James Swanson opens The President Has Been Shot! with a description of Georgetown, the rich Washington, DC neighborhood where John F. Kennedy had lived since 1946. When Kennedy was elected, it was there that he embarked on the “New Frontier” (ix), which was his term for the plans for his new administration. The night of January 19th, the Kennedy family left for the presidential inauguration. Since they were moving to the White House, they would never return to the Georgetown house again.

Kennedy came from a wealthy Irish-Catholic family involved in politics. His grandfather John “Honey Fitz” Fitzgerald had been the mayor of Boston. Kennedy’s father Joseph was a millionaire who was an ambassador to Britain under the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration.

Both Kennedy and his older brother, Joe Jr., fought in World War II. Kennedy, who was a navy lieutenant, was nearly killed and managed to save his men by having them swim to an island. Joe Jr. was killed over the English Channel while serving as a bomber pilot. Joseph Kennedy had hoped that Joe Jr. would become the first Catholic president of the United States. Now, he put his political hopes on John “Jack” Kennedy.