(Originally published by the Daily News on Nov. 23, 1963.)
The young man ever elected President of the United States, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, was the first Chief Executive to risk the possibility of nuclear war.
Unhesitantly, he faced the danger with a show of force that caused Soviet Premier Khrushchev to back down. The Soviet leader withdrew missiles from their threatening positions in Cuba in late 1962, and set the stage for a new round in U.S.-Soviet relations.
The new round was climaxed with the signing by the United States, Britain and the Soviet States, Britain and the Soviet Union of a limited nuclear test ban agreement this year.
But upon the shoulders of the 46-year-old President rested the unusual cares of our times, unusual throughout the world and at home.
Strengthened Forces In West Germany
With characteristic sureness, Kennedy faced Russia’s determination to rid West Berlin of Allied occupation; his answer was to strengthen American forces in West Germany. He also kept American troops in Southeast Asia to thwart Communist penetration in that area.
Through economic aid, he sought to hold Latin America against determined Communist penetration and the spread of Castroism from Communist Cuba. He offered the hand of aid to the newly-formed nations of Africa feeling their way toward stability.
In Europe, he faced the problem of holding together the North Atlantic Treaty Organization despite French President de Gaulle’s determination not to take direction from the U.S.
At home, he faced a growing crisis over integration and became embroiled with the steel industry over a threatened price increase. He faced a nationwide rail strike and fought for a tax cut that he felt was necessary to spur the economy and to avoid the possibility of a recession.
Called for Public Support on Rights, Aid, Taxes
Time and again, he took his fight to the people, calling for support in his battle to prevent Congressional cuts in his foreign aid program, for support of his civil rights program, and to enlist aid for his tax program.
Perhaps his most dramatic and important appearance before the people came in October, 1962, when he told them that Russian nuclear missiles were poised in Cuba – 90 miles from U.S. shores – and aimed at the heart of this country.
Moving with certainty, he demanded that Krushchev remove the missiles, ordered a naval quarantine on such offensive weapons being sent to Cuba and turned the southern tip of Florida into an armed camp.
For five days a tense world waited, then heaved a huge sigh of relief when Khrushchev announced he had ordered work stopped on the Cuban missile bases, that the offensive missiles in Cuba would be crated and returned to the Soviet Union, and that the United Nations could verify the dismantling. Such inspection, however, was barred by Cuban Premier Castro.
Bay of Pig Invasion Is Repelled by Castro
Since his inauguration on Jan. 20, 1961, Cuba was a constant irritation to Kennedy. Shortly after the inauguration, Cuban refugees, in an operation supported by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, attempted to wrest their homeland from Castro in the Bay of Pigs invasion.
Without U.S. military aid, however, the invasion was a fiasco – crushed by Castro’s Russian-built military machine. And U.S. prestige abroad sank.
After the easing of the Cuban missile crisis, the 1,113 Cubans captured in the invasion were released through negotiation conducted with Castro by James B. Donovan, New York attorney.
In an emotional ceremony in Miami’s Orange Bowl just before Christmas, 1962, Kennedy accepted the invasion flag from the released prisoners and told them: “I can assure you that this flag will be returned to this brigade in a free Cuba.”
Brought in Youthful, Vigorous Administration
Kennedy, the first Catholic to be elected President, was swept into the office with his youthful, vigorous administration in a storm of parties, extravaganzas and oratory.
The Inauguration climax a hectic and glorious year for Kennedy. It had been a year of victories – in seven primary contests, at the Democratic National Convention in July and, finally, at the polls in November. And, in addition, his 31-year-old wife, Jacqueline, presented him with his first son, John F. Jr., on Nov. 25, 1960.
He entered office in a surge of personal popularity. With his strikingly attractive wife and their children – there was just one then, the irrepressible Caroline – they made one of the most appealing and photogenic families ever to occupy the White House.
Their style, their tastes, their preferences in sports from touch football to war skiing, swept the nation in a Jack and Jackie fad.
His undisputed personal popularity did not protect Kennedy from the lash of criticism that accompanied some of the efforts of his administration. Lawmakers did not fall over themselves to get his program passed.
Created Peace Corps, Raise Minimum Wage
But among his major accomplishments were creation of the Peace Corps, increase of the minimum wage to $1.25, increased Social Security benefits, creation of the Alliance for Progress for aid to Latin America, and passage of the trade Expansion Act, which give the President unprecedented tariff-cutting powers.
Also, congressional approval to purchase up to $100 million in United Nations bonds to help the world organization over its financial crisis, adoption of a Congressional resolution calling for armed resistance, if necessary, to the forceful extension of aggressive or subversive activities by Cuba’s Communist regime to other countries in the hemisphere.
No man to stand on formality, Kennedy whipped around Palm Beach, Fla., his winter vacation home, behind the wheel of his own convertible.
Bodyguards Get Slip in New York
On trips to New York, he sometimes gave his bodyguards the slip, sneaking out of a side door of the Carlyle Hotel for dinner and a show. In Washington, Secret Service agents threw up their hands in despair when Kennedy wound up a fatiguing Inauguration Day by attending five Inauguration Balls and then dropping in at a neighbor’s party for an hour and a half.
Kennedy, born in the Boston suburb of Brookline on May 29, 1917, had an impressive record behind him years before he reached the Presidency. He was a best-selling author at 23, a war hero at 26, a U.S. Representative at 29 and a Senator at 35.
Harvard-educated, scion of one of the nation’s wealthiest families, he avoided the life of ease that could have been his and, instead, directed his sights on the highest office in the land. At 21, Kennedy became the beneficiary or a $1 million trust fund (his father had promised to set one up for each of his nine children, and made good on the promise), and when he assumed the Presidency his annual income from trust funds was considerably more than $100,000.
Jacqueline, Caroline Contributed to Picture
His wife was the former Jacqueline Lee Bouvier, daughter of a wealthy New York stock broker, reared in park Avenue and Newport, R.I., and schooled at the Sorbonne. The Kennedys were married at Newport in 1958 by Archbishop (now Cardinal) Richard Cushing of Boston. Pope Pius XII sent a special blessing.
The Kennedy’s two young children – John F. Jr. and Caroline – were another source of the President’s appeal. Diapers and Dr. Spock had never before been adjuncts of the White House. The alert and pixyish Caroline, 3 years old when her parents became the first couple of the land, was photographed almost as much as her daddy and her antics received wide coverage.
Kennedy was the second of the nine children of Joseph P. Kennedy, a controversial figure who piled up a fortune estimated at $200 million to $400 million in real estate, banking, liquor, finance and motion pictures.
He and Father Differed About Foreign Policy
When Kennedy began his Senate career in 1952, he and his father found themselves “in complete disagreement,” in the elder Kennedy’s own words, on foreign policy. They observed a truce of silence on political affairs, particularly during the 1960 campaign, and the father emerged from the shadows only after his son had won the Presidency.
During World War II, Kennedy joined the Navy and became a PT boat commander. The Army had rejected him because of a back injury he suffered while playing junior varsity football at Harvard.
On Aug. 2, 1943, a Japanese destroyer knifed through the fog off the Solomon Islands and sliced his PT boat in two. Two men were killed and Kennedy clung to the bow of the vessel, which miraculously stayed afloat for 10 hours, with 10 other survivors.
His First Book at 23; 2d Won Pulitzer Prize
The back injury resulted in two major operations, one in 1945 and one in 1954. The second brought him close to death. Pope Pius XII cabled him a special benediction and the last rites of the Catholic Church were administered.
Kennedy was a product of Choate School, Harvard University and the London School of Economics. He produced his first book, “Why England Slept,” in 1940 at the age of 23. On his second literary try in 1956, her won Pulitzer Prize for his widely acclaimed “Profiles in Courage.”
In 1946, despite the fact that veteran Boston politicians called him “the kid,” Kennedy overwhelmed four opponents and was elected to the House from the 11th Congressional District. He entered the House with another freshman Representative, Richard M. Nixon, and the two served together on the House Labor Committee.
Kennedy was reelected easily to go two more terms and then decided to go for the Senate. He had no trouble nailing down the Democratic nomination in 1952; nobody else wanted it. His opponent was Henry Cabot Lodge, who was rated unbeatable. Ironically, Lodge’s isolationist grandfather, Henry Cabot Lodge, had defeated Kennedy’s grandfather, Honey Fitz Fitzgerald, in their race for the Senate in 1916.
The Young Pro Amazed The Old Pros
Kennedy amazed politicians with his efficient, professional and devastatingly thorough campaign.
Lodge, meanwhile, was not watching the store; he was off campaigning for Eisenhower in the general’s first bid for the Presidency. While Ike was carrying Massachusetts by 210,000 votes, Kennedy astounded politicians by whipping Lodge by 69,060 votes.
His unprecedented headlong drive for the Presidency brought out in 1960 the largest turnout of voters in history. And when the votes were finally counted, Kennedy had defeated Vice President Nixon by about 118,000 ballots. Kennedy’s 34,227,096 popular votes gave him an Electoral College edge of 330 to 219 over Nixon, who got 34,108, 546 popular votes.
