Book overview
"A brilliant and essential document about the man, the President, and his times. In all the millions of words which have been written about the martyred President, this book must remain unique. . . . It is John F. Kennedy's life, his personality, his thinking which informed his action and that action itself described with honest and candor which illuminate and enliven the crowded pages of this book. Sorensen has managed to portray Kennedy in realistic human terms and not as the hero of a myth. . . . It is the richness of detail, anecdotes, incidents, conversations, descriptions rather than any gossip or startling revelations which gives the book its compelling readability." -- Los Angeles Times
The
classic, intimate, and #1 national bestselling biography of JFK by his great
advisor Ted Sorensen.
In January 1953, freshman senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts hired a
twenty-four-year-old from Nebraska as his Number Two legislative assistant--on a
trial basis. Despite the differences in their backgrounds, in the eleven years
that followed Ted Sorensen became known as Kennedy's intellectual blood bank,
top policy aide, and alter ego.
Sorensen knew Kennedy the man, the senator, the
candidate, and the president as no other associate did. From his role as a
legislative assistant to Kennedy's death in 1963, Sorensen was with him during
the key crises and turning points--including the spectacular race for the vice
presidency at the 1956 convention, the launching of Kennedy's presidential
candidacy, the TV debates with Nixon, and election night at Hyannis Port. The
first appointment made by the new president was to name Ted Sorensen his
Special Counsel.
In Kennedy,
Sorensen recounts failures as well as successes with surprising candor and
objectivity. He reveals Kennedy's errors on the Bay of Pigs, and his attitudes
toward the press, Congress, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Sorensen saw
firsthand Kennedy's actions in the Cuban missile crisis, and the evolution of
his beliefs on civil rights and arms control. First published in 1965 and
reissued here with a new preface, Kennedy is an intimate biography of an
extraordinary man, and one of the most important historical accounts of the
twentieth century.