prominent Jacqueline Lee Bouvier, who was 12 years his junior. Shortly
after their marriage, Kennedy became increasingly disabled by an old spinal
injury, and in October 1954 and again in February 1955 he underwent serious
surgery. A product of the months of convalescence that followed was his
Profiles in Courage, a study of American statesmen who had risked their
political careers for what they believed to be the needs of their nation.
Published in 1956, Profiles in Courage immediately became a bestseller, and
in May 1957 it won for its author the Pulitzer Prize for biography.
During his years in the House and for the first half of his Senate
term, Kennedy concerned himself primarily with the issues that particularly
interested or affected his Massachusetts constituents. However, when he
resumed his congressional duties alter Ins prolonged convalescence,
national rather than local or state affairs primarily attracted his
attention.
His determination to run for higher office became evident at the
Democratic National Convention in 1956. Adam Stevenson, the party's
presidential nominee, declined to name a running male. and instead left the
choice of a vice presidential candidate to a vote of the delegates. Seizing
this opportunity. Kennedy mounted a strong, if last-minute, campaign lorshe
nomination in which he was narrowly defeated by Senator Lstes Kefauver of
Tennessee Kennedy's efforts were no entirely unrewarded however. He proved
himself to be a formidable contender and. perhaps more important, lie came
to the attention of the millions of television viewers across the nation
who watched; the eonvention proceeding. He was redeemed to the US Senate in
1958.
Shortly after defeat of Stevenson in 1956. Kennedy launched a
nationwide campaign to gain the 1960 Democratic presidential nomination.
During the tour intervening years, ihe Massachusetts senator developed the
organisation that would help him win his goal. Through his personal
appearances, ami writings, he also made himself known to the voters ol the
United Stales. Kennedy's tactics were successful He won all the state
primaries he entered in 1960 including a critical contest in West
Virginia, where an overwhelmingly Protestant electorate dispelled the
notion that a Catholic candidate could not be victorious - and he also
earned the endorsement of a number of state party conventions.
The Democratic National Convention of 1960 selected Kennedy as its
presidential candidate on the first ballot. Then, to the surprise of many,
Kennedy asked Senator Lyndon B. Johnson of Texas, who had himself aspired
to the first place on the ticket, to be his running mate. Johnson agreed,
and the Demoeralic slate was complete. For its ticket, the Republican
National Convention in I960 chose Vice President Richard Millions Nixon and
Kennedy's earlier political rival. Henry Cabot Lodge.
Throughout the fall of 1960, Kennedy and Nixon waged tireless campaigns
to win popular support. Kennedy drew strength from the organization he had
put together and from the fact that registered Democratic voters
outnumbered their Republican counterparts. Nixon's strength stemmed from
his close association with the popular President Eisenhower and from his
own experience as Vice President, which suggested an ability to hold his
own with. representatives of the Soviet Union in foreign affairs. The
turning point of the 1960 presidential race, however, may have been the
series of four televised debates between the candidates, which gave voters
an opportunity to assess their positions on important issues, and
unintentionally also tested each man's television "presence." Kennedy
excelled in the latter area and political experts have since claimed that
his ability to exploit the mass media may have been a significant factor in
the outcome of the election.
On November 8, I960, the voters of the United States cast a record 68.8
million ballots, and selected Kcnnedy over Nixon by the narrow margin of
fewer than 120,000 votes in the closest popular vote in the nation's
history. In the Electoral College the tally was 303 votes to 21 John
Fitzgerald Kennedy took the oath of office as the 35th President of the
United States on January 20, 1961. A number of notable Americans
participated in the ceremonies: Richard Cardinal Gushing of Boston offered
the invocation, Marian Anderson sang the national anthem, and Robert Frost
read one of his poems. Kennedy's inaugural address, urging Americans to
"ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your
country," was memorable. The new Chief Executive also asserted, "Now the
trumpet summons us again ... to bear the burden of a long twilight
struggle... against the common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease
and war itself."
Both challenges were in keeping with what observers would later mark as
Kennedy's greatest contribution: a quality of leadership that extracted
from others their best efforts toward specific goals. Many felt themselves
influenced by his later reminder to a group of young people visiting the
White House - that "the Greeks defined happiness as the full use of your
powers along the lines of excellence."
Whether because of his-leadership, the climate of the times, or the
conjunction of the two, Kennedy's term as President coincided with a marked
transformation in the mood of the nation. Before that, complacent in their
peace-time prosperity, most Americans were preoccupied with individual
concerns. Now came a widespread awareness of needs not previously
recognized. No longer could Americans ignore pressing problems that
confronted them both at home and abroad, and increasingly, they showed a
willingness to try to effect meaningful changes. The new mood was one of
challenge, but also one of hope.
As he had promised in his inaugural address, Kennedy successfully
sought the enactment of programs designed to assist the "people in the huts
and villages of half the world." The Alliance for Progress, a program-
ambitious but ultimately less than successful - for the economic growth and
social improvement of Latin America, was launched in August 1961 at an
Inter American Conference at Punta del Este, Uruguay. The Peace Corps,
which offered Americans a unique opportunity to spend approximately two
years living and working with peoples in underdeveloped countries, was a
more successful attempt to aid emerging nations throughout the world.
In the realm of foreign affairs, Kennedy's record was a mixture of
notable triumphs and dangerous setbacks. He allowed the Central
Intelligence Agency to carry out plans laid before his administration for
an invasion of Cuba by anti-Communist refugees from that island. Between
1,400 and 1,500 exiles landed on April 17, 1961, at the Bay of Pigs, but
suffered defeat when an anticipated mass insurrection by the Cuban people
failed to materialize. Severely embarrassed, the administration
nevertheless successfully encouraged the creation of a private committee,
which ransomed 1,178 invasion prisoners for $62 million.
Cuban Premier Fidel Castro, after repelling the Bay of Pigs invasion,
turned to the Soviet Union for military support and allowed the Russians to
install secret missile sites in Cuba. From these locations, 90 miles from
US soil, the USSR could launch missiles capable of striking deep into the
American heartland. Reconnaissance by US observation planes uncovered the
Soviet activities. Taking a decisive stand President Kennedy, on October
22, 1962, announced that the United States would prevent the delivery of
offensive weapons to Cuba. Kennedy demanded that the USSR abandon the bases
and threatened that the United States would "regard any nuclear missile
launched from Cuba against any nation in the Western Hemisphere as an
attack by the Soviet Union on the United States, requiring a full
retaliatory response upon the Soviet Union." After a week of intense
negotiations. Soviet Premier Nikita S. Khrushchev agreed to dismantle all
the installations in return for a US pledge not to invade Cuba.
President Kennedy gave wholehearted support to American efforts in
space exploration. During his administration the nation increased its
expenditures in that area fivefold, and the President promised that an
American would land on the moon before the end of the 1960s. (On July
20,1969, two American astronauts fulfilled the President's pledge by
becoming the first human beings to set foot on the lunar surface.)
During his presidential campaign, Kennedy had stressed the necessity of
improving the American economy, which was then suffering from a recession.
His aim was to follow a fiscally moderate course, and the achievement of a
bal_anced budget was one of his major goals. As President he managed to
stimulate the sluggish economy by accelerating federal purchasing and
construction programs, by the early release of more than $ 1 billion in
state highway funds, and by putting $ 1 billion in credit into the home
construction industry.
During his administration, however, increasing hostility developed
between the White House and the business community. Anxious to prevent
inflation, the President gave special attention to the steel industry,
whose price-wage structure affected so many other aspects of the economy.
After steel manufacturers insisted on raising their prices in April 1962,
