preview

John F Kennedy Assassination

Decent Essays

It’s Dallas, TX 1963 and John F. Kennedy drives through downtown and three shots ring out from the third story of a book depository...the President is dead. John F. Kennedy was born to Joseph P. and Rose Kennedy in 1917 and had eight siblings. Before John was in office he served in the navy in WWII, and he received the Marine and Navy Cross for Heroism in Action. John was the first Roman Catholic president, youngest elected president, and youngest to be assassinated. John F. Kennedy was from a very large and rich political family that went to private schools, joined and served in the U. S. Navy during World War II, became the 35th President of the United States and had his life end tragically by an assassin that caused the United States …show more content…

After he graduated from Harvard, he joined the Navy in 1941. Jack was in the Navy during World War II (“John F. Kennedy” Whitehouse). During his service in the Navy, his sister, Kathleen, who worked for the Red Cross, was killed in an airplane crash in 1948 (O’Reilly 125). A few months later, his older brother, Joe, was also killed in a plane crash. Joe was on a secret bombing mission when his plane crashed (O’Reilly 257). While Jack was in the Navy, he was in command of a patrol torpedo boat (PT boat). He was commander of PT-109 and had a crew of 12 men on his boat. Their job was to patrol the waters and try to find enemy ships. They were to sink any enemy ships they encountered. In 1943, a Japanese destroyer rammed his PT boat and split it in half. Two of the men on the ship were killed. Jack led the rest of the crew to a small island and they were later rescued. When Jack returned home, he was awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal for heroism in action (“John F. Kennedy” …show more content…

Kennedy was president, he had some problems but some great successes. He was very involved in helping the civil rights movement and was very focused on economic problems and concerns in the United States (“John F. Kennedy” Whitehouse). Jack had a priority to land on the moon before the Russians did (Kaplan 78). Because of Jack’s quick thinking during the Cuban missile crisis, the United States stayed safe. He stood up to the Russians and did not let them take nuclear weapons to Cuba (“John F. Kennedy” Whitehouse). He gained respect from many world leaders for doing this (Kaplan 103).
Jack’s biggest failure was Bay of Pigs and one of the worst failures in United States history (O’Reilly 153). This was an attempt to overthrow Fidel Castro. There were also many other attempts to get rid of Castro (“John F. Kennedy” Whitehouse).
November 22, 1963, Dallas, Texas, Jack picked the wrong day to give a speech. He was riding in downtown Dallas on the way to make a speech when he was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald. On this day “he was hardly past his first thousand days in office he was assassinated” (“John F. Kennedy” Whitehouse). Lee had served in the Marines during World War II and supported communism (O’Reilly 132). “Kennedy’s death sent shockwaves around the world and turned the all-too-human Kennedy into a larger-than-life heroic figure” (“John F. Kennedy”

Get Access