John F. Kennedy

Background

Kennedy attended private elementary schools, including a year at Canterbury School in New Milford, Connecticut, and four years at Choate School in Wallingford, Connecticut. He spent the summer of 1935 studying at the London School of Economics. He entered Princeton University but was forced to leave during his freshman year because of an attack of jaundice. In the fall of 1936 he enrolled at Harvard University, graduating cum laude in June 1940. During World War II, he commanded a PT (torpedo) boat in the Pacific. When the boat was rammed and sunk by a Japanese destroyer in August 1943, Kennedy, despite serious injuries, led the surviving crew through miles of perilous waters to safety.

After the war, Kennedy worked for several months in 1945 as a reporter for the Hearst newspapers, covering a conference in San Francisco that established the United Nations. In 1947, he became a Democratic Congressman from Boston, and in 1952, successfully campaigned against Henry Cabot Lodge in Massachusetts to advance to the Senate. He married Jacqueline Bouvier on September 12, 1953, and the couple had two children, Caroline Bouvier (born 1957) and John Fitzgerald (born 1960). Another son, Patrick Bouvier, died shortly after birth in 1963.

While recuperating from back surgery, Kennedy wrote Profiles in Courage (1956), a study of courageous political acts by eight United States senators, which won a Pulitzer Prize. Kennedy campaigned for and nearly gained the Democratic nomination for Vice President in 1956, and four years later was a first-ballot nominee for President. A young, handsome and personable candidate with a beautiful wife, Kennedy enjoyed the friendship and support of many high-profile Hollywood celebrities, who helped raise money for his campaign. Kennedy engaged in a series of television debates with the Republican candidate, Richard M. Nixon, which were seen by millions. After winning the Presidency in 1960 by a narrow margin, Kennedy became the thirty-fourth President of the United States, the youngest President ever elected, and the first Roman Catholic President. Major Accomplishments