John F Kennedy s Inaugural Address
John Fitzgerald Kennedy was born May 29, 1917, in Brookline, Massachusetts, into
one of the wealthiest families in the United States. Universally called quot;JFK, quot;
he became a millionaire at the age of 21 when his father gave him one million dollars,
but politics and sports were of much more importance to him. He loved touch
football, tennis, golf, sailing, and swimming. JFK attended Princeton University and
Harvard, graduating from there cum laude. He attended Stanford University business
schoolbefore serving in the U.S. Navy. He was a naval hero during World War 11
when his PT boat was cut in half and he helped to save the lives of his crew.
Returning after the war, he was elected to Congress in 1946 and to the Senate in
1948 and... Show more content on Helpwriting.net ...
At his inauguration, Kennedy said, quot;Ask not what your country can do for you
ask what you can do for your country, quot; perhaps the most famous single quote
from an inaugural address. Among many notables in his cabinet, JFK appointed his
brother Bobby as Attorney General.
From Eisenhower, Kennedy inherited the quot;Cold War quot; with the Soviet
Union. In 1962, when American spy planes discovered Soviet nuclear missiles in
Cuba, just 90 miles from the U.S., many thought the nation was at the brink of war.
Kennedy imposed a blockade of Cuba but promised not to invade, and the Soviet
Union dismantled the missile bases, resolving the confrontation. (Upon seeing
photos of the dismantling, Adlai Stevenson, now Kennedy s Ambassador to the
U.N, famously said, quot;We are eyeball to eyeball with the enemy, and I think the
other fellow just blinked. quot;) Kennedy also promised to send Americans to the
moon and bring them back safely before the end of the decade, and although he did
not live to see it, his promise came true. He called his program to make things better
for Americans quot;the New Frontier quot; and he started the Peace Corps.
When the Kennedy family lived in the White House, a managerie of animals
abounded on the premises, and Mrs. Kennedy erected a play yard for them under the
trees near the President s West Wing office. They had rabbits, lambs, ponies and
guinea pigs. A Welsh Terrier named Charlie was