American President
John F. Kennedy (1917–1963)
Facts at a Glance
- Term
- 35th President of the United States (1961–1963)
- Born
- May 29, 1917, Brookline, MA
- Nickname
- “JFK,” “Jack”
- Education
- Harvard College (graduated 1940)
- Religion
- Roman Catholic
- Marriage
- Jacqueline Lee Bouvier (1929–1994), September 12, 1953
- Children
- Caroline Bouvier (1957– ); John Fitzgerald, Jr. (1960–1999); Patrick Bouvier (1963)
- Career
- Author, U.S. Navy Officer, Journalist, Public Official
- Political Party
- Democrat
- Writings
- Why England Slept (1940); Profiles in Courage (1956)
- Died
- Nov. 22, 1963, Dallas, TX
- Buried
- Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, VA
- A Life in Brief
- John F. Kennedy was born into a rich, politically connected Boston family of Irish-Catholics. He and his eight siblings enjoyed a privileged childhood of elite private schools, sailboats, servants, and summer homes. More »
Kennedy Multimedia Gallery
Miller Center Kennedy Scholars
Warren Bass
Warren Bass is adviser to U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice. Formerly the nonfiction book review editor of the Washington Post, he was a staffer on the 9/11 Commission and one of the writers and editors of its report. More »
David Coleman
David Coleman is an Associate Professor who specializes on nuclear and defense policy, U.S.-European relations, and Cold War history. He is Director of the Presidential Recordings Program, where he heads up the Kennedy project and leads the Program’s digital and web efforts. More »
Daniel Galvin
An Assistant Professor of Political Science at Northwestern University. His primary areas of research are the American presidency, political parties, and American political development. More »
Kent Germany
Kent Germany led research on President Johnson at the Miller Center and co-founded the White House Tapes website. His teaching and research focus on the civil rights movement, presidential politics, recent U.S. history, African American history, and oral and documentary history. More »
Ken Hughes
Ken Hughes graduated from Cornell University in 1986, worked as a reporter and anchor, and as a freelance journalist. As part of the Presidential Recordings Project, Ken coordinates team of scholars reviewing and transcribing President Nixon’s White House tapes. More »
Melyvn P. Leffler
Melvyn P. Leffler, Faculty Associate in the Governing America in a Global Era Program, is Edward R. Stettinius professor in the Department of History at the University of Virginia. He served as the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at U.Va. from 1997–2001. More »
Erin Mahan
Erin Mahan is Chief Historian of the Office of the Secretary of Defense. She previously served as associate research fellow at Center for the Study of Weapons of Mass Destruction at the National Defense University More »
Guian McKee
Guian McKee is an Associate Professor of Public Policy at the University of Virginia. McKee works with the Presidential Recordings Program, where he is the editor of Volumes 6 and 7 of The Presidential Recordings of Lyndon B. Johnson. More »
Barbara Perry
Barbara A. Perry, senior fellow and associate professor in the Miller Center’s Presidential Oral History Program, is a well-known scholar of the U.S. Supreme Court and the American presidency. She is also an authority on the Kennedy presidency. More »
Rob Rakove
A Postdoctoral Fellow at the Mershon Center for International Security Studies at Ohio State University. Currently, Rakove is revising his dissertation for publication. Rakove received his Ph.D. from the University of Virginia in 2008. More »
Marc J. Selverstone
Marc Selverstone is assistant director for presidential studies and associate professor with the Presidential Recordings Program. His work focuses on the recordings of Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, with a special emphasis on their foreign policy, particularly that involving Vietnam. More »
Selected Kennedy Speeches
Democratic Nomination (7/15/1960)
Greater Houston Ministerial Assoc. (9/12/1960)
Debate with Nixon in Chicago (9/26/1960)
Debate with Nixon in D.C. (10/7/1960)
Debate with Nixon in NY and LA (10/13/1960)
Debate with Nixon in NY (10/21/1960)
Inaugural Address (1/20/1961)
Diplomatic Corps of Latin America (3/13/1961)
Association of Newspaper Editors (4/20/1961)
Sending a Man to the Moon (5/25/1961)
Berlin Crisis (7/25/1961)
UN General Assembly (9/25/1961)
State of the Union (1/11/1962)
The Space Effort (9/12/1962)
Situation at the University of Miss. (9/30/1962)
State of the Union (1/14/1963)
U.S. Air Force Academy (6/5/1963)
American U. Commencement (6/10/1963)
Civil Rights (6/11/1963)
“Ich bin ein Berliner” (6/26/1963)
Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (7/26/1963)
UN General Assembly (9/20/1963)
Essays on John F. Kennedy and His Administration
- John Fitzgerald Kennedy
- A Life in Brief
- Life Before the Presidency
- Campaigns and Elections
- Domestic Affairs
- Foreign Affairs
- Death of the President
- Family Life
- The American Franchise
- Impact and Legacy
- Key Events
- First Lady
- Jacqueline Kennedy
- Vice President
- Lyndon Johnson (1961–1963)
- Secretary of Defense
- Robert S. McNamara (1961–1963)
- Secretary of State
- Dean Rusk (1961–1963)
- Postmaster General
- J. Edward Day (1961–1963)
- John A. Gronouski (1963)
- Secretary of the Interior
- Stewart Udall (1961–1963)
- Secretary of the Treasury
- C. Douglas Dillon (1961–1963)
- Attorney General
- Robert F. Kennedy (1961–1963)
- Secretary of Labor
- Arthur J. Goldberg (1961–1962)
- W. Willard Wirtz (1962–1963)
- Secretary of Agriculture
- Orville L. Freeman (1961–1963)
- Secretary of Commerce
- Luther Hodges (1961–1963)
- Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare
- Abraham Ribicoff (1961–1962)
- Anthony J. Celebrezze (1962–1963)
Miller Center Presentations About Kennedy
The Kennedy Tapes (9/22/1998)
The Black Revolt of 1963 (4/10/2008)
Kennedy on the Brink of Nuclear War (11/14/2008)
Senator Edward M. Kennedy (3/18/2006)
Vietnam if Kennedy Had Lived (3/20/2006)
Kennedy Assassination—24 Hours After (5/21/2010)
Consulting Editor: David Coleman
Professor Coleman is an assistant professor at the University of Virginia and Chair of the Presidential Recordings Program, overseeing the John F. Kennedy project, at the Miller Center of Public Affairs. His writings include:
Real-World Nuclear Deterrence: The Making of International Strategy (Co-authored with Joseph Siracusa, Praeger Security International, 2006)
Depression to Cold War: A History of America from Herbert Hoover to Ronald Reagan (Co-authored with Joseph Siracusa, Praeger Publishers, 2002)
Presidential Speeches
Below are selections from the Miller Center’s John F. Kennedy speech collection.
- “City Upon a Hill” (1/9/1961)
- Establishment of the Peace Corps (3/1/1961)
- Special Message to the Congress on Taxation (4/20/1961)
- “President and the Press” (4/27/1961)
- University of Washington’s 100th Anniversary (11/16/1961)
- Address at the University of California, Berkley (3/23/1962)
- Remarks at West Point (6/6/1962)
- Yale University Commencement (6/11/1962)
- Address on the Buildup of Arms in Cuba (10/22/1962)
- 90th Anniversary of Vanderbilt University (5/18/1963)
- Address at the Mormon Tabernacle (9/26/1963)
- Remarks at Amherst College (10/26/1963)
Scholarship and Speakers
The Miller Center of Public Affairs is a national nonpartisan center to research, reflect, and report on American government, with special attention to the central role and history of the presidency. Below is a selection of Miller Center resources on John F. Kennedy.
White House Tapes
The Miller Center has dozens of virtual exhibits and interactive transcripts based on audiotapes of the Kennedy White House, including:
Scripps Library Reference Resources
Below are links to reference resources prepared by the Miller Center’s Scripps Library, designed to help students and scholars conduct their research quickly.
Information on John F. Kennedy’s Private and Public Papers
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