
Peristiwa yang terjadi pada masa pemerintahannya adalah Invasi Teluk Babi, Krisis Rudal Kuba, Perlombaan Antariksa—dengan memulai Proyek Apollo (yang berpuncak pada pendaratan di Bulan) pembangunan Tembok Berlin, Gerakan Hak Sipil Afrika-Amerika, dan tahap-tahap awal Perang Vietnam. Waktu itu, Kennedy menambah jumlah penasihat militer, pasukan operasi khusus, dan helikopter untuk menghambat penyebaran komunisme di Asia Tenggara. Pemerintahan Kennedy mengadopsi kebijakan Strategic Hamlet Program yang diterapkan oleh pemerintah Vietnam Selatan. Kebijakan ini melibatkan relokasi paksa, pengurungan desa, dan pemisahan pedesaan Vietnam Selatan dari milisi komunis utara dan selatan.
Kennedy dibunuh tanggal 22 November 1963 di Dallas, Texas. Lee Harvey Oswald dituding sebagai pelakunya dan ditahan malam itu juga, namun Jack Ruby menembaknya sampai mati dua hari kemudian, sebelum pengadilan Oswald diselenggarakan. FBI dan Komisi Warren secara resmi menyimpulkan Oswald sebagai pembunuh tunggal. Akan tetapi, Komite Pembunuhan Istimewa DPR Amerika Serikat (HSCA) berpendapat bahwa investigasi tersebut tidak sepenuhnya benar dan Kennedy mungkin dibunuh akibat persekongkolan. Program kontroversial Kennedy berupa pengebom tempur TFX Departemen Pertahanan memaksa Kongres melakukan investigasi yang berlangsung sejak 1963 sampai 1970. Sejak 1960-an, informasi seputar kehidupan pribadi Kennedy perlahan terungkap. Rincian masalah kesehatan Kennedy semakin jelas, terutama sejak 1990-an. Walaupun awalnya dirahasiakan dari masyarakat, laporan bahwa Kennedy sering main wanita sudah mendapat sorotan pers. Kennedy menempati peringkat tinggi dalam penilaian opini publik.
John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), commonly known as Jack Kennedy, or by his initials JFK, was an American politician who served as the 35th President of the United States from January 1961 until his assassination in November 1963. Notable events during his presidency included the Bay of Pigs Invasion, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Space Race—by initiating Project Apollo (which later culminated in the moon landings), the building of the Berlin Wall, the African-American Civil Rights Movement, and increased US involvement in the Vietnam War.
After military service as commander of Motor Torpedo Boats PT-109 and PT-59 during World War II in the South Pacific, Kennedy represented Massachusetts's 11th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1947 to 1953 as a Democrat. Thereafter, he served in the U.S. Senate from 1953 until 1960. Kennedy defeated Vice President and Republican candidate Richard Nixon in the 1960 U.S. Presidential Election. At age 43, he was the youngest to have been elected to the office, the second-youngest president (after Theodore Roosevelt), and the first person born in the 20th century to serve as president. To date, Kennedy has been the only Roman Catholic president and the only president to have won a Pulitzer Prize.
Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963. Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested that afternoon and charged with the crime that night. Jack Ruby shot and killed Oswald two days later, before a trial could take place. The FBI and the Warren Commission officially concluded that Oswald was the lone assassin. The United States House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) agreed with the conclusion that Oswald fired the shots which killed the president, but also concluded that Kennedy was probably assassinated as the result of a conspiracy.
Since the 1960s, information concerning Kennedy's private life has come to light. Details of Kennedy's health problems with which he struggled have become better known, especially since the 1990s. Although initially kept secret from the general public, reports of Kennedy being unfaithful in marriage have garnered much press. Kennedy ranks highly in public opinion ratings of U.S. presidents but there is a gap between his public reputation and his reputation among academics.