John Fitzgerald Kennedy: A Deserving Hero “Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality” (Bennis). During his life, John F. Kennedy took his innovative and thoughtful ideas and brought them to life. Born on May 29th, 1917 in Brookline, Massachusetts, the Kennedys were a wealthy Irish-American family that was very involved with the politics of Massachusetts. Raised with a silver spoon in his mouth, Kennedy was the son of Joseph P. Kennedy, an American ambassador to Britain during World War II. His mother Rose, on the other hand, was a philanthropist who served as the family’s matriarch. Throughout Kennedy’s life, he attended private schools from his elementary school up to his university, constantly displaying his …show more content…
As the Soviets had advanced much faster than the U.S. in this period of time, Kennedy pushed to excel past their advancements. The space race represented the promise of the New Frontier, inspiring the coming generations of Americans to pursue dreams that had once seemed unattainable. Citizens of the United States were revitalized by Kennedy’s goal, giving the U.S. a refreshing sense of motivation and unity to land a man on the moon before the decade was over. Later on in his presidency, the U.S. had also gone through the Cuban Missile Crisis. Many thought an all-out war was imminent, but Kennedy prevented any sequential conflicts: “…in October 1962, Kennedy imposed a quarantine on all offensive weapons bound for Cuba. While the world trembled on the brink of nuclear war, the Russians backed down and agreed to take the missiles away. The American response to the Cuban crisis evidently persuaded Moscow of the futility of nuclear blackmail” (Beschloss). Kennedy reasoned with Russia and Cuba during times of distress and anxiety, making conservative choices as to not provoke nuclear war. Learning from his mistakes made in the Bay of Pigs invasion, Kennedy did not wish to engage in war with military powerhouses Cuba and Russia. As a Senator,
Kennedy seemed prepared for war, dedicating billions of dollars to defence spending. This was something that the Soviet Union had not been investing in, thus further widening the gap in the Arms Race. If Kennedy anticipated a nuclear attack and was, in some way, prepared for Soviet aggression, then Khrushchev and the Soviet Union would have even less to gain by firing nuclear missiles at the USA (who would have, of course, retaliated). As already established, the Soviet Union would never have been able to win a nuclear war and Kennedy’s preparation and defence spending shows that a nuclear war would not even do as much damage to the USA as the Soviet Union had hoped. In summary, Kennedy had called Khrushchev’s bluff and stood up to him, and consequently Khrushchev needed a new idea because he could never afford to make a nuclear attack on the
The Cuban Missile Crisis could be known as President Kennedy’s greatest success. Due to the Cold War, tensions were high between the Russia and the United States. Kennedy discovered that the Soviet Union was constructing nuclear and long range missiles at a site in Cuba, which was dangerously close to America. Kennedy handled a difficult situation that could have had devastating effects on the U.S.
Kennedy for the democratic United States. Negotiations were very tough, because the two countries often opposed each other on most views. Nikita Khrushchev, being an older political leader, thought he was going to be able to push around the young president Kennedy with no problem, which didn’t really happen. You can see it came to a point where President Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev where at each others throats once the missiles were in Cuba. As the United States and other countries around the world are starting to get frantic, Max Frankel talks about how both leaders were perfectly giving and taking, knowing when to be aggressive and when to hold back because both knew they didn’t want to bring the rest of the world to its first nuclear war. They also wanted to avoid a ground war at all possible means, but if there disagreement were to be handled in any way both nations would prefer the war to be fought by men and not nuclear weapons. Tensions got to their highest, after Kennedy went on air and told the world that they were establishing a blockade for the sole purpose to keep the soviets from supplying Cuba. After this charade, Nikita Khrushchev avoided the Q line and kept away from the U.S. When this incident was finally disputed the United States then dropped there nuclear weapons in turkey as did the Russians in Cuba leaving it as both sides were victorious and avoided a whole entire war with each other. Moreover the nations realized that no good would come from any type of war that was
John F Kennedy's first leadership trait was articulating a vision. Kennedy had a vision to not just finish the cold war but win it. America ended up winning the cold in 1989 when the Berlin Wall came down. This is a quote from John F Kennedy, “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” ( John F Kennedy). John F Kennedy said this at a speech he was giving. He said this to the people of the country when they were in the cold war and he was hoping that they would end up winning and finish the war. Another quote from John F Kennedy. “Let us think of education as the means of developing our greatest abilities, because in each of us there is a private hope and dream which, fulfilled, can be translated into benefit for everyone and greater strength for our nation.” (John F Kennedy). John F Kennedy had a vision to build schools for
This was a problem for Kennedy because Cuba was within a 90 mile radius from the United States, easy sticking distance. The United States had missiles in Turkey, which were in striking distance from the Soviet Union, which Khrushchev used as a weighing option when deciding to place missiles in Cuba. Kennedy saw the missiles that were being held in Cuba as almost an act of war from the Soviet Union. Khrushchev assured President Kennedy that the missiles were not an act of war, but yet only a defense for Cuba, who was feeling Having Soviet Union missiles this close to the mainland was a problem for the United States. Kennedy decided that the only way to stop the Soviet Union from fully equipping Cuba with enough missiles to destroy the United States, was to stop the missiles from getting to Cuba. To stop them Kennedy dispatched U.S. warships into the Atlantic, which was able to prevent the Soviet missile fleet from reaching Cuba. Unfortunately there were already missiles in Cuba from earlier fleets and they were
John F Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States, Born on May 17, 1917 at Brookline, Massachusetts. The second born of 9.Before becoming the President Kennedy was a Harvard Graduate, shortly after Kennedy Graduated he decided to join the Army and his duty was to patrol a turepo boat. When the boat was rammed by a Japanese boat, 2 sailors died leaving Kennedy very injured. What’s makes Kennedy so heroic was that helped a wounded sailor and the survivor to a safe island. For his bravery he was earned the Navy and Marine Corps medal. In 1949 at the age of 29 Kennedy decided to run for U.S house of Representatives, through his status as war hero and his family wealth and connections, Kennedy won. He served 3 terms, Kennedy didn’t seem very
Robert Francis Kennedy was born on November 20, 1925 in Brookline Massachusetts. He was the seventh child, and third son of Rose Fitzgerald and Joe Kennedy . "I was the seventh of nine children," he later recalled, "and when you come from that far down you have to struggle to survive."( Alden Whitman, 2001).Compared to his brothers, Robert or Bobby as they all called him, was smaller and he struggled to match his brothers athleticism.
On November 22 1963 former President John F Kennedy was shot by Lee Harvey Oswald. He became the second out of the two most remembered presidents to be killed, the first being Lincoln. However, most people believe that John Wilkes Booth killed Lincoln, but most people don’t think Oswald killed JFK. Ranging from his future-self killing his past self to other crazy theories like aliens, but 55% of our nation still think that JFK was involved by some government conspiracy at the time of his death. Right now in 2014 America some people still believe that the assassination of John F Kennedy was just a conspiracy, here we’ll see why and how this could have happened in our own state in our own country.
On November 22, 1963, the world was stunned as they watched the president’s brain be spilt in the back seat of a limousine. President John F. Kennedy was riding in a motorcade parade along Elm Street of downtown Dallas, Texas, when gunshots were heard. Instantly, bystanders were running for their lives as a gunman, or gunmen, was on the prowl. Lee Harvey Oswald, ex-marine, the perceived assassin, was accused just seconds later and captured merely an hour and a half after the search began. Oswald was to stay in Dallas for the days prior to his transfer to the county jail. Whilst in the basement of the Dallas Police Station before his transfer, just two days later, Jack Ruby was able to waltz past countless guards, through locked doors, and place a gun on the stomach of Oswald in an attempt to end his life. Soon after, the prime suspect of the biggest assassination in history was pronounced dead. So, this leads to the 50+ years long question; “Did Lee Harvey Oswald actually assassinate the president? Or was he a simple fall man?”. In Richard Belzer’s New York Times Best Selling Book Hit List, he utilizes a source from Richard Charnin, a control engineer/programmer for Grumman Aerospace Corporation, to edge that….
The term conspiracy theory is defined as a belief that powerful people or groups are responsible for events or situations due to secret plans that are illegal or harmful. There are many conspiracy theories that captivated the American people, but the most controversy conspiracy theory that leaves many unanswered questions for years is the assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Friday on November 22, 1963, the 35th President of the United States, JFK, was shot at 12:30 PM while traveling in Dallas, Texas to appear in the next presidential campaign. Thousands of Americans whom was present at Dallas, Texas just witness the murder of the United States president. Many Americans believed that the United States government was behind the JFK assassination. Thousands of important evidence about the JFK assassination has been locked and sealed from the public eye at the National Archives Museum in Washington, D.C for decades. There is a major debate as why the government should or shouldn’t withhold many secrets from the public and basically, the government hiding many secrets from the American people is to protect the national security and to keep the nation organized. If the possibility that the government secrets were to be exposed to the public, the American people would riot and the nation would be disorganized. The conspiracy theory of the JFK assassination is indeed credible through a fabrication in the medical records of JFK autopsy from x-rays photographs, a possibility
President John F. Kennedy was travelling along a predetermined motorcade route in Dallas, Texas when he was fatally shot, receiving wounds to the chest, back, and head. Shortly after the assassination, Dallas police arrested former U.S. Marine Corps Private Lee Harvey Oswald. On November 24 of the same year, Jack Ruby, owner of a Dallas nightclub, shot Oswald. Less than a year after the two murders, on September 24, 1964, the Warren Commission, headed by Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren, released a report stating their verdict that Lee Harvey Oswald killed President John F. Kennedy "alone and without advice or assistance" (Encarta). Now, thirty-five years after the
On a clear sunny day in Dallas Texas, November 22, 1963 to be exact, at about 12:30pm, the President's car rounded the curve in front of the Texas School Book Depository building and proceeded on to Main Street throughout Dally plaza. Shots rang out and the President was rushed to the nearby hospital and was declared dead at 1pm. The Vice President took the oath of office and flew back to Washington with the slain leader. The accused assassin was arrested, charged and then executed on national television in front of millions. Three days latter, the Texas officials in charge of the investigation declared the case closed and the new President set up a hand picked committee to investigate. The
On October 22, 1962, President John F. Kennedy “informed the world” that the Soviets were building secretive missile bases in Cuba, very close to Florida. President Kennedy decided to take the peaceful route in handling is major crisis. As
The Missile Crisis developed in 1962 because Fidel Castro believed that America would soon try again to invade his country. He asked the Soviet Union for help in defending his island nation. The Soviet Union replied by sending small arms, tanks, and infantry units to Cuba, as well as secretly transferring nuclear missiles to missile silos that were under construction in Cuba. The Americans were shocked when one of their U-2 spy planes discovered the nuclear silos under construction in Cuba because it meant that for the first time the Soviet missiles were within range of most major U.S. cities, including Washington, D.C. This created a very difficult problem for American President John F. Kennedy for which he needed to find a solution. He could not allow the missile silos to finish being constructed because that would place the United States in danger. That meant that either he would have to try diplomatic means to attempt to negotiate the removal of the weapons, or he would have to use the might of the American military to remove the weapons by force. Neither option looked particularly favourable. The Joint Chiefs of Staff (the President's military advisors) urged a swift and strong military invasion to destroy the silos before the Soviets could react. Kennedy was concerned, however, of the possibility of Soviet nuclear retaliation for the invasion because invasion was clearly an act of war. Up until that point, neither side had been willing to risk direct
President Kennedy came to office with warnings of a missile gap. The Soviets had achieved or were achieving a significant advantage in strategic nuclear weapons. Though tensions ran even higher, "Eisenhower’s strategy of massive retaliation made little sense and did not account for the rapidly growing Soviet nuclear arsenal4. Kennedy's nuclear strategy became known as flexible response. The idea was to acquire the military forces that could deal flexibility with varying levels of Soviet Aggression3. The most serious confrontation between Russia and the US was the Cuban Missile Crisis. (Link to Stephanie's page) Soviet leader Khrushchev attempted to place intermediate range missiles in Cuba. Kennedy responded by imposing a quarantine on Cuba. This resulted in the removal of the Soviet missiles and led to Kennedy making the decision to dismantle U.S. missiles based in Turkey. Some analysts argue that the successful outcome was due to the United States’ nuclear superiority, which proved that strategic superiority offered important political advantages5.