John kerry
John Forbes Kerry (Aurora, December 11, 1943), is an American politician, former military officer, and diplomat who served as United States Secretary of State from February 1, 2013 until on January 20, 2017, during Barack Obama's second presidential term.
A member of the Democratic Party, he was a senator for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts from 1985 to 2013, serving as Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from 2009 to 2013. Kerry was the Democratic nominee for President of the United States in the 2004 presidential election, losing to Republican incumbent George W. Bush.
A Political Science graduate from Yale University in 1966, he enlisted in the Naval Reserve in 1966, and during 1968 and 1969 served for four months in South Vietnam as officer in charge (OIC) of a Swift ship. For his military services, he was awarded the Silver Star, the Bronze Star and three Purple Heart medals. Upon his return to the United States, Kerry joined the organization Vietnam Veterans Against the War (Vietnam Veterans Against the War ), for which he would be a spokesperson, standing out as an outspoken opponent of the Vietnam War.
A Juris Doctor graduate from Boston College Law School, Kerry was Assistant Attorney General for Middlesex County and Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts under Governor Michael Dukakis from 1983 to 1985, when he was elected Senator for Massachusetts.
As a senator, he rose to prominence as a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, chairing the Senate subcommittee that between 1987 and 1989 investigated the Iran-Contra scandal. the United States, including issues related to Afghanistan and Pakistan, climate change and nuclear non-proliferation.
In January 2013, Kerry was nominated by President Barack Obama to replace outgoing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and was later confirmed by the Senate on February 29, 2013. As Secretary of State, his This administration has been characterized by strengthening Obama's international relations policy, having an active role in issues such as Islamic extremist terrorism, the War in Syria, the reestablishment of relations with Cuba and Latin America, as well as the agreement with Iran on its nuclear program.
Family and personal life
Ancestry and early life
Kerry's paternal grandparents, a shoe businessman, Frederick "Fred" A. Kerry and the musician Ida Lowe, were immigrants from the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Fred was born as & # 34; Fritz Kohn & # 34;, then he and his wife Ida assumed the surname & # 34; Kerry & # 34; and moved to the United States. Fred and Ida were born into Jewish families and converted to Catholicism at the same time in Austria, his father was raised Catholic.
His maternal ancestors were of Scottish and English descent, his maternal grandfather James Grant Forbes II was a member of the Forbes family, a wealthy dynasty of Scottish origin based in Boston, Massachusetts, while his maternal grandmother Margaret Tyndal Winthrop It belonged to the Dudley-Winthrop family. Margaret's paternal grandfather, Robert Charles Winthrop served as Speaker of the US House of Representatives. Robert's father was Governor Thomas Lindall Winthrop, son of John Winthrop, great-great-grandson of Massachusetts Bay Colony Governor John Winthrop and great-grandson of Governor Thomas Dudley. [1] Through his mother, John is a cousin of French politician Brice Lalonde, his mother was raised in the Episcopalian faith.
John Forbes Kerry was born in Aurora, Colorado, at Fitzsimons Military Hospital. He was the second of four children born to Richard John Kerry, a lawyer and US Foreign Service official, and Rosemary Forbes Isabel, a nurse and social activist.
John, along with his sisters Margaret (born 1941), Diana (born 1947), and brother Cameron (born 1950), were raised in the faith of their father. Although their parents were middle-class tall, it was a rich aunt of hers who paid for her studies in boarding schools and elite schools.
Kerry grew up in a military environment until his father was discharged from the Air Corps, which is why the family would move to Washington D.C. in 1949. Once in the US capital, his father, Richard, He held a position in the Department of the Army, and later as a diplomat in the Office of United Nations Affairs of the Department of State.
In 1957, his father was posted to the US Embassy in Oslo, Norway, and Kerry was sent to study at Fessenden College in Newton and then at St. Paul College in New Hampshire. At St. Paul's College, he founded the John Winant Society, dedicated to debating current issues, which continues to exist today.
In 1962, Kerry entered Yale University, where he majored in Political Science, graduating in 1966. During his sophomore year, Kerry became the chairman of the Yale Political Union Liberal Party and one more year He later served as Union President. His political involvement at the university gave him the opportunity to be involved in the hot topics of the day, such as the civil rights movement and J. F. Kennedy's New Frontier program. He also became a member of the Skull and Bones secret society.
Religious beliefs
Kerry is a Catholic and is said to have carried a religious rosary, a prayer book and a medal of Saint Christopher (the patron saint of travelers) when campaigning. While Kerry is personally against abortion, he supports a woman's legal right to have one. Speaking of his faith, Kerry said, "I thought about becoming a priest. I was very religious while I was in school in Switzerland. I was an altar boy and prayed all the time. I was very centered around the people and the church'. He also said that Paul's (Apostle Paul) letters were the ones that motivated him the most, stating that he was taught "not to feel sorry for yourself."
Kerry told Christianity Today in October 2004 "I am a Catholic and I practice it, but at the same time I am open-minded to many other expressions of spirituality that come through different religions... I have been through Some time reading and thinking about religion and trying to study it and I have not made conclusions about the differences, but rather a sense of the similarities in many ways". He said that he believed that the Torah, the Qur'an and the Bible all share a fundamental story that connects with readers.
Military Service (1966–1970)
On February 18, 1966, Kerry enlisted in the Naval Reserve, beginning his active duty on August 19, 1966. After completing 16 weeks of training at the Naval Center in Newport, Rhode Island, Kerry received Officer rank on December 16, 1966. He was assigned to the guided-missile frigate USS Gridley, requesting to serve in South Vietnam.
On the night of December 2 and early on December 3, 1968, Kerry was in command of a small vessel operating near a peninsula north of Cam Ranh Bay, along with a Swift ship (PCF- 60). According to Kerry and the two crew members who were with him that night, Patrick Runyon and William Zaladonis, they surprised a group of Vietnamese disembarking at the river crossing and when they were surprised they began to run, disobeying the call to stop. Kerry and his men opened fire, leading to a standoff in which Kerry received a shrapnel wound to his left arm above the elbow. For this injury he received his first Purple Heart.
Kerry received a second Purple Heart for a wound received in action at the Bồ Djé River on February 20, 1969. He was also awarded the Silver Star and the Bronze Star with "V for Combat."
Controversy
During John Kerry's candidacy in the 2004 presidential election, the record of Kerry's involvement in the Vietnam War became a topic of widespread public attention. Through television commercials and the book Unfit for Command, co-authored by John O'Neill and Jerome Corsi, the group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth (SBVT), a A group of 527, later known as the Swift Vets and POWs for Truth, questioned the details of his military service record and the circumstances surrounding the merit of his combat medals.
His campaign against Kerry received widespread media attention, but was later discredited and gave rise to the neologism "swiftboating," to describe an unfair or false political attack. Defenders of John Kerry's service record, including almost all of his former crewmates, stated that the SBVT's allegations were false.
Anti-war activism (1970–1971)
After returning to the United States after the war, Kerry joined the Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVCG) organization. Kerry participated in the "Winter Soldier" investigation, conducted by the VVCG, into the crimes committed by the United States during the Vietnam War.
On April 22, 1971, Kerry appeared before a US Senate committee hearing on proposals to end the war. The day after this testimony, Kerry participated in a rally with thousands of veterans in which he and other Vietnam War veterans threw their medals and service ribbons over a fence erected on the front steps of the US Capitol building. United States to dramatize their opposition to the war.
Married couples and children
Kerry was married to Julia Stimson Thorne until 1982, and they had two daughters:
- Alexandra Forbes Kerry (born September 5, 1973), documentary director.
- Vanessa Kerry Bradford (born 31 December 1976), doctor.
Alexandra was born days before Kerry started law school. In 1982, Julia asked Kerry for a separation, while she was suffering from severe depression. They divorced on July 25, 1988, and the marriage was formally annulled in 1997. "After 14 years as the wife of a political, and with the fact that politics associated only with anger, fear and loneliness', he wrote in his book A Change of Heart, about depression. Thorne later married Richard Charlesworth, an architect, and moved to Bozeman, Montana, where she became active in local environmental groups such as the Yellowstone Grand Coalition. Thorne supported Kerry's 2004 presidential bid. She died of cancer on April 27, 2006.
María Teresa Thierstein Simões Ferreira, a Mozambique-born businesswoman, Kerry's second wife, philanthropist (known as Teresa), and widow of Kerry's colleague Henry John Heinz III, were introduced by Heinz at a Memorial Day event Earth in 1990. Early the following year, Senator Heinz was killed in a plane crash near Lower Merion. Teresa has three children from her previous marriage to Heinz, Henry John Heinz IV, André Thierstein Heinz, and Christopher Drake Heinz.Heinz and Kerry were married on May 26, 1995, in Nantucket, Massachusetts.
The Forbes 400 survey estimates that Teresa Heinz Kerry had a net worth of $750 million in 2004. However, the estimates are frequently in flux, ranging from around $165 million to as high as $3.2 billion, according to a study in the Los Angeles Times. Regardless of whether the figure is correct, Kerry was the richest US senator during her service in the Senate. Independent of Heinz, Kerry is wealthy in his own right and is the beneficiary of at least four trusts inherited from Forbes family relatives, including his mother, Rosemary Forbes Kerry, who died in 2002. Forbes magazine (named for the Forbes family of publishers, no relation to Kerry) estimated that if elected and if Heinz's family assets were included, Kerry would have been the third-richest US president in history, after adjusting for inflation This assessment was based on Heinz and Kerry's combined assets, but the couple signed a prenuptial agreement that keeps their assets separate. In a 2011 Kerry financial disclosure form, he listed his personal assets in the range of $230 million to $320 million, including the estate of your spouse and dependent children. This included just over $3 million of H. J. Heinz Company assets, which increased to more than $600,000 in value in 2013 when Berkshire Hathaway announced its intention to acquire the company.
Health
In 2003, Kerry was diagnosed with and successfully treated for prostate cancer. On May 31, 2015, Kerry broke his right leg in a bicycle accident in Scionzier, France, and was taken to General Hospital Boston Massachusetts for recovery. Orthopedic surgeon Dr. Dennis Burke, who had met Kerry in France and had accompanied him on the plane from France to Boston, treated Kerry's right leg on Tuesday, June 2, in a four-hour operation.
Athletics and sailing
In addition to the sports he played at Yale, Kerry is described by Sports Illustrated magazine, among others, as an "avid cyclist," giving it his all on a road bike. Prior to his presidential bid, Kerry was known to have participated in several long-distance rides. Even during his many campaigns, he visited many bike shops, both in his home state and elsewhere. His staff requested recumbent exercise bikes for their hotel rooms.He has also been a snowboarder, windsurfer, and sailor.
According to the Boston Herald, dated July 23, 2010, Kerry commissioned a new $7 million yacht (a 75 Amistad) to be built in New Zealand and in Portsmouth, Rhode Island, where the yacht company is headquartered. Amistad. The article claimed that this allowed him to avoid paying Massachusetts taxes on the property including approximately $437,500 in sales tax and an annual excise tax of about $500. .
Political career
In 1970, Kerry considered running in the Democratic primary with a view to being a congressional candidate for Massachusetts' 3rd District, but ultimately decided to support Robert Drinan, a Jesuit priest and antiwar activist, who ended up winning the primary and getting the seat in Congress. Later, he tried to compete for a seat in Congress for the fourth district, managing to be victorious in a primary to which ten candidates presented. However, he failed to defeat Republican Paul W. Cronin in the November 1972 election, despite many polls favoring Kerry to win the election.
Following his defeat, Kerry continued his studies, this time as a Juris Doctor from Boston College in 1976. Upon graduation, he began working complex time under John J. Droney, then Middlesex County Attorney General. Promoted to First Assistant Assistant District Attorney in 1977, he has taken on delinquency, organized crime, tax fraud, drug trafficking and rape. In 1979, together with another assistant prosecutor, he founded his own law firm. He was also a local television commentator and co-founder of a bakery.
In 1982, Kerry decided to run for the position of Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts, competing in primaries along with four other people. After winning them, he ran as running mate of Michael Dukakis in the Massachusetts gubernatorial elections, held on November 2, 1982. The Dukakis-Kerry ticket managed to defeat the Republican ticket, taking office as Lieutenant Governor on March 6, 1983..
In 1984, then-Massachusetts Senator Paul Tsongas, a Democrat, announced that he was retiring for health reasons. Kerry expressed interest in the position and, as in his 1982 campaign for Lieutenant Governor, did not receive the endorsement of the party leadership at the state's Democratic convention. Congressman James Shannon, very close to then-Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tip O'Neill, was the favorite to win the nomination. However, as in the 1982 lieutenant gubernatorial primary, Kerry prevailed in a close primary.
In his election campaign, Kerry promised to mix liberalism with tight budget controls. He was elected Senator after defeating Republican Ray Shamie, despite running in a fairly close nationwide election in which Ronald Reagan was re-elected president.
Senator (1985-2013)
Iran-Contra Hearings
On April 18, 1985, months after taking office, Kerry, together with Senator Tom Karkin, traveled to Nicaragua to hold a meeting with the then president, Daniel Ortega. His trip received various criticisms, especially due to the support that the Sandinista government received from Cuba and the Soviet Union; However, both Kerry and Karkin held meetings in Nicaragua with both the government and Nicaraguan insurgent forces, known as the Contras. Both senators obtained a commitment from Ortega to put a ceasefire in exchange for an end to financing the Contras. Said agreement did not advance due to the opposition of the Reagan Administration, which approved in the House of Representatives a plan through which 14 million dollars were allocated to support the Contras. The House voted against aid to the Contras, but Ortega traveled to Moscow to accept a $200 million loan, which in part led the House of Representatives to approve a $27 million aid package six weeks later.
Despite the failure of his initiative, Kerry and his team conducted their own investigations, and on October 14, issued a report exposing the illegal activities carried out by Lt. Col. Oliver North, who had established a private network, in which the National Security Council and the CIA participated, with the objective of delivering military equipment to the Nicaraguan rebels. Several members of the Reagan administration were indicted over the report of illegally funding and supplying armed military groups without congressional authorization. In April 1986, Kerry and fellow Democratic Senator Christopher Dodd proposed the creation of a Senate subcommittee within the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to investigate the illegal financing of the Contras through drug trafficking.
On April 13, 1989, the subcommittee chaired by Kerry produced the so-called Kerry Report, which established that:
"the people who provided support to the contras were involved in drug trafficking... and anti-drug elements themselves, knowingly received financial and material assistance from drug traffickers.
The Kerry report was a precursor to the Iran-Contra case. On May 4, 1989, Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North was convicted on charges related to the Iran-Contra scandal.
Activity as Senator
On November 15, 1988, during a business breakfast in Lynn, Massachusetts, Kerry made a joke about then-President-elect George HW Bush and his running mate, stating that "if Bush gets shot, the Secret Service has orders to shoot Dan Quayle". The next day he apologized.
During the investigation of Panamanian ruler Manuel Noriega, Kerry's staff found reason to believe that the Pakistan-based Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) had facilitated Panamanian drug trafficking and money laundering operations. Noriega. This led to an independent investigation of BCCI, and as a result, banking regulators closed BCCI in 1991. In December 1992, Kerry and Senator Hank Brown, Republican of Colorado, issued a report on the BCCI scandal. The report showed that the bank had been working with various terrorists, including Abu Nidal, the founder of Fatah.
In 1994, the Senate passed a resolution, sponsored by Kerry and Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain, also a Vietnam War veteran, calling for an end to the trade embargo on Vietnam; in a clear initiative in favor of the normalization of relations between the two countries. In 1995, President Bill Clinton restarted diplomatic relations between the two countries.
Kerry was placed in the liberal wing of the Democratic Party within the Senate, being respected by the most progressive members. He opposed the first Gulf War, in 1991, although he voted in favor of the 2003 invasion of Iraq. However, he was an active opponent of then-President George W. Bush's warmongering policies.
In January 2009, he was elected Chairman of the Senate Foreign Committee, replacing until then Senator Joe Biden, who had resigned to assume the functions of Vice President of the United States. As Chairman of the Committee, he was instrumental in the renewal of the New START Treaty (START III) on the reduction of the nuclear arsenals of the United States and Russia.
Presidential candidacy
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At the end of 2003, he began his campaign for the nomination of the Democratic Party for the presidency of the United States, sweeping the primary elections. On July 6, 2004, without having yet been nominated, but with victory assured, he chose his former Senate colleague, John Edwards, as his running mate. On July 29, 2004, he was officially chosen as the presidential candidate during the National Convention. Democrat held in Boston, Massachusetts, facing then President, Republican George W. Bush in the presidential election held on November 2, 2004.
Kerry would lose those elections, being defeated both in the popular vote (51.0% - 48.5%) and in the Electoral College (286-252), after a controversial recount that opened multiple questions and complaints. In key states from Ohio and Florida, both candidates were tied throughout the campaign, although they finally opted for Bush.
In 2008, Kerry ruled out a second presidential bid, endorsing then-Senator Barack Obama.
The latest activities of the presidential elections
Immediately after the 2004 election, some Democrats named Kerry as a possible candidate for the 2008 Democratic nomination. His brother had said such a campaign was "conceivable" and Kerry himself reportedly said at a farewell party for his 2004 campaign, "there's always another four years."
Kerry established an independent political action committee, keeping America's promise, declared his term would be "A Democratic Congress that will restore accountability to Washington and help turn a disastrous course in Iraq", mobilized and channeled contributions to Democratic candidates in state and federal races. In order to keep the promise to America in 2005, Kerry raised more than $5.5 million from other Democrats. Through his campaign account and political action committee, Kerry's campaign operation generated more than $10 million for various party committees and 179 candidates for House, Senate, state and local offices in 42 states. in the midterm elections during the 2006 election cycle. "Cumulatively, John Kerry has done as much or more than any other individual senator," said Hassan Nemazee, the DSCC's national finance chair.
On January 10, 2008, Kerry endorsed Illinois Senator Barack Obama for president. He was mentioned as a possible vice-presidential candidate by Senator Obama, although fellow Senator Joe Biden was ultimately chosen. Following the acceptance of Biden's vice-presidential candidacy, speculation arose that John Kerry would be a candidate for Secretary of State in the Obama administration. However, the position was offered to Senator Hillary Clinton.
During Obama's 2012 election campaign, Kerry participated in a debate with the president, posing as Republican candidate Mitt Romney.
Secretary of State (2013–2017)
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Nomination
On December 15, 2012, several news outlets reported that President Barack Obama may nominate Kerry to succeed Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State, after Susan Rice, widely viewed as Obama's preferred pick, withdrew her name of the consideration citing a politicized confirmation process following criticism of his response to the 2012 Benghazi attack. On December 21, Obama proposed the nomination which received positive feedback. His confirmation hearing took place on January 24, 2013, before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the same panel where he first served in 1971. The committee voted unanimously to approve it on January 29, 2013, and the the same day he was confirmed by the full Senate in a 94-3 vote. In a letter to Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, Kerry announced his resignation from the Senate effective February 1.
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Permanence
Kerry was sworn in as Secretary of State on February 1, 2013.
After six months of rigorous diplomacy in the Middle East, Secretary Kerry was able to have Israeli and Palestinian negotiators agree to start the 2013-14 Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. Senior US officials stated that the two sides were able to satisfy the State Department's wishes on July 30, 2013, without US mediators after a dinner hosted by Kerry the night before.
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On September 27, 2013, he met with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif during the P5+1 and Iran summit, which eventually led to the JCPOA nuclear deal. He was the highest-level direct contact between the United States and Iran in the past six years, making him the first US Secretary of State to meet with his Iranian counterpart since the 1979 Iranian revolution.
At the State Department, Kerry quickly gained a reputation "for staying aloof, keeping to himself, and not bothering to read staff notes". Some State Department officials complained that power had become too centralized under Kerry's leadership, slowing down department operations when Kerry is on one of his frequent trips abroad. When asked if he traveled too much, he replied: "Of course not. I'm not going to stop'. However, after Kerry's first six months at the State Department, a Gallup poll found that he had high approval ratings among Americans as Secretary of State. After one year, another poll showed Kerry's popularity continued to rise. Less than two years into Kerry's term, in 2014 polls by the Ivory Tower magazine, a foreign policy magazine led by international relations scholars: "Who was the most effective US Secretary of State in the last 50 years?"; John Kerry and Lawrence Eagleburger tied for 11th out of 15 confirmed Secretaries of State in that term.
In January 2014, after having had a meeting with the Secretary of State, Monsignor Pietro Parolin, he said that "We have agreed on almost all the important matters that we are both working on, which are matters of interest to all of us. First of all, we refer to the great concern about Syria and I was especially grateful for the Archbishop's position on this issue, and equally grateful for the Holy Father's comments. -The Pope's comments regarding his support for the Geneva process-. We welcome that support is very important to have and I know that the Pope is particularly concerned about the massive numbers of displaced human beings and the violence that has claimed more than 130,000 lives".
Syria
After the chemical weapons attacks on August 21, 2013 in the Ghouta suburbs of Damascus blamed on Syrian government forces, Kerry became a leading advocate of the use of military force against the Syrian government for what which he called "a despot's brutal and flagrant use of chemical weapons".
Kerry said on September 9, in response to a reporter's question about whether Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who could prevent a military attack: "He could hand over every one of his chemical weapons to the international community in the next week and turn it around, all of it, without delay, and allow full and complete accounting for that. But he's not about to and he's not willing to, of course. This unscripted remark started a process that would lead Syria to back out of an agreement to destroy its chemical weapons stockpile, as Russia treated Kerry's statement as a serious proposal. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Russia would intervene "immediately" to convince Syria to give up and destroy its stockpile of large chemical weapons. Syria was quick to embrace this proposal and on September 14, the UN officially accepted Syria's request to join the convention banning chemical weapons, and Separately, the US and Russia agreed to a plan to eliminate Syria's chemical weapons by mid-2014. On September 28, the UN Security Council passed a resolution ordering the destruction of Syria's chemical weapons. and condemned the attack on Ghouta on August 21.
Latin America
In a speech to the Organization of American States in November 2013, Kerry noted that the era of the Monroe Doctrine was over. He then went on to explain, "The relationship we seek and have worked hard for is not about a statement by the United States about how and when it is going to intervene in the affairs of other American states." This is a visualization of all our neighboring countries as equals, sharing responsibilities, cooperating on security issues and not adhering to doctrine, but to the decisions we make as partners to promote the values and interests we share".
Environmentalism
Kerry has had a career-long concern with environmentalism as a global issue. In April 2016, the Paris Climate Accords were signed at the United Nations in New York.