Political Career

Once my tour of Duty in WW2 was over, I was interested in being a journalist. My dad's dream took over though, and in 1946, I was swayed to run for public office. I ran and was elected as a Representative of Mass. in Congress. I was re-elected 3 times, and I was often against the stand of President Harry S. Truman on the communist Chinese. In 1952, I ran for US senate and defeated Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. I served for 8 years, before running for President. Unfortunately, I was sidelined in government in 1954 and 1955 due to various aliments. During that time I was second in balloting for the VP position for the 1956 election.

In 1957, I wrote the Pulitzer prize winning "Profiles of Courage". It was a biography on 8 instances when Senators risked their political careers for voting for things they believed in. In 1958, I ran for re-election and won, defeating Republican candidate, Vincent J. Celest. In January of 1960, I declared my candidacy for the Presidency of the United States of America. In the state primaries, I won Wisconsin, West Virginia, Maryland, Oregon, New Hampshire, Indiana, and Nebraska. I defeated Senators Hubert Humpfrey and Wayne Morse in the primaries. At the democratic convention, I was named the Democratic Representative for the election.


I then asked Lyndon B. Johnson, to be my Vice president, much to the dislike of other liberals, including my brother, Robert Kennedy. I needed his influence in the south in order to win the election, which turned out to be the closest election in history. In september and october of 1960 I debated with then Vice President Richard M. Nixon on the first ever televised presidential debate. Nixon, was tense and uncomfortable due to an injured leg. While I was calm and relaxed. The audience then deemed me the winner.


I won the election and was sworn in on January 20th, 1961. I had to deal with the cuban missile crisis, the cold war, the Vietnam war, and the civil rights movement in my time as president. The Cuban Missile crisis was probably the most dangerous of all my situations. In October of 1962, the USSR had placed Nuclear Missiles on the island of Cuba. Cuba was being run by the unstable dictator, Fidel Castro at the time. I was faced with a dilemma, do I attack Cuba and start a nuclear war or do I stay put and show that the US can't be assertive in its' own hemisphere. I decided to negotiate with the communists. Nikita Khrushchev and I made an agreement that if they removed the missiles, we vowed never to invade Cuba again and removed our missiles from Cuba.

Done by Chris Joseph

"John F. Kennedy -." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Web. 17 Feb. 2010. .