Before he was president, he was a congressman and a senator. JFK wrote a book about political heroes, Profiles in Courage, that won the Pulitzer Prize. JFK is an American hero because of his strive to help others, like when he approved a ban on testing nuclear bombs on October 7th,1963. JFK made sure that housing was affordable for the lower class (the projects). JFK helped Vietnam by authorizing the sending of 500 special troops, and military advisors to assist the pro-western government of South Vietnam. In 1962, JFK sent 3,000 troops to the University of Mississippi to let African-American James Meredith go to the university. In World War 2, JFK’s PT-109 (Patrol Torpedo boat) got rammed and split in half by a Japanese destroyer, almost the entire crew was injured except JFK. So he swam to shore with a few injured sailors and kept swimming out into the enemy and shark-infested waters until his entire crew was safe upon the shore. The island JFK and his crew were on was enemy territory so they couldn't get rescued, so JFK and another uninjured sailor built a raft to sail with his injured crew to an island under the control of the United States so that they could be