John Forbes Kerry (born December 11, 1943) is an American attorney, politician, diplomat, and former naval officer who served as the 68th United States secretary of state from 2013 to 2017 in the administration of President Barack Obama. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously represented Massachusetts in the United States Senate from 1985 to 2013 and later served as the first and only U.S. special presidential envoy for climate from 2021 to 2024. Kerry was the Democratic presidential nominee in the 2004 presidential election.
Born into the prominent Forbes family in Aurora, Colorado, Kerry grew up in Massachusetts and Washington, D.C. In 1966, after graduating from Yale University, he enlisted in the United States Naval Reserve, ultimately attaining the rank of lieutenant. During the Vietnam War, Kerry served a brief tour in South Vietnam. While commanding a Swift Boat, he sustained three wounds in combat with the Viet Cong, for which he earned three Purple Heart medals. Kerry was also awarded the Silver Star Medal and the Bronze Star Medal for conduct in separate military engagements. After completing his active military service, Kerry returned to the United States and became an outspoken opponent of the Vietnam War. He gained national recognition as an anti-war activist, serving as a spokesperson for the Vietnam Veterans Against the War organization. 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.
In 1972, Kerry was an unsuccessful candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives in Massachusetts's 5th congressional district, losing to Republican Paul W. Cronin in the general election. He subsequently worked as a radio talk show host, as the executive director of an advocacy organization while attending law school, and later in private legal practice. In 1982, Kerry was elected lieutenant governor of Massachusetts as the running mate of Michael Dukakis's ticket. In 1984, Kerry was elected to the United States Senate representing Massachusetts. During his career in the Senate, Kerry won the Democratic nomination in the 2004 Democratic Party presidential primaries, but lost the general election to incumbent Republican president George W. Bush.
In January 2013, Kerry was nominated by President Obama and confirmed by the Senate to succeed Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State, serving through the rest of Obama's second term. During his tenure, he initiated the 2013–2014 Israeli–Palestinian peace talks and negotiated agreements restricting the nuclear program of Iran, including the 2013 Joint Plan of Action and the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. In 2015, Kerry signed the Paris Agreement on climate change on behalf of the United States. In January 2021, Kerry returned to government, serving as the U.S. special presidential envoy for climate under President Joe Biden. In March 2024, Kerry left this position to work on Biden's 2024 presidential campaign. Kerry was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Biden in May 2024.
Early life and education (1943–1966)
John Forbes Kerry was born on December 11, 1943, at the Fitzsimons Army Medical Center in Aurora, Colorado. He is the second of four children born to Richard John Kerry, a U.S. diplomat and lawyer, and Rosemary Forbes, a nurse and social activist. His father was Catholic and his mother was Episcopalian. He was raised with an elder sister Margaret, a younger sister Diana, and a younger brother Cameron. The children were raised in their father's Catholic faith, and John served as an altar boy.
Kerry was originally considered a military brat, until his father was discharged from the United States Army Air Corps in 1944. Kerry lived in Groton, Massachusetts his first year and Millis, Massachusetts afterwards before moving to the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. 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.
As members of the Forbes family, his maternal extended family enjoyed great wealth. Kerry's parents themselves were considered upper-middle class. They turned to his wealthy grand-aunt, Clara Winthrop, who paid for his attendance at elite boarding schools, such as Institut Montana Zugerberg, in Zug, Switzerland. Through his maternal ancestry, Kerry also descends from Rev. James McGregor, who was among the first 500 Scots-Irish immigrants to Boston Harbor in the 18th century.
When Kerry was ten years old, his father took a position as the U.S. Attorney for Berlin. When Kerry was twelve, he crossed into the Soviet Occupation Zone to visit Hitler's bunker and ride through the Brandenburg Gate.
In 1957, his father was stationed at the U.S. Embassy in Oslo, Norway, and Kerry was sent back to the United States to attend boarding school. He first attended 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. Kerry founded the John Winant Society at St. Paul's to debate the issues of the day; the Society still exists there. In 1960, while at St. Paul's, he played bass in a minor rock band called The Electras with six of his classmates. The band had about five hundred copies of one album printed in 1961, which they sold some of at dances at the school; it was made available on streaming platforms many years later.
In 1962, Kerry attended Yale University, majoring in political science and residing in Jonathan Edwards College. By that year, his parents had returned to Groton. While at Yale, Kerry briefly dated Janet Auchincloss, the younger half-sister of First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy. Through Auchincloss, Kerry was invited to a day of sailing with then-President John F. Kennedy and his family.
Kerry played on the varsity Yale Bulldogs men's soccer team, earning his only letter in his senior year. He also played freshman and junior varsity hockey and, in his senior year, junior varsity lacrosse. In addition, he was a member of the Psi Upsilon fraternity and took flying lessons.
In his second year, Kerry became the chairman of the Liberal Party of the Yale Political Union, and a year later he served as president of the union. Amongst his influential teachers in this period was Professor H. Bradford Westerfield, who was himself a former president of the Political Union. His involvement with the Political Union gave him an opportunity to be involved with important issues of the day, such as the civil rights movement and the New Frontier program. He also became a member of the Skull and Bones Society, and traveled to Switzerland through AIESEC Yale.
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. In March 1965, as the Vietnam War escalated, he won the Ten Eyck prize as the best orator in the junior class for a speech that was critical of U.S. foreign policy. In the speech he said, "It is the spectre of Western imperialism that causes more fear among Africans and Asians than communism and thus, it is self-defeating."
Kerry graduated from Yale with a bachelor of arts degree in 1966. Overall, he had below-average grades, graduating with a cumulative average of 76 over his four years. His freshman-year average was a 71, but he improved to an 81 average for his senior year. He never received an "A" during his time at Yale; his highest grade was an 89.
On February 18, 1966, Kerry enlisted in the Naval Reserve. He began his active duty military service on August 19, 1966. After completing 16 weeks of Officer Candidate School at the U.S. Naval Training Center in Newport, Rhode Island, Kerry received his officer's commission on December 16, 1966. During the 2004 election, Kerry posted his military records on his website, and permitted reporters to inspect his medical records. In 2005, Kerry released his military and medical records to the representatives of three news organizations, but has not authorized full public access to those records.