The 35th and first-ever Catholic President of the USA was beloved, more after his death than before, by almost all of the country for his charismatic, revolutionary ways. There are many things a number of people disliked about him, his progressive actions made bold statements and caused quite an uproar.
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He was born in Brookline, Massachusetts on May 29, 1917, in an extremely influential Roman Catholic Family and was the second of nine children. He joined and served in the Navy where he was in command of a Patrol Torpedo boat, PT- 109.
He was merely 29 years old when he joined the Congress (80th, in the year 1947). He ran for the Senator’s Office as a representative of Massachusetts and won the elections in 1952.
As President of the United States of America, he served office from 1953 until his assassination at a motorcade in the year 1960. He is known for his Foreign Policies and involvement in the Civil Rights Movement. His ambitious policies- both domestic and foreign, collectively called ‘New Frontier’ was a vision unparalleled in his time. JFK was one of the founders of the ‘Peace Corps’.
After two failures in a row, that is, the unsuccessful attempt to overthrow Fidel Castro- a communist leader in Cuba where the US lost 1400 CIAs and not very later the ‘Cuban Missile Crisis, he banked upon his greatest achievement in regard with Foreign Affairs: The signing of Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.
Apart from his very successful political career, JFK was unpopular for having a string of affairs, many of which were conducted after his marriage to Jacqueline Bouvier in 1953. The most talked-about of them all was his romance with the Swedish paramour- Gunilla Von Post.
He met her before he tied knots with another and the affair continued long into his marriage. It is rumored that he wanted to end his marriage with Bouvier and marry Von Post instead and get her to the US. Von Post’s version of the sordid romance is accounted for in her memoir ‘Love, Jack’; this was how he signed off his letters addressed to her. These letters were extracted from her house and are being auctioned by RR Auction as reported on May 6, 2021, by The Associated Press.
Another highly a-flamed affair of the former President was the one alleged with Marilyn Monroe. The speculations began when the actress sang Happy Birthday to him. According to Time, the song filled with flirtatious gestures, in the breathy notes of Monroe, left many to wonder.
His widely known involvement with Mimi Beardsley, his assistant, was very prominently discussed. It brought him a lot of bad press, as attested in The New Yorker.
Another affair that had frantically been dissected was the one with Judith Campbell Exner, also covered in entirety by The Irish Times, their relationship and the reputation of the woman was dragged through the mud by several Republicans when there was an investigation set up to check whether or not JFK had any ties with the mafia.
Some things you might not know about him:
He was almost always in bad health. From very early on in his life, he had various physical problems, some of which kept him from joining the navy at first but he made his way through.
His father, extremely affluent at the time, made use of his connections to get JFK in the navy, their family doctor gave him a clear heath report so that he could pass the Navy criterion.
He wanted to become a journalist, a dream he gave up to fulfil his ‘duty’ to become the first Roman Catholic President of the United States of America.
He was honored with the Pulitzer Prize for his second book- ‘Profiles of Courage’ in 1957. It was later revealed that Theodre Sorenson, one of JFK’s confidants had a bigger role to play in the book writing.
His presidential debate with Richard Nixon was the first debate to be televised and JFK benefitted from it enormously, he not only won the elections but also made an emotional connection with his voters.
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The former President always wanted to learn French but couldn’t manage to do so.
The story of the Oval Office Paperweight- a lofty shell of a coconut on which he had carved an SOS message intended for the Patrol Torpedo base, saved his life along with 10 of his crew members. It was made into a paperweight to preserve that memory.
He went through huge losses including the death of two of his four children- Arabella (still-birth) and Patrick (died after two days he was born).
He was the only President of the United States to be awarded the ‘Purple Heart’ and Navy and Marine Corps medal for his contribution to the Navy.
The President was a huge James Bond fan. He liked all the books written by Ian Flemming but absolutely adored the movies.
John F. Kennedy’s golden words:
1) “The interaction of disparate cultures, the vehemence of the ideals that led the immigrants here, the opportunity offered by a new life, all gave America a flavor and a character that make it as unmistakable and as remarkable to people today as it was to Alexis de Tocqueville in the early part of the nineteenth century.”- A Nation of Immigrants
2) “Perhaps our brightest hope for the future lies in the lessons of the past. The people who have come to this country have made America, in the words of one perceptive writer, ‘a heterogeneous race but a homogeneous nation. ”- A Nation of Immigrants
3) “Equality in America has never meant literal equality of condition or capacity. There will always be inequalities in character and ability in any society. Equality has meant rather than in the words of the Declaration of Independence, “All men are created equal and are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights.” It is meant that in a democratic society there should be no inequalities in opportunities or in freedoms. ”- A Nation of Immigrants
4) “If by a “Liberal” they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people-their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights and their civil liberties-someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a “Liberal”, then I’m proud to say I’m a “Liberal.”- Profiles of Courage
5) “And that the rights of every man are diminished when the rights of one man are threatened.”- In his radio- TV address to the nation on MLK’s Civil Rights Movement
6) “My fellow Americans, let us take that first step. Let us…step back from the shadow of war and seek out the way of peace. And if that journey is a thousand miles, or even more, let history record that we, in this land, at this time, took the first step.” – In his Radio- TV address to the nation on the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty
7) “The life of the arts, far from being an interruption, a distraction, in the life of a nation, is very close to the center of a nation’s purpose…and is a test of the quality of a nation’s civilization.” – In his interview with LOOK magazine, ‘The Arts in America’
8) “We can say with some assurance that, although children may be the victims of fate, they will not be the victims of our neglect.”- Upon signing the Maternal and Child Health and Mental Retardation Planning Bill
9) “A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives on.”- Why England Slept
10) “The ignorance of one voter in a democracy impairs the security of all.”- In Nashville at the 90th Anniversary and Convocation of Vanderbilt University