Growing
up in the Kennedy Family
Rose
Fitzgerald Kennedy, who was a very disciplined and organized woman,
made the following entry on a notecard, when her second child was
born:
John
Fitzgerald Kennedy
Born Brookline, Mass. (83 Beals Street) May 29, 1917
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Hyannis
Port, MA 1928. Eight of the nine Kennedy children pose for a
photo. From youngest to oldest they are: Jean, Robert, Patricia,
Eunice, Kathleen, Rosemary, Jack, and Joe, Jr.
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In all, Rose
Fitzgerald Kennedy would have nine children, four boys and
five girls. She kept notecards for each of them in a small wooden file
box and made a point of writing down everything from a doctor’s
visit to the shoe size they had at a particular age. John Fitzgerald
Kennedy was named in honor of Rose’s father, John
Francis Fitzgerald, the popular Boston Mayor who everybody
knew as Honey Fitz. Before long, family and friends called this small
blue-eyed baby, Jack. Jack was not a very healthy baby and on his
notecard Rose also recorded the childhood diseases he suffered from :
‘whooping cough, measles, chicken pox’. On February 20, 1920 when
Jack was not yet three years old, he became sick with scarlet fever, a
highly contagious and potentially life-threatening disease. His
father, Joseph Patrick Kennedy,
was terrified that little Jack would die. Mr. Kennedy went to the
hospital every day to be by his son’s side, and about a month later
Jack took a turn for the better and recovered. But Jack was never very
healthy, and because he was always suffering from one ailment or
another his family used to joke about the great risk a mosquito took
in biting him – with some of his blood the mosquito was almost sure
to die!
When Jack
was three, the Kennedys moved to a new home a few blocks away from
their old house in Brookline, a neighborhood just outside of Boston.
It was a lovely house with twelve rooms, turreted windows, and a big
porch. Full of energy and ambition, Jack’s father worked very hard
at becoming a successful businessman. When he was a student at Harvard
College and having a difficult time fitting in as an Irish Catholic,
he swore to himself he would make a million dollars by the age of
thirty-five. There was a lot of prejudice against Irish Catholics in
Boston at that time, but Joseph Kennedy was determined to succeed.
Jack’s great-grandparents had come from Ireland and managed to
provide for their families, despite many hardships. Jack’s
grandfathers did even better for themselves, both becoming prominent
Boston politicians. Jack, because of all his family had done, could
enjoy a very comfortable life. The Kennedys had everything they needed
and more.
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Palm
Beach, c. 1931. Joe, Jr., Joseph P. Kennedy, Jack
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There was
always something going on in the Kennedy family home. By the time Jack
was eight there were seven children altogether. Jack had an older
brother, Joe; four sisters, Rosemary, Kathleen, Eunice, and Patricia;
and a younger brother, Robert. Jean and Teddy hadn’t been born yet.
Nannies and housekeepers helped Rose run the household.
At the end
of the school year, the Kennedy children would go to their summer home
in Hyannis Port on Cape Cod where they liked swimming, sailing, and
playing touch football. The Kennedy children played hard, and they
enjoyed competing with one another. Joseph Sr. encouraged these
competitions, especially among the boys. He was a father with very
high expectations and wanted the boys to win at sports and everything
they tried. As he often said, ‘When the going gets tough, the tough
get going’. But sometimes these competitions went too far. One time
when Joe suggested that he and Jack race on their bicycles, they
collided head-on. Joe emerged unscathed while Jack had to have
twenty-eight stitches. Because Joe was two years older and stronger
than Jack, whenever they fought, Jack would usually get the worst of
it. Jack was the only sibling who posed any real threat to Joe’s
throne as the oldest child. The next in line were girls, and Bobby and
Teddy were still too young to be anything but pests.
Jack was
very popular and had many friends at Choate, a boarding school for
adolescent boys in Connecticut. He played tennis, basketball,
football, and golf and also enjoyed reading. His friend Lem Billings
remembers how unusual it was that Jack had a daily subscription to the
New York Times newspaper. Jack had a ‘clever, individualist
mind’, his Head Master once noted, though he
was not the best student. He did not always work as hard as he
could, except in history and English, which were his favorite
subjects. ‘Now Jack’, his father wrote in a letter one day, ‘I
don’t want to give the impression that I am a nagger, for goodness
knows I think that is the worse thing any parent can be, and I also
feel that you know if I didn’t really feel you had the goods I would
be most charitable in my attitude toward your failings. After long
experience in sizing up people I definitely know you have the goods
and you can go a long way…It is very difficult to make up
fundamentals that you have neglected when you were very young, and
that is why I am urging you to do the best you can. I am not expecting
too much, and I will not be disappointed if you don’t turn out to be
a real genius, but I think you can be a really worthwhile citizen with
good judgment and understanding’.
Jack
graduated from Choate and in 1936 he started his first year at
Harvard, where Joe was already a student. Like his brother Joe, Jack
played football. He was not as good of an athlete as Joe but he had a
lot of determination and perseverance. Unfortunately, one day while
playing he ruptured a disk in his spine. Jack never really recovered
from this accident and his back continued to bother him for the rest
of his life.
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Hyannis
Port, c. 1946. John F. Kennedy
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The two
eldest boys were attractive, agreeable, and intelligent young men and
Mr. Kennedy had high hopes for them both. However, it was Joe who had
announced to everyone when he was a young boy that he would be the
first Catholic to become President. No one doubted him for a moment.
Jack, on the other hand, seemed somewhat less ambitious. He was active
in student groups and sports and he worked hard in his history and
government classes, though his grades remained only average. Late in
1937, Mr. Kennedy was appointed United States Ambassador to England
and moved there with his whole family, with the exception of Joe and
Jack who were at Harvard. Because of his father’s job, Jack became
very interested in European politics and world affairs. After his
summer visit to England and other countries in Europe, Jack returned
to Harvard more eager to learn about history and government and to
keep up with current events.
Joe and
Jack frequently received letters from their father in England, who
informed them of the latest news regarding the conflicts and tensions
that everyone feared would soon blow up into a full-scale war. Adolph
Hitler ruled Germany and Benito Mussolini ruled Italy. They both had
strong armies and wanted to take land from other countries. On
September 1, 1939 Germany invaded Poland and World War II began.
By this
time Jack was a senior at Harvard and decided to write his thesis on
the reasons why Great Britain was unprepared for war with Germany. It
was so good that it was later published as a book called Why
England Slept. In June 1940 Jack graduated from Harvard. His
father sent him a cablegram from London: TWO THINGS I ALWAYS KNEW
ABOUT YOU ONE THAT YOU ARE SMART TWO THAT YOU ARE A SWELL GUY LOVE
DAD.
World War
II and a future in politics
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Lt.
John F. Kennedy aboard his PT-109 boat in 1943
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Soon after
graduating, both Joe and Jack joined the Navy. Joe was a flyer and
sent to Europe, while Jack was made Lieutenant (Lt.) and assigned to
the South Pacific as commander of a patrol torpedo boat, the PT-109.
Lt. Kennedy had a crew of twelve men whose mission was to stop the
enemy Japanese ships from delivering supplies to their soldiers. On
the dark night of August 2, 1943 Lt. Kennedy’s crew patrolled the
waters looking for enemy ships to sink. A Japanese destroyer suddenly
became visible. But it was traveling at full speed and headed straight
at them. Holding the wheel, Lt. Kennedy tried to swerve out of the
way, but to no avail. The much larger Japanese warship rammed the PT-109,
splitting it in half and killing two of Lt. Kennedy’s men. The
others managed to jump off as their boat went up in flames. Lt.
Kennedy was slammed hard against the cockpit, once again injuring his
weak back. Patrick McMahon, one of his crew members, had horrible
burns on his face and hands and was ready to give up. In the darkness
Lt. Kennedy managed to find him and haul him back to where the other
survivors were clinging to a piece of the boat that was still afloat.
At sunrise, Lt. Kennedy led his men toward a small island several
miles away. Despite his own injuries, Lt. Kennedy was able to tow
Patrick McMahon ashore, a strap from McMahon’s life jacket clenched
between his teeth. Six days later two native islanders found them and
went for help, delivering a message Jack had written on a piece of
coconut shell. The next day, the PT-109 crew was rescued. Jack’s
brother Joe was not so lucky. He died a year later when his plane blew
up during a dangerous mission in Europe.
When he
returned home, Jack was awarded the Navy
and Marine Corps Medal for his leadership and courage. With
the war finally coming to an end, it was time to choose the kind of
work he wanted to do. Jack had considered becoming a teacher or a
writer, but with Joe’s tragic death suddenly everything changed.
After serious discussions with Jack about his future, Joseph Kennedy
convinced him that he should make his family proud and run for a seat
in Massachusetts' eleventh congressional district, which he won in
1946. This was the beginning of Jack’s political career. As the
years went on, John F. Kennedy, a Democrat, served three terms (six
years) in the House of Representatives, and in 1952 he was elected to
the U.S. Senate.
Soon after
being elected senator, John F. Kennedy, at thirty-six years of age,
married twenty-four year-old Jacqueline Bouvier, a writer with the Washington
Times-Herald. Unfortunately, early on in their marriage, Senator
Kennedy’s back started to hurt again and he had two operations.
While recovering from surgery, he wrote a book about several U.S.
senators who had risked their careers to fight for the things in which
they believed. The book, called Profiles in Courage, was
awarded the Pulitzer Prize for biography in 1957. That same year, the
Kennedys’ first child, Caroline, was born.
John F.
Kennedy was becoming a popular politician. In 1956 he was almost
picked to run for Vice President. Having been defeated, Kennedy
decided that he would run for President in the next election. He began
working very long hours and traveling all around the United States on
weekends. On July 13, 1960 the Democratic party nominated him as its
candidate for President. Kennedy asked Lyndon B. Johnson, a senator
from Texas, to run with him as Vice President. In the general election
on November 8th 1960, Kennedy beat Republican Richard M.
Nixon in a very close race. At the age of forty-three, Kennedy was the
youngest man elected President and the first Catholic. Before his
inauguration, his second child, John Jr., was born. His father liked
to call him John-John.
John F.
Kennedy: The 35th President of the United States
John F.
Kennedy was sworn in as the 35th President on January 20, 1961. In his
inaugural speech he spoke of the need
for all Americans to be active citizens. 'Ask
not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your
country,' [sound] he said. He also asked the nations of the
world to join together to fight what he called the 'common
enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease, and war itself.'
[sound]
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White
House, 1962. Jacqueline Kennedy, President Kennedy, Mme. Malraux,
and violinist Isaac Stern at a dinner reception in honor of
Andre Malraux, French Minister of Cultural Affairs
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President
Kennedy, together with his wife and two children, brought a new,
youthful spirit to the White House. The Kennedys believed that the
White House should be a place to celebrate American history, culture,
and achievement. They invited artists, writers, scientists, poets,
musicians, actors, and athletes to visit them. Jacqueline Kennedy also
shared the same interest in American history as her husband. Gathering
the finest art and furniture the United States had produced, she
restored all the rooms in the White House to make it a place that
truly reflected America’s history with a sense of beauty. Everyone
was impressed and appreciated her hard work.
The White
House also seemed like a fun place, because of the Kennedys’ two
young children, Caroline and John-John. There was a pre-school, a
swimming pool, and a tree-house outside on the White House lawn.
President Kennedy was probably the busiest man in the country, but he
still found time to laugh and play with his children.
However, the President
also had many worries. One of the things he worried about most was the
possibility of nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet
Union. He knew that if there was a war, millions of people would die.
Since World War II, there had been a lot of anger and suspicion
between the two countries but never any shooting between Soviet and
American troops. This 'Cold War', which was unlike any other war the
world had seen, was really a struggle between the Soviet Union's
communist system of government and the United States' democratic
system. Because they distrusted each other, both countries spent
enormous amounts of money building nuclear weapons. There were many
times when the struggle between the Soviet Union and the United States
could have ended in disaster or war, such as in Cuba
and in the city of Berlin.
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President
Kennedy with his two children, Caroline and John, Jr., in the
Oval Office
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President
Kennedy worked long hours, getting up at seven and not going to bed
until eleven or twelve at night, or later. He read six newspapers
while he ate breakfast, had meetings with important people throughout
the day, and read reports from his advisers. He wanted to make sure
that he made the best decisions for his country. ‘I am asking each
of you to be new pioneers in that New Frontier’ he said. The New
Frontier was not a place but a way of thinking and acting. President
Kennedy wanted the United States to move forward into the future with
new discoveries in science and improvements in education, employment
and other fields. He wanted democracy and freedom for the whole world.
One of the
first things President Kennedy did was to create
the Peace Corps. Through this program, which still
exists today, Americans can volunteer where help is needed. They can
help in areas such as education, farming, health care, and
construction. Many young men and women have served as Peace Corps
volunteers and have won the respect of many people throughout the
world.
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Cape
Canaveral, 1962. President Kennedy and John Glenn
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President
Kennedy was also eager for the United States to lead the way in
exploring space. The Soviet Union was ahead of the United States in
its knowledge of space and President Kennedy was determined to catch
up. He said, ‘No nation which expects to be the leader of other
nations can expect to stay behind in this race for space’. Kennedy
was the first President to ask Congress to approve more than twenty
two billion dollars for ‘Project Apollo’, which had the
goal of landing an American man on the moon before the end of the
decade.
President
Kennedy had to deal with many serious problems here in the United
States. The biggest problem of all had to do with racial
discrimination. The US Supreme Court had ruled in 1954 that
segregation in public schools would no longer be permitted. Black
children and White children should be able to go to school
together. This was now the law of the land. However, there were
many schools, especially in southern states, that did not obey this
law. There was also racial segregation on buses, in restaurants, movie
theaters, and other public places.
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President
Kennedy meets the leaders of the civil rights movement
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Thousands
of Americans joined together, people of all races and backgrounds, to
peacefully protest this injustice. Martin Luther King, Jr. was one of
the famous leaders of the movement for civil rights. Many civil rights
leaders didn’t think President Kennedy was supportive enough of
their efforts. The President believed that holding public protests
would only anger many white people and make it even more difficult to
convince the members of Congress who didn't agree with him to pass
civil rights laws. By June 11, 1963, however, President Kennedy
decided that the time had come to take stronger action to help the
civil rights struggle. He proposed a new Civil Rights bill to the
Congress and he went on television asking
Americans to end racism. ‘One hundred years of delay have
passed since President Lincoln freed the slaves, yet their heirs,
their grandsons, are not fully free,’ he said. ‘This Nation
was founded by men of many nations and backgrounds…[and] on the
principle that all men are created equal.’ President Kennedy made it
clear that all Americans, regardless of their skin color, should enjoy
a good and happy life in the United States.
The
President is shot
On
November 21, 1963, President Kennedy flew to Texas to give several
political speeches. The next day, as his car drove slowly past
cheering crowds in Dallas, shots rang out. Kennedy was seriously
wounded and died a short time later. Within a few hours of the
shooting, police arrested Lee Harvey Oswald and charged him with the
murder. On November 24, another man, Jack Ruby, shot and killed
Oswald, thus silencing the only person who could have offered more
information about this tragic event. The Warren Commission was
organized to investigate the assassination and to clarify the many
questions which remained.
The
Legacy of John F. Kennedy
President
Kennedy's death caused enormous sadness and grief among all Americans.
Most people still remember exactly where they were and what they were
doing when they heard the news of the murder. Hundreds of thousands of
people gathered in Washington for the President's funeral, and
millions throughout the world watched it on television.
As the
years have gone by and other Presidents have written their chapters in
history, John Kennedy's brief time in office stands out in people's
memories for his leadership, personality, and accomplishments. Many
respect his coolness when faced with difficult decisions--like what to
do about the missiles in Cuba. Others admire his ability to inspire
people with his eloquent speeches. Still others think his compassion
and his willingness to fight for new government programs to help the
poor, the elderly and the ill were most important. Like all leaders,
John Kennedy made mistakes, but he was always optimistic about the
future. He believed that people could solve their common problems if
they put their country's interests first and worked together.
