John F. Kennedy- Rise to the Presidency

Background

• Born May 29th 1917

• Father was Joseph Kennedy. He was dedicated to FDR and served as Ambassador to Great Britain.

• JFK originally attended Princeton University where he was a C student during his first two years.

• He would transfer to Harvard and graduate with Honors.

WWII

• After the attack on Pearl Harbor, JFK attempted to enlist in the Navy. He was rejected due to a bad back.

• JFK worked out for 6 months to strengthen his back and pass the physical.

• Within a year, JFK was out to sea.

• On August 2nd, 1943 JFK was in command of PT Boat 109

• Late at night, his boat was split in half by a Japanese battleship.

• 2 members of the crew died. The other 10 were ordered to aid each other in swimming to an island. The trip took 5 hours.

• Kennedy swam to nearby islands looking for help while the Japanese patrolled the waters. During one trip he passed out and only survived due to a life vest.

• Help was eventually found by scratching a message on a coconut and having two island natives deliver it to a navy base.

• Kennedy and his crew were rescued after 5 days.

• JFK received a citation for valor.

The Path to the Presidency

• JFK was elected to the House of Representatives and served from 1947 until 1953.

• He was then elected to the US Senate as a Senator from Massachusetts and served from 1953 until 1960.

• In 1953, JFK married Jacqueline Bouvier. He was 36 and she was 24.

• He was almost selected to be a vice presidential candidate by Adali Stevenson in 1956.

• In 1960, JFK ran for the Presidency of the United States. 

• He won the Democratic Party nomination on the first ballot.

• JFK ran against the former Vice-President Richard Nixon. Nixon was 47 years old and Kennedy was 43.

• JFK's slogan was "Nixon says we've never had it so good. I say we can do better".

• Religion became an issue in the election. JFK was a Roman Catholic and Nixon was Protestant. No Catholics had ever been elected President.

• The campaign for President would include the first ever televised Presidential debate.

• JFK would defeat Richard Nixon by a very slim margin in the popular vote. He did however win the Electoral College quite convincingly.

• 1960 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION RESULTS (50 States in the Union)
  Candidate	Party	Popular Vote (% of total)*	Electoral Votes
  John F. Kennedy	Democratic	34,226,731 (49.9%)	303**
  Richard M. Nixon	Republican	34,108,157 (49.7%)	219

• JFK would still have a Democratic majority in both the House and Senate however the majority had been reduced.

• He took office on January 20th 1961.