1. John Forbes Kerry was born on December 11,1943 and is an American attorney, politician, and diplomat who served as the 68th United States secretary of state from 2013 to 2017 in the administration of Barack Obama.
131 Facts About John Kerry
1. 2.
John Kerry was awarded the Silver Star Medal and the Bronze Star Medal for conduct in separate military engagements.
3.
John Kerry gained national recognition as an anti-war activist, serving as a spokesperson for the Vietnam Veterans Against the War organization.
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John Kerry testified in the Fulbright Hearings before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, where he described the United States government's policy in Vietnam as the cause of war crimes.
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In 1972, Kerry entered electoral politics as a Democratic candidate for the United States House of Representatives in Massachusetts's 5th congressional district, losing to Republican Paul W Cronin in the general election.
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John Kerry subsequently worked as a radio talk show host and as the executive director of an advocacy organization while attending law school.
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In 1984, John Kerry was elected to the United States Senate.
8.
In January 2013, John Kerry was nominated by President Obama to succeed Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and was confirmed by his Senate colleagues.
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John Kerry was US secretary of state throughout the second term of the Obama administration from 2013 to 2017.
10.
In 2015, John Kerry signed the Paris Agreement on climate change on behalf of the United States.
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In January 2021, John Kerry returned to government, becoming the first person to hold the position of US special presidential envoy for climate, under President Joe Biden.
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On March 6, John Kerry left this position to work on Biden's 2024 presidential campaign.
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John Kerry was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Biden in May 2024.
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John Forbes Kerry was born on December 11,1943, at Fitzsimons Army Medical Center in Aurora, Colorado.
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John Kerry is the second of four children born to Richard John Kerry, a US diplomat and lawyer, and Rosemary Forbes, a nurse and social activist.
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John Kerry's father was raised Catholic and his mother was Episcopalian.
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John Kerry was raised with an elder sister Margaret, a younger sister Diana, and a younger brother Cameron.
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The children were raised in their father's Catholic faith, and John Kerry served as an altar boy.
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John Kerry was originally considered a military brat, until his father was discharged from the Army Air Corps in 1944.
20.
John Kerry lived in Groton, Massachusetts his first year and Millis, Massachusetts afterwards before moving to the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, DC at age seven, when his father took a position in the Department of the Navy's Office of General Counsel and soon became a diplomat in the State Department's Bureau of United Nations Affairs.
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At the age of ten, John Kerry's father took a position as the US Attorney for Berlin.
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When John Kerry was twelve, he crossed into the Soviet Occupation Zone to visit Hitler's bunker and ride through the Brandenburg Gate.
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In 1957, his father was stationed at the US Embassy in Oslo, Norway, and John Kerry was sent back to the United States to attend boarding school.
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John Kerry first attended the Fessenden School in Newton, Massachusetts, and later St Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire, where he learned skills in public speaking and began developing an interest in politics.
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In 1962, John Kerry attended Yale University, majoring in political science and residing in Jonathan Edwards College.
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John Kerry played on the varsity Yale Bulldogs men's soccer team, earning his only letter in his senior year.
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John Kerry played freshman and junior varsity hockey and, in his senior year, junior varsity lacrosse.
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John Kerry became a member of Skull and Bones Society, and traveled to Switzerland through AIESEC Yale.
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Under the guidance of the speaking coach and history professor Rollin G Osterweis, Kerry won many debates against other college students from across the nation.
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John Kerry graduated from Yale with a bachelor of arts degree in 1966.
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John Kerry's freshman-year average was a 71, but he improved to an 81 average for his senior year.
32.
John Kerry never received an "A" during his time at Yale; his highest grade was an 89.
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On February 18,1966, John Kerry enlisted in the Naval Reserve.
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John Kerry began his active duty military service on August 19,1966.
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In 2005, John Kerry released his military and medical records to the representatives of three news organizations, but has not authorized full public access to those records.
36.
John Kerry continues to have shrapnel embedded in his left thigh because the doctors that first treated him decided to remove the damaged tissue and close the wound with sutures rather than make a wide opening to remove the shrapnel.
37.
Eight days later, on February 28,1969, came the events for which John Kerry was awarded his Silver Star Medal.
38.
On this occasion, John Kerry was in tactical command of his Swift boat and two other Swift boats during a combat operation.
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John Kerry's commanding officer, Lieutenant Commander George Elliott, stated to Douglas Brinkley in 2003 that he did not know whether to court-martial John Kerry for beaching the boat without orders or give him a medal for saving the crew.
40.
The Navy's account of John Kerry's actions is presented in the original medal citation signed by Zumwalt.
41.
On March 13,1969, on the Bai Hap River, John Kerry was in charge of one of five Swift boats that were returning to their base after performing an Operation Sealords mission to transport South Vietnamese troops from the garrison at Cai Nuoc and MIKE Force advisors for a raid on a Vietcong camp located on the Rach Dong Cung canal.
42.
James Rassmann, a Green Beret advisor who was aboard John Kerry's PCF-94, was knocked overboard when, according to witnesses and the documentation of the event, a mine or rocket exploded close to the boat.
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PCF 94 returned to the scene and John Kerry rescued Rassmann who was receiving sniper fire from the water.
44.
John Kerry received the Bronze Star Medal with Combat "V" for "heroic achievement", for his actions during this incident; he received his third Purple Heart.
45.
John Kerry's preferred choice for reassignment was as a military aide in Boston, New York City or Washington, DC On April 11,1969, he reported to the Brooklyn-based Atlantic Military Sea Transportation Service, where he would remain on active duty for the following year as a personal aide to an officer, Rear Admiral Walter Schlech.
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On January 1,1970, John Kerry was temporarily promoted to full lieutenant.
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John Kerry had agreed to an extension of his active duty obligation from December 1969 to August 1970 in order to perform Swift Boat duty.
48.
John Kerry was on active duty in the United States Navy from August 1966 until January 1970.
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John Kerry continued to serve in the Naval Reserve until February 1978.
50.
John Kerry participated in the "Winter Soldier Investigation" conducted by VVAW of US atrocities in Vietnam, and he appears in a film by that name that documents the investigation.
51.
The day after this testimony, John Kerry participated in a demonstration with thousands of other veterans in which he and other Vietnam War veterans threw their medals and service ribbons over a fence erected at the front steps of the United States Capitol building to dramatize their opposition to the war.
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John Kerry threw some of his own decorations and awards as well as some given to him by other veterans to throw.
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John Kerry was arrested on May 30,1971, during a VVAW march to honor American POWs held captive by North Vietnam.
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In 1970, Kerry had considered running for Congress in the Democratic primary against hawkish Democrat Philip J Philbin of Massachusetts's 3rd congressional district, but deferred in favor of Robert Drinan, a Jesuit priest and anti-war activist, who went on to defeat Philbin.
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In February 1972, John Kerry's wife bought a house in Worcester, with John Kerry intending to run against the 4th district's aging thirteen-term incumbent Democrat, Harold Donohue.
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John Kerry ran a "very expensive, sophisticated campaign", financed by out-of-state backers and supported by many young volunteers.
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Vallely and Cameron John Kerry maintained that they were only checking their own telephone lines because they had received an anonymous call warning that the John Kerry lines would be cut.
58.
John Kerry's campaign called for a national health insurance system, discounted prescription drugs for the unemployed, a jobs program to clean up the Merrimack River and rent controls in Lowell and Lawrence.
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Subsequently, released "Watergate" Oval Office tape recordings of the Nixon White House showed that defeating John Kerry's candidacy had attracted the personal attention of President Nixon.
60.
John Kerry himself asserts that Nixon sent operatives to Lowell to help derail his campaign.
61.
John Kerry spent some time working as a fundraiser for the Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere, an international humanitarian organization.
62.
In 1978, John Kerry launched a criminal investigation against Senator Edward Brooke, regarding "misstatements" in his first divorce trial.
63.
Droney's health was poor and John Kerry had decided to run for his position in the 1978 election should Droney drop out.
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John Kerry thus decided to leave, departing in 1979 with assistant DA Roanne Sragow to set up their own law firm.
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John Kerry declared his candidacy, entering the primary election alongside Massachusetts Secretary of Environmental Affairs Evelyn Murphy, State Senator Samuel Rotondi, State Representative Lou Nickinello, and Lois Pines.
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John Kerry won the nomination with 325,890 votes to Murphy's 286,378, Rotondi's 228,086, Nickinello's 150,829 and Pines' 132,734.
67.
Dukakis delegated other tasks to John Kerry, including serving as the state's liaison to the Federal government of the United States.
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John Kerry was active on environmental issues, including combating acid rain.
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John Kerry ran, and as in his 1982 race for Lieutenant Governor, he did not receive the endorsement of the party regulars at the state Democratic convention.
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Again as in 1982 John Kerry prevailed in a close primary.
71.
John Kerry defeated Republican Ray Shamie despite a nationwide landslide for the re-election of Republican President Ronald Reagan, for whom Massachusetts voted by a narrow margin.
72.
John Kerry's findings provoked little reaction in the media and official Washington.
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John Kerry was criticized by some Democrats for having pursued his own party members, including former Secretary of Defense Clark Clifford, although Republicans said he should have pressed against some Democrats even harder.
74.
John Kerry won re-election with 52 percent to Weld's 45 percent.
75.
On October 30,2006, John Kerry was a headline speaker at a campaign rally being held for Democratic California gubernatorial candidate Phil Angelides at Pasadena City College in Pasadena, California.
76.
John Kerry initially stated: "I apologize to no one for my criticism of the president and of his broken policy".
77.
John Kerry said that from the context of the speech which, prior to the "stuck in Iraq" line, made several specific references to Bush and elements of his biography, that Kerry was referring to President Bush and not American troops in general.
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John Kerry has stated that he opposes privatizing Social Security, supports abortion rights for adult women and minors, supports same-sex marriage, opposes capital punishment except for terrorists, supports most gun control laws, and is generally a supporter of trade agreements.
79.
John Kerry supported the North American Free Trade Agreement and Most Favored Nation status for China, but opposed the Central American Free Trade Agreement.
80.
In July 1997, John Kerry joined his Senate colleagues in voting against ratification of the Kyoto Treaty on global warming without greenhouse gas emissions limits on nations deemed developing, including India and China.
81.
Since then, John Kerry has attacked President Bush, charging him with opposition to international efforts to combat global warming.
82.
On October 1,2008, John Kerry voted for Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, known as the TARP bailout.
83.
John Kerry is a brutal, murderous dictator; leading an oppressive regime he presents a particularly grievous threat because he is so consistently prone to miscalculation.
84.
The committee's report, which John Kerry endorsed, stated there was "no compelling evidence that proves that any American remains alive in captivity in Southeast Asia".
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John Kerry was the chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee from 1987 to 1989.
86.
John Kerry was reelected to the Senate in 1990,1996,2002, and 2008.
87.
In January 2009, John Kerry replaced Joe Biden as the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
88.
On Tuesday, August 25,2009, John Kerry became the senior senator from Massachusetts following Ted Kennedy's death.
89.
John Kerry then went on to win landslide victories in Nevada and Wisconsin.
90.
John Kerry won 59.03 million votes, or 48.3 percent of the popular vote; Bush won 62.04 million votes, or 50.7 percent of the popular vote.
91.
John Kerry carried states with a total of 252 electoral votes.
92.
John Kerry was the first Democrat since Michael Dukakis in 1988 to lose the popular vote in a presidential election, and until Kamala Harris's loss in 2024, he was the most recent Democrat to do so.
93.
John Kerry's brother had said such a campaign was "conceivable", and Kerry himself reportedly said at a farewell party for his 2004 campaign staff, "There's always another four years".
94.
John Kerry established a separate political action committee, Keeping America's Promise, which declared as its mandate "A Democratic Congress will restore accountability to Washington and help change a disastrous course in Iraq", and raised money and channeled contributions to Democratic candidates in state and federal races.
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On January 10,2008, John Kerry endorsed Illinois Senator Barack Obama for president.
96.
John Kerry was mentioned as a possible vice presidential candidate for Senator Obama, although fellow Senator Joe Biden was eventually chosen.
97.
On December 15,2012, several news outlets reported that President Barack Obama would nominate John Kerry to succeed Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State, after Susan Rice, widely seen as Obama's preferred choice, withdrew her name from consideration citing a politicized confirmation process following criticism of her response to the 2012 Benghazi attack.
98.
John Kerry's confirmation hearing took place on January 24,2013, before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the same panel where he first testified in 1971.
99.
John Kerry was sworn in as Secretary of State on February 1,2013.
100.
John Kerry said the United States supported the Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen because Saudi Arabia, an ally, was threatened "very directly" by the takeover of neighboring Yemen by the Houthis, but noted that the United States would not reflexively support Saudi Arabia's proxy wars against Iran.
101.
John Kerry's speech received positive reactions from Arab nations, but some criticized his remarks as too little, too late from the outgoing administration.
102.
Syria quickly welcomed this proposal and on September 14, the UN formally accepted Syria's application to join the convention banning chemical weapons, and separately, the US and Russia agreed on a plan to eliminate Syria's chemical weapons by the middle of 2014, leading John Kerry to declare on July 20,2014: "we struck a deal where we got 100 percent of the chemical weapons out".
103.
On November 11,2016, John Kerry became the first Secretary of State and highest-ranking US official to date to visit Antarctica.
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John Kerry spent two days on the continent meeting with researchers and staying overnight at McMurdo Station.
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In 1994, John Kerry led opposition to continued funding for the Integral Fast Reactor, which resulted in the end of funding for the project.
106.
In 2016, in partnership with OPIC, John Kerry announced an investment of $171million to enable "a low-cost and rapidly scalable wireless broadband network in India".
107.
John Kerry retired from his diplomatic work following the end of the Obama administration on January 20,2017.
108.
John Kerry did not attend Donald Trump's inauguration on that day, and the following day took part in the 2017 Women's March in Washington, DC Kerry has taken a strong stand against Trump policies and joined in filing a brief arguing against Trump's executive order banning entry of persons from seven Muslim countries.
109.
In November 2018, in a "Guardian Live" conversation with Andrew Rawnsley, sponsored by The Guardian at London's Central Hall, John Kerry discussed several issues which have developed further since his tenure as Secretary of State, including migration into Europe and climate change.
110.
On November 23,2020, President-elect Joe Biden's transition team announced that John Kerry would be taking a full-time position in the administration, serving as a special envoy for climate; in this role he will be a principal on the National Security Council.
111.
John Kerry assumed office on January 20,2021, following Biden's inauguration.
112.
In July 2023, John Kerry visited China for advance climate cooperation.
113.
John Kerry criticized Donald Trump for leaving the Paris agreement before.
114.
In June 2023, John Kerry made visits to Israel, Jordan, and the United Arab Emirates.
115.
On January 13,2024, at least three sources close to John Kerry revealed that he would step down as US climate envoy by the upcoming spring.
116.
John Kerry told the Financial Times he planned to stay active in the climate finance space.
117.
John Kerry officially resigned from his position on March 6,2024.
118.
John Kerry's paternal great-grandmother, Mathilda Frankel, was born in Oberglogau and married Benedikt Kohn from Bennisch.
119.
Thomas' father John Kerry Still Winthrop was a great-great-grandson of Massachusetts Bay Colony Governor John Kerry Winthrop and great-grandson of Governor Thomas Dudley.
120.
Heinz and John Kerry were married on May 26,1995, in Nantucket, Massachusetts.
121.
The Forbes 400 survey estimated in 2004 that Teresa Heinz John Kerry had a net worth of $750million.
122.
Regardless of which figure is correct, John Kerry was the wealthiest US Senator while serving in the Senate.
123.
Independent of Heinz, John 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 John Kerry, who died in 2002.
124.
Forbes magazine estimated that if elected, and if Heinz family assets were included, John Kerry would have been the third-richest US president in history, when adjusted for inflation.
125.
John Kerry is a Roman Catholic, and is said to have carried a religious rosary, a prayer book, and a St Christopher medal when he campaigned.
126.
John Kerry said that he believed that the Torah, the Quran, and the Bible all share a fundamental story which connects with readers.
127.
In 2003, John Kerry was diagnosed with and successfully treated for prostate cancer.
128.
On May 31,2015, John Kerry broke his right leg in a biking accident in Scionzier, France, and was flown to Boston's Massachusetts General Hospital for recovery.
129.
John Kerry's staff requested recumbent stationary bikes for his hotel rooms.
130.
The Boston Herald reported on July 23,2010, that John Kerry commissioned construction on a new $7million yacht in New Zealand and moored it in Portsmouth, Rhode Island, where the Friendship yacht company is based.
131.
John Kerry has received several honorary degrees in recognition of his service to the United States, These include:.