John Fitzgerald Kennedy Domestic Policy Briefly. John F. Kennedy - biography, photo, life story: the president's personal file

Biography of D.F. Kennedy

John Fitzgerald Kennedy was born on May 29, 1917, in Brooklyn, Massachusetts, to Joseph Patrick and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy. Kennedy's origins were Irish Catholics who emigrated to America in the nineteenth century. The Kennedy family has traditionally been involved in politics and was one of the pillars of the Democratic Party.

Joseph Kennedy (1888-1969) was an energetic businessman who managed to become a multimillionaire. He did not hold elective offices - but served as head of the Federal Securities Commission and was the British Ambassador during the presidency of Franklin Roosevelt. His father, Patrick Kennedy, was a prominent Boston politician. In addition to his political activities, Joseph Kennedy was known for his illegal trading operations (during Prohibition in the United States, illegal trade in alcohol on a large scale was the main source of considerable wealth of the Kennedy family). President Rose Kennedy's mother was the daughter of Boston Mayor John F. Fitzgerald, nicknamed "Cutie Fitz."

John was the second of nine children in the Kennedy family and received a harsh Catholic upbringing. He had three brothers - Joseph, Robert and Edward, and five sisters - Rosemary, Kathleen, Eunice, Patricia and Jean. Father Joseph's upbringing was focused on intense physical and mental competition; order-loving strict mother Rosa showed little emotion in relation to children.

At the age of 13, John was sent to a private school in Connecticut, where John was an average student, but he fell ill and his parents took him out of the boarding school. In 1935 he enrolled at Princeton but dropped out of school due to illness.

In 1936, John entered Harvard University and graduated in 1940. Despite all the illnesses, he played sports and even won the university yachting championship with his brother Joe. His thesis was devoted to the study of the British reaction to the remilitarization of Nazi Germany. Later, based on his diploma, he wrote a book "Why England slept through the war." Kennedy graduated from Harvard University with honors and in the future never pretended to be a disabled person, was actively involved in political activities, as well as various sports. With a height of one hundred and eighty-five centimeters and a weight of eighty kilograms, Kennedy moved and looked very elegant despite the fact that he never attached much importance to clothing.

In the spring of 1941 he was not taken into the army because of his health, but in the fall of that year he went to serve in the navy thanks to his father's influence, and in 1943 he was sent to the war zone in the Pacific Ocean. Kenney was promoted to lieutenant and became captain of the RT-109 torpedo boat. His older brother Joe, who was the family's hope and was about to become president, died in the war.

John was going to become a scientist or a journalist, but at the insistence of his father took up politics. Already when he was Senator John F. Kennedy said: “Just as I became involved in politics because Joe died, if something happens to me tomorrow, my brother Bobby will replace me, and if Bobby dies, in his place Teddy's coming. "

John F. Kennedy himself miraculously survived. He commanded a torpedo boat and was badly wounded when the Japanese destroyer Amagiri sank the ship near the Solomon Islands on August 2, 1943. Of the twelve people on the team, ten were saved. Kennedy was awarded the Medal of Heroism and, despite being severely injured in his back, tried to return to duty. But the wound turned out to be too serious, and at the beginning of 1945 he was discharged. A sick back and malaria, which he caught in the Pacific Ocean, did not leave him for the rest of his life.

In addition, John suffered from Addison's disease, which was hidden during his lifetime. Drug treatment of this disease led to a number of negative side effects... How much of this secret affliction that often exposed him severe pain, influenced the performance of the duties of the president, remains controversial in the research. But the fact that he was a seriously ill person did not in any way affect his father's plans, and the entire Kennedy family was convinced that he must become president.

Joseph Kennedy did not have time to take an active part in the reign of his son - he was paralyzed. However, other members of the Kennedy clan "did not leave" the White House. The second most important person in the country was Robert Kennedy, the US attorney general. Bobby was the chief adviser to the president on domestic and foreign policy, national security.

Pre-election struggle

During his life, Kennedy won all the elections in which he participated. He first ran for Congress in 1946. He campaigned very aggressively, bypassing the local Democratic Party organization - relying on his family, college friends, and fellow navies.

From 1947 to 1953, Kennedy represented Boston County in the US Congress as a Democratic MP. In January 1947, at the age of twenty-nine, he took a seat in the House of Representatives and was then twice re-elected to that post.

In 1952, Kennedy decided to challenge Republican Senator H. Lodge, whose grandfather had defeated Boston Mayor J. Fitzgerald, Kennedy's maternal grandfather, in the 1916 Senate elections. John was run by his brother Robert. Lodge was a dangerous adversary, and it was also the year of the return of the Republicans to power in the country under the banner of General D. Eisenhower. The general won in Massachusetts, winning two hundred and eight thousand votes, but Kennedy defeated Lodge by seventy thousand votes.

His marriage to the elegant, attractive Jacqueline Lee Bouvier in 1953 proved to be very rewarding. Although Kennedy subjected this relationship to "loads" in the form of numerous love intrigues (in 1954, it almost came to a divorce), public life and during the election campaign, his wife always stood loyally on his side. They had three children - daughter Caroline was born in 1957, son John was born 17 days after Kennedy was elected president in 1960, and son Patrick, who was born in 1963 and lived 48 hours.

In 1954-1955, Kennedy was seriously ill. During his illness, he wrote a book - a collection of biographies of prominent American politicians.

The early fifties went down in American history as the era of McCarthyism - named after Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin, who initiated the "witch hunt" - a campaign against citizens suspected of "sympathizing" with communism. The liberal wing of the Democratic Party protested against McCarthyism, but Kennedy's position was more moderate. John's father, Joseph Kennedy, had a good relationship with McCarthy - he financed his election campaign.

The 1956 Democratic National Convention was the event that secured Kennedy's entry into the national political arena. E. Stevenson, for the second time nominated by his party for the presidency, took an unusual step, proposing to the convention to elect a person who would become his partner in the elections as a candidate for vice-president. Kennedy faced a dangerous rival - Senator E. Keefover, who had already won in primary elections in a number of states.

In 1958, Kennedy won an overwhelmingly convincing victory in the Senate re-election. When Kennedy officially announced his candidacy in early 1960, he was opposed by Senator H. Humphrey from Minnesota, Senator S. Symington from Missouri, Senate Majority Leader L. Johnson from Texas, and E. Stevenson. Kennedy easily cracked down on Humphrey and overturned anti-Catholic bias by winning the midterm elections in Protestant West Virginia. Johnson was neutralized by Kennedy by inviting him to run for vice president. In his speech after his nomination by the Democratic Party, Kennedy declared, "We are facing a New Challenge," and Kennedy's political program was named New Challenge.

At the same time, the concept of "Kennedy style" came into use. Kennedy's style is brilliance and sophistication, a combination of the Sr. Kennedy's wealth, John's own charisma and sense of humor, and Jacqueline's beauty.

Kennedy focused his efforts on the densely populated states of the Northeast, hoping that his partner Senator Johnson would provide Democrats with traditional South support. This strategy was successful, but the advantage was insignificant. Kennedy defeated Nixon by a majority of one hundred and nineteen thousand votes (pi sixty million voters). Kennedy and Johnson received three hundred and three electoral votes, Nixon and Lodge two hundred and nineteen, and Senator G. Beard fifteen.

Kennedy won the presidential election with difficulty. He received 49.7% of the popular vote, while Republican nominee Vice President Richard Nixon received 49.6%.

John F. Kennedy was the youngest president in American history and the first Catholic president. He was also the first President of the United States to be born in the twenty-first century.

In his famous inaugural speech, he called on Americans to "bear with dignity the burden of a long and thankless struggle against man's common enemies: tyranny, poverty, disease and war itself." He stated: “My brothers, Americans, do not ask what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country. "

John F. Kennedy was born on May 29, 1917 in Brookline, USA. The teenager loved sports: he played baseball and basketball, was fond of athletics. In high school, the young man had a reputation as a disorganized and frivolous student who behaves defiantly and "rebel". After school he graduated with honors from Harvard University.

Having received higher education John decided to continue his studies and went to study law at Yale University, but the Second World War began and the guy brought up on patriotism and self-sacrifice goes to the army.

Kennedy took part in the fighting during the Second World War. After the war, he took up journalism, but then agreed to the persuasion of his father and plunged into the political life of the country. John entered the US House of Representatives instead of Congressman Michael Curley and began his political career.

Already in 1953, the young politician took over as a senator. In this post, he was remembered, first of all, for refusing to censure Senator Joseph McCarthy, who was accused of anti-American behavior, since he worked with his brother. Subsequently, Kennedy will say that he "fulfilled the usual rate of error for a politician."

In 1960, Kennedy nominated himself for the post of President of the United States from the Democratic Party, and Richard Nixon became his opponent. Kennedy wins this election by a narrow margin.

As president, Kennedy is developing the New Frontier program: the minimum wage has been raised, social security has been improved, housing construction... But a number of Kennedy's proposals were rejected by Congress. Kennedy was very popular in the country for his personal qualities.

In the field of foreign policy, there were both failures, for example, an attempt to invade Cuba, and major achievements: the resolution of the Cuban missile crisis.

On November 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy and his wife scheduled a visit to the Texas city of Dallas. As their car drove through one of the streets, shots were heard and several bullets hit Kennedy, who was promptly taken to the hospital. But the intervention of the doctors was in vain, and John Fitzgerald Kennedy died half an hour after the assassination attempt. Buried at Arlington National Cemetery, Washington.

John F. Kennedy Awards

Obtained during hostilities

Navy and Marine Corps Medal
Purple heart
U.S. Defense Service Medal
American Campaign Medal
Medal for the Asia-Pacific Campaign
World War II Victory Medal

Received in peacetime

Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography (1957)
Order of Merit for the Italian Republic
Order of the Star of Italy
Presidential Medal of Freedom

Memory of John F. Kennedy

Kennedy's portrait is featured on a 1964 50 cent coin

In 1963, New York's Idleide International Airport was renamed John F Kennedy International Airport. At the same time, the airport code was replaced with a combination of letters JFK (by the initials John Fitzgerald Kennedy)

In 1966, the name Kennedy was given to Harvard Institute government controlled, one of the faculties of Harvard University

The aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy (CV-67) is named after him.

The NASA Space Center, located at Cape Canaveral, is named after him.

An island in the Pacific Ocean is named after him

John F. Kennedy family

Brothers and sisters:

Joseph Patrick Kennedy Jr. (1915-1944)

Rosemary Kennedy (1918-2005)

Kathleen Egnes Kennedy (1920-1948)

Eunice Mary Kennedy (1921-2009). Husband - Sargent Robert Shriver (1915-2011). Their daughter,

Maria Shriver (1955), was the wife of Arnold Schwarzenegger,

Patricia Kennedy (1924-2006). She was married to American actor Peter Lawford (1923-1984),

Robert Francis Kennedy (1925-1968) - US Attorney General from 1961-1964, US Senator from New York State from 1965-1968. In 1968 he ran for the presidency of the United States, but was assassinated in June 1968.

Gene Ann Kennedy Smith (b.1928)

Edward Moore Kennedy (1932-2009) - US Senator from Massachusetts from 1962-2009. He ran for president of the United States in 1980, but lost in the primaries to then-incumbent President Jimmy Carter.

In 1953, Kennedy married Jacqueline Lee Bouvier, from this marriage four children were born, two died shortly after giving birth; daughter Caroline and son John survived. John died in 1999 in a plane crash.

Arabella (b. And d. 1956),
Caroline Kennedy (b. 1957),
John Fitzgerald Kennedy Jr. (1960-1999). Crashed in a plane in July 1999.
Patrick (b. And d. 1963).
After the death of John F. Kennedy, Jacqueline married Aristotle Onassis (died 1975). She passed away in 1994.

John F. Kennedy is one of the most famous and respected presidents of the United States. His assassination in 1963 was a real national tragedy for the entire American people.

There is still heated debate about who the killer really was and what his true motives were.

Kennedy education

The first Kennedy school was "Dexter", which taught only boys. Interestingly, only he and his brother Joseph were among the Catholics in it.

In connection with the move, the second educational institution John became "Riverdale Country", in which he had an average grades.

At the age of 13 he was sent to the Catholic "Canterbury School", where he studied for 1 year.

During this period of his biography, Kennedy complained to his parents that teachers "harass him with religion." As a result, in the 9th grade, John went to the boarding school "Choate Rosemary Hall".

As he grew up, he began to take less interest in studies, as a result of which his academic performance dropped noticeably. Some teachers said that he became a frivolous and absent-minded student.

John himself called this school a prison in which it was necessary to obey the teachers, and strictly adhere to the established rules.

After completing his secondary education, Kennedy entered Harvard University in 1935, but left it six months later. After that, he began his studies at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Interestingly, the famous economist and professor Harold Lasky was the teacher of John F. Kennedy, who spoke positively about him.

Having reached the age of majority, the future president fell ill with jaundice, and he had to return home from London school.

He soon entered Princeton University, where he worked for many years. There, Kennedy's health problems began again.

John even had to be hospitalized because the doctors long time could not diagnose him. As a result, he was diagnosed with leukemia.

Interestingly, Kennedy did not believe the doctors and insisted that they re-diagnose. As it turned out later, the doctors really made a mistake. A lot was written about this fact of the biography of John then.

In 1936, Kennedy entered Harvard again.

The 19-year-old boy began to study hard, read a lot and play sports actively. On summer vacation, he went on a trip to Europe.

During the trip, John's father arranged a meeting for his son with Pope Pius 12. Returning from the cruise, he begins to seriously study political science.

Here it is necessary to tell about another amazing event in the biography of Kennedy.

The fact is that after graduating from university in the midst of World War II, he decided to go to the front.

However, after passing the medical examination, he was declared unfit for military service.

Then he asked his father to help him get to the front. As a result, he ended up in the ranks of the American army.

Soon he took part in various military battles, showing himself to be an unusually brave soldier.

Having become a commander, he showed particular courage when he rescued the crew of a torpedo boat that had been shot.

Together with his colleagues, John F. Kennedy swam to the shore for 5 hours. During this swim, he was forced to support his wounded comrade.

Political biography

After the end of the war, Kennedy began working as a journalist. He firmly decided to devote his whole life to politics, which made his father very happy.

In 1946 he was elected to Congress and then re-elected for three consecutive terms.

In 1952, the politician defeated Republican Henry Lodge and became a member of the Senate. Six years later, he was re-elected Senator for the second time.

President John F. Kennedy

In 1960, John F. Kennedy announced his Democratic candidacy for the upcoming presidential election.

An interesting fact is that in his biography, the first television debates in US history took place, in which he participated with his rival.

The 43-year-old Kennedy won the election, making him the youngest head of state in US history.

An interesting fact is that the oldest US president (at the time of election 70 years old), as well as the only president who did not hold government or military posts before the election, is.

Kennedy ended his first inaugural speech with the famous appeal that became: "Think not about what the country can give you, but about what you can give it."

During his presidency, Kennedy achieved great results, showing himself to be an intelligent and pragmatic politician.

He managed to achieve the signing of the Treaty on the prohibition nuclear tests and also to start social and economic reforms in the country.

He also sought to reduce taxes for businesses, which was criticized by the conservative opposition in Congress.

In 1961, the President initiated the creation of the Peace Corps. This organization helped to get education for citizens of the countries of the "third world".

Thanks to this social program, many people have mastered the basic skills of the most demanded professions.

At the same time, the Alliance for Progress program was launched, contributing to the economic revival of the states of Latin America.

John F. Kennedy advocated an improvement in relations between the United States and, although it was during his time that the so-called "Cuban Missile Crisis" took place, which was expressed in an extremely tense political and military confrontation between the two superpowers.

And although Kennedy did his best to eliminate the confrontation, not all members of Congress supported him in this.

In 1962, Kennedy met with the USSR Secretary General. At this meeting, the leaders managed to resolve many issues, as well as avoid the start of a nuclear war, which the whole world was so afraid of.

For these and other achievements, young, handsome and energetic Kennedy gained immense popularity among ordinary Americans, and his biography was considered ideal for a politician.

Personal life

The only wife of John F. Kennedy was Jacqueline Lee Bouvier, whom he met in 1951. They were married in Newport.

Interestingly, the Pope sent a blessing letter to the young couple, wishing the couple a long and lasting union.

In this marriage, Kennedy had four children, two of whom died. Only Caroline and John survived.

In the future, Caroline became a Juris Doctor and a writer. John Jr. worked as a lawyer and journalist. In 1999 he was killed in a plane crash.

Since John F. Kennedy was popular with women, he repeatedly cheated on his wife. He had affairs with various artists and politicians.

The press has repeatedly said that he had a close relationship with a famous actress and singer.

Kennedy assassination

On November 22, 1963, a fateful event took place in Kennedy's biography. He and his wife Jacqueline came to Dallas to meet with voters.

When his motorcade drove along one of the streets, he was mortally wounded from sniper rifle.

Since the president was in an open limousine, he became an easy target for a sniper.

The question of who was the real killer of the president remains open. According to the official version, he was shot by Lee Harvey Oswald, who was soon arrested.

The day after the alleged killer was detained, he was killed by Jack Ruby, who allegedly had connections with the mafia.

In the aftermath of Kennedy's assassination, numerous investigations have been carried out. As a result, a lot of evidence emerged that called into question the very fact that Lee Harvey Oswald was the Kennedy assassin.

More than 50 years have passed since the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, but those mysterious events continue to interest people.

John F. Kennedy died on November 22, 1963 at the age of 46. He was buried with all the honors, and last way about 200 thousand Americans came.

Dozens of biographical books and hundreds of programs have been filmed about John F. Kennedy and his assassination. However, no one has yet been able to find out the truth.

Given the heroic image and a certain cult around Kennedy, his personal belongings are periodically exhibited at auctions. For example, in 2016, the auction turned out to be a love letter from the president addressed to Mary Meyer, the wife of an American intelligence officer.

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The Kennedy brothers are not named in this quatrain, but there is no doubt that we are talking about them. The time of day is indicated when they were overtaken by death. In the early 1960s, Dallas, Texas, was not a safe city for East Coast politicians. On the other hand, the president was forced to make a trip to this city. Several years earlier, a certain Adley Stevenson had been attacked by an umbrella while in Dallas. He was among the people who signed a special petition to the President asking him not to come to Dallas. The President, ignoring the warnings, went to Texas and, as Stevenson had foreseen, fell victim to an assassination attempt. He was killed by a carbine shot (thunder) by Lee Harvey Oswald. It happened at noon on November 22, 1963.
In a quatrain in question also about the second man to "fall at night." Robert F. Kennedy was shot and killed on June 5, 1968, while celebrating his victory in the first round of the presidential election. The murder took place around midnight.
The last line may sound incoherent, but it should be inferred that these killings echoed throughout the world.

JFK.
A president who is pleasant in every way.

When the finalists for the 1960 presidential race were determined, Eisenhower, who left the White House Oval Office after a second term, said: "The Kennedy-Johnson pair are the weakest presidential candidates in American history." From his point of view, there was nothing in Kennedy that a politician of this rank needed. He looked neither wise nor courageous, and looked more like a Hollywood star than a presidential candidate. "There are no such presidents," Hoover said of Kennedy. There were no such presidents, but the world and America have changed. A new era was beginning.

The rise of America's ruling elite proceeded on the basis of repulsion from the estate-monarchist idea of ​​the sacredness of power, opposing it with the idea of ​​“democratic sacredness of power”: every person can become a president, because every person can make himself what a president should be. The enormous powers of the president led to very serious demands on him. Thus, a democratically elite system of power is taking shape. The ruling elite is absolutely open, but due to their internal mechanisms: political parties, various political clubs, Masonic lodges, the institution of senatorship and the civil service - put forward very specific elite requirements for their members.

The people see presidents as "fathers of the nation", and presidents serve America - this ideal scheme was immutable for Eisenhower, but reality refuted it.

Family and son

The grandfather of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the future president of the United States, Patrick Kennedy, moved to America back in 1850. But John's father Joseph was not born until 1888.

In 19th century Boston, the Irish lobby was as influential as it is today. All the politics of that time, in which people from the green island took part, was done in bars. Therefore, the first thing that the father of the future 35th President of the United States, Joseph Kennedy, did was to borrow money and buy a bankrupt saloon. In the future, the career of a young Irishman in Boston was rapid, he chose the only right way for himself to acquire a position in society: he married the daughter of the Boston mayor. At the age of 25, he had already saved the bank from bankruptcy by paying off its debts, and at the same time he himself was in large debt.

In 1917, foundry workers drew attention to the nimble president of a small bank: he became assistant to the general manager of the Betlichem Steel company, and after the end of the First World War, thus amassed his first million. Then Joseph Kennedy went to work for one of the major Boston financiers from the Stone family as manager of the investment banking house "Hayden, Stone & Co". While playing big on the stock exchange and managing banks and shipyards, he buys a chain of cinemas in New England. His attention is attracted by the film industry: in the 1920s, he took control of several large film companies, and then, after restructuring, sold them profitably.

Joseph's business success can be judged by the fact that he was one of the few not affected by the 1929 crisis. On the contrary, having got rid of many blocks of shares in advance, which became no more expensive than paper, he even earned $ 15 million on the stock market crash.

John F. Kennedy, the second of nine children, was born to Joseph and Rose Kennedy on May 29, 1917, in the Boston suburb of Brookline. Childhood years passed right there, youth - in New York. John was sickly introverted child, was distinguished by a love of reading, unusual for the Kennedy family. At the age of 13, he was sent to a Catholic private school in Connecticut, but his father did not like the nature of the training, and he was transferred to a private school in Choate for children of wealthy parents.

From childhood, the father taught the brothers to politics. Robert Kennedy, John's younger brother, later recalled: "I can hardly remember the time when the family would gather at the dinner table, and there would be no conversation about what policies Franklin Roosevelt is pursuing, or what is happening around the world." The idea of ​​active participation in the political life of his country was instilled from an early age.

The father of the family himself began to actively participate in political life, supporting the candidacy of the FDR (Franklin Delano Roosevelt) in the 1932 presidential election. He contributed $ 75 thousand from himself and $ 100 thousand "from friends" to the electoral fund of the Democratic Party and subsequently regularly donated large sums to the fund of the Democratic Party. In 1936 his book "I am for Roosevelt" was published.

Many of the financiers disliked Kennedy for his "defection," which was how Roosevelt's support was perceived. On the other hand, the liberals did not accept him into their circle, calling him a "Wall Street player." However, Joseph achieved some influence over the president and in 1934 was even appointed chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission in the FDR government. This provoked violent protests in the circle of the latter. "It's like putting a wolf on guard at the sheepfold," said the president's advisers. "The best way to catch thieves can only be an expert in getting around the law," Roosevelt argued for the appointment.

Having shown miracles of perseverance, Joe in 1938 seeks the post of ambassador. Roosevelt, at Kennedy's request to send him as ambassador to England, remarked:
- In my life I have never seen a more bow-legged person! How are you going to present your credentials in London, Joe? Indeed, at the first reception, the ambassador should be in stockings and narrow breeches. And the British are very respectful of their traditions.

Two weeks later, Joe Kennedy brought the president a piece of paper from the British government, which said that if Mr. Kennedy was appointed US ambassador to His Majesty's court, the designated Mr. Kennedy could present his credentials in a regular suit.

In the 1930s, John F. Kennedy studied and lived a lot in Europe. He entered the London School of Economics, but soon he had to leave England: he contracted hepatitis. Then he entered Harvard University. After his first year, John traveled extensively in Europe, including in Spain, where at that time there was a fierce struggle between the Francoists and the Republicans, later he lost interest in them. In a letter to his father, he writes: "For Germany and Italy, fascism is a natural state."

Of the favorite books of John F. Kennedy in his youth, two are worth mentioning. The first is David Cecil's Melbourne, about Sir William Lam, one of the Victorian prime ministers. The book described the activities of a group of political figures somewhat reminiscent of the Kennedy clan. The energy of Melbourne, the variety of methods of fighting opponents, the art of reaching a compromise even in the most difficult political situations - this was what the young Kennedy admired. The other is John Buchan's The Pilgrim's Way. It contains, in particular, John's favorite quote, Lord Falkland's statement: "When you don't need to change, you shouldn't change."

Father's money

John F. Kennedy's career actually began with his father's diplomatic assignment. When Joseph was ambassador in the late thirties, John lived in England, attended Soviet Union, Germany. As a result, when he graduated from Harvard University in 1940, the topic of his thesis was: "Peace in Munich". Later, on its basis, John wrote a book published by the efforts of his brother Robert, entitled "Why England slept." The book sold 80 thousand copies in the United States and Great Britain and brought John F. Kennedy a fee of $ 40 thousand. So the first fame came to the future president as the author of the book.

Meanwhile, in 1940, Roosevelt was re-elected president and he dismissed Joseph Kennedy. And not at all for crooked legs. American Ambassador supported the policy of "appeasement" of Chamberlain, which, as you know, ended in a difficult war for Great Britain, and, in addition, allowed himself impartial statements about the island's defenses, and even publicly prophesied a speedy surrender of England in case of war. Joe Kennedy clearly did not cope with his post, and in connection with the outbreak of the world war, his statements like "If we cannot defeat the Germans, we must learn to live in peace with them" did not quite correspond to his post (Churchill even called him "a hidden Nazi ").

John F. Kennedy's hepatitis gave complications to the spine, he started having back pains, which gradually intensified. However, in 1942, after Pearl Harbor, he tried to enlist in the army. In the end, after multiple refusals, he enters the fleet. On August 2, 1943, at night, the Japanese destroyer Amagiri rammed the RT-109 torpedo boat commanded by John F. Kennedy, splitting it in half. Through the efforts of the commander, 11 out of 13 crew members were saved. When Kennedy was struck, he fell to the deck and bruised his aching back. At the same time, under mysterious circumstances, Joseph Kennedy Jr., the eldest of the brothers, dies: his bomber explodes in the air.

After the end of the war, John F. Kennedy spent some time working as a journalist for one of the Hearst Empire newspapers, which gave him the experience of close communication with representatives of the American media industry. Kennedy was able to personally verify the power of the influence of the "fourth estate" on the minds of voters and to become better acquainted with the notorious technology of "making news", which flourished in the United States after the war.

However, after writing a series of reports from the UN conference in San Francisco, Kennedy left journalism in preparation for a more solid career. Along the way, he became disillusioned with the UN Charter and the very idea of ​​the United Nations. He was seized by popular utopian ideas about "world government" and the renunciation of state sovereignty, which, in his opinion, was the only way to prevent new wars.

In 1946, John F. Kennedy returned to Boston and decided to run for Congress in Boston's 11th arrondissement.

After the war, the structure of the US ruling elite changed, the children of those who, having amassed capital at the beginning of the century, directed all their ambition to conquering the political Olympus, and when they realized the impossibility of realizing it, invested all their energy and money in their children, make their way into the arena. Prodigy violinists most often appear in the families of average musicians, a young chess talent usually has a dad - first-rate, future commanders play soldiers with their lieutenant father. Likewise, the children of oil kings and former bootleggers had to realize their parents' unfulfilled political ambitions. Instead of politicians who have made themselves, politicians who have made themselves appear.

It is widely believed that all the political activities of the Kennedy family were programmed by Joseph Kennedy Sr. and developed according to the script written by the head of the clan. It is often said that John F. Kennedy was the political tool of the family. There are reasons for this. So the consistent nomination of the brothers in Congress was part of a larger plan to conquer the political Olympus, after the political career of the father himself ended.

On this occasion, John F. Kennedy said: "I had to put on Joe's boots [referring to Joseph Jr.]. If he was alive, I would never have to do this." His statement is also known, later: "If I die, then my brother Bob will want to become a senator, and if something happens to him, then my brother Teddy will strive to get there instead of us."

At the same time, attempts to paint John F. Kennedy as a weak-willed tool in the hands of an overbearing father are far from being solid. Of course, Joseph prepared the brothers for political careers and taught them the first steps from childhood. However, as John and Robert Kennedy's own political capital grew, their ties grew stronger, their careers advanced, they became more and more independent from their father. American researchers agree that the rapidity of John F. Kennedy's takeoff was rather a surprise for his father. In the presidential campaign, Joseph participated almost exclusively in money. And - most importantly - the methods of father and children in their political careers, in the struggle for power, were different from each other.

To begin with, with the support of his father, whose capital was large, and the ties with the leadership of the cell of the Democratic Party in New England are still strong, John F. Kennedy easily won elections to the lower house of Congress in his hometown, receiving 71.9% of the vote.

Kennedy's father was the owner of the Hollywood studio Film Booking Office of America, and saw the promotion of his sons into politics more as a promotional activity to promote movie stars.

People from Kennedy's "team", which consisted mainly of his father's friends, co-workers and classmates, as well as numerous members of the Kennedy clan, spoke of this election like this: "We want to sell John as if he were toilet soap." Although Kennedy's rivals tried to play on his wealth and helplessness (due to a disease of the spine, he often appeared on crutches and was, like all Kennedy, shy in public), the $ 250,000 spent on the campaign was an amount, at that time, unheard of for elections to the House representatives - have done their job. John was only 29 years old.

In Congress, John F. Kennedy immediately straddled the social hobbyhorse, in general, leaning towards the left wing of the Democrats. He established contacts with the leaders of the right-wing trade unions, actively participated in the development and advocated the adoption of a new social housing project, which, nevertheless, was successfully failed.

Also, his opinion was not taken into account in the adoption by an overwhelming majority of votes in the lower house of the famous Taft-Hartley law, which Kennedy fiercely opposed. The law limited the rights of trade unions and, in general, led to a sharp decrease in their role in regulating relations between workers and entrepreneurs. Kennedy's speech made a lot of noise, including in print.

John F. Kennedy sharply criticizes both Truman's domestic and foreign policies, demands an increase in military spending and an air force build-up. By 1951, he toured NATO countries, visited Yugoslavia, while actively advocating for a significant strengthening of the Atlantic Alliance. After traveling to the Middle East and Southeast Asia, Kennedy bursts out a series of speeches about the need to help developing countries push back the Russians and strengthen the US's position in the Third World.

In short, John F. Kennedy behaves like a real politician. In the social sphere, given his age and origin, he generally professes relatively leftist views, and in foreign policy, taking into account the vector of public opinion, he is sharply right-wing. This position protected him from the fire of ultra-right criticism, which focused its main attention on issues of military doctrine, propaganda of the Cold War and the fight against the "world evil" of communism.

Criticizing Truman, he sang in unison with the Republicans and, as a result, by 1952, he had made himself an enemy in the person of the elderly ex-president. But the positive impact of such a course on the press citation index and image among voters cannot be underestimated. In general, as it will become clear, John, unlike Joseph, preferred influence based on public credit over influence in narrow power circles.

By 1952, when the Democrats' term in office was running out, John Fitzgerald Kennedy decided to move to the upper house of the US Congress - the Senate.

Kennedy car

The Democrats' term in office was running out, and the overall moment for being elected to the Senate with the support of the Democratic Party was not very favorable. Democrats did not have a majority in Congress, and Marshal Dwight Eisenhower, a popular hero of the Second World War, engaged in January 1952 by the Republicans, was preparing to replace Harry Truman in the Oval Office. The matter was complicated by the fact that the head of the Massachusetts branch of the Democrats Paul Dever was going to either be re-elected governor of the state, or put up his own candidacy for the Senate. In both cases, one could not count on the support of the local party machine.

Kennedy hadn't counted on her. After politely waiting for Dever to bless John's candidacy out of fear of a Republican rival, they launched their own party-independent campaign, hitherto widely known as the Kennedy Machine.

All relatives, friends, acquaintances of the Kennedy family in Massachusetts worked for John's election to the Senate. Joseph Kennedy personally spent $ 70,000, and in addition, the candidate's electoral fund received 200 gifts for a thousand dollars.

Significant hopes were pinned on personal meetings with voters: by election day, John had visited and performed in 351 cities in the state. Where John could not appear, his household performed: his brother Robert, and even his mother, Rose. The speeches were prepared carefully and individually for each audience. So, speaking to the Italian diaspora, Rosa Kennedy spoke a few words in Italian in the introduction, speaking to women - she talked about the latest fashion trends when she arrived in Dorchester - fondly recalled her childhood years spent in the classes of the Dorchester school.

The tactic used was "direct marketing": 100,000 copies of the Reader's Digest, which featured an essay on John's exploit in the Pacific called "Salvation," were delivered in person to voters' doorsteps. Several hundred people went door-to-door calling to vote for Kennedy. For agitators, a special handbook was even published with processed data on the voting of the young congressman. Secular receptions were held throughout the state, as if by accident, at which guests were persuaded to make a choice in favor of John F. Kennedy.

One of the important factors behind the victory was the active use of television, especially television advertising. For the first time, trade advertising specialists and marketers were invited to the electoral headquarters of the future senator, who developed scenarios for TV programs with the participation of a candidate. John F. Kennedy performed twice in live... A series of programs "For a Cup of Coffee with Kennedy" was also organized, in which his mother, Rosa, answered questions from viewers.

Although Kennedy's rival, Henry Cabot-Lodge Jr., was supported by a wealthy regional organization Republican Party, and the Democrat candidate was deprived of the active support of his party members, who directed all efforts to re-elect Paul Dever as governor of Massachusetts, John won the election with 50.5% of the vote.

A friend of the Kennedy family put it this way about the election campaign: "Poor Lodge, in general, had no chance of winning. The Kennedys were like a panzer division moving across the state."

Arthur Schlesinger, secretary and official biographer of John F. Kennedy (there were several of them, but he is considered the most authoritative: in particular, he is the author of one of the most popular books about the assassinated president - "A Thousand Days of President Kennedy"), introduced a term that perfectly describes the main factor in John's activity as a senator: "the instinct of political self-preservation."

Senator Kennedy, like Kennedy, a member of the House of Representatives, combined a generally leftist outlook on social policy with an extreme rightist in foreign policy.

It is also interesting his attitude to the odious personality of Senator Joseph McCarthy, who in the fifties terrorized the US public with the fight against "communism" in civil society, in the government and the Senate itself, thanks to whose activities the phrase "witch hunt" was widely circulated. Having repeatedly touched upon the problem of McCarthyism in his parliamentary speeches, John managed to never formulate his position in any intelligible way: whether he supports McCarthy or condemns, while the whole of America was divided into two political camps.

A group of senators initiated a vote to condemn McCarthy for contempt of the Senate and monetary fraud, but even during the debate on the issue, Kennedy bypassed the crux of the matter in his lengthy speech. On the day of the decisive vote, December 2, 1954, Kennedy was in the hospital awaiting surgery: a very timely spinal disease worsened.

This carefully thought-out indecision, on the one hand, played into his hands, saving him from heavy battles with the irreconcilable right, and on the other hand, subsequently deprived him of the support of many politicians. Eleanor Roosevelt disowned John F. Kennedy in the 1960 presidential election, explaining it this way: “I think McCarthyism is the kind of question that everyone public figures have to give their opinion. And it must be taken into account. I cannot be sure of the political future of someone who does not speak out openly about his position on this issue. ”John later explained his position by the fact that his brother Robert served on the Senate Anti-American Activities Subcommittee, which was headed by McCarthy.

Not so much political as secular and social activity played important role in Kennedy's evolution as statesman... Even before the Senate elections, in 1952, John F. Kennedy met a pretty young journalist from the Washington Times Herald, the daughter of New York banker Jacqueline Buvier. In the fall of 1953, they were married in catholic church in New Port. The press christened the young, fashionable, beautiful woman"Jackie", while the senator herself was called "Jack". A photo of the couple featured on the cover of Life: the magazines reveled in this romantic adventure. From now on, John F. Kennedy became the object of attention from the secular chroniclers.

The other side of a senator's life is a hospital bed. In 1954-55, he undergoes several operations, a steel plate is inserted into his spine and again removed from there, and the discs are removed. But Kennedy only gets worse: he is twice on the verge of death, surviving by miracle. It was only in the spring of 1955 that he decided to contact Dr. Jeannette Travel, who was the first to notice that as a result of illness and several operations, the senator's left leg was shorter than his right. After the special shoes and corset were ordered, John's health began to improve.

In the hospital, in 1955, in collaboration with his secretary Theodore Sorensen, Kennedy wrote the book "Essays on Courage", in which he cites the biographies of ten American senators. According to the concept of "political courage" set forth in it, the main art of a politician was to be flexibility and the ability to maneuver. Withstanding the pressure of circumstances, a true politician, according to Kennedy, had to get along with everyone at the same time in order to ultimately be able to pursue his line. The senator will achieve nothing if he is not re-elected. To be re-elected, you have to compromise. It also speaks of "ignoring voters" in cases when it is dictated by an objective political necessity.

The book was a pretty big hit. In 1957 she won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography.

An important role in the growth of John F. Kennedy's rating was also played by the investigation of the activities of trade unions by the McLellan Commission, which Robert stubbornly led, and in which John took an active part, while working on trade union reform in the Senate - as a continuation of his endeavors in the House of Representatives. According to historian Clark Mollenhoff, Kennedy’s presidential career began with this job, as it helped the brothers to seize positions in the press: John and Robert met many editors and investigative reporters. For example, the generally disloyal Chicago Tribune was forced, willy-nilly, to publish articles positively characterizing the brothers in connection with the revelations and persecution of union mobster Jimmy Hoffa, one after another. Before that, all contacts with the press in the family were in the hands of the father.

In 1956, Senator Kennedy supported Adlai Stevenson's candidacy for the presidency, counting on the post of vice president. However, Stevenson leaves the choice to the Democratic convention. After a fierce backstage fight and public debate watched on television by 40 million Americans, Kennedy bypasses Senator Eastes Keefover. Despite this, Robert Kennedy follows Stevenson throughout the election campaign, offering his help and, although the candidate declines any help to Kennedy, Robert gains experience in campaigning - mainly learning how not to conduct it. The Stevenson-Keefover bunch lost to the Eisenhower-Nixon tandem for the second time.

In November 1956, on Thanksgiving Day, Joseph Kennedy invited his son to run for president in the 1960 elections. Among John's objections are his shortcomings in terms of selectivity: Catholicism, youth, and lack of liberal support in the Democratic Party. Nevertheless, preparations for the elections can be considered started.

This immediately affects John's work in the Senate. In 1957-58, among other things, he was actively pushing for an increase in the education budget, a new bill to raise the minimum wage, an increase in social security payments, and an easing of immigration quotas.

In late 1957, Kennedy was elected a member of the Board of Trustees of Harvard University. His father commented: "If an Irish Catholic can be chosen as a trustee at Harvard, then he can be chosen anywhere."

Kennedy's popularity grew rapidly, and mainly due to publicity. The Gallup Institute provides the following data. In January 1957, a Democratic poll showed that if Stevenson was removed from the list of candidates, Senator Keefover received 41% of the vote and Kennedy 33%. And in March of the same year, after the book "Essays on Courage" won the Pulitzer Prize, the ratio was already the opposite: Kennedy - 45%, Keefover - 33%.

In 1958, Kennedy brilliantly won re-election to the Senate from Massachusetts, gaining almost 75% of the vote - which is unique to the states of New England. Stronger ties with the party machine of the northeastern states and Kennedy's highly effective electoral strategy - more money and more advertising - finally resolved the question of John F. Kennedy's claims to the presidency.

On October 28, 1959, the campaign headquarters meets and the date for the nomination of the candidacy is set: January 1. Joseph Kennedy later said that John’s election as president had been planned many years earlier. This is doubtful. According to eyewitnesses, no one counted on such a blitzkrieg: in 1959, John F. Kennedy was only 42 years old.

Primaries

Joseph Kennedy Sr., a retired diplomat who was called Ambassador to his family until his death, was raised by bar politics. Bribes, connections - such technologies would be more suited to his character. Moreover, in both parties, the mechanism for nominating candidates has historically been built on the inner-party lobby. In the 19th century, in most cases, everything was decided by a meeting of a narrow circle of people - this practice was considered quite acceptable. The now widespread primary elections - primaries - before World War II were practiced in less than 10 states out of 50, and in 60 only 16 states were allowed. Party politics was closed.

The Kennedy brothers deliberately went against this tradition: they professed the principle of noisy, open, impetuous and assertive advertising campaign, in which funds were invested unheard of at that time. This approach was Kennedy's only chance of becoming a Democratic candidate: the liberals still did not like him, there were many rivals, and Stevenson's authority was still high.

John F. Kennedy and Minnesota Senator Hubert Horatio Humphrey were preparing to fight in the primaries. Speaker of the Senate, leader of the party's faction in Congress Lyndon Johnson and party leader Adlai Stevenson hoped to outplay rivals directly at the convention of the Democratic Party. Senator Stuart Symington relied on the support of Harry Truman and counted on personal negotiations with the convention delegates. Most of these plans were not destined to come true. And this happened, I must admit, almost primarily thanks to the dream team that gathered on October 28 at the Kennedy house in Hyanesport.

These 16 people were a textbook example of the campaign headquarters modern type... The Kennedy brothers sat at the head of the table. The first part was led by Robert, the second by John. The core of the staff was Kenneth O "Donnell, Lawrence O" Brian, Theodore Sorensen, Louis Harris and Pierre Salinger.

O "Donell, a Harvard graduate, was 35 years old and had long worked with Kennedy on campaign tactics. O''s headquarters manager, Brian, was 42. Ted Sorensen, 31, has worked with Kennedy since 24 as a secretary, co-author and speechwriter. Louis Harris, a 40-year-old sociologist, recently started his own marketing services firm and was so successful that he was hired by Kennedy. Pierre Salinger was 34 years old, worked in PR, and subsequently became Kennedy's press representative.

Stefan Smith, husband of Kennedy's younger sister, Jane, a successful professional manager and financier working for the Kennedy clan, was in charge of the campaign's financial flows. The New England Democratic regional machine was in charge of John Bailey, chairman of the Connecticut Democratic Party.

It is important to note the age - very atypical for a politician of that time - and the type of activity of these people: two professional campaign organizers, an image maker, a marketer, a PR specialist, an investment manager and one party functionary, on average, from 30 to 40 years old. The candidate himself is a journalist by training, and his own younger brother was his right hand, a shadow.

An uncomplicated but bold plan to enter the primaries, win with brilliance and enter the party congress on a white horse was adopted immediately. Of the 16 possible states, several were excluded, where loss was inevitable for one reason or another. It was decided to participate in the primary elections in the state of New Hampshire, known for its average statistics, as well as in Wisconsin, Maryland, Indiana, Oregon, West Virginia, Ohio and California.

Then we moved on to discussing the campaign's problems. First of all, the question of religion was meant. In this regard, Kennedy stocked up on a secret weapon.

In the evening, roles and areas of responsibility were assigned: each of the close circle, in addition to a special function at the highest level (relations with the press, ratings and sociological surveys, advertising projects, campaign budget, etc.), received under his responsibility an electoral machine in some It is a separate region that included several states. John F. Kennedy kept New England for himself. California went to Robert. Sorensen was tasked with handling the convention delegates and setting up an "advisory committee". The committee included cheap second-hand professors from Princeton and Yale, whose task was to explain everything about Kennedy to liberals from the Democratic Party.

Headquarters were established in Washington DC and New York. The staff of John F. Kennedy did not experience a shortage of funds. A jet plane was always ready for the candidate's travels across the states (and Kennedy had visited 22 of them from October to January).

On January 1, Kennedy issued an official communique, and on January 2, he held a press conference in Congress, at which he alerted the public to what everyone already knew: John is running for president.

First, John F. Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey were to face off in the preliminary battle for New Hampshire. Kennedy was well prepared for the first election: O "Brian recruited thousands of" volunteers "who called to vote for Kennedy; there were advertisements on television, rallies and meetings with voters were held everywhere. As a result, Kennedy easily won 85% of the vote. However, in the next state, in In Wisconsin, the ratio changed to 55% for Kennedy and 45% for Humphrey, despite the fact that most counties were dominated by the Catholic population. In those four counties where the majority of voters were Protestants, Kennedy was defeated.

He won in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts (thanks to good connections in these almost home states), in Illinois (where the Hoffa case was sensational) and in Indiana (with a large percentage of black and poor people). The decisive elections remained in West Virginia, where only 5% of the voters were Catholics.

Kennedy chose the right tactics. He himself made the religious question the main theme of almost all his speeches, openly attacking those who "accused" him of Catholicism. He opposed the assertions that Catholics are not completely free citizens, but depend on the Vatican. Solemnly: "If I break my oath, it will be a perjury against God." Menacingly: "If sextantism exists in this country, well, let it exist. But if this sextantism hinders the activities of a person who clearly declared his independence and advocates the separation of church from state, then people should know about this." Pityingly: "You cannot deny a person the right to be president just because he is a Catholic."

John F. Kennedy cleverly disposed of another reason for rhetoric: West Virginia was one of the poorest areas in the country. With a pain in his voice, Kennedy spoke about the poverty that struck him in small towns of the state. His leftism of the times of lawmaking also came in handy.

An incredible amount of money was spent on advertising: it was sent by mail in the form of brochures and brochures, personal letters, went on television, and was printed in newspapers. $ 34,000 was spent on TV ads alone. In order not to bother translating this into the scale of modern rates, we can compare the total expenditure on the election campaign in this state Hubert Humphrey: $ 25,000.

Numerous artists and public figures took part in the campaign for Kennedy, as well as John's school friends and army colleagues, who could be seen on the screen and heard on the radio everywhere. The son of Franklin Roosevelt himself spoke for Kennedy.

At the same time, the efforts of the headquarters created the impression that all these people helped Kennedy exclusively as enthusiasts, simply sympathizing with him. The number of such volunteers reached 9 thousand. This gave rise to doubts about the honesty of campaigning methods. Rumors spread about the trade in votes, about bribery of voters. Richard Nixon, vice president and concurrent Republican nominee, commissioned the Attorney General's Office to investigate Kennedy's campaign. The prosecutor's office hooked up the FBI, but they never found anything.

Shortly before the vote, there was a serious shift in voters 'sympathies, but Kennedy could not count on victory: at the beginning of the campaign, voters' sympathies were distributed 64% - 36% in favor of Humphrey, and the day before the vote - 45% - 42% in favor of Humphrey. But a typical advertising miracle happened.

On May 10, the results were announced, which shocked both rival parties: 60.8% of voters voted for John F. Kennedy. Humphrey withdrew his candidacy.

Thanks to the behind-the-scenes efforts of Ted Sorensen and Robert Kennedy, after such an impressive victory in the primaries, John won the convention vote by a hundred votes over Adlai Stevenson. Lyndon Johnson was selected as the vice-presidential candidate.

Cover face

Without going into the details of the course of the election campaign against Nixon, we can safely say that Kennedy was the first president of the United States, whom his fortune made, and one of the first politicians of the new generation who fully realized that to seem is much more important than to be. ... Of course, the clever management of public opinion and his own image, the enormous fortune of his father played, if not the decisive, then the most important role in the victorious march of John F. Kennedy to the White House.

The team worked well, especially Ted Sorensen (which is worth at least his sonorous pre-election concept of "New Frontiers" or such a phrase from a candidate's public speech, which sounds in English no worse than Shakespeare: "The times demand invention, innovation, imagination, decision." - " The present time demands from us discoveries, innovations, imagination, firm decisions ").

Young, energetic, attractive, with a Don Juan halo, Kennedy looked like a movie star, not a president. But that is precisely why, for the majority, he became the embodiment of the new ideal of the president. Kennedy talked about poverty and unemployment, about the homeless and old people who do not have adequate medical care, about the greatness of America, and these words resonated not only with the homeless, the unemployed and the elderly, but primarily with those who spilled in the cinema once a week. tears over the unfortunate destinies of movie heroes, expecting an indispensable happy end. Kennedy, like the Hollywood star, was both "like everyone else" and unattainable (with his millions, mistresses, position). Obviously, society was ready for the arrival of a new politician - the man from the cover. John F. Kennedy himself said that "in the 60s, America will need a president who can lead her to the most glorious achievements." According to the American historian John Hellman, America desperately needed to change not the leader in itself, but the principle of leadership. The father-president model, so much in demand shortly after World War II, is outdated. Society was disappointed in her and was looking for something new: it wanted to fall in love. Instead of the decrepit patriarch, who was not always responsible for his actions, Dwight Eisenhower, a hero-lover, a groom like Ares, was supposed to come.

And he, although not for long, came.

Whenever and whatever the President Kennedy did, his main task was not to disappoint the voter. He was chosen to do beautifully, and he, to his credit, strove to please the discerning and varied tastes of the public. Communism at hand is bad and not at all beautiful, but American aggression is also bad and ugly - therefore, a popular uprising against the Castro regime is being organized in Cuba, but US participation is limited and is hiding by all means. The result is the failure of the operation and America's accusations of aggression against the Island of Liberty. The problem of Cuba will become the most important problem for the United States for many years, but the activities of Kennedy and his team, aimed at preventing anyone from blaming the president for this failure, turned out to be much more successful. They were to blame for everything: ex-president Dwight D. Eisenhower, who "tricked" him; The CIA, which dragged the young president into a failed venture; Joint Council of Chiefs of Staff, giving bad advice to the President.

Kennedy's meeting with Khrushchev in Vienna was the perfect show for the Americans. The charming and elegant president and the Russian peasant talk about peace and relaxation of tension - however, as a result of a number of concessions, justified, not least of all, by the desire not to disappoint the public, Khrushchev decided that he could act at his own discretion, without looking too closely at America - and acted in such a way that a nuclear war almost began. So it's not Kennedy's fault, but this Russian.

The Cuban missile crisis, however, was the only moment when Kennedy showed firmness and determination.

On the website of the US Democratic Party, in the "Party History" section, the deeds of the Democratic presidents are presented, who, of course, did everything good that was done in America. But here's the paradox - even in this complimentary text, the authors did not find almost anything that Kennedy would have done - the list of achievements of America's most popular president is one of the scantiest: flying to the moon and banning nuclear tests in the air.

Daniil Alexandrov,
Andrey Gromov.
http://www.top-manager.ru

To the authors: it is not entirely clear about the Moon. The first flight to the moon by American astronauts took place on July 16, 1969. The astronauts returned to Earth on July 24 of the same year. Perhaps we are talking about the Lunar program.

Oleg Mukhin

Nostradamus

THE EPOCH OF KENNEDY

The sudden death of the leader
Will lead to change and soon others will take over,
Appeared late, but rose high in the early years.
On land and at sea they will be afraid of him.

This certainly applies to JF Kennedy, who came to power too late to have any serious influence on the domestic policy of the United States. He gained power after General Eisenhower, who, being old and sick, did nothing to ease international tensions. After the Cuban conflict (Caribbean crisis), indeed, Kennedy feared on land and at sea.

THREE BROTHERS

In many of the prophecies of Nostradamus, we find the motive of three brothers from America. Here's another example:

The great king is seized by the hand of a young man,
Around Easter, indignation, the power of the fist,
Life sentences, thunderstorm time
Then the three brothers will be wounded and killed.

The quatrain predicts bad times for the last of the three brothers, Edward Kennedy, will come in March or April. It is possible, however, that he escaped the fate predicted for him by not daring to participate in the presidential elections. We cannot penetrate into the future, as Nostradamus did, and only time will show us whether this prophecy will be fully fulfilled.

DEATH OF ROBERT KENNEDY

When a clairvoyant speaks of three brothers, we have no doubt that Kennedy is involved. History knows no other example of a family of politicians who would have been so popular and influential thanks to the extraordinary art of politicians. In this place, Nostradamus devotes all his attention to Robert.

The heir will avenge his magnificent brother
And he will exercise power in the shadow of revenge,
Was killed, the barrier, the culprit disappeared, his blood;
Agreement between France and Great Britain will reign for a long time.

The great astrologer, this time without any camouflage, presented a double tragedy. Two brothers lost their lives within a short period of time. It can be assumed that Robert, working on a special commission convened to study all the circumstances of the assassination attempt in Dallas, in fact, in a sense, was avenging the death of his brother. The last line says that Great Britain and France will unite in the Common Market.

John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy, also known as JFK (JFK). Born May 29, 1917 in Brookline - died November 22, 1963 in Dallas. American politician, 35th President USA (1961-1963).

In the modern public consciousness, Kennedy is most often associated with his mysterious assassination, which shook the whole world, numerous hypotheses for the resolution of which are put forward to this day.

A World War II veteran who rose to the rank of lieutenant, Kennedy spent the entire campaign in the Solomon Islands, leading the crew of the PT-109 torpedo boat. For the bravery shown during the hostilities, he was awarded many awards.

Immediately after the end of the war, he began his political career, in 1947 he was elected from Massachusetts to the US House of Representatives, where he remained until 1953. Then he became a Senator of Massachusetts and held this position until 1960. At the beginning of the decade, in the next presidential election, 43-year-old Kennedy, a Democrat, defeated Republican Richard Nixon by a narrow margin, thus becoming the only President of the United States to be a Catholic and the first president born in the 20th century.

Almost three years of Kennedy's presidency was marked by the Berlin Crisis, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Bay of Pigs operation, the space race between the USSR and the USA, which led to the beginning space program Apollo, as well as serious steps to equalize black rights.

On November 22, 1963, while on a visit to Dallas, Texas, John F. Kennedy was fatally wounded by a sniper rifle in his open limousine on one of the city's central streets. The President was promptly taken to Parkland Hospital, where, after unsuccessful resuscitation attempts, he was pronounced dead at about 13:00 local time. A specially created Warren Commission revealed that the Kennedy assassin was the lone gunman Lee Harvey Oswald. Great amount social polls across the country have shown that over 60% of the American population does not believe that Oswald killed the president, or at least acted alone.

A large number of objects, streets, schools and others (for example, an international airport in New York) are named after Kennedy in the United States. According to most citizens of the country, Kennedy is one of the ten greatest American presidents in history.

John F. Kennedy's maternal grandfather is John Francis Fitzgerald (1863-1950), an eloquent politician, three times mayor of Boston. Graduated from Boston College, in 1894 he was elected to the US Congress. From 1906 to 1914 he served as mayor of Boston, regularly yielding this position to other politicians with the end of terms. Until the end of his life, he remained one of the most prominent political figures of the area; he predicted to his grandson John that he would become president. He was married to Mary Josephine Hannon's second cousin and had six children.

Paternal grandfather - Patrick Joseph Kennedy (1858-1929), entrepreneur and politician, was elected to the US House of Representatives from Massachusetts. At the age of fourteen, he dropped out of school and started working, as the family had nothing to live on. Over time, with the money he earned, he opened a small network of bars and eateries, founded an alcoholic and coal company. He was married to the daughter of the owner of the bar, Mary Hickey, four children were born in the marriage.

Mother - Rose Elizabeth Fitzgerald (1890-1995), philanthropist, matriarch of the Kennedy clan. She attended Catholic High School and Manhattanville College.

Father - Joseph Patrick Kennedy (1888-1969), businessman and politician, patriarch of the Kennedy clan, US Ambassador to Great Britain. Studied at Boston Latin School, graduated from Harvard University. At a young age, he became president of the board of the Columbia Trust Bank, doubling its capital.

Joseph and Rosa met in 1906, but the girl, according to her father's plan, was to marry another young man, whom she categorically did not like. In October 1914, Joseph and Rose married and moved permanently to Brookline, where their first child, Joseph Patrick Kennedy Jr., was born a year later.

Kennedy Sr. believed that banking is above all and, as he later wrote in his memoirs, “all roads are open for the banker, since he plays an important role in the development of any entrepreneurial activity". Joseph did not plan to be a major figure in his own city, he wanted to go to a higher level - the banking sector of Boston and New York. His intentions were destroyed by the First World War, he left the bank and went to the steel and shipbuilding company Bethlehem Steel in Quincy, thus avoiding the call to the front.

In the mid-1920s, Kennedy became a member of the brokerage firm Bramin, making him one of the most successful investors of his generation.

Joseph's persistent ascent up the career ladder repulsed Rosa, she wanted a more orderly and calm family life... By the early 1930s, she had already given birth to nine children and was worried about her huge family after doctors discovered that the eldest daughter, Rosemary, was lagging behind in mental development from their peers. In order to distract herself from family problems at least a little, Rosa traveled a lot across the States and Europe. Joseph often cheated on his wife, in particular with the silent film star, three Oscar nominee Gloria Svenson, in films with whose participation he often invested his own money.

At the height of his career, Kennedy Sr. was friends with Pope Pius XII, newspaper magnate W.R. Hirst, and was a personal adviser to US President Franklin Roosevelt. Joseph counted on the same life path, like himself, his eldest son Joe Jr. will pass and all hopes were pinned on him, and not on John.

As noted by the historian, long-term professor at Columbia University Alan Brinkley, "long before the Kennedy clan became famous political figures, the family was already among the most famous Irish families in America."

John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the second of Joseph and Rose's children, was born in Brookline, Beals Street, at 3 a.m. on May 29, 1917. The boy was named after John the Apostle and Rose's father, John Francis Fitzgerald. According to the old American tradition, relatives called John Jack.

Soon after John was born, the family moved from a cramped home to a huge one on Abbotsford Road. There he also went to the Dexter School, where only he and his brother Joseph were Catholics. As a child, John was frail, the cause of which was all sorts of diseases: from chickenpox to scarlet fever, from which he almost died. Kennedy's most vivid childhood memory is a tour of the constituencies with his grandfather John in 1922, when he was running for governor.

Having become a large economic figure in the center of America and possessing a capital of 2 million dollars, in 1927 Joseph Kennedy moved his family to the capital of the stock exchange - New York, more precisely, to his mini-district of Riverdale, and then to the Bronxville. In Massachusetts, Kennedy Sr. has property left - a family estate in the small village of Hyannis Port. There John began attending Riverdale Country School, where he studied neither good nor bad.

In the fall of 1930, thirteen-year-old John was sent to the Canterbury Catholic School, which was located far from home in New Milford, Connecticut. He continued to get sick on a regular basis and missed his family, in letters he complained to them that at school he was “being harassed by religion; territory can only be stepped out when the Yale team is playing against Harvard, or against a team of the military. " John spent most of the school year in the hospital, and in recent months he has practiced homeschooling. Despite his illness, he was athletic at school, playing baseball, basketball and athletics.

Kennedy began his ninth grade at the private boarding school "Choate Rosemary Hall", where his brother Joseph had already studied, and before that his future colleagues in political affairs, Adlai Stevenson II and Chester Bowles. John also did not receive high marks in Chow, according to historian Alan Brinkley, "His work was carelessly executed, and he had a reputation as a frivolous and uncollected student in a school that made order a principle." "Choate" Kennedy was often called a prison, his health did not improve, he lay for a long time in the famous Mayo Clinic.

A rebel by nature, Kennedy entered the so-called "Maker Club", in which its members performed obscene songs concerning teachers and administration. Despite his defiant behavior, John was not expelled from school and he graduated, although not with a perfect certificate.

With his secondary education, Kennedy began to think about further education.

In 1935, he entered Harvard University, but at the very end of August, he took the documents and went to the London School of Economics and Political Science, personally to a prominent economist, a professor who later warm spoke about Kennedy. In the capital of England, John fell ill again, this time with jaundice, and returned to his homeland, where he was enrolled at Princeton University, in particular because he had already studied there. best friend Lem Billings.

Princeton seemed to Kennedy "a depressingly provincial small university town." Not finishing his first semester, he again went to one of the Boston hospitals with a disease unknown to doctors. For several weeks John underwent examinations and tests, which he later called “the most ordeal throughout my storm-torn life. " In the end, the boy was diagnosed with leukemia. Kennedy did not believe it and was right - soon the doctors admitted that they had made a mistake.

John spent the rest of the school year at a Palm Beach resort, a ranch in Arizona and Los Angeles. In August 1936, he was again admitted to Harvard University, whose admissions committee issued its verdict on Kennedy: "Jack has excellent mental abilities, but does not have a deep interest in learning ... There is reason to believe that he can enter."

At Harvard, John studied better than at "Chow" or Princeton, read a lot, did not leave sports. Summer holidays In 1937, Kennedy undertook a major European tour with Lem Billings, sponsored by his father. He also organized John's acquaintance with the future Pope Cardinal Pacelli and several other major world figures. The young man was especially impressed by countries with a fascist regime, in particular Italy and Germany.

Upon his return from the cruise, an amazed Kennedy began to get seriously involved in history and political science. He longed to succeed not only in education, but also in student society, setting himself the goal of getting into one of Harvard's social clubs. He soon became a member of the Hasty Pudding Club and was featured in the university newspaper The Harvard Crimson. However, John was most proud of his membership in the Spee Club and spent most of his free time at its headquarters.

Kennedy learned about the beginning of World War II while vacationing at a resort in Antibes. Back at Harvard, he titled his graduate work The Politics of Conciliation in Munich, a team he helped write, from his father's assistants to stenographers and typists. "Poorly written, but conscientious, interesting and reasonable analysis of a complex problem," was the verdict of Kennedy's scientific advisors. Despite the mediocrity of this thesis, with the help of The New York Times journalist Arthur Kroc, it was published as a separate book under the other title "Why England slept."

The analytical work of the young Kennedy caused a wide public outcry, which was dictated, in the opinion of Alan Brinkley, "by an almost complete lack of interest on the part of political analysts of that time in the issue of the readiness of democratic states to resist totalitarian regimes." In it, John also first mentioned a thesis that later became one of the key points of his political doctrine: "Democracy must be strong and capable of fighting in order to endure the hardships of a long intense struggle against the gathering strength of the communist world.".

After graduating from Harvard, Kennedy's Bachelor of Science wondered what to do next. There was an idea to start studying law; in 1941, he applied to Yale University and even studied for several months at Stanford, but soon America was officially involved in World War II. John knew that due to constant ailments he would not be enrolled in the front. A year before the events at Pearl Harbor, he tried to pass a medical examination, but he was refused due to a back injury. Here my father and his acquaintances (in particular, Admiral Alan Kirk) helped, with the help of which in October Kennedy was sent to the Washington Intelligence Agency of the United States Navy.

In the ranks of the Navy, Kennedy prepared reports for the headquarters and found this work boring. He longed for real military action.

After spending a short time at intelligence headquarters, John was transferred to a military shipyard in Charleston, South Carolina. In July 1942, he became a member of the Naval School for Officers' Training (Chicago, Illinois). In Portsmouth, Rhode Island, he was trained in the basics of controlling a high-speed torpedo boat and in the spring of 1943 took command of the PT-109 boat. Before that, dreaming of becoming its commander, Kennedy again turned to his father and Massachusetts Senator David E. Walsh for help. John was immediately redirected to Pacific Ocean, where fighting between the US and Japan were in full swing.

On August 2, Kennedy was tasked with attacking Japanese ships with fifteen other boats. During a night raid, an enemy destroyer emerging from the darkness rammed and cut the PT-109 in half. When falling onto the deck, John severely injured his already injured back. Of the thirteen sailors, two instantly died, the rest were saved thanks to the timely and precise actions of Kennedy. Within five hours, the boat crew swam to the nearest shore, with Kennedy dragging one of the wounded along with him.

On the island of Nauro, John carved a small message on a coconut shell indicating the coordinates of the boat's crew. A week later, Kennedy and his men sailed home in another New Zealand patrol torpedo boat from the islands of New Georgia.

Already in the following days, the American press wrote with admiration about the feat of Kennedy and the entire team, in which John was most often referred to as "Kennedy's son." For his courage during the fighting, John was awarded many orders and medals, including the Purple Heart and the Navy and Marine Corps Medal. The Order of Honoring Kennedy was personally signed by Admiral William Halsey: "His courage, endurance and leadership qualities helped to save several human lives in full accordance with the high traditions of the United States naval service."

Ten days after the PT-109 incident, Kennedy returned to the front. In December 1943, he contracted malaria, a back injury made itself felt again, and due to his critical health condition, John decided to return home. Already in the new year, 1944, Kennedy arrived in San Francisco and was hospitalized at the Mayo Clinic, where he remained for several long months. In March 1945, a few months before the end of the war, he was officially sent to the reserve.

A few months after his transfer to the reserve, Kennedy took up journalism - covering the creation of the United Nations for W.R. Hirst's media conglomerate Hearst Corporation in San Francisco. Then he went on another tour of Europe, during which he again thought about the key political events and personalities of that time.

After the death in August 1944 of the eldest child, Joseph, in the family all hopes were pinned on John. Upon his return from Europe, his father began to persuade him to engage in politics, although he doubted his political inclinations. John knew for sure that he would not do journalism. Kennedy Sr. helped lay the foundation for his son's future political career - he contacted Massachusetts Congressman in the US House of Representatives, James Michael Curley, who offered to vacate his seat in the House in exchange for resolving some of his problems. So John F. Kennedy became a member of the US House of Representatives and began his political career.

From 1947 to 1953, Kennedy represented Boston County in the US Congress as the Democratic congressman. In 1953, Kennedy became a Senator after defeating Senator Lodge in a bitter struggle. The most controversial decision of the future president during this period was the decision not to participate in the Senate vote on the censure of Senator Joseph McCarthy on his leadership of the Commission of Inquiry on Anti-American Activities. Researchers offer different motivations for this move (in particular, staying in the hospital and unwillingness to undermine the confidence of conservative voters), but Kennedy's own statement, made in 1960, is also known: "I never called myself perfect. I fulfilled the usual policy of error for a politician. The case of Joe McCarthy? I was in a losing situation. My brother worked for Joe. I was against it, I did not want him to work for Joe, but he wanted. And how the hell could I stand up and judge Joe McCarthy when my own brother was working for him? So it wasn't so much a matter of political duty as a personal issue. ".

When John F. Kennedy, the Democratic presidential candidate, won the 1960 election, he was 43 years old.

When Kennedy officially announced his candidacy in the early 1960s, he was opposed in the Democratic primaries by Senator Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota, Senator Stuart Symington of Missouri, Senate Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson of Texas, and Adlai Stevenson. By the time the convention opened in Los Angeles, Kennedy had already secured a victory and was approved in the first round of voting. Two weeks later, Republicans elected Vice President Richard Nixon as their candidate.

In televised debates with his rival Richard Nixon, Kennedy gave the impression of a businesslike, eloquent and energetic person. During the election campaign, he spoke of the need to decisively strive forward into the new decade, because "new frontiers are near - whether we are looking for them or not." Kennedy focused his efforts on the densely populated states of the Northeast, hoping that his partner Senator Johnson would provide Democrats with the traditional support of the South. This strategy was successful, but the advantage was insignificant. Kennedy defeated Nixon by a majority of 119 thousand votes (with 69 million voters). Kennedy and Johnson received 303 electoral votes, Nixon and Lodge - 219, Senator Harry Flood Bird - 15. The decisive role in securing the victory of Kennedy was played, according to the press, not the political platform of his party and not the expectation of "energetic leadership" and the policy promised by Kennedy " flexible response "to challenges outside world, but the way he looked on the television screen.

Kennedy was to become the country's first Catholic president.

On January 20, 1961, John F. Kennedy was sworn in and thus became the 35th President of the United States. Kennedy concluded his first inaugural speech with an appeal: "Think not about what the country can give you, but about what you can give it." The government, along with the new president, includes completely new persons with connections in the financial and monopoly circles of the United States, or people who have already succeeded in the political arena.

The Kennedy administration included: Vice President, Secretary of State D. Rusk (specialist in political science, served in the Pentagon, State Department, since 1952 headed the Rockefeller Foundation), Secretary of Defense (professional businessman, president of the Ford concern), Minister of Finance D. Dillon (served in the administration), Minister of Justice Robert Kennedy (Kennedy's brother, led the election campaign).

Of the first 200 people appointed by Kennedy to top government posts, about half were from the state apparatus, 18% were university professors, 6% were businessmen, which was in stark contrast to the composition of the administration of his predecessor Eisenhower, where only 6% were university professors. and 42% are businessmen.

The beginning of the Kennedy presidency coincided with a cyclical boom in the economy. However, by the spring of 1962, the economic situation had become noticeably more complicated: the growth rate slowed down, the level of unemployment, which had begun to decline, stood at 5.5%, and the volume of new investment also decreased. In May, this was added to the drop in the share price on the stock exchange - the sharpest since 1929.

Stopping the economic downturn was a top priority for the new administration, but Kennedy lost the credibility of the business community by pushing in 1962 to cut steel prices that the government found excessive. The administration entered into a confrontation with the steel companies led by the United States Steel Corporation, which, despite the insistence of the administration, which had previously forced the steelworkers' union to limit their demands for higher wages within the "benchmarks", went on a demonstratively sharp increase steel prices. It was only by using all the levers of pressure that the White House managed to get this decision canceled at the cost of worsening relations with the monopolies.

He achieved this immediate goal, but lost the strong support of the industrialists. For example, in January 1963, Kennedy sent Congress a program to cut taxes on corporate profits (from 52% to 47%) and reduce personal income tax rates (from 20-91 to 14-65%) for a total amount of about $ 10 billion, with the actual refusal from tax reform. When Kennedy tried to push through Congress a tax-cut bill to stimulate savings and revive the economy, conservative opposition deprived him of any hope of a bill that would create a budget deficit. At the same time, he promised to cut government spending on social needs and balance the federal budget.

Despite some successes, the Kennedy presidency as a whole cannot be called successful in terms of legislation. He did not receive new appropriations for the development of education and medical care the elderly, and the minimum wage rose marginally. Thus, the extension of the period for the payment of unemployment benefits in 1961-1962 left more than 3 million unemployed behind; the increase in the minimum hourly wage (to $ 1.15 in 1961 and $ 1.25 in 1963) affected only 3.6 million of the 26.6 million low-paid workers. Government Measures to Combat Unemployment - Depression Relief Act of 1961, Retraining of Fired Workers Act of 1962, appropriations for public Works and so on - did not lead to significant shifts for the better in the field of employment. The movement for the reduction (35 hours) of the working week was gaining growth.

Kennedy advocated equal rights for blacks, taking the Abraham Lincoln model, supported Martin Luther King, and met him in Washington in 1963.

One of the decisions of President Kennedy was to stop issuing silver coins and certificates due to the constant rise in the price of silver. In 1963, at his initiative, Congress passed Public Law 88-36, authorizing the Federal Reserve to issue $ 1 and $ 2 notes and prohibiting the Treasury from issuing silver certificates. Since the Treasury was still supposed to issue these certificates during the transition period, Kennedy signed Executive Order 11110 on the same day, which delegated the power to issue silver certificates to the President of the Treasury. There is a conspiracy theory that mistakenly links this decree with the release of US Treasury notes in 1963. It is assumed, therefore, that Kennedy was going to deprive the FRS of its monopoly on the issue of money, and therefore, allegedly, this decision became the reason for a conspiracy against the president.

Kennedy advocated improving relations between the United States and the USSR, but his rule was also marked by great foreign policy tensions: the unsuccessful landing in the Bay of Pigs, the Berlin crisis, the Cuban missile crisis (one of the phrases recorded in the 35th president's diary, "fear of loss breeds suspicion" - this is how Kennedy himself argued for this crisis).

Under Kennedy, there was an increase in US intervention in the civil war in South Vietnam; in 1961, he sent the first regular units of the US armed forces to South Vietnam (before that, only military advisers were serving there). By the end of 1963, the United States had spent $ 3 billion on the Vietnam War.

In March 1961, an organization called the Peace Corps was created, which, on a voluntary basis, helped the people of developing countries to eradicate illiteracy, acquire basic work skills and knowledge.

On March 13, 1961, Kennedy launched the Alliance for Progress program to promote economic and political development countries of Latin America. The official goals of this program were: to ensure in Latin American countries an annual increase in industrial production of at least 2.5% per year, to eliminate illiteracy on the continent, to conduct agrarian reforms... The program was to be financed over a ten-year period of $ 20 billion, nearly ten times the total amount of American aid to Latin America from 1945 to 1960.

In 1961, Kennedy created the United States Agency for International Development, with the aim of contributing to the solution of economic and political issues developing countries.

John F. Kennedy has done a lot for space exploration, initiating the launch of the Apollo program ("We decide to go to the moon"). He offered the First Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Khrushchev to join forces in preparing the flight to the moon, but he refused.

In Moscow, on August 5, 1963, an agreement was signed between representatives of the USSR, the USA and Great Britain on the prohibition of nuclear weapons tests in three areas - in the air, on the ground and under water. On October 17, representatives of the USSR and the United States voted for the decision unanimously adopted by the UN General Assembly to prohibit the launch of objects with nuclear weapons on board.

In 1963, preparations began for " The Pan-European Meeting on Security and Cooperation in Europe ”.

Kennedy's political testament is a speech at the American University on June 10, 1963, which contains a call to "ensure peace not only in our time, but forever" by "expanding mutual understanding between the USSR and us."

John F. Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963 in Dallas(Texas); while the presidential cortege was moving through the streets of the city, shots were heard. The first bullet hit the president in the back of the neck and exited the front of the throat, the second hit in the head and caused the destruction of the skull bones in the back of the head, as well as damage to the medulla. President Kennedy was taken to the operating room, where his death was pronounced half an hour after the assassination attempt. In addition, the governor of Texas, Connolly, who was driving in the same car, was seriously injured, and one of the passers-by was also slightly injured.

Lee Harvey Oswald, arrested on suspicion of murder, was shot and killed two days later at the police station by Dallas resident Jack Ruby, who also later died in prison.

The official report of the Warren Commission on the investigation into the Kennedy assassination was published in 1964; according to this report, the president's killer was Oswald, and all the shots were fired from the top floor of the building. No murder conspiracy has been identified, according to the report.

Official data on the Kennedy assassination is contradictory and contains a number of "blank spots". There are especially many different conspiracy theories about this case: it is questioned whether Oswald shot at the car at all or that he was the only shooter. It is assumed that the murder is connected with various major figures of politics and business, deliberate elimination of witnesses is seen, etc. One of such versions is presented in the film "JFK" by Oliver Stone. About John F. Kennedy filmed including: "PT 109" (1963) - about Kennedy's participation in World War II; the series Kennedy and The Kennedy Clan (Kennedy in 1983 and The Kennedys in 2011); John F. Kennedy: Reckless Youth (1993).

John F. Kennedy's personal life:

Brothers and sisters:

Joseph Patrick Kennedy Jr. (1915-1944)
Rosemary Kennedy (1918-2005)
Kathleen Egnes Kennedy (1920-1948)
Eunice Mary Kennedy (1921-2009). Husband - Sargent Robert Shriver (1915-2011). Their daughter, Maria Shriver (1955), was the wife.
Patricia Kennedy (1924-2006). She was married to American actor Peter Lawford (1923-1984).
Robert Francis Kennedy (1925-1968)
Gene Ann Kennedy Smith (1928)
Edward Moore Kennedy (1932-2009)

In November 2002, after the expiration of the retention period for medical secrets, medical reports were released to the public. Kennedy's physical illness turned out to be more serious than previously thought. He suffered constant pain from his injured spine despite repeated treatments, in addition to troubles from severe digestive problems and Addison's disease. Kennedy repeatedly had to inject novocaine before press conferences to look healthy.

He was the richest president of the United States.

Bibliography of John F. Kennedy:

Profiles in courage. - NY-Evanston: Harper & Raw, 1957.
The book gives short biographies people whom Kennedy regarded as models of courage in politics. In 1957, Kennedy received the Pulitzer Prize for this book, the highest award in journalism. The book was reprinted in 1964.
Why England slept - NY, 1961. Kennedy's thesis edition.
A nation of immigrants - NY-Evanston: Harper & Raw, 1964.
America the beautiful in the worlds - 1964
"Personal Diary of the 35th President of the United States" - After the death of Kennedy, a diary was published in which John F. Kennedy wrote down his sayings and thoughts.