Ted Sorensen

From Philosopedia

Theodore (Ted) Chaikin Sorensen (8 May 1928 - )

Sorensen, who became Special Counsel to President John F. Kennedy, was born in Lincoln, Nebraska, the son of Christian Abraham Sorensen (1890 - 1959, who was of Danish lineage and was a political follower of George Norris, who became Nebraska's Attorney General) and Annis Chaikin Sorensen (1888 - 1970).

Sorensen has three brothers, Robert (a marketing executor and educator), Thomas (a financial executive, 1926 - 1997), and Philip (the Lieutenant Governor of Nebraska). He has a sister, Ruth Sorensen Singer.

In 1969 he married Gillian Martin Sorensen, who had four children by a previous marriage, and they have one daughter, Juliet.

Sorensen received his B.S. in Law at the University of Nebraska in 1949 and his LLB. from that school in 1951.

Contents 1 The Writer 2 Religion 3 Counselor 4 Books

The Writer

Sorensen compiled the research for Kennedy's book, Profiles in Courage, while Jack was convalescing in Florida. He was wrongly credited by Drew Pearson with ghosting the book—a charge that was disproved by Sorensen's notes, Kennedy's handwritten drafts, and the assistance of Washington Lawyer Clark Clifford. Pearson later retracted his charges.

Sorensen helped Kennedy plot his unsuccessful try for the vice-presidential nomination in 1956, after which the two spent three years stumping the country, taking notes, and laying the groundwork for Kennedy's becoming a candidate for the presidency.

A Unitarian, Sorensen defended Kennedy's Roman Catholic faith from Protestant attack, and, according to Time

A sober, deadly earnest, self-effacing man with a blue steel brain, Ted Sorensen is an instinctive political stage manager. He assiduously avoids personal publicity and attributed quotations, is personally abstemious,* and reserves his quiet sense of humor for his rare off-duty hours. Ruffled politicians accuse him of ruthlessness; disgruntled underlings say he is a martinet; the press finds him invariably helpful. His fascination with politics is complete, and he is devoted to the Kennedy cause.

Religion

Deborah Solomon, in The New York Times, asked him as "the son of a Unitarian lawyer of Danish lineage and a mother of Russian-Jewish descent, what religion are you?"

He responded,

• Your Jewish mother would note that under Jewish law I am Jewish, but I consider myself Unitarian.

Counselor

In an interview with Library Journal (1 May 2008), Sorensen made the following statements about his book, Counselor, A Life at the Edge of History:

• My memoir includes lengthy chapters on my years before politics, including my Nebraska childhood, my parents, and my religion. This part of my life is key to understanding the source of the ideas and ideals I conveyed to John F. Kennedy in my 11 years with him.

• I worked briefly for a joint Congressional committee chaired by Sen. Paul Douglas of Illinois, and he recommended me to the newly elected senator from Massachusetts, John F. Kennedy, with whom Douglas had worked when Kennedy was in the House of Representatives. JFK and I found that we thought very much alike.

• My close relationship to JFK was sealed when, in 1956, as invitations poured into his office from across the nation after his starring role in the 1956 Democratic Convention, he asked me to accompany him as he explored the possibility of a presidential bid. For the next three years and more, we toured all 50 states together.

• During the 13 days of the Cuban Missile Crisis, now termed by historians "the 13 most dangerous days in the history of mankind," I was a member of the group of advisers whose judgment and recommendations he sought, later formally termed The Executive Committee of the National Security Council, or EXCOMM. I offered questions, suggestions, and criticisms during our discussions and was specifically asked to employ my pen on at least three crucial occasions: attempting to draft a presidential note to Soviet Chairman Khrushchev advising him of America's intention to bomb missile sites in Cuba, an option subsequently rejected by EXCOMM and the president; drafting the President's comprehensive, televised report to the nation and world on our discovery of the missiles in Cuba and formulation of a U.S. response aimed at obtaining their withdrawal; and drafting for the President's final approval his letter to Chairman Khrushchev, in response to the first of two contradictory letters received from him on the penultimate day of the crisis, setting forth the basis on which both parties might step back and peacefully resolve the crisis. Until comparatively recently, I did not know (nor did anyone else) that the Soviet submarine accompanying the final Soviet ship approaching the U.S. naval blockade (or "quarantine") on that penultimate day was equipped with nuclear torpedoes. Nor did I know of the dangerous and outrageous demands from General LeMay and other members of the Joint Chiefs for a massive military attack on the Soviet missiles and Cuba, demands which Kennedy coolly and courageously resisted in favor of his more flexible and prudent approach.

• My 11 years with JFK enabled me to observe more closely his growth from a young, little-known Congressman still close to the conservative views of his father to a globally admired statesman willing to wage multilateral peace abroad and reverse America's centuries of racial discrimination at home.

• Kennedy's most notable qualities were his probing, objective approach to all problems and his marvelous sense of both modesty and humor, qualities that have been sorely missed in these last years of hubris and bellicosity in American foreign policy.

He relates the mistake he made in having Kennedy, in his 26 June 1963 speech in West Berlin, say "Ich bin ein Berliner". By including ein the sentence meant "I am a jelly doughnut."

As for whether it was his words, "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country," Sorensen responds, "Ask not." What Kennedy said was based on a draft by Sorensen that was partly based on campaign speeches. These, in turn, were collaborations, to which were added ideas from many sources. Observed Jack Rosenthal, who once wrote speeches for Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy,

• Presidential words can also define momentous policy. John Kennedy’s June 1963 speech at American University moved the world a long step toward the first nuclear arms control treaty. Honorably, Sorensen says it “may have been my draft, but it was J.F.K.’s policy.”

• Whose words are one’s own? This tension surfaced early in Sorensen’s career with J.F.K., with claims that he was really the author of “Profiles in Courage,” Kennedy’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book. It lives on in questions about Kennedy’s Inaugural Address and its most famous line: “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.”

• Whose words? It’s impossible to answer: Kennedy’s dictation was based on a draft by Sorensen that was partly based on campaign speeches that in turn were collaborations, to which were added ideas from many sources. Sorensen concludes, with words that demonstrate his enduring pride and his enduring loyalty: “Certainly the line reflected J.F.K.’s lifelong philosophy, calling for sacrifice and dedication for the good of the country, emphasized by his own life of service — that makes it his line.”

Books

Decision Making in the White House (1963)

Kennedy (1965)

The Kennedy Legacy (1969)

Kennedy Legacy (1970

Watchmen in the Night: Presidential Accountability After Watergate (1975)

Different Kind of Presidency: A Proposal for Breaking the Political Deadlock (1984)

Let the Word Go Forth: The Speeches, Statements, and Writings of John F. Kennedy (1988)

The Kennedy Legacy: A Peaceful Revolution for the Future (1993)

Why I Am a Democrat (1996)

Leaders of Our Time: Kennedy (1999)

Counselor, A Life at the Edge of History (2008)