Ralph G. Martin's A Hero For Our Time is subtitled "An Intimate Story of the Kennedy Years," yet it goes beyond the period of John F. Kennedy's (JFK) Congressional and Presidential years. This paper is a report on four different eras in Kennedy's life: His formative years, his inter-family relationships, his ascendance to power, and his great moments of both success and crisis while he was President.
John Fitzgerald Kennedy was born in 1917 in Brookline, Massachusetts, and he graduated from Harvard in 1940. As the son of Joseph and Rose Kennedy, JFK was groomed for achievement from an early age. The elder Joseph saw in his sons a way in which he might exert great political influence. He himself had been ambassador to England and a millionaire, but he had higher goals: the Presidency of the United States.
When JFK's older brother Joe was killed in World War II, the spotlight fell on him. He became the oldest of the four sons, and it was apparent that he was destined for great things in U.S. politics. He had distinguished himself in the war as well, and his service with the Navy has been immortalized in the book and the movie, P.T. 109.
In his chapter entitled "Growing Up Kennedy," Martin observes that "so strong was the sibling rivalry that young Joe Kennedy reportedly cried when his brother Jack won the first medal in the family for courage in combat" (45). This shows the intense pressure that defined what being a young male Kennedy meant.
JFK's formative political career began right after the war, in 1946, when he was elected to the House of Representatives. He served there for four terms, at which time he was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1953.
The family fortune of the Kennedys was behind JFK as he built his career, but the young senator knew that if he pushed higher up on the political ladder he might encounter trouble. As Roman Catholics, the Kennedys were different from the majority of Protestant Am...