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On November 8, I960, the voters of the United States cast a record 68.8 million ballots, and selected Kcnnedy over Nixon by the narrow margin of fewer than 120,000 votes in the closest popular vote in the nation's history. In the Electoral College the tally was 303 votes to 21 John
Fitzgerald Kennedy took the oath of office as the 35th President of the
United States on January 20, 1961. A number of notable Americans participated in the ceremonies: Richard Cardinal Gushing of Boston offered the invocation, Marian Anderson sang the national anthem, and Robert Frost read one of his poems. Kennedy's inaugural address, urging Americans to
"ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country," was memorable. The new Chief Executive also asserted, "Now the trumpet summons us again ... to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle... against the common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease and war itself."

Both challenges were in keeping with what observers would later mark as
Kennedy's greatest contribution: a quality of leadership that extracted from others their best efforts toward specific goals. Many felt themselves influenced by his later reminder to a group of young people visiting the
White House - that "the Greeks defined happiness as the full use of your powers along the lines of excellence."

Whether because of his-leadership, the climate of the times, or the conjunction of the two, Kennedy's term as President coincided with a marked transformation in the mood of the nation. Before that, complacent in their peace-time prosperity, most Americans were preoccupied with individual concerns. Now came a widespread awareness of needs not previously recognized. No longer could Americans ignore pressing problems that confronted them both at home and abroad, and increasingly, they showed a willingness to try to effect meaningful changes. The new mood was one of challenge, but also one of hope.

As he had promised in his inaugural address, Kennedy successfully sought the enactment of programs designed to assist the "people in the huts and villages of half the world." The Alliance for Progress, a program- ambitious but ultimately less than successful - for the economic growth and social improvement of Latin America, was launched in August 1961 at an
Inter American Conference at Punta del Este, Uruguay. The Peace Corps, which offered Americans a unique opportunity to spend approximately two years living and working with peoples in underdeveloped countries, was a more successful attempt to aid emerging nations throughout the world.

In the realm of foreign affairs, Kennedy's record was a mixture of notable triumphs and dangerous setbacks. He allowed the Central
Intelligence Agency to carry out plans laid before his administration for an invasion of Cuba by anti-Communist refugees from that island. Between
1,400 and 1,500 exiles landed on April 17, 1961, at the Bay of Pigs, but suffered defeat when an anticipated mass insurrection by the Cuban people failed to materialize. Severely embarrassed, the administration nevertheless successfully encouraged the creation of a private committee, which ransomed 1,178 invasion prisoners for $62 million.

Cuban Premier Fidel Castro, after repelling the Bay of Pigs invasion, turned to the Soviet Union for military support and allowed the Russians to install secret missile sites in Cuba. From these locations, 90 miles from
US soil, the USSR could launch missiles capable of striking deep into the
American heartland. Reconnaissance by US observation planes uncovered the
Soviet activities. Taking a decisive stand President Kennedy, on October
22, 1962, announced that the United States would prevent the delivery of offensive weapons to Cuba. Kennedy demanded that the USSR abandon the bases and threatened that the United States would "regard any nuclear missile launched from Cuba against any nation in the Western Hemisphere as an attack by the Soviet Union on the United States, requiring a full retaliatory response upon the Soviet Union." After a week of intense negotiations. Soviet Premier Nikita S. Khrushchev agreed to dismantle all the installations in return for a US pledge not to invade Cuba.

President Kennedy gave wholehearted support to American efforts in space exploration. During his administration the nation increased its expenditures in that area fivefold, and the President promised that an
American would land on the moon before the end of the 1960s. (On July
20,1969, two American astronauts fulfilled the President's pledge by becoming the first human beings to set foot on the lunar surface.)

During his presidential campaign, Kennedy had stressed the necessity of improving the American economy, which was then suffering from a recession.
His aim was to follow a fiscally moderate course, and the achievement of a bal_anced budget was one of his major goals. As President he managed to stimulate the sluggish economy by accelerating federal purchasing and construction programs, by the early release of more than $ 1 billion in state highway funds, and by putting $ 1 billion in credit into the home construction industry.

During his administration, however, increasing hostility developed between the White House and the business community. Anxious to prevent inflation, the President gave special attention to the steel industry, whose price-wage structure affected so many other aspects of the economy.
After steel manufacturers insisted on raising their prices in April 1962,
Kennedy, by applying strong economic pressure, forced the producers to return to the earlier lower price levels. His victory earned him the enmity of many business people, however.

Kennedy sympathized with the aspirations of black Americans, but he included no comprehensive civil rights legislation in his New Frontier program, fearing that the introduction into a conservative Congress of such measures would imperil all his other proposals. The President relied, instead, on his executive powers and on the enforcement of existing voting rights laws. He forbade discrimination in new federally aided housing, appointed a large number of blacks to high offices, and supported Justice
Department efforts to secure voting rights and to end segregation in interstate commerce. In 1962 he used regular army troops and federalized
National Guard units to force the admission of a black, James Meredith, to the University of Mississippi, and in 1963 he used federal National
Guardsmen to watch over the integration of the University of Alabama.

Despite his broad visions of the American future, Kennedy enjoyed limited success in translating his ideas into legislative reality. A coalition of Republicans and conservative southern Democrats in the 87th
Congress stopped many of his plans for the introduction of social measures.
And even after the Demo_ratic Party increased its majority on Capitol Hill in the 1962 elections. Congress was slow to cooperate, although it probably was ready to do so just before his presidency came to an end.

John F. Kennedy presided over the execlusive branch of the United
States government for only a little more than 1,000 days. During that time
American involvement in Vietnam and other areas of Southeast Asia increased moderately, but the beginnings of a thaw in the cold war were also noticeable, and in 1963 the. Soviet Union and the United States signed the
Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. Kennedy's years in the White House were also marked by increased social consciousness by the US government. With the
Great Society program of his successor, Lyndon Baines Johnson, Congress eventually enacted a number of Kennedy's proposals, including medical care for the elderly and greater opportunities for black Americans.

In addition to his various governmental programs, Kennedy's presidency was also no_table for a new, vital style. John and Jacqueline Kennedy and their two children, Caroline and John Jr., quickly captured the imagination of the nation, and their activities were widely reported by the media.
Cer_tainly the Kennedys exuded a youthful vi-brance, and their interests seemed unending. Jacqueline Kennedy was responsible for redecorating the public rooms of the White House and inviting a glittering array of cul_tural and intellectual leaders to the executive mansion.

An assassin's bullet abruptly ended the life of John Fitzgerald Kennedy on Novem_ber 22,1963, as he rode in a motorcade through the streets of
Dallas, Texas. The entire nation mourned the tragic death of the Chief
Executive. Many millions watched on television as the 35th President was buried at Arlington National Cemetery on November 25, 1963.

Every state of the United States and almost every nation in the world has erected memorials to Kennedy. One of the monu_ments dearest to his family is the house at 83 Seals Street in Brookline, Massachusetts, where the late President's parents lived from 1914 until 1921 and where four of their chil_dren - including John - were bom. The house was repurchased by the Kennedys in 1966 and was designated a National Historic Site by
Congress in 1967. On May 29, 1969, the 52nd anniversary of John F.
Kennedy's birth, the family turned over the deed of the house to the
National Park Service.

Both of President Kennedy's younger brothers, Robert F. and Edward M.
Kennedy, served in the Senate. Many of the former President's compatriots hoped to see his goals and promise carried forward when Robert Kennedy, who had served as his at_torney general and closest adviser, an_nounced early in 1968 that he would seek the Democratic nomination for President. In another tragedy that shook the nation to its roots, Robert Kennedy was shot down by an assassin just after claiming victory in the California presidential primary. He died in Los Angeles just over 25 hours later, on
June 6,1968.

Presidents at a Glance

Excerpts from Inaugural Addresses of American Presidents

Every four years when the new President of the United States is introduced into his office, i. e. inaugurated, he takes the oath of office and delivers a speech on the steps of the Capitol.

The American Dream

Let us, then, with courage and confidence pursue our own Federal and
Republican principles, our attachment to union and representative government. Kindly separated by nature and a wide ocean from the exterminating havoc of one quarter of the globe; possessing a chosen country, with room enough for our descendants to the thousandth and thousandth generation; enlightened by a benign religion, professed indeed, and practiced in various forms, yet all of them inculcating honesty, truth, temperance, gratitude and the love of man; acknowledging and adoring an overruling Providence, which by all its dispensations proves that it delights in the happiness of man here and his greater happiness hereafter - with all these blessings, what more is necessary to make us a happy and prosperous people?

Thomas Jefferson, 1801

The Unity of the Nation

One section of our country believes slavery is right and ought to be extended, while the other believes it is wrong and ought not to be extended. This is the only substantial dispute.

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