2007.10.30: October 30, 2007: Headlines: Presidents - Kennedy: Election2008: Greensboro News & Record: Kennedy speechwriter Ted Sorensen says a candidate with idealism and ability to galvanize people could invigorate America
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2007.10.30: October 30, 2007: Headlines: Presidents - Kennedy: Election2008: Greensboro News & Record: Kennedy speechwriter Ted Sorensen says a candidate with idealism and ability to galvanize people could invigorate America
Kennedy speechwriter Ted Sorensen says a candidate with idealism and ability to galvanize people could invigorate America
When the missile crisis came in 1962, Kennedy met often and sought opinions and options. He also said Kennedy took full responsibility for the Bay of Pigs; his apology lacked ambiguity. Citing the war in Iraq and the lack of diplomacy in foreign matters, Sorensen called the Bush presidency "the most reckless of my lifetime." Asked about Kennedy's own Iraq of sorts — Vietnam — Sorensen said Kennedy made clear intentions to bring home 1,600 American soldiers in South Vietnam. Sorensen is convinced the war wouldn't have escalated as it did under Lyndon Johnson, who succeeded the slain Kennedy in 1963. Read all about it next May when Sorensen publishes his memoirs, six years of writing. As for Obama, "I think he can win. I'm tired of losing," Sorensen said of Democratic losses in seven of the past 10 presidential elections. He realizes many have backed the candidacy of Hillary Rodham Clinton, but Sorensen remembers Kennedy starting as an underdog. Conventional wisdom at the time was that he couldn't win because he was Catholic, too young (not yet 40), inexperienced and lacking support of Democratic honchos. He said Obama, 46, is hearing similar words: too young, inexperienced and he's black. Sorensen said he understands young people are dispirited, disillusioned and cynical about politics, but a candidate with idealism and ability to galvanize people could invigorate America. It happened with Kennedy, a time when 60 percent of the Harvard and Harvard law grads wanted to enter public service. Sadly, he says, it's now three percent.
Kennedy speechwriter Ted Sorensen says a candidate with idealism and ability to galvanize people could invigorate America
Kennedy speechwriter speaks of Camelot
By Jim Schlosser
Staff Writer
Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2007 3:00 am
The man who wrote many words, or honed them, for John F. Kennedy said Camelot was not a mystical society where perfection ruled.
"But it was a brief shining moment," said Ted Sorensen, legislative and administrative assistant and speechwriter to Kennedy.
Back then, a group of people came together "from both parties who were dedicated to the best interests of the country."
Sorensen was one of the young, Ivy League educated, idealistic and vibrant people drawn to Kennedy's Washington, an era dubbed Camelot.
He sees a young man running for president today who reminds him in ways of Kennedy: Barack Obama, whom he supports for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Here Monday night for an event sponsored by the Friends of UNCG Libraries, Sorensen said earlier that under Kennedy, the groundwork came for space exploration, the environmental movement, civil rights, help for the disabled and mentally ill, Peace Corps and other positives.
Sorensen told a gathering of students and reporters they wouldn't be alive if not for Kennedy.
Sorensen, 79, of poor eyesight but of keen mind who still travels and writes, said he has "not the slightest doubt" world destruction would have resulted had not Kennedy persuaded Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev to remove Russian missiles from Cuba.
Kennedy prevailed, Sorensen said, not by acting "tough" but through diplomacy. Deals were made: Kennedy promised Khrushchev in return for removing Soviet missiles, the U.S. would take away its missiles in Turkey aimed at Russia — something Kennedy wanted to do anyway.
Sorensen said Kennedy's coolness was influenced by lessons learned in the failed Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in early 1961. New to the presidency, Kennedy "was unduly impressed," Sorensen said, "with people wearing a lot of ribbons on their uniforms."
When the missile crisis came in 1962, Kennedy met often and sought opinions and options.
He also said Kennedy took full responsibility for the Bay of Pigs; his apology lacked ambiguity.
Citing the war in Iraq and the lack of diplomacy in foreign matters, Sorensen called the Bush presidency "the most reckless of my lifetime."
Asked about Kennedy's own Iraq of sorts — Vietnam — Sorensen said Kennedy made clear intentions to bring home 1,600 American soldiers in South Vietnam.
Sorensen is convinced the war wouldn't have escalated as it did under Lyndon Johnson, who succeeded the slain Kennedy in 1963.
Read all about it next May when Sorensen publishes his memoirs, six years of writing.
As for Obama, "I think he can win. I'm tired of losing," Sorensen said of Democratic losses in seven of the past 10 presidential elections.
He realizes many have backed the candidacy of Hillary Rodham Clinton, but Sorensen remembers Kennedy starting as an underdog.
Conventional wisdom at the time was that he couldn't win because he was Catholic, too young (not yet 40), inexperienced and lacking support of Democratic honchos.
He said Obama, 46, is hearing similar words: too young, inexperienced and he's black.
Sorensen said he understands young people are dispirited, disillusioned and cynical about politics, but a candidate with idealism and ability to galvanize people could invigorate America.
It happened with Kennedy, a time when 60 percent of the Harvard and Harvard law grads wanted to enter public service.
Sadly, he says, it's now three percent.
Of words he wrote for Kennedy, including help with a 1961 Kenan Stadium speech in Chapel Hill, Sorensen's favorite is the 1963 American University commencement address for world peace.
The president (or Sorensen) said, "Is not peace, in the last analysis, basically a matter of human rights — the right to live out our lives without fear of devastation; the right to breathe air as nature provided it; the right of future generations to a healthy existence?"
Contact Jim Schlosser at 373-7081 or jschlosser@news-recod.com
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Story Source: Greensboro News & Record
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