Born May 29, 1917, in Brookline, Mass.; died Nov. 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas. US statesman. Son of a millionaire of Irish Catholic extraction.
Kennedy studied at the London School of Economics and Harvard University. From 1941 to 1945 he served in the US Navy in the Pacific. He began to work in journalism in 1945. From 1947 to 1953 he was a member of the House of Representatives of the US Congress, where he represented the state of Massachusetts as a member of the Democratic Party. He was a senator from 1953 to 1961. On Jan. 20, 1961, Kennedy, having defeated R. Nixon, candidate of the Republican Party, in the 1960 election, assumed the office of president. He put forward the “New Frontier” program, which reflected a certain understanding of the need for America to adapt its domestic and foreign policy to the changed balance of forces in the international arena. His domestic program contemplated, in particular, a speed-up in the pace of economic development, partial lowering of taxes, and lessening of racial discrimination against the Negro population. In foreign policy, in place of the doctrines of the “rolling back of communism” and “massive retaliation,” his administration proclaimed the doctrine of “flexible response.” While calling for the strengthening of military blocs and growth in the military power of the USA, as well as the use of economic “aid” and ideological penetration to “contain communism” and strengthen the position of the USA and the capitalist system as a whole, Kennedy at the same time (especially toward the end) favored the solving of vexed international problems by negotiations and a more realistic approach in relations with the USSR (speech of June 10, 1963). In August 1963 his administration signed the Moscow Treaty of 1963 banning the testing of nuclear weapons in three spheres. Kennedy’s political course aroused attacks from extreme reactionary circles of the USA. In the fall of 1963, during a trip around the country, he was assassinated in villainous fashion. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.