Ted Sorensen | |
|---|---|
_(cropped).jpg) Sorensen in 1983 | |
| White House Counsel | |
| In office January 20, 1961 – February 29, 1964 | |
| President | John F. Kennedy Lyndon Johnson |
| Preceded by | David Kendall |
| Succeeded by | Mike Feldman |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Theodore Chaikin Sorensen (1928-05-08)May 8, 1928 Lincoln, Nebraska, U.S. |
| Died | October 31, 2010(2010-10-31) (aged 82) New York City,New York, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse(s) | Camilla Palmer (1949, divorced) Sara Elbery (1964, divorced) Gillian Martin (1969) |
| Children | 4, includingJuliet |
| Relatives | Christian A. Sorensen (father) Philip C. Sorensen (brother) |
| Education | University of Nebraska, Lincoln (BA,LLB) |
Theodore Chaikin Sorensen (May 8, 1928 – October 31, 2010) was an American lawyer, writer, and presidential adviser. Many have attempted to credit Sorensen as the writer behindJohn F. Kennedy's speeches, but in the introduction to "Let the Word Go Forth", a book of Kennedy's speeches, statements, and writings from 1947 to 1963, Sorensen states: "John Kennedy was the true author of all his speeches and writings. They set forthhis (italic emphasis by Sorensen) ideas and ideals,his decisions and policies,his knowledge of history and politics...More importantly, he alone was responsible for the decision that lay at the heart of every major speech." Kennedy would later penProfiles in Courage, for which he won the 1957Pulitzer Prize for Biography; Sorensen provided assistance in assembling the work. He also assisted inKennedy's inaugural address and draftedLyndon Johnson'sLet Us Continue speech followingKennedy's assassination.
Sorensen was born inLincoln, Nebraska, the son ofChristian A. Sorensen (1890–1959), who served asNebraska attorney general (1929–1933),[1][2] and Annis (Chaikin) Sorensen. His father wasDanish American and his mother was ofRussian Jewish descent.[3] His younger brother,Philip C. Sorensen, later became the lieutenant governor ofNebraska. He graduated fromLincoln High School during 1945. He earned a bachelor's degree at theUniversity of Nebraska, Lincoln, and attendedUniversity of Nebraska College of Law, graduating first in his class.[4]
During January 1953, the 24-year-old Sorensen became the new chief legislative aide to SenatorJohn F. Kennedy. He wrote many of Kennedy's articles and speeches.[5] In his 2008 autobiographyCounselor: A Life at the Edge of History, Sorensen said he wrote "a first draft of most of the chapters" of John F. Kennedy's 1956 bookProfiles in Courage and "helped choose the words of many of its sentences."[6][7]
| External videos | |
|---|---|
 After Words interview with Sorensen onCounselor, June 14, 2008,C-SPAN |
Sorensen was President Kennedy's special counsel, adviser, and primaryspeechwriter, the role for which he is remembered best. He helped draft theinaugural address in which Kennedy said famously, "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country." Although Sorensen played an important part in the composition of the inaugural address, he has stated that "the speech and its famous turn of phrase that everyone remembers was written by Kennedy himself."[8][9] In his 2008 memoir,Counselor: A Life at the Edge of History, Sorensen claimed, "The truth is that I simply don't remember where the line came from."[10]
During the early months of the administration, Sorensen's responsibilities concerned the domestic agenda. After theBay of Pigs debacle, Kennedy asked Sorensen to participate withforeign policy discussions as well. During theCuban Missile Crisis, Sorensen served as a member ofExComm and was named by Secretary of DefenseRobert S. McNamara as one of the "true inner circle" members who advised the president, the others being Attorney GeneralRobert F. Kennedy, National Security AdviserMcGeorge Bundy, Secretary of StateDean Rusk, GeneralMaxwell D. Taylor (chairman of the Joint Chiefs), former ambassador to the USSRLlewellyn Thompson, and McNamara himself.[11] Sorensen played a critical role in drafting Kennedy's correspondence withNikita Khrushchev and worked on Kennedy's first address to the nation about the crisis on October 22.
Sorensen was devastated byKennedy's assassination, which he termed "the most deeply traumatic experience of my life. ... I had never considered a future without him."[12] He later quoted a poem that he said summed up how he felt: "How could you leave us, how could you die? We are sheep without a shepherd when the snow shuts out the sky." He submitted a letter of resignation to PresidentLyndon B. Johnson the day after the assassination but was persuaded to stay through the transition. Sorensen drafted Johnson's first address to Congress as well as the1964 State of the Union. He officially resigned February 29, 1964, and was the first member of the Kennedy Administration to do so. As Johnson was later to recount in his memoirs, Sorensen helped in the transition to the new administration with those speeches.
Prior to his resignation, Sorensen stated his intent to write Kennedy's biography, calling it "the book that President Kennedy had intended to write with my help after his second term." He was not the only Kennedy aide to publish writings;Paul "Red" Fay, Jr., Kennedy's Secretary of the Navy and a close friend of Kennedy's from his Navy service wroteThe Pleasure of His Company,David Powers andKenneth O'Donnell, Special Assistants to the President wroteJohnny, We Hardly Knew Ye, and historian and special assistantArthur M. Schlesinger Jr. wrote his Pulitzer Prize winning memoirA Thousand Days: John F. Kennedy in the White House during the same period. Sorensen's biography,Kennedy, was published during 1965 and became an international bestseller.
Sorensen later joined the U.S. law firm ofPaul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, where he wasof counsel, while still staying involved in politics. He was involved with Democratic campaigns and was a major adviser ofRobert F. Kennedy inKennedy's 1968 presidential campaign. After the death of Robert Kennedy he wrote a book entitledThe Kennedy Legacy: A Peaceful Revolution For The Seventies (1969) about the political ideals of the Kennedy brothers that could be applied to theDemocratic Party in particular and to America and American society in general going forward. During the next four decades, Sorensen had a career as an international lawyer, advising governments around the world, as well as majorinternational corporations.
During the1970 United States Senate election in New York, Sorensen was the Democratic party's designee for the Democratic nomination forU.S. senator from New York. He was challenged in theprimary election byRichard Ottinger,Paul O'Dwyer, andMax McCarthy, and polled third. The winning nominee Ottinger was subsequently defeated byJames L. Buckley in the general election.
In 1973, Sorensen wrote a contingency plan for thepresidential transition of the Democratic Speaker of the HouseCarl Albert. Albert was third in theUnited States presidential line of succession under theTwenty-fifth Amendment in the event thatRichard Nixon wasimpeached or forced to resign by theWatergate scandal, and if the nomination ofGerald Ford to replaceSpiro Agnew as Vice President failed. The memorandum included advice on drafting aninaugural address and appointing aCabinet. It recommended the appointment of a Republican Vice President, but urged Albert to remain in office as President until the end of the term. The memorandum was discarded because Ford was nominated and because Albert personally did not wish to be President.[13][14]
In 1977, PresidentJimmy Carter nominated Sorensen asDirector of Central Intelligence, but the nomination was withdrawn before a Senate vote. Sorensen's help with explainingTed Kennedy'sChappaquiddick incident and Sorensen's mishandling of classified information were cited as factors of Senate opposition to his nomination.[15] Sorensen in his autobiography attributed the loss of Senate support for his nomination for CIA director to hisconscientious objector status as a youth, his two failed marriages, and his writing an affidavit in defense of releasingDaniel Ellsberg'sPentagon Papers.[16]
Sorensen was the national co-chairman forGary Hart for the1984 Democratic Party presidential primaries and made several appearances on his behalf.[17]
In addition to his successful career as a lawyer, Sorensen was also a frequent spokesman for liberal ideals and ideas, writing opinion-editorials and delivering speeches concerning domestic and international subjects. For several years during the 1960s, he was an editor of theSaturday Review.
He was affiliated with a number of institutions, including theCouncil On Foreign Relations,The Century Foundation,Princeton University, and theInstitute of Politics at theHarvard Kennedy School. Sorensen was a board member of theInternational Center for Transitional Justice and an advisory board member of thePartnership for a Secure America, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to recreating bipartisan consensus for American national security and foreign policy. He also was chairman of the advisory board to the International Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life atBrandeis University. Sorensen also attended meetings of theJudson Welliver Society, a bipartisan social club composed of former presidential speechwriters.
During 2007, a model Democratic presidential nomination acceptance speech written by Sorensen was published in theWashington Monthly. The magazine had solicited him to write the speech that he would most want the 2008 Democratic nominee to give at the2008 Democratic National Convention, without regard to the identity of the nominee.[18]
On March 9, 2007, he spoke at an event with then-senatorBarack Obama at New York City'sGrand Hyatt Hotel and officially endorsed him in thepresidential election in 2008.[19][20][21] Very active in his campaign, Sorensen spoke early on and frequently about the similarities between Obama's and John Kennedy's presidential campaigns. He also provided some assistance withPresident Obama's 2009 Inaugural Address.[22]
Sorensen served on the advisory board of theNational Security Network.
In his bookLet The Word Go Forth, Sorensen selects from more than 110 speeches and writings that indicate the importance of historical insights in Kennedy's thoughts and actions.
He was married three times. His first marriage, in 1949, was to Camilla Palmer. The couple had three sons: Eric, Steven, and Philip. They later divorced. In 1964, he married Sara Elbery. That marriage also ended in divorce. In 1969, Sorensen marriedGillian Martin of theUnited Nations Foundation. They had a daughter,Juliet Sorensen, and remained married until Sorensen's death.[10][8]
On February 25, 2010, he received theNational Humanities Medal for 2009 in a ceremony in theEast Room of the White House. He was awarded the medal for "Advancing our understanding of modern American politics. As a speechwriter and adviser to President Kennedy, he helped craft messages and policies, and later gave us a window into the people and events that made history."[23]
On October 31, 2010, Sorensen died at the age of 82 atNewYork-Presbyterian Hospital in New York City of complications from a stroke he suffered the previous week.[8]
| External videos | |
|---|---|
| Booknotes interview with Sorensen onWhy I Am a Democrat, July 14, 1996,C-SPAN | |
| Reception for Sorensen on the publication ofWhy I Am a Democrat, July 11, 1996,C-SPAN |
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link){{cite book}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)Sorensen has been portrayed as a character in the following films and miniseries:
| Legal offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | White House Counsel 1961–1964 | Succeeded by |
