John F. Kennedy remained president for hardly a thousand days. He was assassinated in 1963 in Dallas, thus becoming the youngest president to die in office. Popularly known as JFK, Kennedy came from a politically active family. It was his father’s wish to make one of his sons the president and John was the one who fulfilled it.
Before joining politics, JFK served in the Navy. He fought the Japanese and was fatally wounded. After recovering, he became a Democratic Congressman from Boston. He later made it to the Senate. It was in 1960 that he ran for the presidential elections against Richard Nixon. Theirs was the first ever presidential debate that was broadcast on television.
Kennedy pledged during his campaign to get America moving again and he tried to fulfill his pledge. After becoming president, he launched a series of economic programmes; those were by far the best and sustainable plans implemented in the country after the Second World War. His vision of America extended to the field of national culture as well. He believed that arts had a central role to play in a vital society. He also called for a new civil rights legislation. The Peace Corps was created by Kennedy to help people in poor nations improve their lives. Kennedy gave a push to the U.S. space program as well.
Things were not always smooth for Kennedy. It was his administration that planned the invasion of Cuba in 1962. What followed is known as the Cuban Missile Crisis that nearly resulted in the breakout of a global thermonuclear conflict.
On November 22, 1963 Kennedy and his wife Jacqueline were riding in an open car as part of a motorcade in Dallas. Suddenly Kennedy was shot; he was rushed to the hospital but died. Kennedy had inspired many Americans and when he was killed the nation was deeply upset. The magical time Americans had called ‘Camelot’ came to a sudden end.
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