Waubonsie Valley High, Aurora, IL, Sophomore-

Year of 2000

Kennedy received the Purple Heart and the Navy and Marine Corps Medal, but his earlier back injury had been aggravated, and he contracted malaria. After an operation on his back, he was discharged early in 1945.

Faced with the problem of choosing a career, Kennedy worked for several months in 1945 as a reporter for the Hearst newspapers, covering the conference at San Francisco that established the United Nations. Ultimately he decided on a political career and returned to Boston. In 1946, he began an elaborate and aggressive campaign against nine other candidates. As a representative, he was reelected in 1948 and 1950, Kennedy had a mixed voting record, diverging sharply at some points from the policies of President Harry Truman and the Democratic party. On domestic affairs, he followed the administration's Fair Deal policies in most matters, fighting for slum clearance and low cost public housing. On foreign affairs, he backed the Truman Doctrine , but was critical of the president for not stemming the advance of Communism in China.

In April 1952, Kennedy announced his candidacy for the Senate. He again was depending on the slogan "Kennedy will do more for Massachusetts." Kennedy won by a margin of 70,000 votes. Kennedy stuck to his slogan and actually did more for Mass.

On Sept. 12, 1953, Kennedy married Jacqueline Bouvier. The couple had two children, Caroline Bouvier and John Jr. A third child Patrick Bouvier, died two days after his birth.

Not long after the marriage, Kennedy underwent spinal operations in 1954, and 1955. He wrote a book based on the acts of political courage which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1957.

Begining in 1956, Kennedy aimed toward higher office. After JFK was reelected back to the Senate by more than 847,000 votes, he was sure he was a leading contender for presidential nomination. Then he choose Lyndon B. Johnson to be his running mate. JFK ended up winning by the smallest margin ever. His electoral vote was 303 to 219 for Nixon.

He not only was the first Roman Catholic president of the United States but also, at the age of 43, the youngest man ever elected to that office. JFK's Catholicism might have earned him the Eastern industrial states, and he won most of the Democratic South despite it, but the religious factor hurt him in the Middle West and West. JFK was inaugurated as president on Jan 20, 1961. He devoted his entire inaugural addredd to international affairs. His address was widely acclaimed as a classic political expression.

Kennedy had planned to present to Congress a sweeping legislative program similar to that of Franklin D. Roosevelt's first "100 days." In his first months in office, he sent a record number of messages to Congress to promote economic growth, rehabilitate depressed areas, improve urban housing and developement, reform tax legislation, and provide better medical care for the aged.

Kennedy's first international bombshell of his administration was about the Bay of Pigs. It was in April 1961, when a force of anti-Castro Cubans, trained and directed by the U.S. C.I.A. , failed in an attempt to establish a beachhead in Cuba at the Bay of Pigs. This was a coerte invasion. Kennedy also dealt with The Berlin Issue. It was a great test in strength against the Soviets. The confrontation began about the question of Berlin. In the months to follow the Berlin Wall was created which intensified the issue. Eventually, The Soviets did not sign a peace treaty with East Germany so the scrisis subsided. His major international incident was the Cuban Missle Crisis. Kennedy ordered a naval and air quarantine on all offensive weapons bound for Cuba. Kennedy saved the U.S. from thermonuclear war.

In November 1963, President Kennedy journeyed to Texas for a speechmaking tour. In Dallas on November 22, he and his wife were cheered enthusiastically as their open car passed through the streets. Suddenly, at 12:30 in the afternoon, as assassin fired several shots, striking the president twice, in the base of the neck and the head, and seriously wounding John Connally, the govenor of Texas. The president was rushed to Parkland Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead about half an hour later. With two hours, Vice President Johnson took the oat as president. On November 24, amid national and worldwide mourning, the president's body lay in the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol. The next day, leaders of 92 nations attended the state funeral. He was buried in Arlington National Cemetary. There an eternal flame, lighted by his window, marks the grave.

On the day of the assassination, the police arrested Lee Harvey Oswald, a 24 year old ex. Marine, for the president's murder. He had also killed a Dallas Policeman. Oswald himself was fatally shot by Jack Ruby, a night club owner.

On November 29, President Johnson appointed a seven member commision know as the Warren Commision headed by Chief Justice Earl Warren. They were appointed to conduct a investigation of the assassination. The report held by them stated that neither Oswald or Ruby was part of a domestic or foreign conspiracy to assassinate JFK. Two years later, they concluded that Oswald might have been in a conspiracy.