John F Kennedy, the 35th President of the United
States was also the youngest president elect of the country. His charismatic
charm is legendary and as in his lifetime even today he’s counted amongst the
most popular icons of the past, and is subject to the same idolatry. His intellectual
excellence together with sagacious handling of the Cuban missile crisis,
amongst other things, got him international recognition. No other president
since has enjoyed such a concentrated fanfare, as this young president whose
words at the inaugural address have had gone in the pages of history for posterity
to quote and requote, “Ask not what your country can do for you- ask what you
can do for your country.” He held the torch of a new generation of Americans
who were born in this century, who were tempered by war and disciplined by hard
work and bitter peace.
Born on May 29, 1917, in Brooklyn, Massachusetts, John was
the second of the nine children of Joseph Patrick Kennedy and his wife, Rose
Fitzgerald Kennedy. They were a wealthy business family with a background in
politics. Rose Kennedy was the daughter of John F.Fitzgerald, who as a mayor of
Boston, Massachusetts, was popularly known as “Honey Fitz”. Joseph Kennedy was
the son of Patrick Kennedy, a successful businessman and a prominent Boston
politician. It was the Kennedys’ plan to send their first born, Joseph Kennedy
Jr., into politics. But fate had different plans and Joseph K. Jr. was killed
in World War II. The next in line was John who fulfilled his father’s dream of
not only joining politics but also becoming the first Roman Catholic president
of the United States. Later, as a US Senator, Kennedy said, “Just as I went
into politics because Joe died, if anything happens to me tomorrow, my brother
Bobby would run for my seat in the Senate. And if Bobby died, Teddy would take
over from him.” How true these words would ring within a few years of their
being uttered was perhaps unfathomable to even John Kenndey who, though
speaking with conviction, never imagined that it would all be only too
tragically true.
Kennedy, at the age of 13, went to canterbury School, a
private school in New Milford, Connecticut for a short while. An illness cut
short his term there. He later graduated from Choate Preparatory School in
Wallingford, Connecticut and in 1935 he entered Princeton University. Once
again the onset of an illness forced him to leave school and the following
year, he joined Harvard University. Despite ill health, John Kennedy was a good
athlete. He proved himself to be an ace swimmer and an outstanding sailor.
Kennedy was intellectually-oriented. His undergraduate
thesis at Harvard culminated in a book, ‘Why England Slept’ (1940). It was an
in-depth study of Great Britain’s response to German re-armament prior to World
War II. The book gained attention in England and the United States. Kennedy
graduated in 1940. He then attended Stanford University’s business school for a
while and then travelled to South America.
In 1939, Kennedy became commander of PT Boat 109 in the
South Pacific. In August 1943 the boat was rammed by a Japanese destroyer in
the waters off New Georgia in the Solomon Islands. The boat was sliced In half
and two of the twelve men abroad were killed. Kennedy and the other survivors
clung for hours to the wreckage, hoping for rescue. When none came, they swam
to a small island 5 km away. Kennedy towed a wounded crew member by clutching
the long strap of the injured man’s life jacket between his teeth. For the next
four days, Kennedy swam along a water route he knew American ships used. He
finally encountered friendly natives on Cross Island. They brought his message
for help, carved on a coconut shell, to the US Infantry Patrol and Kenndey and
his crew were finally rescued. Kennedy received the US Navy and Marine Corps
medal for “courage, endurance and excellent leadership.” Ill health once again
made him leave the army and return to the US.
At the age of 29, Kennedy won the Democratic nomination in
the 11th Congressional District of Massachusetts. He served three
terms in the House of Representatives, all during the Democratic administration
of President Harry S Truman. His recent heroic record and his concentrated
meetings of the voters won him the elections. During his term as a senator, he
backed legislation beneficial to the Massachusetts textile, fishing, watch and
transportation industries.
In 1953, Kennedy married Jacqueline Lee Bouvier, less than a
year after his marriage Kennedy underwent a spinal-disc operation. Four months
after a painful convalescence, a second term operation was performed. It was at
this time that Kennedy wrote ‘Profiles in Courage’ that won him the Pulitzer
prize in 1957. It was a book of essays on American politicians who risked their
careers fighting for just but unpopular causes. The book gave him the needed
mileage as a politician and won him admiration in literary and other circles.
In the 1956 Democratic Convention, Kennedy failed to win the
nomination for the post of Vice President under the former Illinois Governor,
Adlai Stevenson, who was nominated for the post of President. It was a blessing
in disguise that Kennedy did not get nominated, for Stevenson lost to
Eisenhower in the elections.
Kennedy aspired to be nominated as a Presidential candidate
for the 1960 Democratic presidential elections. He faced a number of hurdles.
Many party leaders lacked confidence in him, as they considered him too young
and inexperienced for the post. Many also doubted a Roman Catholic’s chance to
win a predominantly Protestant country. Kennedy even lacked the support of many
liberals, who backed either Hubert Humphery of Minnesota or Adlai Stevenson.
Kennedy proved all these apprehensions as baseless.
Kennedy won in West Virginia, that was an essentially
Protestant state. Kennedy quelled the fear of Protestants that a Catholic might
be subject to orders of the head of the Roman Catholic Church at Rome. He made
clear cut definite statements in this regard. In a speech before the Greater
Houston Ministerial Association, Kennedy said, “I believe in an America where
the separation of the church and State is absolute ….. where no public official
either requests or accepts instructions on public policy from ….. (an)
ecclesiastical source.”
During his campaign Kennedy visited 46 states and 273
cities. His rival Republican candidate was Richard Nixon.
Kennedy proved himself to be an able debater in all the
nationally televised debates. That he was too young and inexperienced was soon
a discredited assumption. The support he received from the blacks in the important
Northern states contributed to his election. The states of Illinois and
Pennsylvania forwarded their full support to Kennedy because Kennedy, along
with his brother Robert, had tried to obtain the release of the civil rights
leader, Martin Luther King Jr.
The election drew a record of 69 million voters to the
polls, but Kennedy won only by 1,13,000 votes. He won 49.7% of the popular vote
and Nixon won 49.6%. it was the closest popular vote in 72 years. However,
because Kennedy won most of the larger states in the north east, he received
303 electoral votes to Nixon’s 219.
Kennedy was inducted as the President of the United States
on January 20, 1961. In his inaugural address Kennedy appealed for, “a new
world of law, where the strong are just and the weak secure and peace
preserved.” Recognizing the difficulties of the goal he said, “All this will
not be finished in the first hundred days …. Nor will it be finished in the
first thousand days, nor in the life of this administration, nor even perhaps
in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin.” His forthright sincerity won
the hearts of people all over the nation. His hope was to bring new ideas and
new methods into the executive branch. The credit of developing Kennedy into a
political liberal goes to Theodore C Sorenson, a member of Kennedy’s staff
since his days at the Senate. Soreson wrote many of Kennedy’s speeches.
The first couple was determined to make the White House the
nexus of cultural activity of the nation. Writers, artists, poets, scientists
and musicians were encouraged. On one occasion, the Kennedy’s held a reception
for all the American winners of the Nobel Prize. Kennedy, endowed with a good
sense of humour, remarked that more talent and genius was at the White House
that night than there had been since Thomas Jefferson had dined alone.
Kennedy’s sense of humour never waned even when his
political life was beset with crises. At a meeting with the leader of the USSR,
Nikita Krushchev, Kennedy asked the name of the medal Krushchev was wearing.
When the Premier identified it as the Lenin Peace Medal, Kennedy remarked, “I
hope you keep it.” On another occasion he told a group of Republican business
leaders, “it would be premature to ask for your support in the next election
and inaccurate to thank you for it in the past.”
On taking over office, Kennedy started to work arduously to
get some of the Bills passed in the parliament. He was quite successful in
doing so. In his first year at office, the Congress passed a major housing
Bill, a law increasing the minimum wages, and a Bill granting federal aid to
the economically depressed areas of the United States. The most original piece
of legislation Kennedy put through Congress was the Bill creating the Peace
Corps, an agency that trained American volunteers to perform social and
humanitarian service overseas. The programmers goal was to promote world peace
and friendship with developing countries. The idea of American volunteers
helping people in foreign lands touched the idealism of many citizens. Within
two years, Peace Corps volunteers were working in Asia, Africa and Latin
America, living with the people and working on education, public health, and
agricultural projects.
The civil rights movement was at its height during Kennedy’s
term as president. Kennedy attempted to aid the blank cause by enforcing
existing laws. He particularly wanted to end discrimination in federally
financed projects or in companies that were doing business with the government.
In September 1962, Governor Ross R Barnett of Mississippi
ignored a court order and prevented James H Meredith, a black man from
enrolling at the state university. On the night of the 29th, even as
the president went on national television to appeal to the people of
Mississippi to obey the law, rioting began on the campus. After 15 hours of
rioting and two deaths, Kennedy sent in troops to restore order. Meredith was
admitted to the university, and troops and federal marshals remained on campus
to ensure safety. There were other such instances that Kennedy handled in the
same just way. Kennedy also appealed to the Congress to pass a civil rights Bill
that would guarantee blacks the right to vote, to attend public school, to have
equal access to jobs, and to have access to public accommodation. Kennedy told
the American people, “Now the time has come for this nation to fulfil its
promises …. To act, to make a commitment it has not fully made in this century
to the proposition that race has no place in American life or law.” Though
Kennedy began to lose popularity because of his staunch support to the civil
rights movement, he never gave up his fight for justice.
When Cuba became Communist, the Kennedy administration
approved of an invasion by the Cuban exiles of America. They were trained by
the Americans to invade Cuba and fight their cause. In April 1961, 1000 Cubans
exiles made an amphibious landing in Cuba at a place called the Bay of Pigs.
Their plan was to move inland and join the anti-Castro’s forces to stage a
revolt simultaneously, but instead Castro’s forces were there to meet the
invaders. The revolt in the interior did not materialize, and sir support,
promised by the CIA never came. The exiles were defeated and taken prisoners.
Castro demanded money for their release. Kennedy refused to negotiate with
Castro, but he took steps to encourage both business and private citizens to
reach an agreement with Castro and to contribute to their ransom. On December
25, 1962, 1113 prisoners were released in exchange for food and medical
supplies valued at a total of approximately $ 53 million.
The Cuban missile crisis was, perhaps, the world’s closest
approach to nuclear war. In 1960, Soviet Premier Krushchev decided to supply
Cuba with nuclear missiles that would put an end to the eastern United States
within range of nuclear missile were being supplied to Cuba, but in the summer
of 1962, US spy planes flying over Cuba photographed Soviet-managed
construction work and spotted the first missile on October 14.
Kennedy, in response to this discovery, called upon
Krushchev, “to halt and eliminate this clandestine, reckless and provocative
threat to the world peace and to stabilize relations between the two nations.”
Kennedy did not budge from his stance until the nuclear base at Cuba was
dismantled. Kennedy did not succeed in Vietnam as well.
On November 22, 1963, president and Mrs. Kennedy were in
Dallas, Texas, trying to win support in a state that Kennedy had barely carried
in 1960. They were sitting at the head of a motorcade in an open convertible
waving to the crowds when two bullets were shot in rapid succession. One bullet
pierced the head of the president who fell forward in a pool of blood. Midst
screams, hysteria and wailing, he was rushed to parkland Hospital where he was
pronounced dead. The bullets that killed the president were fired from the
sixth storey window of a nearby house. That afternoon, Lee Harvey Oswald, who
was employed at the warehouse was arrested in a Dallas movie theatre and
charged with murder. Two days later, as the suspect was being transferred from
one jail to another, the Dallas nightclub owner Jack Ruby sprang out from a
group of reporters and as millions watched on television, fired a revolver into
Oswald’s left side. Oswald died in the same hospital where the late president
had breathed his last.
The world was shocked at the brutal and sudden way in which
their charismatic president was taken away from them. Less than two hours after
the shooting, abroad the presidential plane at the Dallas airport, Lyndon B
Johnson was sworn in as the 36th President of the United States.
Kennedy was buried at the Arlington National Cemetery after a state funeral
which was attended by delegates from 92 nations.
Keeping the family tradition, Robert Kennedy aspired to the
nomination as the candidate for the Democratic Presidential seat in 1968. He
was shot dead on June 6, 1968 by an Arab assassin. His brother, Edward stepped
into his shoes and went on to become a Senator. The Kennedys kept their
promise.
No comments:
Post a Comment