The United States president preserves, protects, and defends the U.S. Constitution. Each president's term influences events in America and around the world for years to come. This biography introduces young readers to the life of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, beginning with his childhood in Massachusetts. Information about Kennedy's education at Princeton University, the London School of Economics, Harvard University, where he wrote the best seller Why England Slept, and Stanford University Graduate School of Business, as well as his early career as a newspaper reporter is discussed. In addition, his family and personal life is highlighted. Easy-to-read text details Kennedy's military service in the U.S. Navy during World War II, where his boat, PT 109, was destroyed, and his political career as a congressman in the U.S. House of Representatives, where he served on the Education and Labor Committee and supported the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan, and a member of the U.S. Senate, where he served on the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and wrote Profiles in Courage, for which he won a Pulitzer Prize. Finally, students will explore key events from Democratic president Kennedy's administration, including his New Frontier programs, the Cold War, the fight against the spread of Communism, the space race, the Peace Corps, the Bay of Pigs invasion, the Cuban missile crisis, the Alliance for Progress, and the Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty, as well as his assassination in Dallas, Texas, by Lee Harvey Oswald. Beautiful graphics showcase the primary source documents and photographs. A timeline, fast facts, and sidebars help put essential information at students' fingertips. In addition, a quick-reference chart provides easy access to facts about every U.S. president. Checkerboard Library is an imprint of ABDO Publishing Company.