John F. Kennedy

Dec 22, 2014 Laura Verret rated it really liked it Shelves: biographies-auto-biographies, random-thrift The Kennedys were a family deeply entrenched in politics. Both of John's grandfathers were involved in politics and his father was a successful business man. Naturally much was expected of John. He rose to meet those expectations, entering Harvard when he was nineteen and graduating cum laude in political science. After his graduation, he signed up with the Navy and was deployed to the South Pacific to combat Japanese forces there. He and several men were lost at sea when their boat was struck by a Japanese destroyer, and spent an entire week on an uninhabited island before Kennedy's attempts at escape finally paid off. After the war, John decided he wanted to get involved in politics - he wanted "to serve [his] country as [he] honestly tried to serve it in war." [pg. 45] He took his seat in Congress at the age of twenty-nine - from there it was a straight path upward through the Senate and into the Presidency.