Kennedy Lahir

Pada hari ini, tanggal 29 Mei di tahun 1917, salah satu presiden yang paling dicintai rakyat Amerika Serikat, John Fitzgerald Kennedy (JFK), lahir dari sebuah keluarga berpengaruh dalam bidang politik dan sosial di kota Brookline, negara bagian Massachusetts. Ia merupakan presiden Amerika Serikat pertama yang lahir pada abad 20.

Pada tahun 1935, John F. Kennedy menjadi mahasiswa di Harvard University dan memperoleh gelar serta penghargaan dalam bidang hubungan internasional pada tahun 1940. Ketika berkuliah, ia mengalami cedera punggung dan harus dirasakannya seumur hidup. Setelah lulus dari perguruan tinggi, JFK bertugas pada sebuah kapal angkatan laut saat berkecamuknya Perang Dunia II. Pada tahun 1952, ia memenangkan satu kursi dalam House of Representatives dan menjadi senat selama tujuh tahun, dimulai dari tahun 1953. Di tahun itu pula ia menikahi Jacqueline Bouvier. Di tahun-tahun berikutnya, John F. Kennedy menjalani beberapa operasi tulang belakang yang berbahaya. Sayangnya, semua operasi tersebut tidak berhasil menyembuhkan rasa sakit di punggungnya dan sepanjang sisa hidupnya, JFK harus mengkonsumsi kombinasi berbagai masam obat penahan rasa sakit yang kuat, relaksan otot dan obat tidur. Hebatnya, ia berhasil merahasiakan semua itu dari publik. Rasa sakit yang dideritanya tidak menghalangi John F. Kennedy untuk menjadi bintang Partai Demokrat di senat, dan ia mencalonkan diri sebagai presiden pada tahun 1960.

John F. Kennedy yang menyerukan dukungannya pada sistem ekonomi liberal dan sejumlah kebijakan sosial seperti hak-hak sipil serta meningkatkan pendanaan bagi pendidikan dan perumahan rakyat, juga pedirian kuatnya dengan paham anti-komunis, menarik simpati publik di seluruh penjuru Amerika Serikat selama masa kampanye. Selain sikap politiknya, JFK menggunakan wajah tampan serta kharismanya guna mengalahkan kandidat dari Partai Republik, Richard Nixon, untuk menjadi Presiden Amerika Serikat ke-35. In a televised debate, the well-groomed and relaxed Kennedy had appeared more presidential than a haggard-looking, unshaven, visibly nervous Nixon. Many observers believed this debate was critical to his success.

President Kennedy was the youngest man ever elected to the office. His youth, intelligence and worldliness—along with his beautiful, stylish and much-admired wife--charmed Americans and Europeans alike. His children, Caroline and John Jr., were often photographed cavorting around the White House grounds with their pets or playing under their father's desk in the Oval Office. Kennedy's brother, Bobby, also young and enthusiastic, served as his attorney general and closest advisor. The American public increasingly saw the Kennedy family as a kind of American royalty and the press portrayed Kennedy's administration as a sort of modern-day Camelot, with the president himself as King Arthur presiding over an ideal society.

As president, Kennedy combined a fervent stance against communism with a liberal domestic agenda. He was a strong proponent of civil rights as well as a Cold War hawk. He authorized covert operations to remove Fidel Castro from power and, in 1962, challenged the Soviet Union to remove nuclear missiles installed on Cuba. The resulting Cuban Missile Crisis was a frighteningly tense showdown between JFK and Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev that brought the two nuclear superpowers to the brink of war. JFK also sought peaceful means of fighting communism—he established the Peace Corps and funded scientific research programs to fight poverty and illness and provide aid to developing nations. By encouraging American youth to donate their time and energy to international aid, JFK hoped to provide positive democratic role models to developing nations. In a 1961 speech, Kennedy advocated for a vigorous U.S. space program and vowed to send an American to the moon by the close of the 1960s.

In 1963, Kennedy was assassinated while driving through Dallas, Texas, in a convertible. Lee Harvey Oswald shot Kennedy in the head from the second story of a book depository. Texas Governor John Connally and Jackie Kennedy were also in the car. Connally was hit in the back, chest, wrist and thigh, but eventually made a full recovery. Jackie was uninjured.

A bystander named Abraham Zapruder happened to capture the shooting on his 8mm home-movie camera. Zapruder's film provided graphic visuals of JFK's death and has been endlessly analyzed for evidence of a potential conspiracy. In 1964, the federally appointed Warren Commission investigated the assassination and concluded that Oswald acted alone. Some scholars, investigators and amateur sleuths, however, still insist Kennedy's death was a coup d'etat committed by hard-line U.S. anti-communists who feared Kennedy would pull out the U.S. advisors he had sent to Vietnam in 1962 and act soft on the communist threat from the USSR. Another conspiracy theory involves a concerted effort by organized crime, the Pentagon, and the CIA to murder the president; this view was adapted by Oliver Stone into the 1991 film JFK.

Kennedy is buried in Arlington National Cemetery, where an eternal flame burns in his memory.

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