John Fitzgerald Kennedy was born in 1917 at Brookline, Mass., a Boston suburb. He was the second child and second son of nine children. Both parents were well-educated members of prominent, prosperous, and politically active Irish-American families.
John Fitzgerald Kennedy was born in 1917 at Brookline, Mass., a Boston suburb. He was the second child and second son of nine children. Both parents were well-educated members of prominent, prosperous, and politically active Irish-American families. The father, Joseph P., was to build a multimillion dollar fortune in business and finance as well as serve as Franklin D. Roosevelt's chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (1934-35) and Ambassador to Great Britain (1937-40).
In 1927, by which time Joseph had achieved considerable wealth, the family moved to the New York City area. He soon acquired a winter home at Palm Beach, Fla., and a summer retreat at Hyannis Port, Mass. Young Kennedy received most of his early education at private schools. After graduation from Choate (1931-35), a prestigious college preparatory institution in Wallingford, Conn., he decided to enroll at Princeton University. But, while studying for the summer at the London School of Economics in England, he was stricken with jaundice. This delayed for a few weeks his entry at Princeton. During the winter, his illness recurred, and he was forced to leave school.
Kennedy entered Harvard University in 1936. During the second half of his junior year, he joined his Ambassador-father in England and traveled around Europe. In 1940 he took his B.S. degree from Harvard with honors in political science. His senior thesis, on the appeasement of Hitler, published under the title of Why England Slept, became a bestseller. Later that same year, he enrolled in Stanford (Calif.) University Business School, but only attended for 6 months, after which he toured South America.
During the fall of 1941, Kennedy was appointed as an ensign in the Navy and assigned to Washington, D.C., and then to Charleston, S.C. Just after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in December, his request for sea duty was granted. After appropriate training in Rhode Island, in 1943, as a lieutenant (jg), he commanded a motor-torpedo patrol boat (PT-109) in the Solomon Islands region of the South Pacific. A Japanese destroyer rammed and sank his craft. Despite a chronic back condition, he helped his crew reach safety. He was awarded the Purple Heart and the Navy and Marine Corps Medal. Finishing his military career in hospitals and as a training instructor, he was discharged early in 1945 with the rank of lieutenant.
Later that same year, employed by the Hearst newspapers, Kennedy reported on the formation of the United Nations at San Francisco, the Potsdam Conference, and the British elections. This activity whetted his interest in politics.
In 1946, after receiving a substantial plurality in the Democratic primary, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from a Massachusetts district that included parts of Boston. In 1948 and 1950 he easily won reelection. Two years later, following a highly organized and energetic campaign, he defeated incumbent U.S. Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., though the Republican Presidential ticket carried the State.
The next year, Kennedy married Jacqueline Lee Bouvier. She was to bear one daughter, Caroline B., and two sons, John F., Jr., and Patrick B., the latter of whom died shortly after birth.
While convalescing from two critical spinal operations in 1954-55, Kennedy wrote Profiles in Courage (1956), a study of eight U.S. Senators who adhered to principle above political popularity. The book won the Pulitzer Prize for biography.
In 1956 Kennedy narrowly lost a bid for the Democratic Vice-Presidential nomination. Two years later, he was overwhel