John F. Kennedy

John Fitzgerald Kennedy was born May 29, 1917. He was also known as John F. Kennedy, JFK, John Kennedy or Jack Kennedy. He was the 35th President of the U.S.A. in 1960 when he became the youngest man ever elected president.

Duringe his presidency he saw many things including the Bay of Pigs Invasion, the Cuban Missile Crisis, Space Wars and the building of the Berlin Wall.

Before Kennedy was president, Eisenhower came up with a plan to overthrow Fidel Castro in Cuba known as the Bay of Pigs Invasion. This plan used 1500 anti-Castro Cubans who were trained by the U.S. to invade Cuba and start an uprising in Cuban people in hopes of removing Castro from power. The invasion lasted from April 17 - 19, 1961 without the authorization of Kennedy. Within the 3 days of the invasion the Cuban government had captured or killed invading Cubans. The U.S.A. was forced to work with the Cuban government to have the captured to be released. This resulted in $53 million dollars paid to Cuba.

The Cuban Missle Crisis began on October 14, 1962 when American U-2 planes flew over Cuba and took pictures of a Soviet intermediate-range ballistic missile site under construction. These pictures where shown to Kennedy who realized they were now threatened by nuclear missiles. Kennedy began negotiations with the USSR and ordered all the "defensive" materical to be removed from Cuba. Without doing so the country would have to face a naval blockade. The USSR agreed and Kennedy secretly agreed to remove missles from Turkey which had already be planned.

Kennedy was very eager to be in the race in space. Russia was far ahead in space technology but Kennedy set his first goal to and a man on the moon. It was ony six years after his death that an American landed on the moon.

John F. Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963 in Dallas Texas. Lee Harvey Oswald was charged with the crime but was murdered two days later by Jack Ruby. It is believed that Oswald was the only man but the House of Select Committee on Assassinations believed that their may have been conspiracy. The whole assassination remains quite controversial and there has been many theories put out about it.

I believe JFK was a very strong present and was able to guid his country around many things thrown at them. Within the 3 years he was president he was able to fend off possible nuclear attacks, negoitated his way out of a tough Cuban situation and instilled the goal to reach the moon in many Americans.