The life and death of J.F.K

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The Life and Death of

John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

By Rachael Brogan.

Contents.

  1. Introduction.
  2. Family.
  3. Childhood.
  4. Early Adulthood.
  5. Congressional Career.
  6. Jacqueline Lee Bouvier.
  7. 1960 election.
  8. Presidency.
  9. Assassination.
  10. Lee Harvey Oswald and the Warren Commission.
  11. Other Conspiracy Theories.
  12. Conclusion.
  13. Bibliography.

 Introduction.

Hi, I’m Rachael Brogan and I am going to be writing this investigation on the life and death of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the 35th President of the USA. Kennedy was born on the 29th of May 1917 in Brookline, Massachusetts, Boston. He became President in 1960 and died on the 22nd of November 1963. JFK led a very interesting and eventful life and some of the topics I am going to cover are, his family life, his political career, his presidency and of course his assassination and some of the possible conspiracy theories. I hope that in reading my investigation you find out lots of information about Kennedys life and understand the interest I have in him. I hope you enjoy my investigation.

The Family of JFK.

John or Jack as he was called by family and friends was born into an Irish-American family. He was the second child of Joseph Kennedy Sr. and Rose Fitzgerald.  He had one older brother at this time, Joseph Kennedy Jr. He also had 7 younger brothers and sisters, Rosemary Kennedy, Kathleen Kennedy, Eunice Kennedy, Patricia Kennedy, Robert Kennedy (known as Bobby), Jean Kennedy and Edward Kennedy. Joseph Kennedy, who was the ambassador for America was a self-made millionaire who had made his money by having illegal alcohol shipped in and selling it. He expected his children to do well and didn’t tolerate failure, so much so that because the third Kennedy child Rosemary was slightly ‘ditsy’ and didn’t achieve as much as the other Kennedy children, her father took her for a lobotomy when she was 23 years old. This disabled Rose from then until her death in 2005. Bobby Kennedy was the Attorney General of the United States from 1961 (because his brother, JFK was president) until 1964, when he became a senator for New York. In 1968, Bobby ran for president but on the 5th of June, he was assassinated by 24 years old, Sirhan Sirhan.  

In 1962, JFKs other brother, Edward ‘Ted’ Kennedy was sworn into Senate. In 1980, he ran for president but was put out of Senate because of his personal image. Teddy Kennedy died on the 25th August 2009 from Brain Cancer, aged 77.

Bobby Kennedy

Childhood of JFK.

John F. Kennedy and his family lived in Brookline, where he was born, for 10 years where he attended Edward Devotion School, Noble and Greenough School and Dexter School. They then moved to New York where he became a member of Scout Troop 2 (JFK was the first boy scout to become President). From 5th through to 7th grade, the young Kennedy attended Riverdale Country School. For eighth grade, he attended Canterbury School in Connecticut. When he was 13, he developed Appendicitis which required an Appendectomy, after this he redrew from Canterbury and recuperated at home. In September 1931, Kennedy was sent to The Choate School in Wallingford, Connecticut, for his 9th through 12th grade years. His older brother Joe Jr., was already at Choate, two years ahead of him, a football star and leading student in the school. John spent his first years at Choate in his brother's shadow, and compensated for this with rebellious behaviour that attracted a crowd. Their most notorious stunt was to explode a toilet seat with a powerful firecracker. When he graduated from Choate, he was branded in the yearbook as, ‘Most Likely to Succeed.’

JFK (right) with his father, Joe Kennedy Sr. and his Brother, Joe Jr.

Early Adulthood.

In September 1936, John enrolled at Harvard University.  He originally tried out for the football, golf and swim teams and ended up on the Varsity Swim Team. On September 3rd 139, John was with his father in the House of Commons for speeches endorsing the United Kingdom’s declaration of war against Germany. When he returned to Harvard as an upperclassman, he became a more serious student and developed an interest in political philosophy. In 1940, he completed his final paper on Britain’s participation in the Munich Agreement. He planned on keeping this paper quiet but was persuaded by his father to publish it. When published it became a best seller, he graduated from Harvard with top grades.

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 In September 1941, Kennedy joined the US Navy after medical disqualification from the US Army because of his lower back problems. He was assigned duty in Panama and later in the Pacific theatre where he earned the rank of lieutenant, commanding a patrol torpedo boat.  On August 2nd 1943, Kennedy’s boat was assigned night-time duty near New Georgia. That night, his boat was rammed by the Japanese destroyer boat, ‘Amagiri’.  Refusing surrender, the men swam towards a small island. Despite re-injury to his back, Kennedy pulled a badly burned crewman to shore with the strap of his life jacket clenched between his ...

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