John Fitzgerald Kennedy was born on 29 May 1917 in Massachusetts, into a wealthy and political lrish-American family. Educated at Harvard University, he graduated in 1940. spurred on by his ambitious father Joseph. and won election as a Democrat to the US House of Representatives. In 1952 he was elected to the senate.In 1960 Kennedy won the party's presidential nomination and defeated Richard Nixon in the subsequent election.At 43, he was the country's youngest president as well as its first Catholic head of state. He presented himself as a youthful president for a new generation.His wife Jackie added glamour to the presidency,alfhough revelations of Kennedy's numerous affairs have rather tarnished this image.His Inaugural Address offered the memorable injunction:"Ask not what your country can do for you -- ask what you can do for your country".
As President,he set out to redeem his campaign pledge to get America moving again.His economic programs launched the country on its longest sustained expansion since World War II.
Kennedy permitted a band of Cuban exiles,already armed and trained.to invade their homeland.In April 1961 the "Bay of Pigs" invasion ended in failure.It has been suggested that this led the Soviet Union to conclude that Kennedy was a weak leader,and that they could get away with installing nuclear weapons on Cuba in 1962.The subsequent Cuban missile crisis did much to restore Kennedy's reputation.as Soviet Communist Party leader Khrushchev witdrew the missilles - after a 13-day stand-off that seemed to bring the world to the brink of nuclear war.Kennedy was assassinated on 22 November 1963 in Dallas,Texas.According to the Earl Warren commission established to investigate the assassination,a lone gunman,Lee Harvey Oswald,killed the president,but there has been consistent speculation ever since that Kennedy's death was the result of a conspiracy.