John F Kennedy

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Born in 1917, John Fitzgerald Kennedy was the second son of a millionaire Democrat power-broker, Joseph P Kennedy. Jack graduated from Harvard in 1940 and saw service with the Marines during WWII.

In 1947 Kennedy entered the house of representatives as a Democrat, and in 1952 was elected to the Senate. His father's wealth helped secure his election as the Democratic presidential candidate in 1960, and at 43 years of age he defeated Richard Nixon in the presidential election and became the youngest (and first ever Roman Catholic) US president.

Handsome and intelligent, he and his wife Jackie seemed to signal a fresh start in politics, but his "new frontier" program of radical Civil Rights and social reform was stalled by Congress. Other initiatives included the establishment of the Alliance for Progress between the US and several Latin American countries, and of the Peace Corps, through which volunteers supplied Third World counties with skilled labour.

In 1961, JFK authorised the US-backed Bay Of Pigs invasion of Cuba, planned during the previous administration, accepting responsibility when it went disastrously wrong. The following year, the Cuban Missile Crisis saw Kennedy demand the removal of Soviet nuclear bases from Cuba and order a US Naval blockade.

For 13 days the world seemed close to nuclear war, until the Soviet Union agreed to remove the weapons in return for a US assurance that Cuban territorial integrity would be respected. Relations between the two superpowers improved, and in 1963 the US, the Soviet Union and Britain signed a limited nuclear test ban treaty prohibiting the testing of nuclear weapons in the atmosphere, in outer space and under water.

On 22 November 1963 Kennedy was assassinated while campaigning in Dallas, Texas. He was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.