American experience JFK collection, Episode 1.

Streaming video - 2014

In this probing biography, American Experience presents a fresh look at an enigmatic man who remains one of the nation's most beloved and mourned leaders, John F. Kennedy. Beginning with Kennedy's childhood years as the privileged but sickly son of one of the wealthiest men in America, the film explores his early political career as a lackluster congressman, his successful run for the U.S. Senate, and the game-changing presidential campaign that made him the youngest elected president in U.S. history. With the benefit of recently opened archives, the film recounts his struggles with life-threatening illnesses, and his efforts to keep them hidden from the public. JFK offers a new perspective on his complicated private life, includi...ng his relationship with his wife, his close connection to his younger brother, Robert, and his complex bond with his powerful father. It also reevaluates Kennedy's strengths and weaknesses in the Oval Office as he navigated some of the most explosive events of the mid-twentieth century--the disastrous failure at the Bay of Pigs, the urgent demands of an increasingly impatient civil rights movement, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the escalating conflict in Southeast Asia. Part One follows JFK's rise to power. Jack Kennedy first bursts onto the national stage as a war hero, and with his congressional win, Kennedy rises in power and influence. In the second part, JFK's campaign for president is the first to be waged on television, a distinct advantage for the telegenic candidate. more