John F Kennedy is the youngest elected President of the United States--he was 43 when elected. Teddy Roosevelt is the youngest person to serve as President--Roosevelt was 42 when he became President after McKinley was assassinated. Kennedy is also the only Roman Catholic ever elected to the Presidency. He was a veteran of WWII, commanding a number of PT boats in the Pacific. His heroic leadership helped save members of his crew after one of these boats--PT-109--was sunk by the Japanese. As President, Kennedy confronted a belligerent Soviet Union with decisiveness, putting the Soviets on notice that any attack on West Berlin would be considered an attack on the United States, even as he added troops and dollars to the U.S. defense budget. After the Bay of Pigs fiasco, Kennedy was challenged again when the Soviets tried to put nuclear weapons and missiles in Cuba. Again, Kennedy met this action by directly confronting the Soviets and instituting a blockade of Cuba. Again, his action allowed a diplomatic resolution to the crises. On the domestic front, Kennedy established the Peace Corps, and started the process that ultimately concluded with the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Kennedy, however, was not alive to see the Civil Rights Act pass--he became the fourth U.S. president to be assassinated when Lee Harvey Oswald shot him in Dallas on November 22, 1963. During his time as President, John Kennedy had the highest average approval rating of any U.S. President to this day.
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