John F Kennedy signs a blockade order in October 1962 to prevent Soviet ships from landing in Cuba that the United States would not tolerate Soviet offensive arms on the island On October 20 Kennedy decided to quarantine the island US ships would create a blockade to keep Soviet ships from reaching Cuba Kennedy wrote a letter to Nikita Khrushchev the leader of the Soviet Union stating his intentions and declaring that the United States would stand its ground The United States is determined that this threat be removed At the same time I wish to point out that the action we are taking is the minimum necessary to remove the threat to the security of the nations of this hemisphere I hope that your Government will refrain from any action which would widen or deepen this already grave crisis and that we can agree to resume the path of peaceful negotiations 8
The Cuban Missile Crisis had put the world on the brink of nuclear war and Kennedy was taking a massive gamble in the hope of preventing conflict His efforts would prove successful but the showdown with Cuba was only one of several defining moments in Kennedy’s iconic presidency 9
CHAPTER ONE A FUTURE PRESIDENT John Fitzgerald Kennedy was born on May 29 1917 in Brookline Massachusetts a town near Boston He was the second of nine children four boys and five girls born to Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy and Joseph Patrick Kennedy The Kennedy family was Irish Catholic and wealthy and it had a political history Rose’s father John Francis Fitzgerald was once the mayor of Boston Young Kennedy was named for his grandfather but went by the nickname Jack As a child Jack was sickly At various times he suffered from chicken pox measles scarlet fever and whooping cough The scarlet fever put him in the hospital for a month when he was three years old When he was thirteen Jack began suffering from pain in his midsection A few years later doctors diagnosed the problem as colitis a digestive disease These early experiences foreshadowed the state of health Jack would have for the rest of his life Growing Up Kennedy Being a Kennedy came with privileges and challenges As part of a wealthy family Jack grew up in a large home with housekeepers and nannies The Kennedys also had a summer home in Hyannis Port on Cape Cod Massachusetts where family 10
The Kennedy family at their summer home in Hyannis Port Massachusetts in 1931 From left to right Robert John Jack Eunice Jean Joseph Sr Rose Patricia Kathleen Joseph Jr and Rosemary members enjoyed sailing swimming and playing touch football Jack had plenty of siblings to play with but in the Kennedy family even play was taken seriously Jack’s father Joseph Kennedy Sr pushed his children to be competitive particularly his sons On one occasion he suggested his oldest sons Joe and Jack have a bicycle race They did and had a head-on collision that resulted in Jack getting twenty-eight stitches For the elder Kennedy doing well in sports was not enough The determined and successful businessman wanted his boys to succeed at everything they tried Jack enjoyed history and English but he was not a top student in other subjects In 1936 he enrolled at Harvard University where his older brother Joe was already a student While Kennedy was at Harvard his father was appointed ambassador to the United Kingdom and the rest of the family moved there Kennedy took several trips overseas 11
