On November 22, 1963, at 12:30 p. m. , President John F. Kennedy was killed in Dallas, Texas, while riding in a presidential motorcade with his wife, Jacqueline.
As he waved to the crowd, a bullet struck him in the back and exited his throat. According to reports, he could have survived that wound, but a second shot hit him in the head. It was fatal. Footage from that day captured Jackie Kennedy in her pink dress climbing onto the back of the vehicle, an act of desperation she later said she had no memory of.
Secret Service Agent Clint Hill believed she was reaching for a piece of her husband’s skull. When she returned to her seat, she repeated two sentences over and over: “They have killed my husband. I have his brains in my hand. ”
John Fitzgerald Kennedy was born on May 29, 1917, into a wealthy Irish American family living just outside Boston.
His father, Joe Kennedy, was a businessman and politician who had carefully planned for his children to enter politics. When his wife, Rose, suggested sending John and his older brother to a Catholic school, Joe refused, believing it would hurt their political futures. The boys instead attended a Protestant school, where John earned the honor of “most likely to succeed. ” He graduated from Harvard with a degree in government and international affairs and planned to attend Yale Law School, but the outbreak of World War II changed those plans.
Kennedy wanted to fight, but a back injury from college football made him unfit for service. His father, never above meddling, used deceptive medical records and his considerable clout to get his son onto a boat fighting the Japanese in the South Pacific. When an accident cut Kennedy’s ship in half, two crew members lost their lives, and the survivors had to swim to the nearest shore. Kennedy became a hero after pulling a shipmate from the sea to safety on what is now called Kennedy Island.
His back problems worsened, and he was eventually discharged from the Navy Reserve. Some believe his older brother, Joe Jr. , felt compelled to outdo John’s heroism and was killed during a doomed air mission. With Joe Jr.
gone, the oldest surviving Kennedy son now carried a heavy weight. Joe Sr. shifted his hopes to John and set about getting him to Washington, using wealth and power to secure his election to the House of Representatives. John showed little interest in the job, holding the most no-shows of any congressman at the time.
His health was poor, and he found the bureaucracy exhausting. It looked as though he might not have what it took to be a politician. The next step was the Senate, and Joe Sr. threw the full force of the family into the campaign.
Kennedy’s younger brother Robert became his campaign manager, and the women of the family worked to attract the women’s vote. During the campaign, Kennedy met journalist Jacqueline Bouvier at a dinner party in 1952, and the two began dating. After he won the Senate seat, he proposed. The wedding took place on September 12, 1953.
The marriage faced difficulties almost immediately. Kennedy underwent back surgery the following year, and his condition was so dire that he was read his last rites. While recovering, he wrote a book about U. S.
senators who risked their careers for their beliefs. Titled Profiles in Courage, it won the Pulitzer Prize in 1957. That same year, Kennedy and his brother Bobby confronted union leader Jimmy Hoffa over racketeering accusations. Their heated arguments played out on television and radio, earning Kennedy dangerous enemies.
In 1958, he met Diana de Vegh. Despite a twenty-year age gap, de Vegh fell deeply in love. Kennedy’s staff worked to keep the affair secret, arranging for a driver to bring her to campaign events and treating her as part of the organization so she would not stand out. The relationship ended when Kennedy discovered that the economist he had been meeting with to discuss policy was de Vegh’s father.
He had no idea, and the affair quickly fizzled out. Kennedy’s work in the Senate drew criticism, including from Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson, who called it pathetic and described Kennedy as a playboy. Still, Kennedy convinced the public to reelect him in 1958. In January 1960, he announced his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination.
The obstacles were clear: his youth, his lack of experience, and the fact that he was Catholic. What he had in his corner was magnetism and skill as a narrator. Against the odds, he won on the first ballot. On September 26, 1960, he faced Richard Nixon in a televised debate.
Kennedy paid close attention to optics. He wore a suit that reduced glare and spoke with technicians about camera placement. Nixon, by contrast, suffered under the hot lights, sweating profusely, his suit blending into the background. Kennedy appeared cool, relaxed, and confident.
He won the election and entered the White House. On January 20, 1961, Kennedy delivered his famous inaugural address, telling Americans, “Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country. ”
But behind closed doors, there was more to Kennedy than the public image.
Mimi Beardsley was only on her fourth day working in the White House press office when she received an invitation to use the swimming pool. Kennedy’s assistant, Dave Powers, invited her. Kennedy himself showed up. That led to a cocktail party invitation and then a personal tour of the residence.
When they reached Jackie Kennedy’s room, the nineteen-year-old had an intimate encounter with the president, ending her virginity. Kennedy also had difficulty resisting Hollywood stars. He had an affair with Marlene Dietrich, who later said she did not remember much of it, possibly because she had also had an affair with Kennedy’s father. Before becoming president, Kennedy began associating with the Rat Pack, including Sammy Davis Jr.
and Frank Sinatra. Through them, he met Judith Exner. The Rat Pack and Exner had associations with the mafia, associations Kennedy would use for his own gain. He began a heated affair with Exner and allegedly did business with Sam Giancana of the Chicago mob, using mafia connections in attempts to remove Fidel Castro from power in Cuba.
Exner eventually grew tired of keeping Kennedy’s secrets and exposed everything, even claiming she had become pregnant by him and had an abortion. On May 19, 1962, Kennedy celebrated his forty-fifth birthday at Madison Square Garden. When Marilyn Monroe sang a sultry rendition of “Happy Birthday,” tongues began to wag. Kennedy’s involvement with Monroe allegedly went back to 1954, when the two first met.
By 1962, it is alleged, Kennedy was done with Monroe and passed her off to his younger brother Bobby. Three months after singing at the president’s birthday party, Monroe died under suspicious circumstances. On the surface, it looked like she had deliberately taken too many barbiturates. Her second husband, Joe DiMaggio, felt strongly that the Kennedys had some involvement in her death.
Conspiracy theories spread widely, and her case was reviewed by the Office of the Los Angeles District Attorney in 1982. The conclusion was that there was no evidence of foul play, though the official report admitted there were unanswered questions and factual discrepancies. Mary Pinchot Meyer, the ex-wife of a CIA operative, also began a relationship with Kennedy. She had been a neighbor and friend to both John and Jackie, and Kennedy spent many evenings with her in the White House, usually when Jackie was out of town.
On October 12, 1964, Meyer was murdered. A suspect was charged and later acquitted, and the case remains unsolved. Her biographer later claimed there was a theory that she had to die because she knew too much. Kennedy’s life was always at risk, given his connections to the mafia, communists, and angry union leaders.
After his assassination in Dallas, officers apprehended Lee Harvey Oswald, who denied any wrongdoing. People hoped the truth would come out at trial, but Oswald never faced a judge. He was gunned down by nightclub owner Jack Ruby. Some believed Ruby had deliberately silenced Oswald so the truth about Kennedy’s death would never be known.
Before Ruby could be convicted, he died of cancer. John F. Kennedy was one of the most loved American presidents of his time. When his life ended in Dallas that afternoon, Americans felt the loss of much more than a president.
Some felt the country had lost its innocence.