) JFK's PT-109 Found, U.S. Navy
Confirms (National Geographic News).
^ Jean Edward Smith, "Kennedy and Defense: The Formative Years," Air
University Review, (Mar.–Apr., 1967),
http://www.airpower.maxwell.af.mil/airchronicles/aureview/1967/mar-apr/smith.html
^ T. Reeves, A Question of Character, p. 140.
^ Jean Edward Smith, "Kennedy and Defense: The Formative Years," Air
University Review, (Mar.—Apr., 1967),
http://www.airpower.maxwell.af.mil/airchronicles/aureview/1967/mar-apr/smith.html
^ T. Reeves & Collier & Horowitz
^ Online NewsHour with Senior Correspondent Ray Suarez and physician
Jeffrey Kelman, Pres. Kennedy's Health Secrets, The NewsHour with Jim
Lehrer transcript, November 18, 2002
^ http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/jfkhoustonministers.html
^ http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/K/htmlK/kennedy-nixon/kennedy-nixon.htm
^ Jean Edward Smith, "Kennedy and Defense: The Formative Years," Air
University Review, (Mar.–Apr., 1967).
http://www.airpower.maxwell.af.mil/airchronicles/aureview/1967/mar-apr/smith.html
^ http://www.historyplace.com/speeches/jfk-inaug.htm
^ Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy and His Times
^ Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy and His Times
^ Jean Edward Smith, "Bay of Pigs: The Unanswered Questions," The
Nation, (Apr. 13, 1964)
^ http://www.dontquoteme.com/search/quote_display.jsp?quoteID=5580&gameID=2
^ Jean Edward Smith, The Defense of Berlin, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins
Press, 1963; Jean Edward Smith, The Wall as Watershed, Arlington,
Virginia: Institute for Defense Analysis, 1966.
^ LeFeber, "America, Russia and the Cold War", p. 233).
^ http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB101/vn28.pdf
^ Joseph Ellis, "Making Vietnam History ," Reviews in American History
28.4 (2000) 625–629
^ The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara
^ Jean Edward Smith, The Defense of Berlin, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins
Press, 1963; Jean Edward Smith, The Wall as Watershed, Arlington,
Virginia: Institute for Defense Analysis, 1966.
^ http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061229/ap_on_re_eu/ireland_kennedy
Kennedy targeted on 1963 Ireland trip as retrieved on December 28,
2006.
^ http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/johnfkennedycivilrights.htm
^ http://www.mass.gov/statehouse/statues/jfk_landing.htm
^ http://usinfo.state.gov/usa/infousa/facts/democrac/39.htm
^ http://www.jfklibrary.org/Historical+Resources/Archives/Reference+Desk/Speeches/JFK/Urgent+National+Needs+Page+4.htm
^ http://webcast.rice.edu/speeches/19620912kennedy.html
^ The Personal Papers of Theodore H. White (1915–1986): Series 11.
Camelot Documents, John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum
^ http://www.history-matters.com/archive/jfk/hsca/report/contents.htm
^ George Jefferies film — in wmv format at jfk.org]
^ (1999) The Gallup Poll 1999. Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources
Inc., 248–249.
^ Frank Newport. "Mother Teresa Voted by American People as Most
Admired Person of the Century: Top 5 list rounded out by Martin Luther
King, Jr., John F. Kennedy, Albert Einstein, and Helen Keller", The
Gallup Poll, 1999-12-31. Retrieved on 2007-01-05.
^ Greatest of the Century. Gallup/CNN/USA Today Poll (1999-12-20 and
1999-12-21). Retrieved on 2007-01-05.

[edit] Media
Kennedy inauguration footage (file info) — Watch in browser
Newsreel footage of the inauguration ceremony and speeches. (18.7 MB,
ogg/Theora format).
Problems seeing the videos? See media help.

President Kennedy comments on the possible prevention of the Cold War.
Image:JFK ColdWarsOrigin.ogg

The sound file of the message to Turkish President Cemal Gursel and
The Turkish People on the Anniversary of the Death of Kemal
Ataturk,November 10, 1963 Image:JFKennedy November1963.ogg

The Text of the message to Turkish President Cemal Gursel and The
Turkish People on the Anniversary of the Death of Kemal Ataturk,
November 10, 1963 Image:JFKennedy1963 text.pdf

[edit] External links
Find more information on John F. Kennedy by searching Wikipedia's
sister projects
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Learning resources from Wikiversity
John F. Kennedy at the Notable Names Database
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John F. Kennedy Library
John F. Kennedy Birthplace National Historic Site
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JFK at the Avalon Project
JFK's Secret White House Recordings @ University of Virginia's Miller
Center of Public Affairs
Kennedy Administration Official Documentary Historical Record of Major
Foreign Policy Decisions from The Foreign Relations of the United
States Series, U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian,
United States Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C.
Armigerous American Presidents Series
The JFK Years And Popular Culture
Audio clips of Kennedy's speeches and other commentary
JFK Reloaded — Recreate the assassination of JFK
InnerVIEWS with Ernie Manouse: Nelley Connally (TV Interview with in-
car eye witness of Kennedy assassination)
Assassination of President Kennedy Encyclopaedia
McAdams website about JFK
Facts and Fiction in the Kennedy Assassination
John F. Kennedy in United States Census Records
Medical and Health history of John F. Kennedy
Works by John F. Kennedy at Project Gutenberg
St. John the Liberal?
Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress
John F. Kennedy Audio Soundboard
Gretchen Rubin radio interview: November 4, 2005 on Up To Date
John F. Kennedy's inaugural address: from the National Archives
Presidents of the United States
Archive.org collection of audio recordings
New video footage released of JFK's last moments
Preceded by
James Michael Curley Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Massachusetts's 11th congressional district
1947–1953 Succeeded by
Thomas P. O'Neill, Jr.
Preceded by
Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. United States Senator (Class 1) from
Massachusetts
January 3, 1953–December 22, 1960
Served alongside: Leverett Saltonstall Succeeded by
Benjamin A. Smith
Preceded by
Adlai Stevenson Democratic Party Presidential nominee
1960 (won) Succeeded by
Lyndon B. Johnson
Preceded by
Dwight D. Eisenhower President of the United States
January 20, 1961–November 22, 1963

United States Democratic Party Presidential Nominees
Jackson • Van Buren • Polk • Cass • Pierce • Buchanan • Douglas/
Breckinridge (SD), McClellan • Seymour • Greeley • Tilden • Hancock •
Cleveland • Bryan • Parker • Bryan • Wilson • Cox • Davis • Smith •
Roosevelt • Truman • Stevenson • Kennedy • Johnson • Humphrey •
McGovern • Carter • Mondale • Dukakis • Clinton • Gore • Kerry

Cold War v • d • e[hide]
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Timeline of events
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1960s:

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1960s (continued):

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1970s:

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aeffects

unread,

Mar 19, 2007, 3:33:18 PM3/19/07

On Mar 19, 12:29 pm, "cdddraftsman" <cdddrafts...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> to do with telling the truth ?

what a fucking idiot.... LMFAO -- Mel Ayton will certainly be unhappy
with you

<snip>

cdddraftsman

unread,

Mar 19, 2007, 7:36:02 PM3/19/07

Just using strong evidence to get the right answer vs you using all
the
weak evidence in the world to come to a preconcieved wrong answer .
That makes you the f_____g idiot , destroy that thesis and you've cot
conspiracy . Unfortunately CTer's have been unable to do this ; 6 mo
years baby goof off and it will be a world record for failed attempts
to
solve a open and shut case ! You bozo are part and parcel of that
failure .........................tl

nicko...@yahoo.com

unread,

Apr 1, 2007, 5:10:15 PM4/1/07

You can't destroy a legend:

http://reelnews.ds4a.com/debate.htm

zzzp...@yahoo.com

unread,

May 14, 2007, 2:34:41 PM5/14/07

I don't think anybody can credibly challenge Kennedy's legacy.

Historically accurate movies like 13 days have made it clear that he
saved the world from a nuclear holocaust -he is a hero for all time.

THIRTEEN DAYS is the story of the Cuban Missile crisis from the point
of view of Presidential advisor Kenneth O'Donnell.

The Chiefs of Staff were anxious to take on the Soviets in a war they
assumed they could limit. The Soviets also have their own divisions in
policy with hawks and doves in the Politburo. The film exposes the
bitter rivalry between those who want military solutions and those who
want diplomatic ones with John Kennedy being indecisive between them,
because he was haunted by his reading of Barbara Tuchman's THE GUNS OF
AUGUST, an account of how both sides behaving in what at the time
appeared logical ways inexorably descended into the First World War.

Kennedy understood the fact that it could have happened with nuclear
missiles, this time.

Unfortunately, unlike the men who averted nuclear war with the Soviet
Union, the zealots who started the Iraq war have no sense of history,
and the invasion has predictably descended into what historian, David
Halberstam predicted, and you can read about that here:

http://surftofind.com/war

When you thoroughly examine all the evidence, especially what David
Halberstam said about the war in Iraq and the book he was planning to
write, it is sadly not possible to avoid the conclusion that, like
John F. Kennedy before him, David Halberstam is a victim of domestic,
cold war politics.

The timely death of David Halberstam is being called an accident, but
history strongly suggests otherwise.

Murder is not a spontaneous act. Murder is a premeditated act of
violence which is cloaked and disguised in alternative explanations
like "auto accident" in order to evade accountability. Like John F.
Kennedy before him, David Halberstam is a victim of domestic cold war
politics and this time, the murderers should not get away with it.

http://surftofind.com/lawyer

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