When Ambassador Joseph P. Kennedy fell out of favor with the Democratic Roosevelt administration, due to appeasement, the political baton in the Kennedy family went to Joe Jr. He was killed in World War II in 1944 and, from that time on, Joe Sr. focused all his attentions on his second son, John F. Kennedy.
The young Kennedy experienced some celebrity as a war hero and having written a modest bestseller, JFK was keen to pick up the baton. He was a willing and enthusiastic candidate who, following a life in the military, was anxious to make his mark on Congress.
Having served as a Senator, he found himself in a race for the White House in 1960 with Republican, Richard Nixon, appearing on the first televised Presidential Election debates. It was a close run race, but JFK was assured of the Presidency with less than 100,000 votes to spare.
He took up office during a difficult period in US political history, where his policies on the Cold War, the Cuban Missile Crisis, Civil Rights, and war in Vietnam were much scrutinized. However, behind the Hollywood-style life that he and his wife, Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, portrayed hid some dark secrets.
Tragedies and health issues plagued the Kennedy family, and JFK's less-than-discreet romantic liaisons, were possibly a threat to national security at various points during the Kennedy administration. Was JFK's assassination a conspiracy, or was Lee Harvey Oswald acting alone when he shot the President on November 22, 1963?
