[ti:John Kennedy: Young]
[al:America's Presidents]
[ar:VOA]
[dt:2023-10-29]
[by:www.voase.cn]
[00:05.13]VOA Learning English presents America's Presidents.
[00:11.92]Today we are talking about John Fitzgerald Kennedy.
[00:16.66]He was also known as Jack Kennedy, or by the letters JFK.
[00:22.56]When he took office in 1961, Kennedy was 43 years old.
[00:28.82]He was the youngest elected president in United States' history.
[00:35.03]Kennedy was also the first Catholic to be elected U.S. president.
[00:40.88]Kennedy's youth and religion raised questions in the minds of some Americans that Kennedy could lead the country.
[00:50.51]They wondered if he would always follow the policies of the Roman Catholic Church.
[00:57.09]But Kennedy became well-known as a statesman, and popular with people around the world. 
[01:04.94]He was intelligent, funny and good-looking. 
[01:08.50]For many, Kennedy was a sign of new energy and hope.
[01:14.36]The public was shocked, then, when the president's term was violently cut short.
[01:31.92]John F. Kennedy was born in 1917 near Boston, Massachusetts. 
[01:39.99]He was the second of nine children.
[01:42.80]Both his parents were Catholic, with ancestors from Ireland. 
[01:47.52]Many years ago, Irish Catholics often faced discrimination in the United States.
[01:53.15]But the Kennedy family was also politically powerful and wealthy.
[01:59.23]As a result, young Jack Kennedy grew up in big, beautiful houses and received a top quality education.
[02:09.27]His family did not suffer during the Great Depression, as many Americans had. 
[02:15.11]Instead, the Kennedy children swam, sailed boats and played sports.
[02:21.60]Jack also enjoyed reading books and following the news. 
[02:26.52]His older brother Joe wanted to enter politics, but Jack said he might become a teacher or writer.
[02:35.04]When he was a college student at Harvard, Jack wrote a long paper about Britain in the years leading up to World War II.
[02:43.50]A version of it was published in 1940 as a book.
[02:47.82]The war changed Jack's thinking about his future plans. 
[02:53.41]During World War II, both Jack and his older brother joined the U.S. Navy. 
[02:59.88]In the Pacific, Jack became a hero. He won medals for leading some of his troops to safety after a Japanese warship struck a boat they were on.
[03:11.35]But Joe was killed. In 1944, his airplane exploded over Europe.
[03:19.83]When the war ended, Jack's father urged him to follow his brother's dream of succeeding in politics. 
[03:27.82]Jack agreed, and he set his sights on becoming the country's first Catholic president.
[03:59.84]Kennedy was nominated as the Democratic Party's candidate, and he was elected in 1960.
[04:06.57]He easily defeated Vice President Richard Nixon, the Republican candidate, in the Electoral College.
[04:14.61]But Kennedy won only narrowly in the popular vote.
[04:19.49]Though he was young, Kennedy brought experience to the job.
[04:24.82]In addition to being a naval officer, Kennedy had been a member of the U.S. House of Representatives as well as a senator from Massachusetts.
[04:34.72]He also published a Pulitzer Prize-winning book called "Profiles in Courage."
[04:41.64]And he had become a husband and father. 
[04:44.95]He married a wealthy, well-educated woman who had been working as a newspaper photographer. 
[04:50.96]Her name was Jacqueline Bouvier, but she was sometimes called Jackie.
[04:56.59]She became pregnant five times, but only two of her children would survive: a daughter named Caroline, and a son, John F. Kennedy, Junior.
[05:08.41]The family of four moved into the White House in January 1961.
[05:15.81]On the day he was sworn-in, Kennedy gave a speech that many people still remember today. 
[05:23.35]It celebrated the "new generation of Americans," and promised to "pay any price" for liberty.
[05:31.10]Supporters of the new president loved his energy and sense of hope.
[05:37.57]In his most famous line, Kennedy said, "Ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country."
[05:47.92]Many young people remembered that line when they volunteered for a program Kennedy created in 1961: the Peace Corps.
[05:58.94]Other Americans remembered the line when they watched two Apollo 11 astronauts walk on the moon in 1969. 
[06:07.86]Kennedy strongly supported the country's space program. 
[06:12.66]He promised that Americans would land on the moon by the end of the 1960s, and they did.
[06:20.34]Kennedy also supported efforts to improve civil rights across the U.S., although his administration moved slowly. 
[06:29.82]Calls to end legalized racism were growing stronger during Kennedy's time in office, particularly because of the leadership of Martin Luther King, Junior.
[06:42.07]In June of 1963, King spoke to hundreds of thousands of people at a civil rights protest called the March on Washington.
[06:51.70]He told the crowd that he dreamed "my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
[07:05.18]The March on Washington, among other events, showed the power of the civil rights movement.
[07:12.12]In late 1963, President Kennedy sent a civil rights bill to Congress and spoke to Americans about the injustice that remained in the country.
[07:22.83]The Peace Corps, the Space Race, and civil rights are all part of Kennedy's legacy.
[07:31.50]Kennedy is also remembered for several troubling international events. 
[07:37.40]In one, known as the Bay of Pigs, Americans supported Cuban refugees in an effort to oust the government of Fidel Castro. 
[07:47.36]Not only did the refugees fail, but Kennedy's government was found to be lying about their support of the effort.
[07:54.92]And Kennedy faced off with the leader of the Soviet Union, Nikita Khrushchev. 
[08:01.53]In 1962, American leaders learned that the Soviets had hidden nuclear weapons in Cuba. 
[08:09.71]The missiles would be able to reach the U.S. mainland easily.
[08:15.04]Kennedy ordered a blockade of Cuba.
[08:18.30]People around the world held their breath as they waited to see if the U.S. and the Soviet Union would launch a nuclear war.
[08:27.60]They did not. After several very tense weeks, Kennedy and Khrushchev reached an agreement that ended the crisis.
[08:36.80]Kennedy went on to reach an agreement with the Soviet Union and Britain to limit nuclear weapons testing. 
[08:44.60]He said the agreement was one of the presidential acts of which he was most satisfied.
[08:51.95]Historians still debate Kennedy's actions, and what else might have happened during his presidency.
[08:59.16]They wonder especially what he would have done about the increasing conflict in Vietnam.
[09:06.03]But Kennedy did not live to finish his first term.
[09:29.20]By November 22, 1963, Kennedy had been president for just under three years. 
[09:36.93]The next election was still a year away, but it was time to start campaigning again.
[09:44.17]So the president and his wife went to Dallas, Texas to connect with voters. 
[09:50.28]They were riding in a car with other official vehicles that drove slowly through the center of the city. 
[09:57.05]Jack, Jackie, and the Texas governor and his wife sat in a convertible - an automobile without protection over the seats.
[10:07.42]The president was waving at the crowd. Suddenly, several gunshots were fired. The president was struck twice.
[10:16.02]The governor was also hit and injured.
[10:19.24]Kennedy was hurried to a hospital, but doctors were unable to help him. News reporters announced his death to a stunned public.
[10:30.47]Hours later, Jackie Kennedy appeared next to the former vice president - now president - Lyndon Johnson. 
[10:38.85]She still wore the clothes with her husband's blood on them.
[10:43.08]The events remain intense in the minds of many Americans who were alive at the time.
[10:49.78]The images remain easily recognizable parts of American history.
[10:54.93]The pictures of Kennedy's family at his funeral are especially memorable. 
[11:00.67]In one, three-year-old John holds up his arm and salutes his father's casket.
[11:08.19]Attention quickly turned to the gunman.
[11:12.14]It was reportedly a 24-year-old man named Lee Harvey Oswald. 
[11:17.79]Shortly after the president and the governor were shot, Oswald shot a policeman who questioned him.
[11:24.68]Oswald was eventually detained. Officials planned to bring him to court for the death of the president and the policeman.
[11:32.39]But on the way from the police station to the jail, a local night-club owner shot and killed Oswald.
[11:40.67]As a result, the case never came to trial. 
[11:44.75]Many Americans believe the reason for the attack has yet to be clarified.
[12:08.08]Historians have a mixed reaction to Kennedy's years as a president, although their opinions are generally positive.
[12:16.47]His image with the public suffered some years after his death because of reports that he had romantic relationships with women other than Jackie throughout his marriage.
[12:29.79]In time, the public also learned about Kennedy's health problems.
[12:35.21]He suffered from severe back pain and Addison's disease.
[12:40.12]He often used strong medicine to help control the conditions.
[12:45.04]The health problems are at odds with Kennedy's image of health and love of sports.
[12:51.85]Yet even with these new details, Kennedy is still one of the country's best-remembered leaders. 
[12:59.88]He was a charismatic man whose career influenced many other Americans to enter public service.
[13:07.92]Americans also remember his stylish, cultured wife. 
[13:12.43]Jackie Kennedy compared the Kennedy years at the White House to Camelot, the legendary court of King Arthur.
[13:21.00]Their remains, along with those of two of their children, are buried at Arlington National Cemetery, across the Potomac River from Washington. 
[13:31.04]They are honored there with an eternal flame - one designed so the fire will never go out.
[13:43.88]I'm Kelly Jean Kelly.