Document a Letter From Chairman Khrushev to President Kennedy Guided Reading Answer Key

Elected in 1960 as the 35th president of the United states of america, 43-yr-old John F. Kennedy became 1 of the youngest U.Southward. presidents, likewise every bit the first Roman Catholic. He was born into ane of America'south wealthiest families and parlayed an elite education and a reputation as a armed forces hero into a successful run for Congress in 1946 and for the Senate in 1952.

As president, Kennedy confronted mounting Cold War tensions in Cuba, Vietnam and elsewhere. He also led a renewed drive for public service and eventually provided federal back up for the growing ceremonious rights move. His assassination on November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas, sent shockwaves around the earth and turned the all-too-human Kennedy into a larger-than-life heroic figure. To this 24-hour interval, historians continue to rank him amid the best-loved presidents in American history.

John F. Kennedy in uniform in 1942.

Frank Turgeon Jr./John F. Kennedy Library and Museum

John F. Kennedy's Early Life

Built-in on May 29, 1917, in Brookline, Massachusetts, John F. Kennedy (known every bit Jack) was the second of nine children. His parents, Joseph and Rose Kennedy were members of two of Boston'due south most prominent Irish Cosmic political families. Despite persistent health issues throughout his childhood and teenage years (he would after exist diagnosed with a rare endocrine disorder called Addison's illness),

Jack led a privileged youth, attending private schools such as Canterbury and Choate and spending summers in Hyannis Port on Cape Cod. Joe Kennedy, a hugely successful businessman and an early on supporter of Franklin D. Roosevelt, was appointed chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission in 1934 and in 1937 was named U.S. ambassador to Great Great britain. As a student at Harvard University, Jack traveled in Europe every bit his male parent'due south secretary. His senior thesis about British's unpreparedness for war was later published every bit an acclaimed volume, "Why England Slept" (1940).

Jack joined the U.S. Navy in 1941 and two years afterward was sent to the S Pacific, where he was given command of a Patrol-Torpedo (PT) boat. In August 1943, a Japanese destroyer struck the craft, PT-109, in the Solomon Islands. Kennedy helped some of his marooned crew back to condom and was awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal for heroism. His older brother, Joe Jr., was not and so fortunate: He was killed in Baronial 1944 when his Navy airplane exploded on a secret mission against a German rocket-launching site. A grieving Joe Sr. told Jack it was his duty to fulfill the destiny once intended for Joe Jr.: to get the get-go Cosmic president of the United states of america.

JFK's Ancestry in Politics

Abandoning plans to be a announcer, Jack left the Navy by the end of 1944. Less than a year later on, he was back in Boston preparing for a run for Congress in 1946. As a moderately conservative Democrat, and backed by his male parent'due south fortune, Jack won his party's nomination handily and carried the mostly working-form Eleventh District past nearly three to one over his Republican opponent in the general election. He entered the 80th Congress in January 1947, at the age of 29, and immediately attracted attention (too as some criticism from older members of the Washington establishment) for his youthful appearance and relaxed, breezy style.

Kennedy won reelection to the Firm of Representatives in 1948 and 1950, and in 1952 ran successfully for the Senate, defeating the popular Republican incumbent Henry Cabot Guild Jr. On September 12, 1953, Kennedy married the beautiful socialite and journalist Jacqueline (Jackie) Lee Bouvier. Two years later, he was forced to undergo a painful operation on his back. While recovering from the surgery, Jack wrote another best-selling book, Profiles in Backbone, which won the Pulitzer Prize for biography in 1957. (The book was later revealed to be generally the work of Kennedy'due south longtime aide, Theodore Sorenson.)

Kennedy's Road to Presidency

After well-nigh earning his party'due south nomination for vice president (under Adlai Stevenson) in 1956, Kennedy announced his candidacy for president on Jan ii, 1960. He defeated a principal challenge from the more liberal Hubert Humphrey and chose the Senate majority leader, Lyndon Johnson of Texas, equally his running mate. In the general election, Kennedy faced a difficult battle against his Republican opponent, Richard Nixon, a two-term vice president under the popular Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Offering a young, energetic alternative to Nixon and the condition quo, Kennedy benefited from his performance (and telegenic appearance) in the outset-e'er televised debates, watched by millions of viewers. In November's ballot, Kennedy won by a narrow margin–less than 120,000 out of some 70 1000000 votes cast–becoming the youngest human being and the kickoff Roman Catholic to exist elected president of the U.s..

With his beautiful young wife and their 2 small children (Caroline, born in 1957, and John Jr., born just weeks after the election), Kennedy lent an unmistakable aura of youth and glamour to the White House. In his inaugural accost, given on January 20, 1961, the new president called on his fellow Americans to work together in the pursuit of progress and the elimination of poverty, simply also in the boxing to win the ongoing Common cold War against communism around the world. Kennedy's famous closing words expressed the demand for cooperation and sacrifice on the part of the American people: "Enquire non what your country can exercise for you; inquire what you lot can do for your state."

Kennedy's Foreign Policy Challenges

An early crisis in the strange diplomacy arena occurred in Apr 1961, when Kennedy approved the plan to transport 1,400 CIA-trained Cuban exiles in an amphibious landing at the Bay of Pigs in Cuba. Intended to spur a rebellion that would overthrow the communist leader Fidel Castro, the mission concluded in failure, with most all of the exiles captured or killed.

That June, Kennedy met with Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev in Vienna to discuss the urban center of Berlin, which had been divided after World War II between Allied and Soviet control. Two months afterwards, East German troops began erecting a wall to split up the city. Kennedy sent an army convoy to reassure W Berliners of U.Southward. back up, and would deliver one of his nearly famous speeches in West Berlin in June 1963.

Kennedy clashed once again with Khrushchev in October 1962 during the Cuban missile crunch. Later learning that the Soviet Union was constructing a number of nuclear and long-range missile sites in Cuba that could pose a threat to the continental United States, Kennedy announced a naval occludent of Republic of cuba.

The tense standoff lasted well-nigh two weeks before Khrushchev agreed to dismantle Soviet missile sites in Cuba in return for America'due south promise non to invade the island and the removal of U.Southward. missiles from Turkey and other sites shut to Soviet borders. In July 1963, Kennedy won his greatest strange diplomacy victory when Khrushchev agreed to join him and Britain's Prime number Government minister Harold Macmillan in signing a nuclear test ban treaty. In Southeast Asia, nevertheless, Kennedy's desire to curb the spread of communism led him to escalate U.Due south. involvement in the conflict in Vietnam, even as privately he expressed his dismay over the situation.

Kennedy's Leadership at Home

During his showtime year in part, Kennedy oversaw the launch of the Peace Corps, which would transport young volunteers to underdeveloped countries all over the world. Otherwise, he was unable to achieve much of his proposed legislation during his lifetime, including two of his biggest priorities: income revenue enhancement cuts and a ceremonious rights bill. Kennedy was slow to commit himself to the civil rights cause simply was eventually forced into activity, sending federal troops to support the desegregation of the University of Mississippi after riots there left two dead and many others injured. The following summer, Kennedy announced his intention to propose a comprehensive ceremonious rights pecker and endorsed the massive March on Washington that took place that Baronial.

Kennedy was an enormously popular president, both at dwelling and abroad, and his family unit drew famous comparisons to King Arthur'due south courtroom at Camelot. His brother Bobby served every bit his attorney full general, while the youngest Kennedy son, Edward (Ted), was elected to Jack'due south sometime Senate seat in 1962. Jackie Kennedy became an international icon of style, beauty and sophistication, though stories of her married man's numerous marital infidelities (and his personal clan with members of organized crime) would later sally to complicate the Kennedys' idyllic prototype.

JFK's Assassination

On November 22, 1963, the president and his married woman landed in Dallas; he had spoken in San Antonio, Austin and Fort Worth the 24-hour interval before. From the airfield, the party and then traveled in a motorcade to the Dallas Trade Mart, the site of Jack'due south next speaking date. Shortly after 12:thirty p.m., as the motorcade was passing through downtown Dallas, shots rang out; Kennedy was struck twice, in the neck and caput, and was pronounced dead shortly afterwards arriving at a nearby hospital.

Xx-four-year-old Lee Harvey Oswald, known to take Communist sympathies, was arrested for the killing but was shot and fatally wounded two days later by local nightclub owner Jack Ruby while beingness led to jail. Almost immediately, alternative theories of Kennedy'south assassination emerged–including conspiracies run by the KGB, the Mafia and the U.S. military-industrial complex, among others. A presidential committee led by Chief Justice Earl Warren concluded that Oswald had acted alone, but speculation and debate over the assassination have persisted.

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Source: https://www.history.com/topics/us-presidents/john-f-kennedy

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