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An inept, lazy president who spent much of his time womanizing, President Kennedy was middle-of-the-road on domestic issues and [[conservative]] on foreign policy.  He nominated [[Byron White]] to the [[U.S. Supreme Court]], who turned out to be [[pro-life]].  As to foreign policy, Kennedy sent military forces into [[Vietnam]] and was somewhat hawkish against [[communist]] [[Cuba]].  In [[Congress]] the [[Conservative Coalition]] blocked nearly all of his domestic programs, so there were few changes in domestic policy, while the civil rights movement gained strength.   

An inept, lazy president who spent much of his time womanizing, President Kennedy was middle-of-the-road on domestic issues and [[conservative]] on foreign policy.  He nominated [[Byron White]] to the [[U.S. Supreme Court]], who turned out to be [[pro-life]].  As to foreign policy, Kennedy sent military forces into [[Vietnam]] and was somewhat hawkish against [[communist]] [[Cuba]].  In [[Congress]] the [[Conservative Coalition]] blocked nearly all of his domestic programs, so there were few changes in domestic policy, while the civil rights movement gained strength.   

President Kennedy won office because the [[Kennedy Family]] had long been leaders of the Irish [[Roman Catholic Church|Catholic]] wing of the [[Democratic Party]].  The Kennedy style called for youth, dynamism, vigor and an intellectual approach to aggressive new policies in foreign affairs.  The downside was his inexperience in foreign affairs, standing in contrast to the vast experience of the president he replaced, Republican [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]]. This inexperience caused a national humiliation in 1961 as he sent CIA-trained Cuban exiles into an ill-prepared attack on Castro's Cuba. At the [[Bay of Pigs]], all the invaders were killed or captured, and he was forced to negotiate for the survivors release giving Cuba medical and food. Kennedy's supporters blamed the fiasco on Eisenhower and the CIA, for JFK inherited the plan; but Kennedy took the blame himself.  Russian leader [[Nikita Khrushchev]], seeing for himself Kennedy's inexperience at a summit conference, had built the [[Berlin Wall]] as the Soviets escalated the [[Cold War]] regarding the status of Berlin, predicting that Kennedy's response would be weak.  Khrushchev went too far in 1962 when he sent nuclear missiles into Cuba aimed at the U.S. mainland.  For the first time since [[Pearl Harbor]]—or indeed since Washington and New Orleans were attacked in the [[War of 1812]]—the U.S. was vulnerable to a major attack by an enemy power. Kennedy and Khrushchev reached a compromise whereby the Soviets removed their missiles from Cuba publicly, while Kennedy secretly removed obsolete American missiles from Turkey aimed at the Soviets, and also promised that America would never invade Cuba. In Vietnam, Kennedy increased the number of military advisors from 900 to 16,000 to prop up the ineffective, corrupt regime in South Vietnam. Historians are uncertain whether Kennedy would have avoided the failures of [[Lyndon Johnson]] in Vietnam.

President Kennedy won office because the [[Kennedy Family]] had long been leaders of the Irish [[Roman Catholic Church|Catholic]] wing of the [[Democratic Party]], and the family political power was so strong that it was not until 2021 -- more than 60 years later -- that there was not a member of that family in [[Congress]] or as president.  The Kennedy style called for youth, dynamism, vigor and an intellectual approach to aggressive new policies in foreign affairs.  The downside was his inexperience in foreign affairs, standing in contrast to the vast experience of the president he replaced, Republican [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]]. This inexperience caused a national humiliation in 1961 as he sent CIA-trained Cuban exiles into an ill-prepared attack on Castro's Cuba. At the [[Bay of Pigs]], all the invaders were killed or captured, and he was forced to negotiate for the survivors release giving Cuba medical and food. Kennedy's supporters blamed the fiasco on Eisenhower and the CIA, for JFK inherited the plan; but Kennedy took the blame himself.  Russian leader [[Nikita Khrushchev]], seeing for himself Kennedy's inexperience at a summit conference, had built the [[Berlin Wall]] as the Soviets escalated the [[Cold War]] regarding the status of Berlin, predicting that Kennedy's response would be weak.  Khrushchev went too far in 1962 when he sent nuclear missiles into Cuba aimed at the U.S. mainland.  For the first time since [[Pearl Harbor]]—or indeed since Washington and New Orleans were attacked in the [[War of 1812]]—the U.S. was vulnerable to a major attack by an enemy power. Kennedy and Khrushchev reached a compromise whereby the Soviets removed their missiles from Cuba publicly, while Kennedy secretly removed obsolete American missiles from Turkey aimed at the Soviets, and also promised that America would never invade Cuba. In Vietnam, Kennedy increased the number of military advisors from 900 to 16,000 to prop up the ineffective, corrupt regime in South Vietnam. Historians are uncertain whether Kennedy would have avoided the failures of [[Lyndon Johnson]] in Vietnam.

He was assassinated on November 22, 1963 while riding in his convertible limousine in [[Dallas]], [[Texas]]. A [[Communist]] sympathizer, [[Lee Harvey Oswald]], was allegedly the only assassin, and afterward Kennedy became a national icon and martyr. His reputation has since been dimmed by reports of his philandering. He is best known for his call to civic virtue:

He was assassinated on November 22, 1963 while riding in his convertible limousine in [[Dallas]], [[Texas]]. A [[Communist]] sympathizer, [[Lee Harvey Oswald]], was allegedly the only assassin, and afterward Kennedy became a national icon and martyr. His reputation has since been dimmed by reports of his philandering. He is best known for his call to civic virtue: