Kennan, George F(rost) (b. Feb. 16, 1904, Milwaukee, Wis., U.S.—d. March 17, 2005, Princeton, N.J.) U.S. diplomat and historian. After graduating from Princeton University in 1925, he entered the U.S. foreign service, studied Russian language and culture at the University of Berlin (1929-31), and was assigned to the U.S. embassy in Moscow (1933-35). He served in Vienna, Prague, Berlin, and Lisbon, returning to Moscow during and after World War II. His concept of containment was presented in a highly influential article, signed “X,” that appeared in For¬ eign Affairs magazine in July 1947. Kennan questioned the wisdom of conciliatory U.S. policy toward the Soviet Union, which he considered appeasement, and advocated instead U.S. counterpressure wherever the Soviets threatened to expand; this approach became the basis of U.S. policy toward the Soviet Union during the first decades of the Cold War. After brief service as an adviser to the State Department, he joined the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton as professor of historical stud¬ ies (1956-74); his tenure there was interrupted by a stint as U.S. ambas¬ sador to Yugoslavia (1961-63). He won simultaneous Pulitzer Prizes and National Book Awards for Russia Leaves the War (1956) and Memoirs,
1925-50 (1967).
Kennebec River River, west-central Maine, U.S. It rises from Moose- head Lake and flows south for about 150 mi (240 km) to the Atlantic Ocean. It was explored by Samuel de Champlain in 1604-05. With its main tributary, the Androscoggin River, it forms Merry meeting Bay, which extends 16 mi (26 km) to the Atlantic.
Kennedy, Anthony M(cLeod) (b. July 23, 1936, Sacramento, Calif., U.S.) U.S. jurist. A graduate of Harvard Law School, he practiced law in San Francisco and Sacramento before being appointed to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 1975. He was nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1988 by Pres. Ronald Reagan. His record generally reflected his con¬ servative outlook, and he consistently voted against policies such as affir¬ mative action and abortion rights. His episodic departure from conservative jurisprudence stemmed from his civil libertarian perspective on certain individual rights.
Kennedy, Edward M(oore) known as Ted Kennedy (b. Feb. 22, 1932, Brookline, Mass., U.S.) U.S. senator. He is the youngest son of Joseph P. Kennedy and the brother of John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy. He graduated from Harvard University in 1956 and received a law degree from the University of Virginia in 1959. In 1962 he was elected to the former U.S. Senate seat of his brother John, who became president in 1960. Elected Democratic majority whip in 1969, he was considered a front-runner for the 1972 Democratic presidential nomination. In 1970 he was involved in a car accident on Chappaquiddick Island, near Martha’s Vineyard, Mass., in which a companion in his car was drowned. Kennedy
was found guilty of leaving the scene of an accident. Though he was reelected to the Senate in 1970, he decided against seeking the presidency in 1972. He won a third full term in 1976 and was again a serious con¬ tender for the Democratic nomination in 1980, but he withdrew during the convention. In subsequent years his presidential prospects were lim¬ ited by memories of the Chappaquiddick incident and by his somewhat raffish personal life. In the 1980s and ’90s he continued to represent Mas¬ sachusetts in the Senate, where he was a forceful spokesman for liberal causes, including civil rights, consumer protection, and national health insurance.
Kennedy, John F(itzgerald) (b. May 29, 1917, Brookline, Mass., U.S.—d. Nov. 22, 1963, Dallas,
Texas) 35th president of the U.S.
(1961-63). The son of Joseph P.
Kennedy, he graduated from Harvard University in 1940 and joined the navy the following year. He com¬ manded a patrol torpedo (PT) boat in World War II and was gravely injured in an attack by a Japanese destroyer; he was later decorated for heroism. Elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1946 and the U.S. Senate in 1952, he supported social-welfare legislation and became increasingly committed to civil rights; in foreign affairs, he sup¬ ported the Cold War policies of the Truman administration. In 1960 he won the Democratic nomination for president, beating out Lyndon B.
Johnson, who became his running mate. In his acceptance speech Kennedy declared, “We stand on the edge of a New Frontier”; thereafter the phrase “New Frontier” was associated with his programs. After a vig¬ orous campaign managed by his brother Robert F. Kennedy and aided finan¬ cially by his father, he narrowly defeated the Republican candidate, Richard Nixon. He was the youngest person and the first Roman Catholic elected president. In his inaugural address he called on Americans to “ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your coun¬ try.” His legislative program, including massive income-tax cuts and a sweeping civil-rights measure, received little support in the Congress, though he did win approval of the Peace Corps and the Alliance for Progress. In 1961 he committed the U.S. to land a man on the Moon by the end of the decade. In foreign affairs he approved a plan drawn up during the Eisenhower administration to land an invasion force of Cuban exiles on their homeland, but the Bay of Pigs invasion (1961) was a fiasco. Determined to combat the spread of communism in Asia, he sent military advisers and other assistance to South Vietnam. During the Cuban missile crisis (1962) he imposed a naval blockade on Cuba and demanded that the Soviet Union remove its nuclear missiles from the island. In 1963 he suc¬ cessfully concluded the Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty with Britain and the Soviet Union. In November 1963, while riding in a motorcade in Dallas, he was assassinated by a sniper, allegedly Lee Harvey Oswald. The killing is con¬ sidered the most notorious political murder of the 20th century. Kennedy’s youth, energy, and charming family brought him world adulation and sparked the idealism of a generation, for whom the Kennedy White House became known as “Camelot.” Revelations about his powerful family and his personal life, especially concerning his extramarital affairs, tainted his image in later years. See also Jackie Kennedy Onassis.
Kennedy, Joseph P(atrick) (b. Sept. 6, 1888, Boston, Mass., U.S.—d. Nov. 18, 1969, Hyannis Port, Mass.) U.S. businessman and fi¬ nancier. He graduated from Harvard University in 1912. He was a bank president by age 25 and a millionaire at age 30. He became a shipbuilder, a motion-picture tycoon, and a large contributor to the Democratic Party. During the 1920s he acquired a large fortune by speculating in the stock market; he is also alleged to have traded in bootleg liquor during Prohi¬ bition. Later, as chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (1934-35), he outlawed the speculative practices, including insider trad¬ ing and stock manipulation, that had made him rich. He was the first Irish American to serve as ambassador to Britain (1937—40). With his wife, Rose, he encouraged academic and athletic competitiveness in his chil¬ dren and expected the boys in the family—including John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, and Edward Kennedy —to pursue careers in public ser-
May 29, 1917, Brookline, Mass.,
John F. Kennedy, 1961.
AP/WIDE WORLD
© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
1026 I Kennedy ► Kenya
vice. His role in John Kennedy’s narrow victory over Richard Nixon in the 1960 presidential election has long been the subject of controversy.
Kennedy, Robert F(rancis) (b. Nov. 20, 1925, Brookline, Mass., U.S.—d. June 6, 1968, Los Angeles, Calif.) U.S. politician. The son of Joseph P. Kennedy, he interrupted his education at Harvard University to serve in World War II; he was graduated from Harvard in 1948 and received a law degree from the University of Virginia in 1951. He man¬ aged the U.S. Senate campaign of his brother John F. Kennedy in 1952. In 1957 he became chief counsel to the Senate committee investigating labour racketeering; he resigned the post in 1960 to manage his brother’s presidential campaign. As U.S. attorney general (1961—64), he led a drive against organized crime that resulted in the conviction of labour leader Jimmy Hoffa. In 1964 he was elected to the U.S. Senate from New York. He became a spokesman for liberal Democrats and a critic of the Viet¬ nam policy of Lyndon B. Johnson. In 1968, while campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination in Los Angeles, he was assassinated by Sirhan Sirhan, a Palestinian immigrant.