Joe’s death was a great shock for Joe Kennedy Senior. He was hoping that his oldest son would be president of the US one day. But after Joe died, his hopes turned to Jack.
After World War Two ended in 1945, Jack got a job with a newspaper. He went to San Francisco and wrote about an important United Nations meeting. Then he went to the UK and wrote about the elections there. But Jack did not want to be a newsman; he wanted to get into Congress.
The government of the US has three different parts: the President, Congress, and the Supreme Court. The President is the most important person in the US government; he is the head of the country, and the head of the army. There are two ‘houses’ in Congress – the House of Representatives and the Senate – and they make the laws. The Supreme Court decides what the laws mean.
There are only two important political parties: the Republicans and the Democrats. At that time, after the war, the Republicans wanted people to work to help themselves, but the Democrats wanted the government to help when it was needed. The Kennedys were a strong Democratic family. In 1946, there was an election in Massachusetts to choose someone for the House of Representatives, and the Democrats chose Jack as their candidate. He won the election easily.
Jack stayed in the House of Representatives for six years, then he won an election to the Senate. In 1953, the year when Jack became a senator, Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Republican candidate, became US president. But nobody can be president for more than eight years, so in November 1960, there was an election for a new president. The Democrats chose Jack as their presidential candidate.
By this time, Jack understood many things about government because of his work as a senator. He was also becoming famous, and his picture was often in the newspapers. The American people were very interested in the good-looking young Senator Kennedy, and they enjoyed reading stories about him and his family. They also admired him because he was a war hero.
JFK speaks while Jackie watches
The months before the presidential elections were very exciting for the Kennedys. Jack needed a lot of votes to win against the Republican party. He worked very hard, traveling all over the US, giving speeches and telling people about himself. Jack’s father, Joe Kennedy Senior, and his younger brother Robert often went with him. Joe spent a lot of money helping Jack.
The candidate for the Republican party was Richard Nixon. Nixon was older than Jack, and this was his eighth year as vice president – the person who takes control if the president is ill. In September and October, Jack and Nixon went on TV together to talk about why each man wanted to be president. Jack looked very good, but Nixon looked tired and uncomfortable. After people saw the two candidates on TV, more people wanted Jack to be president than Nixon.
Nixon and JFK on TV
In the presidential elections on 8 November 1960, 34,226,925 people voted for Jack and 34,108,662 voted for Nixon. So Jack won the election and became President John F. Kennedy, thirty-fifth president of the United States. He was forty-three years old. On 20 January 1961, the new president gave a very famous and important speech. Many Americans remembered this speech for a long time. Kennedy talked about the need for Americans to help their country.
‘Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country,’ he said.
The people listened and they felt full of hope. Their new president was going to be a great leader. It was a new start for the US.
‘Ask what you can do for your country.’