Seacoast
Related Topics:
dating
personals
online dating
singles
dating service
love
date
matchmaking
matchmaker
personal ads
match
online
ads
service
online personals
personal
internet
free
romance
friendship
dating site
dating services
relationships
single
services
online dating service
free online dating
match maker
gay
man
ad
free personals
advice
speeddating
internet dating
adult personals
lesbian
online dating services
meet singles
meet people
|
Seacoast dating
.
Seacoast dating Information
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald
Kennedy was the 35th President of the United States, the youngest
person
ever to be elected President, the first Roman Catholic and the first to be born
in
the 20th century. Kennedy was assassinated before he completed his
third year as
President, therefore his achievements were limited.
Nevertheless, his influence was
worldwide, and his handling of the Cuban
Missile Crisis may have prevented the United
States from entering into
another world war. Kennedy was especially admired by the
younger people
and he was perhaps the most popular president in history. Kennedy
expressed the values of 20th century America and his presidency had an
importance
beyond its political achievements. John Fitzgerald Kennedy
was born in Brookline,
Massachusetts where he was one of nine children.
The Kennedy family was very
wealthy and provided means for the Kennedy
children to pursue whatever they chose
and John F. Kennedy chose
politics.
John F. Kennedy was elected to Congress in 1942 and as a new
member Kennedy
supported legislation that would serve the interests of
his elements. Kennedy usually
backed bills sponsored by his party but
would sometimes show independence by voting
with the Republicans. He
also joined with the Republicans in criticizing the Truman
administration's handling of China. In China, the Nationalist government
of Chiang
Kai-shek, which had been supported by the United States, was
unable to withstand the
advance of Communist forces under Mao Zedong. By
the end of 1949 government
troops had been overwhelmingly defeated, and
Chiang led his forces into exile on
Taiwan. The triumphant Mao formed
the People's Republic of China. Truman's critics,
including Kennedy,
charged that the administration had failed to support Chiang
Kai-shek
against the Communists.
Despite Kennedy's wavering within his own party
platform, John F. Kennedy easily
won reelection to Congress in 1948 and
1950. In 1952 he decided to run against
functioning Republican Senator
Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. Kennedy was little known
outside his
congressional district therefore he began his campaign two years before the
election, meeting with hundreds of thousands of people in Massachusetts.
\"Kennedy
defeated Lodge by 70,000\"1 votes despite the fact that Dwight
D. Eisenhower, the
Republican Presidential candidate, carried the state
by just over 200,000 votes.
As a candidate for the Senate, Kennedy
promised the voters that he would do
more for Massachusetts than Lodge
had ever done. During his first two years as senator
he backed
legislation beneficial to the Massachusetts textile, fishing, watch, and
transportation industries. In 1953, however, he defied regional
interests and supported
the Saint Lawrence Seaway project and later in
1955 he was the only New England
senator to support renewal of the
Reciprocal Trade Agreement Act that gave the
President the power to
lower U. S. tariffs, or taxes on import goods, in exchange for
similar
concessions from other countries.
In 1957 Kennedy became a member of the
powerful Senate Foreign Relations
Committee, and he later won a place on
the Senate Committee on Improper Activities in
the Labor Management
Field. In 1958 he spent many of his weekends campaigning for
reelection
in Massachusetts senatorial contest. Kennedy wanted the 1960 Democratic
presidential nomination, and almost as soon as the 1956 election was
over, he began
working toward it.
Kennedy announced his
candidacy early in 1960 and by the time the Democratic
National
Convention opened in July, he had won seven primary victories. When the
convention opened, it appeared that Kennedy's only serious challenge for
the nomination
would come from the Senate majority leader, Lyndon B.
Johnson of Texas. However,
Johnson was strong only among Southern
delegates and Kennedy won the nomination on
the first ballot and then
persuaded Johnson to become his running mate.
Two weeks later the
Republicans nominated Vice President Richard Nixon for
president and
Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., for vice president. In the fast-paced campaign
that followed, Kennedy made stops in 46 states and 273 cities and towns,
while Nixon
visited every state and 170 urban areas. The two candidates
faced each other in four
nationally televised debates. Kennedy's manner,
especially in the first debate, seemed to
eliminate the charge that he
was too young and inexperienced to serve as president, and
many believe
these debates gave Kennedy the edge he needed for victory.
The election
drew a record 69 million voters to the polls, but Kennedy won by only
113,000 votes which made it the closest popular vote in 72 years.
Because Kennedy
won most of the larger states in the Northeastern United
States, he received 303
electoral votes to Nixon's 219. Kennedy was
inaugurated on January 20, 1961. In his
inaugural address he emphasized
America's revolutionary heritage, \"The same beliefs for
which our
forebears fought are still at issue around the globe,\"2 Kennedy said. \"Let the
word go forth from this time and place to friend and foe alike, that the
torch has been
passed to a new generations of Americans.\"3 Kennedy
called for \"a new world of law,
where the strong are just and the weak
secure and the peace preserved.\"4
Kennedy's first year in office
brought him considerable success in enacting new
legislation. Congress
passed a major housing bill, a law increasing minimum wage, and a
bill
granting federal aid to economically depressed areas of the United States.
Kennedy
put legislation through Congress which was a bill creating the
Peace Corps, an agency
that trained American volunteers to perform
social and humanitarian service oversees and
promote world peace, which
was important at the time because of unsettling foreign
affairs.
In 1959, after several attempts, a revolution led by Fidel Castro
finally overthrew
the Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista y Zaldivar.
During the next two years, Castro
would become increasingly hostile to
the United States. When Castro began to proclaim
his belief in
Communism, Cuba became part of the Cold War, or struggle between the
U.
S. and its allies and the nations led by the USSR that involved intense economic
and
diplomatic battles.
Many Cubans began to flee to the United
States and during the Eisenhower
administration the CIA had begun to
train Cuban exiles secretly for an invasion of Cuba.
In April 1961 more
than \"1000 Cuban exiles made an amphibious landing\"5 in Cuba at a
place called the Bay of Pigs. Their plan was to move inland and join
with anti-Castro
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 air support, promised by
the CIA,
never came. The exiles were defeated and the survivors were taken prisoner.
Castro began to demand money for their release but Kennedy refused to
negotiate with
Castro. Kennedy did take steps to encourage both
businesses and private citizens to
reach an agreement with Castro and to
contribute to the ransom. On December 25,
1962, \"1113 prisoners were
released in exchange for food and medical supplies valued
at a total of
approximately $53 million.\"6
On June 3, 1961, in Vienna, Austria,
Kennedy and USSR leader Nikata
Khrushchev met and reviewed relationships
between the U. S. and the USSR, as well as
other questions of interest
to the two states. Two incidents contributed to hostility at the
meeting, first being the shooting down of a U. S. spy plane in Soviet
air space, and the
second was the failed Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in
early 1961. The results of the
conference made it clear that Khrushchev
had construed Kennedy's failure of the Bay of
Pigs invasion as a sign of
weakness. No agreements were reached on any important
issues and the
Soviet premier made it clear that the Soviet Union untended to pursue an
even more aggressive policy toward the United States.
Amongst
other problems President Kennedy faced, none was more serious than the
Cuban Missile Crisis. In 1960 Soviet Premier Khrushchev supplied Cuba
with nuclear
missiles that would put the eastern United States within
range of nuclear missile attack.
During the summer of 1962 U. S. spy
planes flying over Cuba photographed
Soviet-managed construction work
and spotted the first missile on October 14. For
seven days Kennedy
consulted with advisors, discussing the possible responses. On
October
22, Kennedy told the nation about the discovery of the missiles, demanded that
the Soviet Union remove the missiles, and declared the waters around
Cuba a quarantine
zone.
For several tense days Soviet vessels en
route to Cuba avoided the quarantine
zone, while Khrushchev and Kennedy
discussed the issue through diplomatic channels.
Khrushchev, realizing
his weak military position, sent one of two messages to Kennedy in
which
he agreed to remove the missiles. The following day, before the United States
could respond to the first note a second was sent by Khrushchev to try
and negotiate
terms. Kennedy responded to the first message and an
agreement was met for the
Soviet missiles to be dismantled and removed
from Cuba. In return Kennedy secretly
promised not to invade Cuba and to
remove older missiles from Turkey. This was
perhaps Kennedy's greatest
moment as president. Many feel that because of Kennedy's
aggression that
perhaps WWIII was avoided.
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. On his way to
a luncheon in Dallas,
Kennedy and his wife sat in an open convertible at the head of a
motorcade. Lyndon Johnson was two cars behind the president, and Texas
Governor
John B. Connally and his wife were sitting with the Kennedy's.
As the motorcade
approached an underpass, two shots were fired, one
bullet passed through the
president's neck and struck Governor Connally
in the back, with the other bullet striking
the president in the head.
The car sped to nearby Parkland Hospital where at 1:00 PM
Kennedy was
pronounced dead.
Less than two hours after the shooting, aboard the
presidential plane at the Dallas
airport, Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in
as the 36th president of the United States.
The bullets that killed
Kennedy were fired from a sixth-story window of a nearby
warehouse. That
afternoon, Lee Harvey Oswald, was arrested in a Dallas movie theater
and
charged with murder. Two days later, as the suspect was being transferred from
one jail to another, 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 to which the President had been
taken.
On November 24, the body of President Kennedy was carried on a
horse-drawn
carriage from the White House to the Rotunda of the Capitol.
Hundreds of thousands of
people filed past the coffin of the slain
president. A state funeral was held the next day
where \"representatives
of 92 nations attended.\"7 It has been estimated that as many as
\"1
million people\"8 lined the streets of Washington as the funeral procession made
its
way slowly to Arlington National Cemetery. The grave was marked by
an eternal flame
lighted by his wife and brothers. Five days after the
funeral, President Johnson
appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court
Earl Warren chairman of a committee to
investigate Kennedy's death. The
findings of the commission were announced on
September 27, 1964, which
stated that investigators had found \"no evidence of
conspiracy in the
assassination.\"9 Their report concluded that \"the shots which killed
President Kennedy were fired by Lee Harvey Oswald.\"10
Word Count: 1894
|
