Kennedy entered politics in 1944. After he became a congressman in 1953, he married Jacqueline Lee Bouvier. After Congress had recessed for the summer, Kennedy met with his doctors to discuss options of how to eliminate his back pain. The doctors suggested that Kennedy should have two disks in his spine fused. Since Kennedy suffered from Addison’s disease, the surgery would be risky because he was susceptible to infections. Three days after the surgery, Kennedy got a severe infection. His condition became so critical that his family was called to be with him. Kennedy survived the scare and recovered after a few months.
Kennedy won the 1960 presidential election by 113,000 votes over the Republican candidate Richard Nixon. While in office, Kennedy asked Congress to allow equal opportunity for blacks including the right to vote, attend public schools, access to public accommodations, and the right to the same jobs as whites. John and Jacqueline Kennedy had three children together- Caroline, John Jr., and Patrick. Unfortunately, Patrick died in 1963 shortly after he was born. He had been born with a lung ailment.
There were many significant happenings in foreign affairs during Kennedy’s presidency. The Bay of Pigs as well as the Cuban Missile Crisis were two prominent military affairs. The Cuban Missile crisis was probably the world’s closest approach to a nuclear war. In 1960, Cuba was going to be supplied with nuclear missiles that would impose a close threat to the U.S. The Bay of Pigs was an attempt of the U.S. to overthrow Castro and Communism at the same time. Kennedy felt terrible about the failed attack on Cuba. He was quoted as saying, “How could I have been so stupid?”
On November 22, 1963, Kennedy was assassinated as he rode with his wife in a convertible down the streets of Dallas, Texas. Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested for the murder of Kennedy. Two days later, Oswald was killed during his transfer to another jail. Oswald was shot and killed by a Dallas nightclub owner Jack Ruby.
