Happy Birthday to John F. Kennedy (b. May 29, 1917, in Brookline, MA), who was the thirty-fifth president of the United States from 1961 to 1963. His presidency was dominated by complex foreign policy as the U.S. tangled in Cuba, the Soviet Union, Latin America, and Vietnam. Historian Robert Dallek writes that “By November 1963, Kennedy had established himself as a strong foreign policy leader. After facing down [Soviet leader Nikita] Khrushchev in the missile crisis and overcoming Soviet and U.S. military and Senate resistance to a [nuclear] test ban treaty, Kennedy had much greater credibility as a defender of the national security than [his successor] LBJ had. It gave Kennedy more freedom to convince people at home and abroad that staying clear of large-scale military intervention in Vietnam was in the best interest of the United States. No one can say with any certainty that two full Kennedy terms would have eased the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. But it is certainly imaginable.” He is also an insightful case study for the power of political charisma.
Recommended reading to learn more:
Citations: Robert Dallek, John F. Kennedy (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011), viii, 71-72, https://archive.org/details/johnfkennedy0000dall; Victor Hugo King, “[John F. Kennedy motorcade, Dallas, Texas, Nov. 22, 1963],” photograph (Dallas, TX, November 22, 1963), https://lccn.loc.gov/2004676894.
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