Throughout the history of the United States there have been few great presidents. John Fitzgerald Kennedy was one of these great presidents, maybe even the greatest. He led an extraordinary life and influenced the people of his time tremendously. Although he had a short-lived presidency, he created many productive projects, and prospects for the future of the US. John F. Kennedy was national hero and truly a magnificent leader for his people.

John was born May 29, 1917, in Brookline, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston. His father Joseph Kennedy became the youngest banker president in the US. He was a millionaire by age twenty-five. John's mother, Rose Fitzgerald, was a caring housewife and a glamorous woman. Including John, the family embraced nine children. They were, in age order, Joseph Junior, John, Rosemary, Kathleen, Eunice, Patricia, Robert, Jean, and Edward (Teddy). All the children were born in Brookline, Massachusetts. Each of the kids had a one million dollar trust fund set up for them by the time they were born. The environment they were brought up together in was very wholesome and extremely elegant.

On September 12, 1953, John F. Kennedy married Jaqueline Lee Bouvi

JFK won his election in November 1960. At age 43 he was the youngest man ever elected president. He was also the first Roman Catholic President. John was inaugurated in January 1961, succeeding Dwight D. Eisenhower. Kennedy won the Electoral College Vote by three hundred votes to Nixon's two hundred nineteen. Senator Byrd won fifteen votes. John was also the first Television President.

John's early work began with being a correspondent for The Chicago Herald American and International News Service. He became bored with this job and decided to represent the Eleventh Massachusetts Congressional District in the House of Representatives. John Kennedy won the Man of the Year Award awarded by the Unites States Chamber of Congress. In he 1952 he became a part of the US Senate. While John was there, he increased the textile tariff. He worked with his brother Robert in the Select Committee of the Senate to Investigate Improper Activities in Labor-management Relations.

On October 22, 1962, John F. Kennedy called for a naval quarantine to halt the Soviet missile buildup in Cuba. When the discovery of the missiles took place by the U-2 spy planes pictures, it was called the Cuban Missile Crisis. These missiles were approximately ninety miles of the coast of Florida. They had the technology and the range capable of hitting the Unites States. Nikita Khrushchev, the Russian leader at the time, later retracts missiles under US inspection. On June 10, 1963, Kennedy proposed a Nuclear Arms Test Ban Treaty. On October signs the Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, the first disarmament agreement of the Nuclear Age. This was the first sign of melting in the Cold War.

John F. Kennedy was then buried in Arlington National Cemetery, where an eternal flame now stands. His burial was viewed by millions of American viewers on national television. This was held as the most emotional week in American history.

One of the major competition races still going on today that began in Kennedy's time is the Space Race. It all began when Alan Shepard became the first American in space. In February 1962 John H. Glenn was the first American to orbit the Earth in space. Although a USSR cosmonaut was the first man in space and the first to orbit the Earth in April 1961. In the year 1957 the USSR was also the first to launch a satellite into space, it was called the Sputnik. On May 25, 1961, Kennedy planned to put an American astronaut on the moon within the next ten years. This year the space budget increased by fifty percent. Even though the US spent eighty million dollars on the space program and seventy-five million on the satellite program while Kennedy was in office, the project was a total success. The thrust that the Kennedy government gave the space program enabled future astronauts such as Neil Armstrong to walk on the moon in July 1969.

In his Inaugural Address Kennedy stated "Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend or foe alike, that the torch had been passed to a new generation of Americans. Born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage, and unwilling to witness or permit the small undoing of those human rights to which this nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world. And so my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country."

Throughout his presidency John provided the US with many plans, outlooks, and programs. One of these was the Alliance For Progress program. The Organization of American States (OAS) selected it on March 13, 1961. It

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