MacFormat España 17/MacFormat 17 (Spain)/MacFormat 17.bin/DATABASE/SHARED.DIR/01274_99.cap.txt

Text File | 1996-03-14 | 6.1 KB | 348 lines

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Kennedy was the
youngest man and
the first Catholic
ever elected US
President. He had
all the natural
advantages: a keen
intellect, boundless
energy, good looks,
and an influential
family background.
His "Thousand Days"
at the White House
are often seen as a
interlude of hope
and confidence in
the United States
#
Joe Kennedy, US
ambassador to
Britain, instilled
all nine of his
children with a
fierce competitive
instinct and a deep
interest in public
affairs. Rose, JFK's
mother, belonged to
a tough, politically
active Irish family.
JFK's grandfather,
John Fitzgerald,
had been mayor of
Boston, known to
all as 'Honey Fitz'
#
After creditable
wartime service
as a submarine
commander,
Kennedy ran for
Congress on his
'home turf' of
Boston. In the
election campaign
he displayed
some of the
political skills -
charm, stamina
and singleness of
purpose - that
were later to
propel him to the
Senate in 1952,
then to the White
House in 1960
#
As Kennedy made
his inexorable
progress towards
the White House
his political views
were hardening
and his attitude to
civil rights became
forthright. On
foreign policy he
was a liberal
internationalist
who sympathised
with the many
national liberation
movements in
Africa and Asia
#
Kennedy married
Jacqueline Bouvier
in 1953. She proved
a great asset to
him throughout his
career. They made
a glamorous couple,
and this, combined
with Kennedy's
steady  rise to the
heights of power,
gave them an air of
royalty and fed
the romantic idea
of the Kennedy
court as a new
American Camelot
#
John  F Kennedy
was elected 35th
president of the
United States by
the narrowest of
margins. His
opponent was
Richard Nixon,
vice-president
in Dwight Eisen-
hower's outgoing
administration. It
was a hard battle,
in which Kennedy
benefitted from
such novelties as
televised debates,
in which he shone
@
The Kennedy years
are a paradox: the
world went to the
brink of atomic war,
racial strife shook
the US, and the cold
war intensified. Yet,
largely due to the
power of Kennedy's
own personality, it
was also a time of
great optimism and
idealism when any
feat - even sending
a man to the moon
- seemed possible
#
Kennedy's first
foreign initiative
was a disaster. He
authorised a CIA-
funded invasion
of Castro's Cuba,
a matter of miles
from the US coast.
The invasion failed
dismally, actually
strengthening the
communist regime,
and was widely
condemned as
interference in
another country's
sovereignty. It also
dented Kennedy's
reputation for
noble idealism
#
When the governor
of Mississippi
tried to block
the enrolment of
a black student
at the university,
Kennedy forced
the governor to
back down. The
case became a
battleground of
race relations.
Riots broke out
in which three
died. The incident
helped underscore
Kennedy's image
as a champion of
the weak and the
under-privileged
#
In 1963 Kennedy
visited Berlin,
where a wall
dividing the
Soviet-controlled
sector from the
rest of the city
had only recently
been erected. In
the besieged city,
Kennedy made a
defiant speech,
perhaps the most
eloquent of his
life, which
cemented his
reputation as a
defender of
freedom and
of democracy
#
Kennedy saw the
relationship
between the USA
and the USSR in
competitive terms.
For both sides, it
was a question of
whose system
was best. America
had been shocked
when the Russians
put a man in orbit,
and Kennedy was
determined that
the US would do
something even
more spectacular
#
Superpower rivalry
nearly destroyed
the world in 1962
when Soviet leader
Nikita Khrushchev
secretly deployed
nuclear missiles on
Cuba, within easy
range of the US.
Kennedy blockaded
Cuba and demanded
the removal of the
missiles. Nuclear
war was a matter
of minutes away
when Khrushchev
backed down
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Robert Kennedy
was nine years
younger than
John, and he was
the President's
closest adviser.
He took on JFK's
mantle after the
assassination in
Dallas, and would
doubtless have
become President
of the United
States himself
had he not been
gunned down in
his turn
#
Kennedy succeeded Eisenhower as president. The contrast between them could not
have been more stark, and was one of the factors which worked in Kennedy's
favour. He was youthful, energetic, forward-looking; Ike was ageing, ill, and a
hero of battles even then long in the past
#
It fell to Lyndon Johnson to take over as president following Kennedy's death.
As President, Johnson was able to make law the civil rights legislation which
Kennedy believed to be a vital step on the way to a reconcilation between
America's blacks and whites
#
The relations of the Kennedys with J Edgar Hoover were fraught. Deeply conservative,
Hoover distrusted John and Bobby's reforming zeal, and they were unhappy that Hoover
looked on the FBI as his private empire. Many FBI documents relating to the Kennedy's
are still secret
@
Kennedy was shot
at 1.25 pm on
November 22, 1963
as his motorcade
passed down Elm
Street, Dallas,
Texas. He died 35
minutes later in
hospital. The death
of John Fitzgerald
Kennedy stunned
the world; America
has yet to recover
from the trauma
of that day
#
The murder of JFK
remains obscure.
Officially, he was
killed by a lone
gunman, Lee Harvey
Oswald. But there
is evidence that
more than one
man was involved,
and that one of the
marksman was
stationed on the
'grassy knoll', to the
front and right of
the approaching
motorcade
#
Lee Harvey
Oswald, a former
communist, was
arrested a few
hours after the
murder. He
insisted that he
had been set up,
but was himself
murdered before
he could say much
else. He bled to
death in hospital,
a few feet from
the spot where
John Kennedy died
#
Around 2,500
studies of JFK's
assassination were
produced  in the 30
years after the
event. Among the
culprits proposed
by conspiracy
theorists are
Cuban exiles, the
unions, the KGB,
vice-president
Johnson, the CIA,
Kennedy's father,
Texas oil barons,
the mafia, and
of course, the sad
loner Oswald
#
It is hard to say
how good a
president Kennedy
was, and impossible
to say how good a
one he might have
become. As with
all exceptional
people who die
young, John F
Kennedy's enduring
greatness lies in
his unfulfilled
potential
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