john f kennedy essay

What can we help you find?

While we certainly appreciate historical preservation, it looks like your browser is a bit too historic to properly view whitehousehistory.org. — a browser upgrade should do the trick.

Main Content

Rubenstein Center Scholarship

The Life and Presidency of John F. Kennedy

The Official 2020 White House Christmas Ornament historical essay

• William Seale Author & Historian

This photograph by White House photographer Robert Knudsen shows President John F. Kennedy and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy next to the Blue Room Christmas tree. This photograph was taken in 1961 before the extensive renovations initiated by the first lady.

Show Me More

The White House Historical Association’s 2020 Official White House Christmas Ornament honors John Fitzgerald Kennedy , the thirty-fifth president of the United States. The youngest president since Theodore Roosevelt , Kennedy took office in January 1961, at age 43. Before his vibrant presidency was cut short by an assassin’s bullet on November 22, 1963, he had reinvigorated the American spirit. His legacy lives on in his youthful belief in America and his faith in America’s responsibilities to the world.

With this ornament we remember President Kennedy through his posthumous official White House portrait, made in 1970 by Aaron Shikler, the artist selected by the president’s widow, Jacqueline Kennedy . The portrait, symbolic of his unfinished presidency, hangs in the White House today. Shikler recalled that Mrs. Kennedy did not want the portrait to look the way other artists had portrayed him. “I painted him with his head bowed, not because I think of him as a martyr,” Shikler said, “but because I wanted to show him as a president who was a thinker. . . . All presidential portraits have eyes that look right at you. I wanted to do something with more meaning. I hoped to show a courage that made him humble.”

The reverse of the ornament features the dates of President Kennedy’s brief term, 1961–1963, on either side of an engraving of the White House. The White House as it is today is another Kennedy legacy. First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy restored the furnishings and decor of the State Rooms to the era of the early presidents and invited the public to view them in a television special. “The White House belongs to the American people,” she said. The White House Historical Association, which Mrs. Kennedy founded in 1961 continues today to fulfill the mission she envisioned: “to enhance understanding, appreciation, and enjoyment of the historic White House.” The Association remains a lasting legacy of a presidential term unfinished.

The portrait of President John F. Kennedy by Aaron Shikler in the Cross Hall on the State Floor of the White House, 2019.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 1917–1963

John Fitzgerald Kennedy, born in Brookline, Massachusetts, was the second son in a prominent Irish Catholic family. His father, Joseph Kennedy, was a well-known businessman, and his mother, Rose Fitzgerald, the daughter of a U.S. congressman and mayor of Boston. The family, eventually with nine children, was close knit and political, and regarded public service as a calling. They spent summers on Cape Cod, swimming, sailing, and playing touch football, and their cottage in Hyannis Port was eventually enlarged to become the Kennedy Compound, with several additional residences. Joe Kennedy had high expectations for his children, and he encouraged his sons, especially, to be athletic and competitive. All four Kennedy sons played football at Harvard. In his junior year, John Kennedy took an extended visit to London, where his father was serving as ambassador to Great Britain. Graduating from Harvard in 1940, John expanded his senior thesis into a book, Why England Slept , which examined that country’s lack of preparation for war.

World War II had already begun, and although the United States was not yet directly involved, both John and his older brother, Joe Jr., joined the U.S. Navy in 1941. Joe went to pilot school and John received special training for patrol torpedo boats, the famous PTs. In 1943 he was sent to the South Pacific and assumed command of PT 109, with a mission to agitate and sink Japanese supply ships. On patrol the night of August 1–2, 1943, his boat was struck in the inky darkness by a Japanese destroyer. Two crew members died in the fiery collision, but eleven, one badly injured, clung to the hull until morning. Despite his own injuries, Kennedy managed to get all of them to shore and then secure their rescue, six days later, with the help of native islanders friendly to the Allies. For his courage and leadership, Kennedy was awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal and a Purple Heart. He was assigned to another PT boat but contracted malaria and was sent back to the United States. During his recovery came word that his older brother, Joe Jr., had died in an airplane accident over England. Joe had been the one his father always said would be president someday.

Joe’s death changed the trajectory of John’s life. John had thought of being a writer, but at his father’s urging, in 1946 he ran for a Boston seat in the U.S. House of Representatives and won. In Congress he represented his working-class district with a strong stand for labor and unions. He also supported U.S. foreign aid and military assistance. Well-liked and well respected, he was reelected twice before winning a seat in the U.S. Senate in 1952, defeating incumbent Henry Cabot Lodge of the old Boston aristocracy.

Kennedy now had a national reputation. In the Senate he pursued his interests in foreign affairs and in history, writing a second book that won the Pulitzer Prize, Profiles in Courage , stories of eight senators who placed service to country above their careers. In 1953 he married Jacqueline Bouvier, and their first child, Caroline, was born in 1957. Consideration as a potential vice-presidential candidate at the Democratic Convention of 1956 positioned him for a run for president in 1960.

No Roman Catholic had ever won the presidency, but Kennedy’s forceful statements about placing public service over private religious affiliation proved convincing. In his acceptance speech at the Democratic Convention he introduced what he called the New Frontier, a promise to move the nation forward by increasing economic opportunity, civil rights, and military preparedness as Cold War tensions with the communist Soviet Union escalated. Facing Republican Richard M. Nixon in the nation’s first televised debate, Kennedy appeared both poised and commanding. In November he won the presidency by a narrow majority.

Portrait by Aaron Shikler of President John F. Kennedy, 1970.

The Kennedy Administration, 1961–63

Inauguration Day dawned bright and cold following a snowstorm. Standing bare headed in the sun, the new president offered not promises but a challenge. He called on foreign adversaries to “begin anew the quest for peace” and on his “fellow Americans” to “ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country.”

One of Kennedy’s first acts as president was to create the Peace Corps, a program that sent young people to developing nations, to live among the people they helped. In addition to technical assistance for projects in health, sanitation, and education, their objective was “to promote peace and friendship.” More than seven thousand idealistic Americans, young and old, signed up. Kennedy asked Congress for legislation that increased the minimum wage, provided health insurance for the aged, and scholarship aid for those studying medicine, dentistry, and nursing. He reinvigorated America’s space program with a commitment to landing a man on the moon, and bringing him safely back to earth, “before this decade is out.”

But several months into his administration Kennedy’s attention to domestic issues was interrupted by a foreign crisis. He had approved an Eisenhower-era plan for overthrowing Cuba’s communist dictator, Fidel Castro. But when CIA-trained Cuban exiles landed at the Bay of Pigs, they were captured. Kennedy accepted full responsibility, then turned to his predecessor for wisdom, inviting former President Dwight D. Eisenhower to Camp David. Sobered by failure, Kennedy stood firm when he met Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev in Vienna in June. Khrushchev sought to force the Allied powers out of Berlin, which had been divided at the end of World War II. When Kennedy would not withdraw, Khrushchev ordered a wall built between the Soviet and Allied zones of the city. Cold War tensions escalated, and a nuclear arms race resumed.

The next year brought a much more dangerous crisis. In October, when the Soviets began to install missile sites in Cuba, just 90 miles from the U.S. shores, the superpowers were brought to the brink of nuclear war. Putting the U.S. military on high alert and assembling a panel of security advisers, Kennedy considered possible responses. On October 22 he announced a quarantine of the island and sent the U.S. Navy to enforce it. As Soviet ships with supplies for the missile sites approached, the whole world was watching. At the last minute the ships turned around, and in the next days behind the scenes communications between Kennedy and Khrushchev opened a resolution. Khrushchev agreed to remove the Cuban missiles if Kennedy would promise that the United States would not invade Cuba and, in an agreement secret at the time, would remove U.S. missiles in Turkey, aimed at the Soviet heartland. On November 2 Kennedy announced that “progress is now being made toward peace in the Caribbean.”

Meanwhile Kennedy and the nation faced a series of domestic crises over civil rights. In 1954 the Supreme Court had ordered that racial segregation in schools be ended, but southern resistance was strong. Violence against protests by young people sitting in at lunch counters, riding interstate buses, and attempting to attend previously all-white state colleges led Attorney General Robert Kennedy, John Kennedy’s younger brother and closest adviser, to send in federal marshals, again and again. In June 1963, when the governor of Alabama, George Wallace, “stood in the schoolhouse door,” as he promised, to prevent African Americans from registering at the University of Alabama, President Kennedy went on television to address the issue of civil rights head on. It is not a sectional issue, he said, not a partisan issue, or even just a legal or legislative issue, but “a moral issue.” “The heart of the question,” he continued, “is whether all Americans are to be afforded equal rights and equal opportunities, whether we are going to treat our fellow Americans as we want to be treated.” He called on Congress to enact legislation protecting the rights of all Americans to be served in places of public accommodation and to vote without penalty or intimidation.

Kennedy’s comprehensive civil rights bill was under debate in Congress, when, in August, a March on Washington brought a quarter of a million supporters to the National Mall. From the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, Joan Baez and the Freedom Singers led the crowd in “We Shall Overcome,” and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. challenged the nation “to rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed . . . ‘that all men are created equal.’” In 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson shepherded the Civil Rights Act through Congress in tribute to Kennedy, and a Voting Rights Act followed the next year.

Kennedy’s confidence in the purpose of America and in Americans’ ability to solve problems seemed on the way to being realized that summer. In June, at a commencement address at American University, he announced that his topic would be “the most important on earth: world peace.” “Not the peace of the grave or the security of the slave. I’m talking about genuine peace,” he said, “the kind of peace that makes life on earth worth living, the kind that enables men and nations to grow and to hope and to build a better life for all their children—not merely peace for Americans but peace for all men and women—not merely peace in our time but peace for all time.” He called on Americans to “reexamine our attitude toward the Soviet Union,” not to give in to propaganda and distorted views that “see conflict as inevitable, accommodation as impossible, and communication as nothing more than an exchange of threats.” “Let us direct our attention to our common interests,” he said, “for, in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children’s future. And we are all mortal.”

At the end of the speech Kennedy announced negotiations under way for a nuclear test ban treaty with the Soviets; it was signed in August, and a few weeks later a “hot line” was installed, a direct link between Washington and Moscow that would permit instantaneous communication between the superpowers. Visiting the Berlin Wall that summer, Kennedy repeated his themes of freedom and peace. “Freedom is indivisible,” he said. “Lift your eyes beyond the dangers to today, to the hopes of tomorrow . . . to the advance of freedom everywhere, beyond the wall to the day of peace with justice, beyond yourselves and ourselves to all mankind.”

The Kennedy Family in the White House

Not since the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt had there been little children in the White House. Caroline was three when the Kennedys moved in, and John just two months old. Photographs of them romping with their father in the Oval Office and of Caroline riding her pony, Macaroni, on the White House lawn endeared this young family to all Americans, of all political persuasions. When Khrushchev sent Caroline a white puppy, Pushinka, and when Pushinka and the family’s beloved Welsh terrier, Charlie, had puppies together, the photo ops were irresistible.

Yet Jacqueline Kennedy was protective of her children, wanting to preserve for them as normal a childhood as possible. She established a preschool for Caroline on the Third Floor of the White House and invited friends’ children to join. Always she sought to carve out a private, affectionate life for her family, even as she recognized her responsibilities as America’s first lady.

This photograph shows President John F. Kennedy with Caroline, John, Jr., and Caroline's pony, Macaroni. They stand just outside of the Oval Office, beside the Rose Garden and West Colonnade.

Summers the family spent in the Kennedy Compound on Cape Cod, with cousins and all the outdoor games that the Kennedys had always played with vigor. At other times of the year they escaped, when they could to a farm called Glen Ora, near Middleburg, Virginia, where Mrs. Kennedy, an excellent horsewoman, enjoyed the freedom of riding through open fields. Palm Beach, where Joe Kennedy had a large stucco house, was another sanctuary, and often where the Kennedys spent holidays with their many relatives.

Jacqueline Kennedy wanted a comfortable home for her family, and her first task on moving into the White House was to remake the upstairs quarters with her children in mind. A kitchen and private dining room were added, and the furnishings changed to suit the domestic life of a young family. But her lasting contributions were to the decor of the State Floor rooms , which she restored and furnished with antiques as well as some original pieces donated back to the White House with the encouragement of her advisory committee. As much as possible, she hoped the public spaces could be a repository for American fine arts and decorative arts. She pushed Congress for legislation that made certain the furnishings were not sold off again at auction, as had been the practice in the past.

She established the White House Historical Association , hired the mansion’s first curator, and edited its first guidebook—proceeds from which continue to be used to acquire furnishings and preserve the historic fabric of the White House. The Executive Residence’s historic setting on Lafayette Square led to yet another project. Together the Kennedys preserved the square as a nineteenth-century residential neighborhood, its central park a green retreat in marble Washington. Outside the Oval Office they planted a Rose Garden that was both a private retreat and a ceremonial platform.

To this elegant setting the Kennedys invited the nation’s famous writers, artists, and musicians for both formal and informal events. They wanted the White House to showcase American performing arts and to serve as a stage for symbolizing the best of America and the American presidency. Their commitment to federal support for the arts would, in the years ahead, be realized in the National Endowments for the Arts and for the Humanities and in the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts , built on the shore of the Potomac River in Washington.

First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy stands before television cameras in the State Dining Room during her televised tour of the White House, 1962.

The Kennedy Christmas Celebrations

For the family’s first Christmas in the White House, Jacqueline Kennedy decorated the official White House Christmas tree, set up in the Blue Room, with tiny toys, birds, sugarplum fairies, and angels that evoked Petr Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker ballet. Thus began a tradition of White House tree decorations that carry out a specific theme. The 1962 tree, in the North Entrance, continued the children’s theme with brightly wrapped packages, candy canes, gingerbread cookies, and straw ornaments made by disabled and senior citizens from across the United States. Mrs. Kennedy visited a local children’s hospital to give presents to sick children who would not be home for Christmas. The Kennedys generally traveled to Palm Beach for Christmas Day, where members of the large extended family often gathered. The children hung stockings and put on Christmas pageants, and all went to Christmas Mass together. In 1962 the personal gifts were chosen with great care. Knowing her love of French art, John Kennedy gave his wife a drawing by the French Impressionist Pierre Auguste Renoir. Knowing his love of the sea, Jacqueline Kennedy gave her husband a piece of scrimshaw carved with the Presidential Seal. Caroline wanted a doll, and John a helicopter.

Planning for Christmas 1963 was almost completed by November 21, when John and Jacqueline Kennedy flew to Texas for a three-day visit. The annual Christmas card was already printed—a color photograph of an eighteenth-century crèche that was displayed for the holidays in the East Room— and cards for thirty friends and supporters had been signed. John Kennedy had purchased a fur coverlet as a present for his wife, and he had learned to speak enough French to surprise her on Christmas Day.

The Kennedy Legacy

News of Kennedy’s death shocked Americans and shook the entire world. Leaders from more than ninety nations attended the funeral . It was too soon to speak of a legacy, but it is clear now that the Kennedys changed the character of the White House forever. John Kennedy’s daring and optimism inspired Americans to take pride in their achievements and to commit to public service. Kennedy was president in a dangerous time, and his leadership, both clear-eyed and calm, worked always toward peace.

President John F. Kennedy's flag-draped casket is seen carried on a horse-drawn caisson as his funeral procession leaves the White House, 1963.

After she left the White House, Jacqueline Kennedy sought the private life she had always wanted, for herself and her children. She returned only once , on February 3, 1971, privately and in secret, to view the official portraits by Aaron Shikler. “The day I always dreaded,” she wrote in a thank-you to First Lady Pat Nixon , “turned out to be one of the most precious ones I spent with my children.”

This was originally published on February 17, 2020

You Might Also Like

The 2023 White House Christmas Ornament

Every year since 1981, the White House Historical Association has had the privilege of designing the Official White House Christmas Ornament. These unique collectibles — honoring individual presidents or specific White House anniversaries — have become part of the holiday tradition for millions of American families. In this collection, explore the history behind our 2023 design and learn more about President Gerald R. Ford. Buy

An Ordinary Man: President Gerald R. Ford

Featuring Richard Norton Smith, historian and author of "An Ordinary Man: The Surprising Life and Historic Presidency of Gerald R. Ford"

Home Again with Susan Ford Bales

Featuring Susan Ford Bales, daughter of President Gerald R. Ford and First Lady Betty Ford

U.S. First Ladies: Making History and Leaving Legacies

Featuring Anita McBride, founding member of the First Ladies Association for Research and Education and co-author of U.S. First Ladies: Making History and Leaving Legacies

The History of Wine and the White House

Featuring Frederick J. Ryan, author of “Wine and the White House: A History" and member of the White House Historical Association’s National Council on White House History

President Jimmy Carter: Faith, Family, and a Presidency

Featuring Jonathan Alter, journalist and author of “His Very Best: Jimmy Carter, A Life"

America’s Irish Roots

Featuring Geraldine Byrne Nason, Ambassador of Ireland to the United States

Washington National Cathedral & the White House

Featuring Very Reverend Randolph Hollerith and Reverend Canon Jan Naylor Cope

A Discussion with the Voices of Lafayette Park

Featuring Hilary West, Executive Director for Federal Government Relations at JPMorgan Chase, and Royce L. Dickerson, MBA Candidate at the University of Alabama’s Manderson Graduate School of Business

The 2021 White House Christmas Ornament

Every year since 1981, the White House Historical Association has had the privilege of designing the Official White House Christmas Ornament. These unique collectibles — honoring individual presidents or specific White House anniversaries — have become part of the holiday tradition for millions of American families. In this collection, explore the history behind our 2021 design and learn more about President Lyndon B. Johnson.Buy

Native Americans and the White House

Native Americans hold a significant place in White House history. For thousands of years, Indigenous peoples, including the Nacotchtank and Piscataway, lived in the Potomac Valley prior to the construction of the White House. Since that time, Native Americans have come to the Executive Mansion to share their cultural heritage, meet with presidents, protest, and advocate for Indigenous rights. In

The History and Making of the Official White House Christmas Ornaments

Featuring Richard Rovsek, Board Trustee at Spirit of Liberty Foundation; Dave Marquis, President of ChemArt, Kim Fyfe, Graphics Manager at ChemArt

John F. Kennedy

John F. Kennedy, the 35 th U.S. president, negotiated the Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty and initiated the Alliance for Progress. He was assassinated in 1963.

Quick Facts

U.s. navy service, u.s. congressman and senator, wife and children, 1960 presidential campaign, u.s. president, assassination and death, release of assassination documents, who was john f. kennedy.

John F. Kennedy served in both the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate before becoming the 35 th American president in 1961. While in the White House, Kennedy faced a number of foreign crises, especially in Cuba and Berlin, but managed to secure such achievements as the Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty and the Alliance for Progress. On November 22, 1963, Kennedy was assassinated while riding in a motorcade in Dallas. He was 46 years old.

FULL NAME: John Fitzgerald Kennedy BORN: May 29, 1917 DIED: November 22, 1963 BIRTHPLACE: Brookline, Massachusetts SPOUSE: Jaqueline Kennedy (1953-1963) CHILDREN: Caroline Kennedy , John F. Kennedy Jr. , and Patrick Kennedy ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Gemini

John Fitzgerald Kennedy was born on May 29, 1917, in Brookline, Massachusetts. Both the Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys were wealthy and prominent Irish Catholic families in Boston. John’s paternal grandfather, P.J. Kennedy, was a wealthy banker and liquor trader, and his maternal grandfather, John E. Fitzgerald, nicknamed “Honey Fitz,” was a skilled politician who served as a congressman and as the mayor of Boston. Kennedy’s mother, Rose Elizabeth Fitzgerald , was a Boston debutante, and his father, Joseph Kennedy Sr. , was a successful banker who made a fortune on the stock market after World War I. Joe Kennedy Sr. went on to a government career as chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission and as an ambassador to Great Britain.

John, nicknamed “Jack,” was the second oldest of a group of nine extraordinary siblings. His brothers and sisters include Special Olympics founder Eunice Kennedy Shriver, U.S. Attorney General Robert Kennedy , and Ted Kennedy , one of the most powerful senators in American history. The Kennedy children remained close-knit and supportive of each other throughout their entire lives.

Joseph and Rose largely spurned the world of Boston socialites into which they had been born to focus instead on their children’s education. Joe Sr. in particular obsessed over every detail of his kids’ lives, a rarity for a father at that time. As a family friend noted, “Most fathers in those days simply weren’t that interested in what their children did. But Joe Kennedy knew what his kids were up to all the time.”

Joe Sr. had great expectations for his children, and he sought to instill in them a fierce competitive fire and the belief that winning was everything. He entered his children in swimming and sailing competitions and chided them for finishing in anything but first place. John’s sister, Eunice, later recalled, “I was 24 before I knew I didn’t have to win something every day.” John bought into his father’s philosophy that winning was everything. “He hates to lose at anything,” Eunice said. “That’s the only thing Jack gets really emotional about—when he loses.”

Despite his father’s constant reprimands, young Kennedy was a poor student and a mischievous boy. He attended a Catholic boys’ boarding school in Connecticut called Canterbury, where he excelled at English and history—the subjects he enjoyed—but nearly flunked Latin, in which he had no interest. Despite his poor grades, Kennedy continued on to Choate, an elite Connecticut preparatory school. Although he was obviously brilliant, evidenced by the extraordinary thoughtfulness and nuance of his work on the rare occasions when he applied himself, Kennedy remained at best a mediocre student, preferring sports, girls, and practical jokes to coursework.

His father wrote to him by way of encouragement, “If I didn’t really feel you had the goods, I would be most charitable in my attitude toward your failings... I am not expecting too much, and I will not be disappointed if you don’t turn out to be a real genius, but I think you can be a really worthwhile citizen with good judgment and understanding.” John was, in fact, very bookish in high school, reading ceaselessly but not the books his teachers assigned.

He was also chronically ill during his childhood and adolescence; he suffered from severe colds, the flu, scarlet fever, and even more severe, undiagnosed diseases that forced him to miss months of school at a time and occasionally brought him to the brink of death.

After graduating from Choate and spending one semester at Princeton University, Kennedy transferred to Harvard University in 1936. There, he repeated his by then well-established academic pattern, excelling occasionally in the classes he enjoyed but proving only an average student due to the omnipresent diversions of sports and women. Handsome, charming, and blessed with a radiant smile, Kennedy was incredibly popular with his Harvard classmates. His friend Lem Billings recalled, “Jack was more fun than anyone I’ve ever known, and I think most people who knew him felt the same way about him.” Kennedy was also an incorrigible womanizer. He wrote to Billings during his sophomore year, “I can now get tail as often and as free as I want, which is a step in the right direction.”

Nevertheless, as an upperclassman, Kennedy finally grew serious about his studies and began to realize his potential. His father had been appointed ambassador to Great Britain, and on an extended visit in 1939, John decided to research and write a senior thesis on why Britain was so unprepared to fight Germany in World War II . An incisive analysis of Britain’s failures to meet the Nazi challenge, the paper was so well-received that upon Kennedy’s graduation in 1940 it was published as a book, Why England Slept , selling more than 80,000 copies. Kennedy’s father sent him a cablegram in the aftermath of the book’s publication: “Two things I always knew about you one that you are smart two that you are a swell guy love dad.”

Shortly after graduating from Harvard, Kennedy joined the U.S. Navy and was assigned to command a patrol torpedo boat in the South Pacific. On August 2, 1943, his boat, PT-109 , was rammed by a Japanese warship and split in two. Two sailors died, and Kennedy badly injured his back. Hauling another wounded sailor by the strap of his life vest, Kennedy led the survivors to a nearby island, where they were rescued six days later. The incident earned him the Navy and Marine Corps Medal for “extremely heroic conduct” and a Purple Heart for the injuries he suffered.

However, Kennedy’s older brother, Joe Jr., who had also joined the Navy, wasn’t so fortunate. A pilot, he died when his plane blew up in August 1944. Handsome, athletic, intelligent, and ambitious, Joseph Kennedy Jr. had been pegged by his father as the one among his children who would some day become president of the United States. In the aftermath of Joe Jr.’s death, John took his family’s hopes and aspirations for his older brother upon himself.

Upon his discharge from the Navy, John worked briefly as a reporter for Hearst Newspapers. Then in 1946, at the age of 29, he decided to run for the U.S. House of Representatives from a working-class district of Boston, a seat being vacated by Democrat James Michael Curly. Bolstered by his status as a war hero, his family connections, and his father’s money, the young Democrat won the election handily.

However, after the glory and excitement of publishing his first book and serving in World War II, Kennedy found his work in Congress incredibly dull. Despite serving three terms, from 1946 to 1952, Kennedy remained frustrated by what he saw as stifling rules and procedures that prevented a young, inexperienced representative from making an impact. “We were just worms in the House,” he later recalled. “Nobody paid attention to us nationally.”

In 1952, seeking greater influence and a larger platform, Kennedy challenged Republican incumbent Henry Cabot Lodge for his seat in the U.S. Senate. Once again backed by his father’s vast financial resources, Kennedy hired his younger brother Robert as his campaign manager. Robert put together what one journalist called “the most methodical, the most scientific, the most thoroughly detailed, the most intricate, the most disciplined and smoothly working state-wide campaign in Massachusetts history—and possibly anywhere else.”

In an election year in which Republicans gained control of both houses of Congress, Kennedy nevertheless won a narrow victory, giving him considerable clout within the Democratic Party. According to one of his aides, the decisive factor in Kennedy’s victory was his personality: “He was the new kind of political figure that people were looking for that year, dignified and gentlemanly and well-educated and intelligent, without the air of superior condescension.”

Kennedy continued to suffer frequent illnesses during his career in the Senate. While recovering from one surgery, he wrote another book, profiling eight senators who had taken courageous but unpopular stances. Profiles in Courage won the 1957 Pulitzer Prize for biography, and Kennedy remains the only American president to win a Pulitzer Prize.

Otherwise, Kennedy’s eight-year Senate career was relatively undistinguished. Bored by the Massachusetts-specific issues on which he had to spend much of his time, Kennedy was more drawn to the international challenges posed by the Soviet Union’s growing nuclear arsenal and the Cold War battle for the hearts and minds of Third World nations.

Shortly after his Senate election, Kennedy met a beautiful young woman named Jacqueline Bouvier at a dinner party and, in his own words, “leaned across the asparagus and asked her for a date.” They were married on September 12, 1953, until John’s death a decade later.

The couple first expected to become parents in 1956, but Jackie delivered a stillborn girl they intended to name Arabella. John and Jackie then welcomed their daughter, Caroline , in November 1957 and their son John Jr. in November 1960. In August 1963, their son Patrick was born prematurely and died two days after his birth.

In 1956, Kennedy was very nearly selected as Democratic presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson’s running mate but was ultimately passed over for Estes Kefauver from Tennessee. Four years later, Kennedy decided to run for president himself.

In the 1960 Democratic primaries, Kennedy outmaneuvered his main opponent, Hubert Humphrey, with superior organization and financial resources. Selecting Senate Majority Leader Lyndon B. Johnson as his running mate, Kennedy faced Vice President Richard Nixon in the general election. The election turned largely on a series of televised national debates in which Kennedy bested Nixon, an experienced and skilled debater, by appearing relaxed, healthy, and vigorous in contrast to his pallid and tense opponent.

On November 8, 1960, Kennedy defeated Nixon by a razor-thin margin to become the 35 th president of the United States of America. Kennedy’s election was historic in several respects. At the age of 43, he was the second youngest American president in history, second only to Theodore Roosevelt , who assumed the office at 42. He was also the first Catholic president and the first president born in the 20 th century.

Delivering his legendary inaugural address on January 20, 1961, Kennedy sought to inspire all Americans to more active citizenship. “Ask not what your country can do for you,” he famously said. “Ask what you can do for your country.” During his brief tenure as president, Kennedy did much for America.

Foreign Affairs

Kennedy’s greatest accomplishments came in the arena of foreign affairs. Capitalizing on the spirit of activism he had helped to ignite, Kennedy created the Peace Corps by executive order in 1961. By the end of the century, over 170,000 Peace Corps volunteers would serve in 135 countries. Also in 1961, Kennedy created the Alliance for Progress to foster greater economic ties with Latin America, in hopes of alleviating poverty and thwarting the spread of communism in the region.

Kennedy also presided over a series of international crises. On April 15, 1961, he authorized a covert mission to overthrow leftist Cuban leader Fidel Castro with a group of 1,500 CIA-trained Cuban refugees. Known as the Bay of Pigs Invasion , the mission proved an unmitigated failure, causing Kennedy great embarrassment.

In August 1961, to stem massive waves of emigration from Soviet-dominated East Germany to American ally West Germany via the divided city of Berlin, Nikita Khrushchev ordered the construction of the Berlin Wall , which became the foremost symbol of the Cold War.

However, the greatest crisis of the Kennedy administration was the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962. Discovering that the Soviet Union had sent ballistic nuclear missiles to Cuba, Kennedy blockaded the island and vowed to defend the United States at any cost. After several of the tensest days in history, during which the world seemed on the brink of nuclear annihilation, the Soviet Union agreed to remove the missiles in return for Kennedy’s promise to not invade Cuba and to remove American missiles from Turkey.

Eight months later, in June 1963, Kennedy successfully negotiated the Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty with Great Britain and the Soviet Union, helping to ease Cold War tensions. It was one of his proudest accomplishments.

Domestic Policy

President Kennedy’s record on domestic policy was rather mixed. Taking office in the midst of a recession, he proposed sweeping income tax cuts, raising the minimum wage, and instituting new social programs to improve education, health care, and mass transit. However, hampered by lukewarm relations with Congress, Kennedy only achieved part of his agenda: a modest increase in the minimum wage and watered down tax cuts.

The most contentious domestic issue of Kennedy’s presidency was civil rights . Constrained by Southern Democrats in Congress who remained stridently opposed to civil rights for Black citizens, Kennedy offered only tepid support for civil rights reforms early in his term.

Nevertheless, in September 1962, Kennedy sent his brother Attorney General Robert Kennedy to Mississippi to use the National Guard and federal marshals to escort and defend civil rights activist James Meredith as he became the first Black student to enroll at the University of Mississippi on October 1, 1962.

Near the end of 1963, in the wake of the March on Washington and Martin Luther King Jr. ’s “I Have a Dream” speech , Kennedy finally sent a civil rights bill to Congress. One of the last acts of his presidency and his life, Kennedy’s bill eventually passed as the landmark Civil Rights Act in 1964.

On November 21, 1963, President Kennedy flew to Fort Worth, Texas, for a campaign appearance. The next day, November 22, Kennedy, along with his wife and Texas governor John Connally, rode through cheering crowds in downtown Dallas in a Lincoln Continental convertible. From an upstairs window of the Texas School Book Depository building, a 24-year-old warehouse worker named Lee Harvey Oswald , a former Marine with Soviet sympathies, fired upon the car, hitting the president twice. Kennedy died at Dallas’ Parkland Memorial Hospital shortly thereafter at age 46.

A Dallas nightclub owner named Jack Ruby assassinated Oswald days later while he was being transferred between jails. The death of President Kennedy was an unspeakable national tragedy, and to this date, many people remember with unsettling vividness the exact moment they learned of his death. While conspiracy theories have swirled ever since Kennedy’s assassination, the official version of events remains the most plausible: Oswald acted alone.

For few former presidents is the dichotomy between public and scholarly opinion so vast. To the American public, as well as his first historians, Kennedy is a hero—a visionary politician who, if not for his untimely death, might have averted the political and social turmoil of the late 1960s. In public-opinion polls, Kennedy consistently ranks with Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln as among the most beloved American presidents of all time. Critiquing this outpouring of adoration, many more recent Kennedy scholars have derided Kennedy’s womanizing and lack of personal morals and argued that, as a leader, he was more style than substance.

In the end, no one can ever truly know what type of president Kennedy would have become had he finished out his first term or been reelected. Nor can we say how the course of history might have been different had he lived into old age. As historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr. wrote , it was “as if Lincoln had been killed six months after Gettysburg or Franklin Roosevelt at the end of 1935 or Truman before the Marshall Plan.”

The most enduring image of Kennedy’s presidency, and of his whole life, is that of Camelot , the idyllic castle of the legendary King Arthur . As his wife, Jackie Kennedy, said after his death, “There’ll be great presidents again, and the Johnsons are wonderful—they’ve been wonderful to me—but there’ll never be another Camelot again.”

On October 26, 2017, President Donald Trump ordered the release of 2,800 records related to John F. Kennedy’s assassination. The move came at the expiration of a 25-year waiting period signed into law in 1992, which allowed the declassification of the documents provided that doing so wouldn’t hurt intelligence, military operations, or foreign relations.

Trump’s release of the documents came on the final day he was legally allowed to do so. However, he didn’t release all of the documents, as officials from the FBI, CIA, and other agencies had successfully lobbied for the chance to review particularly sensitive material for an additional 180 days.

• For time and the world, do not stand still. Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past, or the present, are certain to miss the future.
• Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names.
• We need men who can dream of things that never were and not ask why.
• If we cannot now end our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity.
• Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.
• A man does what he must—in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles, and dangers, and pressures—and that is the basis of all human morality.
• The times are too grave, the challenge too urgent, and the stakes too high—to permit the customary passions of political debate. We are not here to curse the darkness, but to light the candle that can guide us through that darkness to a safe and sane future... For the world is changing. The old era is ending. The old ways will not do.
• If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.
• The cost of freedom is always high—and Americans have always paid it. And one path we shall never choose and that is the path of surrender or submission.
• We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.
• The greater our knowledge increases, the greater our ignorance unfolds.
• Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty.
• Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.
• [O]ur most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children’s future. And we are all mortal.

Fact Check: We strive for accuracy and fairness. If you see something that doesn’t look right, contact us !

The Biography.com staff is a team of people-obsessed and news-hungry editors with decades of collective experience. We have worked as daily newspaper reporters, major national magazine editors, and as editors-in-chief of regional media publications. Among our ranks are book authors and award-winning journalists. Our staff also works with freelance writers, researchers, and other contributors to produce the smart, compelling profiles and articles you see on our site. To meet the team, visit our About Us page: https://www.biography.com/about/a43602329/about-us

U.S. Presidents

Oppenheimer and Truman Met Once. It Went Badly.

Who Killed JFK? You Won’t Believe Us Anyway

Jimmy Carter

Inside Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter’s 77-Year Love

Abraham Lincoln

Who Is Walt Nauta, the Man Indicted with Trump?

Hunter Biden and Other Presidential Problem Kids

Controversial Judge Aileen Cannon Not Out Just Yet

Barack Obama

10 Celebrities the Same Age as President Joe Biden

Help inform the discussion

John F. Kennedy: Impact and Legacy

John F. Kennedy had promised much but never had the opportunity to see his program through. It was, in the words of one notable biographer, “an unfinished life.” For that reason, assessments of the Kennedy presidency remain mixed.

Before winning the presidency, Kennedy had lived a life of privilege and comfort, and his relatively short congressional career had been unremarkable. Many voters yearned for the dynamism that Kennedy's youth and politics implied, but others worried that Kennedy's inexperience made him a poor choice to lead the nation during such a challenging time.

Early errors in judgment, particularly in the Bay of Pigs fiasco, seemingly confirmed these fears. By the summer of 1962, the administration was in trouble. A particularly difficult Cold War climate abroad, an antagonistic Congress at home, increasingly bold activist groups agitating for change, and a discouraging economic outlook all contributed to an increasingly negative view of the Kennedy White House.

That impression began to change in the fall of 1962. Skillful statesmanship—and some luck—led to notable success in the showdown over Cuba. The economic situation improved. Long-running, difficult negotiations finally resulted in a partial nuclear test ban treaty. And the work of civil rights activists and the occasional limited intervention of the federal government were slowly, but nevertheless steadily, wearing down the power of Southern segregationists.

But serious issues remained. Throughout the summer and fall of 1963, the situation in South Vietnam deteriorated; by the end of Kennedy's presidency, 16,000 US military “advisers” had been dispatched to the country. More importantly, the administration apparently had no realistic plan to resolve the conflict. In the area of civil rights, some progress had been achieved, but these successes had come mostly in spite of—not because of—the White House. Bloody conflict was becoming more prevalent on America's streets, and racial injustice remained rampant.

Assessments of Kennedy's presidency have spanned a wide spectrum. Early studies, the most influential of which were written by New Frontiersmen close to Kennedy, were openly admiring. They built upon on the collective grief from Kennedy's public slaying—the quintessential national trauma. Later, many historians focused on the seedier side of Kennedy family dealings and John Kennedy's questionable personal morals. More recent works have tried to find a middle ground.

In nation's popular memory, Kennedy still commands fascination as a compelling, charismatic leader during a period of immense challenge to the American body politic.

Marc J. Selverstone

Associate Professor of History Miller Center, University of Virginia

More Resources

John f. kennedy presidency page, john f. kennedy essays, life in brief, life before the presidency, campaigns and elections, domestic affairs, foreign affairs, death of a president, family life, the american franchise, impact and legacy (current essay).

John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Essay Contest

In Profiles in Courage , John F. Kennedy recounted the stories of eight U.S. senators who risked their careers to do what was right for the nation. These leaders demonstrated political courage by taking a stand for the public good in spite of pressure by interest groups, their political party, or even their constituents. The Profile in Courage Essay Contest challenges students to write an original and creative essay that demonstrates an understanding of political courage as described by John F. Kennedy in Profiles in Courage .

Contest Topic: Describe and analyze an act of political courage by a U.S. elected official who served during or after 1917 , the year John F. Kennedy was born. Include an analysis of the obstacles, risks, and consequences associated with the act. The essay may concern an issue at the local, state, national, or international level.

The contest deadline is January 12, 2024.

Visit the Profile in Courage Essay Contest section of the JFK Library website for more requirements, judging criteria, past winning essays, and additional information.

Registration and Submission

Please read Contest Topic and Information carefully before submitting your essay. Essays must meet   contest requirements to qualify for evaluation.

The Profile in Courage Essay Contest has upgraded its registration and submission technology, and we now use the SurveyMonkey Apply platform. If you have any questions or concerns, you may contact the Profile in Courage Essay Contest Coordinator.

Important Note: Before contacting the Profile in Courage Essay Contest Coordinator, please be sure to review the contest web pages and read over the FAQ section of the web site.

Email: [email protected]

Sep 1 2023 12:00 AM (EDT)

Jan 12 2024 11:59 pm (est).

JFK's Very Revealing Harvard Application Essay

At 17 years old, the future president seemed to understand that the value of an elite education is in the status it offers.

John F. Kennedy is one of the most mythologized figures in contemporary American history. At age 17, though, he was just a kid trying to get into college (a kid with a wealthy, famous father, of course).

The Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum has a digitized version of Kennedy's 1935 Harvard application, which includes his grades and his response to the essay prompt, "Why do you wish to come to Harvard?" Here's how the future president answered:

The reasons that I have for wishing to go to Harvard are several. I feel that Harvard can give me a better background and a better liberal education than any other university. I have always wanted to go there, as I have felt that it is not just another college , but is a university with something definite to offer. Then too, I would like to go to the same college as my father. To be a "Harvard man" is an enviable distinction, and one that I sincerely hope I shall attain. April 23, 1935 John F. Kennedy

Business Insider dismisses the essay for being five sentences long (I'm not sure how much more he could have written given the space) and implies that his answer wasn't carefully considered. That's probably true—Kennedy's grades show that he wasn't an especially good student in high school, and there's not much evidence that he took his education seriously at this point in his life. Plus, as Gawker points out , Kennedy wrote nearly exactly the same essay for his Princeton application.

Still, Kennedy's essay shows a profound, if implicit, understanding of the primary value of attending an elite school: status and personal connections, rather than mastery of academic skills and knowledge. Notice that he only makes one mention of the education he'd receive at Harvard—a passing reference to the school's superior "liberal education." The rest of the paragraph focuses on the the non-academic benefits: having a "better background," sharing the same alma mater with his dad, and enjoying the "enviable distinction" of being a Harvard Man.

And it is, indeed, an enviable distinction. Harvard has produced eight United States presidents, more than any other school. The school's website has a whole section devoted to all the alumni who've won Nobel prizes. Two of its dropouts are among the richest people in America. Whether these glories are due to the school's excellent education or its impressive alumni network and name recognition, who knows? But Kennedy clearly thought he knew the answer.

What are your chances of acceptance?

Calculate for all schools, your chance of acceptance.

Your chancing factors

Extracurriculars.

John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Essay Contest

One thing that quickly becomes apparent to high school students preparing for college is the burden of funding a four-year degree. Fortunately for college-bound students, there are numerous ways to reduce the cost of school. One of the most notable methods is pursuing a wide range of scholarships and awards. An award that students with exceptional writing and researching skills should consider is the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Essay Contest.

About the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Essay Contest

In 1954, John F. Kennedy took a leave of absence from the Senate to recover from back surgery. Kennedy used that time to study the topic of political courage, which inspired him to later write the Pulitzer-Prize winning book Profiles in Courage —detailing the careers of eight Senators whom Kennedy believed demonstrated enormous courage when faced with pressure from their parties and constituents.  

Today, the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Essay Contest asks students to follow in Kennedy’s footsteps by researching and writing a creative original essay about an elected official who risked their career to take a stand on moral principles. The essay contest serves as a companion project to the Kennedy Library Foundation’s Profile in Courage Award, which honors elected officials who have demonstrated incredible political courage.

The winner of the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Essay Contest receives a $10,000 cash award and is invited to accept their prize at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston, Massachusetts during the Profile in Courage Award events—with all travel and lodging expenses paid for. In addition to the award winner, the runner-up will receive a $3,000 award, the five finalists each receive $1,000 awards, and the eight semi-finalists are awarded $100 each.

In addition to the winners, ten students are selected for honorable mention and all participants receive a certificate of participation.

John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Essay Contest Applicant Requirements

The John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Essay Contest is available to U.S. high school students in grades nine through twelve. Students need to be enrolled in a public, private, parochial, or homeschool high school program in one of the 50 states, Washington, D.C., or a U.S. territory. The contest also accepts submissions from U.S. citizens attending school overseas.

How to Apply

In order to participate in the Profile of Courage Essay Contest, students need to be recommended by a teacher who will support and advise the student in the creation of their essay. Nominating teachers can be former or current teachers of the applicant, but must still be still teaching at the school the participant is enrolled in. Rarely, an exception may be made if a student is unable to be nominated by a teacher from their school. For applicants who are homeschooled, the parent or legal guardian can fill the role of a nominating teacher.

An applicant’s essay is required to describe an act of political courage by a U.S. elected official on the local, state, or national level who served between 1917 (the year of Kennedy’s birth) and the present. Essays need to be an original work of the applicant and fall between 700 and 1,000 words—citations and bibliography do not count toward the word count. Additionally, applicants should cite a minimum of five sources.

John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, and Edward M. Kennedy, along with the senators featured in Profiles of Courage are not eligible subjects for essays. It’s also recommended to avoid writing about present or past presidents of the United States.

Past winners of the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Essay Contest are not eligible to participate again. Employees of John Hancock Financial Services and their family members are also ineligible for the award.

Tips on Applying For Awards

Don’t Miss Deadlines: Pay close attention to deadlines and don’t wait until the last minute to submit your essay. The Profile in Courage Essay can be submitted via email or traditional mail. If you decide to submit your materials via traditional mail, the application must be postmarked on its due date.

Follow Directions: The John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Essay Contest has specific rules about how many words are allowed, sources needed, what information needs to be included, and how sources should be cited. It would be extremely disappointing to write a winning essay only to be disqualified because you made a mistake like forgetting to include a bibliography.

Proofread: Applicants for the Profile in Courage Essay Contest should work closely with their nominating teacher to ensure that they submit a clean essay free of grammatical, typographical, and spelling errors, along with making sure the essay flows and meets the submission requirements.

Research: In addition to researching for their essay, applicants should research past winners to get an understanding of what a winning essay looks like. The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum maintains a list of winners and their essays on their website .  

Professional Appearance: When applying for any distinguished award, there’s a chance that your social media profiles will be looked at. Audit your Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter profiles and delete any content that could be potentially damaging. While you’re at it, make sure you have a professional-looking email address to correspond with.

Get Professional Help: CollegeVine helps students win awards. Our expert advisors can provide whatever assistance a student needs, whether it’s staying ahead of deadlines or crafting an exceptional essay.

Curious about your chances of acceptance to your dream school? Our free chancing engine takes into account your GPA, test scores, extracurriculars, and other data to predict your odds of acceptance at over 500 colleges across the U.S. We’ll also let you know how you stack up against other applicants and how you can improve your profile. Sign up for your free CollegeVine account today to get started!

Related CollegeVine Blog Posts

• Weird But True
• Sex & Relationships
• Viral Trends
• Human Interest
• Fashion & Beauty
• Food & Drink

trending now in Lifestyle

Bride calls out wedding guest's 'ridiculous' RSVP: 'Nothing I can...

'Ozempic butt' leaves ladies feeling 'deflated' ahead of beach...

Billionaire's wife stinks of entitlement as messages show her...

Inside Costa Rica's 'cave of death' which kills all that enters

These are the hilarious finalists of the Comedy Pet Photo Awards...

These are the most popular US baby names — as one joins the top...

I'm 65 and sexier than ever— people mistake me and my...

Dear Abby: My dad told me I'm the reason my parents are getting...

Breaking news, john f. kennedy’s harvard entrance essay resurfaces online 87 years later.

• View Author Archive
• Get author RSS feed

Thanks for contacting us. We've received your submission.

It’s no “Ask not… ” speech, that’s for sure.

John F. Kennedy’s college admissions letter to Harvard University has resurfaced on social media some 87 years later, and the Twitterati are hardly impressed with the iconic 35th president of the United States.

The note, penned by the young White House hopeful on April 23, 1935, is currently archived at the  John F. Kennedy Presidential Museum and Library in Boston, Massachusetts.

His prompt was simple — “Why do you wish to come to Harvard?” — but his answer was even simpler.

In an indisputably underwhelming statement composed of just five sentences, the 17-year-old Bay State native answered the query that would determine his educational future.

He wrote, “The reasons that I have for wishing to go to Harvard are several. I feel that Harvard can give me a better background and a better liberal education than any other university.” 

He continued: “I have always wanted to go there, as I have felt that it is not just another college, but is a university with something definite to offer. Then too, I would like to go to the same college as my father. To be a ‘Harvard man’ is an enviable distinction, and one that I sincerely hope I shall attain.”

Kennedy eventually wound up at Harvard and graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in government in 1940.

“ ’Harvard is a whole vibe. And I’m tryna catch the wave. Lemme in.’ — JFK,” one reader joked . The reaction garnered more than 59,000 likes on Twitter.

"Harvard is a whole vibe. And I'm tryna catch the wave. Lemme in." – JFK — C.E. Little, Ph.D. (@ItsDrLittle) February 1, 2022

“If you want to see peak white mediocrity, here’s JFK’s Harvard admission essay,” added another.

Even the Velveeta cheese brand chimed in : “LOL OUR PRODUCT DESCRIPTION FROM OUR WEBSITE IS 28 WORDS LONGER THAN JFK’S HARVARD COLLEGE ESSAY!”

The Democrat’s short but influential term as the nation’s youngest elected president began in 1961. JFK was assassinated on Nov. 22, 1963 at the age of 46.

But his family’s academic legacy continues until this day . Jack Schlossberg, Kennedy’s grandson via daughter Caroline Kennedy, recently graduated from Harvard Law and Harvard Business School.

Schlossberg, 29, previously attended Yale University and graduated in 2015 with a degree in history with a concentration in Japanese history.

He also appeared at the 2020 Democratic National Convention where he voiced support of now-president Joe Biden and touched upon JFK’s career.

“Times have changed, but the themes of my grandfather’s speech — courage, unity and patriotism — are as important today as they were in 1960,” he said. “Once again, we need a leader who believes America’s best days are yet to come. We need Joe Biden.”

Share this article:

• Search All Scholarships
• Exclusive Scholarships
• Easy Scholarships to Apply For
• No Essay Scholarships
• Scholarships for HS Juniors
• Scholarships for HS Seniors
• Scholarships for College Students
• Scholarships for Grad Students
• Scholarships for Women
• Scholarships for Black Students
• Scholarships
• Student Loans
• College Admissions
• Financial Aid
• Scholarship Winners
• Scholarship Providers

The Scholarships360 Research Team reviews all scholarships individually and strives to exclude any scholarship where any of the below applies:

• The scholarship requires a fee to apply
• The scholarship provider’s privacy policy allows for the misuse of student data
• The scholarship requires paid membership in an organization (with certain exceptions for reputable trade organizations and others)
• Student are required to sign up for a site or service to apply*
• The scholarship seems primarily used for lead generation** or idea harvesting purposes***
• The scholarship website has many grammatical errors and/or advertisements
• The scholarship or scholarship providing organization seem untrustworthy
• There is no evidence the scholarship was previously awarded
• The scholarship has not been awarded in the past 12 months
• There is no available contact information

If you believe a scholarship has been published in error, please reach out to [email protected] and we’ll take a look!

* There are certain exceptions to this, for example if the sponsoring organization is a major corporation or nonprofit with its own scholarship application system. ** Lead generation scholarships will require students to sign up for an app or website and require minimal (if any) application requirements. ***Idea harvesting scholarships will require students to submit blog posts or other materials that companies may use for marketing purposes.

Student-centric advice and objective recommendations

Higher education has never been more confusing or expensive. Our goal is to help you navigate the very big decisions related to higher ed with objective information and expert advice. Each piece of content on the site is original, based on extensive research, and reviewed by multiple editors, including a subject matter expert. This ensures that all of our content is up-to-date, useful, accurate, and thorough.

Our reviews and recommendations are based on extensive research, testing, and feedback. We may receive commission from links on our website, but that doesn’t affect our editors’ opinions. Our marketing partners don’t review, approve or endorse our editorial content. It’s accurate to the best of our knowledge when posted. You can find a complete list of our partners here .

JFK Profile in Courage Essay Contest

Offered by John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum

Multiple awards worth up to

Grade level.

High School Students

Expected deadline: This scholarship might not currently be accepting applications. Most scholarship programs only accept applications a few months ahead of their annual deadline. We’ve estimated this deadline based on last year’s deadline in order to help you plan out your scholarship applications.

January 2025

Scholarship Overview

Are you a U.S. high school student with a love for U.S. history? If so, we may have the perfect opportunity for you: the JFK Profile in Courage Essay Contest! Each year, the contest awards up to $10,000 to winning applicants who submit 700 – 1,000 word essays following the year’s prompt. Each year’s prompt relates to U.S. history, with this year’s being: “ Describe an act of political courage by a U.S. elected official who served during or after 1917, the year John F. Kennedy was born.” The scholarship is offered by the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston, Massachusetts.

If you love U.S. history and want to put your writing skills and history knowledge to the test, we encourage you to apply!

Eligibility information

This scholarship is open to students meeting the below eligibility criteria.

U.S. Citizens, Permanent Residents

Political Science

Apply to these scholarships due soon

$10,000 “No Essay” Scholarship

$2,000 Sallie Mae Scholarship

$40,000 Build a College List Scholarship

Niche $25,000 “No Essay” Scholarship

$25k “Be Bold” No-Essay Scholarship

$10,000 CollegeXpress Scholarship

$1,000 Appily Easy College Money Scholarship

$5,000 Christian Connector Scholarship

$2,000 No Essay CollegeVine Scholarship

Application information.

To apply for this scholarship, students must submit an online application in addition to the below application materials. Bear in mind that applicants must also have a “nominating teacher” who are currently teaching at the same high school as the applicant. Nominating teachers are responsible for providing advice and support to the student throughout the application process.

1,000-word essay

RECENT SCHOLARSHIPS360 WINNERS

Danielle Emretane

Winner of the Scholarships360 $10,000 “No Essay” Scholarship

Fiorella Ruiz

Winner of the "Commencing at Community College" Scholarship

Jack Furman

Winner of the “Tuition Solution” STEM Scholarship

Morgan Breitschuh

Winner of the “Follow Your Own Path” Scholarship

Connor Godoy

Winner of the “Commencing at Community College Scholarship”

Kyamani Atterbury

Winner of the “Outstanding Undergraduate” Scholarship

Discover similar scholarships by category

Create your Scholarships360 account to confirm your eligibility for the JFK Profile in Courage Essay Contest. 0% Spam, 100% Free.

Scholarship FAQ

Is this scholarship open to international students, who should i contact with any questions about this scholarship, is this scholarship renewable, where can i find help writing my scholarship essay.

While you wait for this scholarship to reopen, try applying to some additional opportunities

3 reasons to join scholarships360

• Automatic entry to our $10,000 No-Essay Scholarship
• Personalized matching to thousands of vetted scholarships
• Quick apply for scholarships exclusive to our platform

By the way...Scholarships360 is 100% free!

People are dunking on JFK's half-assed Harvard admission essay in the wake of the Supreme Court axing affirmative action

• The Supreme Court ruled to overturn race-based affirmative action on Thursday.
• After the ruling, many focused on John F. Kennedy's underwhelming 1935 Harvard admission essay.
• People painted Kennedy as a classic legacy admission — a system that exists in some form today.

In the wake of the Supreme Court's decision on affirmative action , the essay John F. Kennedy wrote in 1935 emerged online as a topic of discussion — and derision.

The essay, which was first published by The Washington Post in 2013, reappeared on social media on Thursday after the Supreme Court ruled that affirmative action in college admissions was unconstitutional.

Affirmative action — giving additional weight to applicants from disadvantaged demographics — had been upheld for four decades and helped minority groups access elite institutions like Harvard.

When Kennedy applied there, aged 17, the process was nowhere near as rigorous, with an application form just three pages long, per The Post.

Kennedy did not appear to be trying very hard to impress the school, other than name-dropping his rich father.

"The reasons that I have for wishing to go to Harvard are several. I feel that Harvard can give me a better background and a better liberal education than any other university," the essay read. 

Related stories

"I have always wanted to go there, as I have felt that it is not just another college, but is a university with something definite to offer. Then too, I would like to go to the same college as my father. To be a 'Harvard man' is an enviable distinction and one that I sincerely hope I shall attain," it added. That was it.

—Rebecca Brenner Graham, PhD (@TheOtherRBG) June 29, 2023

The short essay shocked people on social media, who pointed out that the mention of Kennedy's father — a wealthy businessman who graduated from Harvard in 1912 — was most likely what got him into the Ivy League. 

One person jokingly tweeted : "Getting into Harvard: 1) be a person of color in the top 20 of every student in America, with SATs and recommendation from a state senator. 2) have Robert Kennedy be your dad, write something about being a Harvard man on a cocktail napkin, and transcribe it to your application."

Although Kennedy's example was extreme and unlikely to cut muster today, US colleges do explicitly favor applicants whose parents went there, via the legacy system.

Commentators — including President Joe Biden — on Thursday noted that the legacy system remained untouched by the court ruling.

The system, they complained, left colleges unable to shape their decisions on grounds or race, but able to do so based on applicants' parents, who are likely to already be privileged thesmelves, and probably white.

Kennedy started his degree in 1936 and graduated cum laude in 1940 with a Bachelor of Arts in government. He became America's 35th president around 20 years later.

Harvard admissions have become extremely competitive in the years since Kennedy applied.

In 1935, a total of 7,870 students were admitted to Harvard, according to a Harvard Crimson article at the time.

Only 1,984 people were admitted into the class of 2026, making the admission rate just 3%, according to the Ivy League's website. 

The Supreme Court's ruling on Thursday was criticized by many, including Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who argued in a dissenting opinion that it failed to understand the critical role race plays in society.

A group of Harvard University administrators  said in a statement  that the school would "continue to be a vibrant community whose members come from all walks of life, all over the world."

• Main content

John F. Kennedy Assassination Essay

Introduction, works cited.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy’s assassination is considered to be one of the most mysterious events in the history of the United States of America. The date — November 22, 1963 — is known to everyone as a shocking and tragic day. It was found out that the gunman who shot John F. Kennedy (JFK) was Lee Harvey Oswald. There are a lot of theories why he did it, who were his companions, and what was the reason for the murder. John F. Kennedy was fatally shot in a presidential motorcade in Dallas, Texas.

Some scholars consider that there are no conspiracy theories. All of them are nothing else but just hoaxes. Researchers prefer to believe that the only conspiracy may be the fact that a small number of organizations rule the whole world (Marshall 1). Nevertheless, the reality shows that conspiracy theories do exist and that they are controversial. Conspiracy theories are easy to claim, but it is also difficult to dethrone them. Some people consider them to be simply entertainment. The word “conspiracy” means something secret, a hidden plan to conduct an illegal activity (Goertzel par.11).

The conspiracy theory of the JFK assassination may be further subdivided into many branches. Every separate branch represents a particular version of who, how, and what for has organized the crime. The number of culprits is immense. The list has been filled up for almost fifty years. The details of John F. Kennedy’s death were unknown, and they were turned into speculations and conspiracies immediately after the shot. A lot of reporters were eager to write the best reporting in their lives. That is why they started investigating and finding out what were the possible theories. They were the founders of the whole culture and cult, which entwined the assassination (George 136).

The Central Intelligence Agency belongs to the group of one of the most popular suspects. This version was developed based on the intense relations between the President and the director of the CIA of those times — Allen W. Dulles. The theory came into existence because John F. Kennedy’s brother, Robert “Bobby” Kennedy, thought at first that the CIA handled the assassination. However, he changed his mind later. The aim of the CIA under Dulles was to fight and win the leadership in some of the foreign countries (Iran or Guatemala, for instance). The means of achieving goals were mainly armed attacks. When Kennedy became the president, everything became different. He preferred more diplomatic ways and at the same time, Kennedy was not absolutely against the CIA’s actions. The first great division of interests took place when Kennedy refused to support the Bay of Pigs invasion, the primary target of which was Fidel Castro. Dulles’ failure cost him his position. It was also noted, that once John F. Kennedy made a statement in a New York Times, introducing the idea that he would break the CIA into thousands of pieces. Thus, it would be no surprise that the CIA would choose its method of doing things and getting rid of a person, who stood in their way (Burgos 1). It is only one part of the conspiracy theory surrounding the John F. Kennedy assassination.

Leroy Fletcher Prouty was a Chief of Special Operations under Kennedy’s presidency. He was the colonel of the US Armed Forces. After Party had retired, he became a critic of the foreign policy of the U.S. He also made a significant claim about the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Colonel Fletcher Pourty had a real knowledge of what was going on in the government. He acknowledged that the President was killed because of his policies concerning Vietnam. John F. Kennedy was a wise man, who understood that the invasion of Vietnam would become a disaster. Unfortunately, he was the only one who thought so among other officials.

John F. Kennedy signed National Security Action Memorandum 263, the central point of which was the total withdrawal of the U.S. military groups and all other personnel from Vietnam by 1965. This order did not coincide with the interests of the military and the CIA officials. That is why, according to Prouty’s claim, an organized group was formed to remove Kennedy from his position. The Vietnam War was an extremely profitable operation. The United States could not afford to start a large-scale war in the age of nuclear weapons. The only possible decision was starting a small, unimportant one for the rest of the world war. There was no significant object or city in Vietnam, the siege of which might have led to the declaration of a great war. Such activity is also called “stateless terrorism.” One can only imagine how Vietnam could resist a highly developed U.S. Armed Forces. John F. Kennedy understood all of this and was against those policies. Military commanders urged Kennedy several times to change his policies, but the President constantly refused (Prouty 8). Probably, he had to pay his life for this decision.

The conspiracy theory of the CIA involvement in the JFK assassination still lacks one part — the connection with the gunman Lee Harvey Oswald. He may be regarded as the last constituent of this jigsaw puzzle. The most important question was whether Oswald was the CIA agent. According to Newman, Oswald has always been interested Central Intelligence Agency since he defected to the Soviet Union in 1959 and till the end of his life. Of course, the CIA officials refused the claim that Oswald was somehow connected with the agency. On the contrary, the testimony of James Willcott, the CIA finance officer, proved the fact that a kind of relations took place (Newman 12). During the time spent in USSR, Lee Harvey Oswald might become a KGB agent, or just interested in communist ideas.

The conspiracy theory under consideration should be thought of as a controversial one. The claim that the JFK assassination was organized by the CIA is of great significance. That is why it was impossible to prove it. In my opinion, the creators of this theory were looking for success and popularity. On the other hand, there could be a significant number of other ways to present the assassination. Such facts as Prourty’s evidence, Willcott’s testimony, and the simple observation of history make one think that the claim may be right.

There is no doubt that such statements are made with special purposes. Maybe some researcher has been looking for truth, and that is the main reason why the JFK assassination conspiracy theory exists. The CIA has its enemies as well. Probably such avouchment should have undermined the CIA’s reputation.

In my opinion, too many years have already passed to find out the truth. The described conspiracy theory has the right to existence, but I will not affirm that it represents the truth.

Burgos, Evan 2013, An inside job: CIA a suspect for some in JFK’s killing . Web.

George, Alice. The Assassination of John F. Kennedy: Political Trauma and American Memory , London: Routledge, 2013. Print.

Goertzel, Ted. “The Conspiracy Meme.” Skeptical Inquirer 35.1 (2011): n.pag. Web. 2015.

Marshall, Andrew 2012, No Conspiracy Theory — A Small Group of Companies Have Enormous Power over the World. 2015. Web.

Newman, John. Oswald and the CIA: The Documented Truth About the Unknown Relationship Between the U.S. Government and the Alleged Killer of JFK , New York: Skyhorse Publishing, Inc., 2013. Print.

Prourty, Leroy Fletcher. JFK: The CIA, Vietnam, and the Plot to Assassinate John F. Kennedy , New York: Skyhorse Publishing, Inc., 2013. Print.

• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2022, January 26). John F. Kennedy Assassination. https://ivypanda.com/essays/john-f-kennedy-assassination/

"John F. Kennedy Assassination." IvyPanda , 26 Jan. 2022, ivypanda.com/essays/john-f-kennedy-assassination/.

IvyPanda . (2022) 'John F. Kennedy Assassination'. 26 January.

IvyPanda . 2022. "John F. Kennedy Assassination." January 26, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/john-f-kennedy-assassination/.

1. IvyPanda . "John F. Kennedy Assassination." January 26, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/john-f-kennedy-assassination/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "John F. Kennedy Assassination." January 26, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/john-f-kennedy-assassination/.

• The Assassination of John F. Kennedy: Conspiracy Theories
• Ballistics Evidence of John F. Kennedy's Assassination
• Oswald T. Avery and the Discovery of the DNA
• Testimony at the Inquisition of Galileo
• Carl Friedrich Gauss: The Greatest Mathematician
• J. P. Morgan and Linda Chavez in American History
• Elizabeth I of England as a Very Successful Monarch
• Comparing Sheikha Hind bint Maktoum bin Juma Al Maktoum and Princess Haya bint al Hussein

Why Is JFK's Harvard Admissions Essay Going Viral?

Social media users are discovering President John F. Kennedy's "underwhelming" Harvard application.

In one tweet from February 7, a UCLA PhD student tweeted JFK's Harvard application essay with a simple screenshot and the text "YALL IM CRYING PLEASE LOOK AT THIS!!!" The tweet has nearly 70,000 likes and 8,000 retweets.

Many users point out how underwhelming the essay is, others suggest that the line that got him accepted was the mention of his father, Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., who graduated from Harvard in 1912.

It reads the essay full:

The reasons that I have for wishing to go to Harvard are several. I feel that Harvard can give me a better background and a better liberal education than any other university. I have always wanted to go there, as I have felt that it is not just another college, but is a university with something definite to offer. Then too, I would like to go to the same college as my father. To be a "Harvard man" is an enviable distinction, and one that I sincerely hope I shall attain.

It's only five sentences long, and as many pointed out on Twitter, it doesn't really say much. Yet, the essay worked—he got in, started in fall of 1936, and graduated cum laude in 1940 with a Bachelor of Arts in government.

Harvard admissions has become extremely competitive in the years since JFK applied; the acceptance rate fell to 3.43 percent in 2021. Yet, according to the Harvard Crimson , "Between 2014 and 2019, the acceptance rate for legacies, 33 percent, dwarfed Harvard’s overall acceptance rate of only 6 percent."

JFK's own children and grandchildren attended Harvard: his daughter, Caroline Kennedy graduated from undergrad in 1980, and granddaughter, Rose Kennedy Schlossberg, graduated in 2010. Jack Kennedy Schlossberg didn't attend for undergrad, opting to go to Yale University instead, but he recently graduated with dual degrees from Harvard Business School and Harvard Law School.

It's not just Twitter where JFK's essay is going viral; on TikTok, law student Rashid Eldoma analyzes the essay:

Musician Jordan Kahan, who goes by Boxout, also responded to the essay on the platform joking that it "basically boils down to 'Harvard's pretty cool, also my dad went here, so let me in please."

This isn't the first time the essay has gone viral. It surfaces every few years, in part thanks to the Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum's digitized version.

Emily Burack (she/her) is the Senior News Editor for Town & Country, where she covers entertainment, culture, the royals, and a range of other subjects. Before joining T&C, she was the deputy managing editor at Hey Alma , a Jewish culture site. Follow her @emburack on Twitter and Instagram .

@media(min-width: 40.625rem){.css-1jdielu:before{margin:0.625rem 0.625rem 0;width:3.5rem;-webkit-filter:invert(17%) sepia(72%) saturate(710%) hue-rotate(181deg) brightness(97%) contrast(97%);filter:invert(17%) sepia(72%) saturate(710%) hue-rotate(181deg) brightness(97%) contrast(97%);height:1.5rem;content:'';display:inline-block;-webkit-transform:scale(-1, 1);-moz-transform:scale(-1, 1);-ms-transform:scale(-1, 1);transform:scale(-1, 1);background-repeat:no-repeat;}.loaded .css-1jdielu:before{background-image:url(/_assets/design-tokens/townandcountrymag/static/images/diamond-header-design-element.80fb60e.svg);}}@media(min-width: 64rem){.css-1jdielu:before{margin:0 0.625rem 0.25rem;}} The Kennedy Family @media(min-width: 40.625rem){.css-128xfoy:before{margin:0.625rem 0.625rem 0;width:3.5rem;-webkit-filter:invert(17%) sepia(72%) saturate(710%) hue-rotate(181deg) brightness(97%) contrast(97%);filter:invert(17%) sepia(72%) saturate(710%) hue-rotate(181deg) brightness(97%) contrast(97%);height:1.5rem;content:'';display:inline-block;background-repeat:no-repeat;}.loaded .css-128xfoy:before{background-image:url(/_assets/design-tokens/townandcountrymag/static/images/diamond-header-design-element.80fb60e.svg);}}@media(min-width: 64rem){.css-128xfoy:before{margin:0 0.625rem 0.25rem;}}

Jack Schlossberg Criticizes RFK Jr.'s Campaign

Zendaya's "I Told Ya" Shirt from Challengers

Members of the Kennedy Family Endorse Biden

Ethel Kennedy Celebrates Her 96th Birthday

Biden Meets with Kennedys at the White House

Bobby Shriver Speaks Out Against RFK Jr. Ad

Does Rob Reiner Know Who Killed John F. Kennedy?

How Lee Radziwill Helped Jackie Kennedy

Jackie Kennedy's Life in Pictures

70 Powerful Photos of the Kennedy Family

Remembering JFK: His Life in Pictures

• National Security
• Matthew Continetti
• Men of the Year

• Men Of The Year

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Hires Former Ramaswamy Official for TikTok 'Influencer' Campaign

Joe Biden Is 2024's Chaos Candidate

Day before biden admin announced it would withhold weapons from israel, it issued sanctions waiver to allow arms sales to qatar and lebanon, inside the campus playbook to build a nationwide ‘unity intifada’ in support of hamas, a yale professor wrote an op-ed about anti-semitism on campus. the university spent over a year investigating him., once again, president biden caves to the bernie sanders left, robert f. kennedy jr. vacationed in cuba, praised 'incredibly charming' fidel castro, kennedy's embrace of the socialist strongman could alienate republican voters.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. often invokes his family’s political legacy while on the campaign trail. But there’s at least one area where the presidential contender dissents from his father and uncle: Cuba.

RFK Jr. first visited Cuba  in 1996 to discuss environmental issues as part of a delegation with the National Resources Defense Council. He returned to Cuba in 2014, and has since praised Cuba’s socialist health care system, claiming the country produces healthier citizens than the United States.

He’s also spoken fondly about time he and his children spent with Castro, calling the late strongman "incredibly charming," in a November 2023 interview.

"He was very, very kind to me and to my family and he had a very open, engaged mind and I talked to him about a million things," Kennedy said, noting that he "talked to [Castro] about the U.S. attempts to assassinate him."

At least one of those assassination attempts took place during the administration of RFK Jr.’s uncle, President John F. Kennedy. In 1961, the U.S. government attempted to overthrow Castro, and shortly thereafter came close to war with the island over its storage of Soviet missiles. RFK Jr.’s father, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, closely advised his brother throughout the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.

Kennedy’s embrace of Cuba’s socialist regime could hurt his efforts to attract Republican voters to his third-party presidential bid. A lifelong Democrat, Kennedy has boasted that he takes "more votes from President Trump than I do from President Biden." His campaign hired a former senior staffer from Vivek Ramaswamy's failed presidential bid to help attract Republican voters.

Kennedy’s presidential campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

Kennedy worked so closely with Castro that he claims he stopped Cuba from developing a nuclear power plant. Instead, Kennedy said, he introduced Castro to "new European turbines" and gas power.

"We were asking him not to build it, and ultimately he held its construction," Kennedy said.

Shortly after his 2014 trip, Kennedy posted a photo of himself on Twitter diving underwater with his sons off the coast of Cuba. At the time, most Americans were barred from directly traveling to the country. Former president Barack Obama relaxed Cuban travel restrictions in 2016.

Kennedy’s children also spent time with Castro, who "wrote letters to my kids, all of my kids afterwards, very lengthy, lengthy letters," Kennedy said. One of his children, Conor, praised and defended the Cuban regime in a 2014 essay for far-left website EcoWatch.

"While we blame Cuba for not allowing their citizens to travel freely to the U.S., we restrict our own citizens from traveling freely to Cuba," the younger Kennedy wrote. "In that sense, the embargo seems particularly anti-American. Why does my passport say that I can’t visit Cuba? Why can’t I go where I want to go?"

This is a far cry from the Kennedy family’s traditional stance on Cuba. At the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis, President John F. Kennedy said that "most Cubans today look forward to the time when they will be truly free—free from foreign domination, free to choose their own leaders, free to select their own system."

RFK Jr.’s embrace of Havana is hardly the first time he dissented from Hyannis Port orthodoxy. The majority of the Kennedy family has endorsed President Biden, appearing with the president at campaign events and at the White House.

Not all of Kennedy’s travels had been as successful as his visits to Cuba. On Wednesday, his campaign  confirmed reports  that a worm had lodged itself in Kennedy’s brain during the candidate’s travels "in Africa, South America and Asia." Doctors discovered the worm, which had eaten part of Kennedy’s brain before dying, in 2010.

During a 2012 deposition, Kennedy said the worm incident "clearly" caused "cognitive problems."

Published under: 2024 Election , Cuba , Fidel Castro , Robert F. Kennedy Jr. , socialism

Advertisement

Using Cartoonish Accents, J.F.K.’s Grandson Insults and Mocks Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

In an escalation of the family feud, the son of Caroline Kennedy portrayed heavily accented characters who suggested that his cousin, the presidential candidate, was on steroids, not too smart and a liar.

• Share full article

By Chris Cameron

• May 8, 2024

The grandson of President John F. Kennedy this week savaged his presidential-candidate cousin, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., in a series of mocking, meant-to-be-funny videos that were, inarguably, uncharacteristically un-Kennedyesque, escalating a civil war within America’s most storied political dynasty.

In a series of Instagram posts, the grandson, Jack Schlossberg, 31, variously called Mr. Kennedy, 70, a “prick,” suggested he was using steroids, said he was “lying to us” and portrayed him as a Russian stooge and a stalking horse for Donald J. Trump.

But what viewers may be more struck by, or even insulted by, are the heavily accented caricatures the young scion used to dramatize his points.

He impersonates a Massachusetts fan of the Kennedys named Jimmy, sounding like Ben Affleck in a Dunkin’ Donuts commercial.

“You know, I’m a fan of his father,” Mr. Schlossberg says, as Jimmy. “And you know his uncle? Rest in peace, I remember where I was the day he was killed, I mean it was a tragic day, the entire country wept. But listen, that guy, he’s a prick. The new guy, the young guy, he’s a friggin prick.”

He channels a southerner named Wade who raises horses and says, “You can always tell when a horse is being pumped full of testosterone — steroids doesn’t make the horse think any better.” And he conjures an Italian-American Long Islander named Anthony (or “Ant’ny”) who worries that Mr. Kennedy would slash the military at a time when China, Russia, “everyone’s on our ass.”

What may be the edgiest impression, though, is Mr. Schlossberg’s depiction of Joshua, an older New York Jewish man , who speaks in a kindly, singsong voice about Mr. Kennedy, until coming around to his fear that the candidate would follow through on his promise to do away with the Federal Reserve.

If so, he shouts, “Who is going to protect my money?”

For a family whose chowder-specked, “r”-averse New England timbre has long been the subject of hacky impressions from the public, Mr. Schlossberg’s wheel of faux-voter imitations was a striking inversion: While so many were imitating the Kennedys, this Kennedy, it appears, was working on his impressions of so many.

Here was a prince of Camelot, John Bouvier Kennedy Schlossberg, with possible political ambitions of his own, cycling between stereotypes of workaday voters to diminish a relative thought to be damaging the Kennedy name.

Mr. Schlossberg has long been in Mr. Biden’s corner. He was featured at the 2020 Democratic National Convention alongside his mother, Caroline Kennedy, who is now Mr. Biden’s ambassador to Australia . And in a social-media video in July, he called his cousin’s presidential campaign , then aimed at defeating Mr. Biden in the Democratic primary, “an embarrassment.”

But this attack seemed more stinging.

Some online fans have cheered the online antics of the young Kennedy heir, who has three Ivy League degrees — and apparently abundant leisure time: Bearing a striking resemblance to his late uncle, John F. Kennedy Jr., Mr. Schlossberg has posed flexing on the beach , breaking open coconuts , surfing and otherwise playing the role of a laid-back beach bum .

The Biden campaign did not immediately respond to questions of whether Mr. Schlossberg’s video barrage had been coordinated with the campaign.

It did, however, seem likely to further strain his extended family.

Mr. Kennedy, whose campaign did not respond to a request for comment, has leaned heavily on throwback imagery and Camelot nostalgia, offering himself as an heir to the family’s political legacy.

Mr. Schlossberg’s videos — which have often appeared to be filmed beachside in a tropical-looking locale — are a very modern reminder that broad swaths of the Kennedy family wholly reject that idea.

At minimum, Mr. Schlossberg, who has hinted in the past that he has his eye on elected office, has demonstrated a willingness to take comedic risks. Then again, candidate humor — itself an occasional oxymoron — tends to succeed most when it is self-deprecating, rather than aimed at members of the electorate.

Whatever his flaws, and however reliant he may be on hackneyed stereotypes, Mr. Schlossberg is plainly a committed performer.

And someone who pays attention to his replies.

Seeing the reaction to his videos, as well as some criticism from people taking offense to his caricatures, he posted a series of sorry-not-sorry clips, again in character.

“They say I do these accents, I’m making fun of people, making fun of working people,” he said as Anthony . “Not my intention, no disrespect.” And as Joshua , he insisted that he was “not making fun of anyone, because I am Jewish, and I grew up in New York City.”

“These characters,” he added — still in Joshua’s voice, but seeming to speak now as himself — “actually help me cope.”

Chris Cameron covers politics for The Times, focusing on breaking news and the 2024 campaign. More about Chris Cameron

Our Coverage of the 2024 Election

Presidential Race

A partisan battle in Ohio has stalled an effort by state lawmakers to ensure that President Biden is on the ballot  in the state this November, teeing up what could be an expensive and protracted legal battle ahead of this year’s election.

Donald Trump told a group of oil executives and lobbyists that they should donate $1 billion to his presidential campaign  because, if elected, he would roll back environmental rules that he said hampered their industry.

Biden announced the creation of an A.I. data center in Wisconsin , highlighting one of his administration’s biggest economic accomplishments in a battleground state — and pointing to a significant failure by former President Donald Trump.

Mexico Prepares for a Trump Win:  Behind the scenes, the Mexican government is talking to people close  to the Trump campaign about proposals such as a threat of a “universal tariff” on imported goods, and working to resolve trade disagreements before the U.S. election.

R.F.K. Jr. Signature Gatherers:  More than half a dozen New York City residents described encounters with people seeking  their signature who did not make clear that their aim was to place the independent 2024 candidate on the ballot.

Sensing Shift on Abortion:  Are Latinas — once considered too religious or too socially conservative to support abortion rights — changing their views on the issue? Demorcats are optimistic .

A Wild Card in Texas:  Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the independent presidential candidate, expects to be on the ballot in Texas. His addition could lend a hand to the Democratic challenger seeking to unseat Senator Ted Cruz .

Michael G. Adams (2024)

The 2024 John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award ® will be presented to Kentucky Secretary of State Michael G. Adams (R) for expanding voting rights and standing up for free and fair elections despite party opposition and death threats from election deniers.

Shortly after taking office in 2020, Adams put partisanship aside and worked with Democratic Governor Andy Beshear to facilitate safe access to the ballot during the COVID-19 pandemic – despite fierce opposition from his party and threats made to him and his staff. Adams oversaw moves to make absentee voting easier and to increase the number of in-person voting days in Kentucky, which historically had some of the most restrictive voting laws in the country.

In the wake of the bitter 2020 presidential election that tested democracy and elevated ballot access as an issue for both major political parties, Adams made ballot access expansion permanent by championing bipartisan legislation that allowed, among other things, three additional days of no excuse, in-person voting. In addition, the legislation affords due process to absentee voters whose ballots are rejected due to mismatched signatures, and it created large centers where voters from any precinct can cast their ballots. As he advocated for this legislation, Adams knew it was deeply unpopular with much of his party, but he persisted and faced primary challenges from candidates who embraced voter fraud claims. The bill made Kentucky the first state with a Republican-controlled legislature to expand voting rights in 2021, bucking the trend of more restrictive voting laws passed in the aftermath of the 2020 election and amid rampant election denialism and voter fraud claims.