AN EVENING WITH TED SORENSEN
PAGE 1
JOHN SHATTUCK: Good evening. I’m John Shattuck, CEO of the Kennedy Library Foundation, and on behalf of Paul Kirk, our distinguished chairman, who’s here with us tonight, other members of the board who are also here, and the Library’s Director, Tom Putnam, I want to welcome you to this evening’s very special forum at the Kennedy Library.
Let me first express our thanks to the organizations that make these forums possible, starting with our lead sponsor, Bank of America, and our other generous supporters, Boston Capital, the Lowell Institute, the Corcoran-Jennison Companies, the Boston Foundation, and our media sponsors, the Boston Globe, NECN and WBUR, which broadcasts these Kennedy Library Forums on Sunday evenings at 8.
Tonight we celebrate the contribution to our nation and the world of a man who during the presidency of John F. Kennedy, in the words of the poet Wallace Stevens, “was the man responsive as a mirror with a voice, who in a million diamonds sums us up.”
In the summer of 1963 President Kennedy wrote the Foreward to a new book entitled, Decision-Making in the White House. Here’s what he had to say about its author: “Ted Sorensen has been an astute and sensitive collaborator in the presidential enterprise. [He has] isolated the elements in presidential decision with great perception and precision.”
Ted Sorensen has long been a master of perception and precision. Growing up as the third of five siblings, he learned early in life how to make a compelling argument. At the age of eight, he tells us, he observed that his two older brothers seemed to have special privileges, and that his younger brother and sister also appeared to be getting special treatment, so he made a perceptive and precise argument to his parents that he, too, deserved something special because he was “the biggest of the littlest, and the littlest of the biggest.”
When Ted Sorensen arrived in Washington, D.C. in July 1951 by train from Lincoln, Nebraska, he tells us he’d never ridden in a taxi, drunk a cup of coffee, set foot in a bar, written a check, or owned a car. A year and a half later, after doing most of these things and acquiring some Washington experience in government jobs, he was hired by the newly-elected junior senator from Massachusetts.
We know the story line from there. A brilliant young lawyer from the heartland becomes the future president’s most trusted adviser, criss-crosses the country with him before and during his presidential campaign, serves as his closest collaborator on speeches and policy positions, is named right after the election as the new President’s first appointment, goes on to be the President’s closest adviser on the greatest issues of the day, from the moral crisis of civil rights to the survival crisis of Soviet missiles in Cuba, is one of the architects of the New Frontier, and today by his very presence and his eloquence, links the legacy of John F. Kennedy to the challenges of the 21st century.
Ted Sorensen tells his story in a dazzling new memoir, Counselor, which is on sale in our bookstore, and which I know he’ll be pleased to sign after tonight’s forum. His book is subtitled, Life at the Edge of History, but his story is really at the epicenter of an era, and it’s told with the modesty of the incomparable Dizzy Dean, who once said, “If you done it, it ain’t braggin’.”
We expect great eloquence from Ted Sorensen, but we also get great humor. He tells us, for example, that he had to learn to eat just about anything when he was on the campaign trail with JFK, but he confesses that he balked at consuming the eyes of an exotic sea creature that was served at a Hawaiian luau. At a pre-inaugural brunch for the President’s new cabinet, he salutes the august group with a bit of deflating doggerel:
“All hail the men of new frontiers—
The hardy Kennedy pioneers.
The Georgia cracker known as Rusk.
The courtly Hodges never brusque. . . .
Send racy books to Edward Day.
Send lazy crooks to Bobby K.
Take health needs to Ribicoff.
Blame Dillon if your checkbook’s off.
McNamara’s Ford is in his past.
Art Goldberg, not least, though mentioned last.”
To honor Ted Sorensen, his contribution to our country, and the publication of his memoir, we have assembled an extraordinary group of panelists here on the stage of the Kennedy Library. I’d like to introduce each of them as Ted describes them in his book.
We’re certainly not surprised to learn, and I quote, “that JFK regarded Defense Secretary Robert McNamara as the star of his team, calling upon him for advice on a wide range of issues beyond national security.” For many people inside and outside the Administration, Secretary McNamara was indeed a superstar, and he played what many regard as the crucial role in restraining the military during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Former Secretary of State Dean Acheson spoke with awe of the role of Robert McNamara in President Kennedy’s cabinet in 1962 and 1963. “Except for General George C. Marshall,” Acheson wrote, “I do not know of any department head who, during the half-century I have observed government in Washington, has so profoundly enhanced the position, power, and security of the United States.” Thank you, Secretary McNamara, for being with us today.
Carl Kaysen served in the inner councils of the Kennedy White House as Deputy Special Assistant for National Security Affairs under McGeorge Bundy. Ted Sorensen refers to Carl as “one of the President’s ablest, most trusted aides,” and tells the story about how after the Cuban Missile Crisis, Carl urged the President to move right away to try to solve some other intractable problems, like the India-China border dispute, because “you’re more than ten feet tall,” to which the President replied, “Oh, that will only last a couple of weeks.” After his service in the Kennedy White House, Carl Kaysen went on to become Director of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, and a distinguished professor at MIT.
Lee White was Ted Sorensen’s classmate at the University of Nebraska Law School. Ted recruited him in 1953 to join John F. Kennedy’s Senate staff, making sure he understood that there was, in Ted’s words, “a great multitude of non-legal tasks that we perform here,” and then cheerfully passing on to Lee the chore of answering the Senator’s legislative mail. Lee White served as Assistant Special Counsel to President Kennedy, working as Ted Sorensen’s deputy on a staff of three that under later presidents would swell to fifty or more White House lawyers. Lee went on to become Special Counsel to President Johnson, and then Chairman of the Federal Power Commission, and he’s just published his own reflections on public service in a new book entitled Government for the People.
Our last panelist, Adam Frankel, is a speechwriter for Barack Obama, who has also worked for the last six years with Ted Sorensen. In a special “author’s note” at the beginning of his book, Ted thanks Adam for serving, quote, “as my chief assistant and close collaborator – almost literally as my eyes – and for his loyalty and dedication [that] made the book possible.” That’s certainly great praise from a great source.
Finally, to officiate over this extraordinary Evening with Ted Sorensen, we’ve recruited one of the Kennedy Library’s all-star moderators, Tom Oliphant. Tom has written for the Boston Globe since 1968 and was part of the team that received a Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of the Boston school desegregation struggle. He’s covered every presidential campaign for the last forty years and appears frequently as a television commentator. He was too young to cover the Kennedy White House, but he tells me that as a 17-year-old exchange student in Norway during the Cuban Missile Crisis, he was sent by the American embassy to talk to other students and later reported back that “Northern Norway is on board.” [laughter]
We’ll begin the evening with a discussion by our panel, and then Ted Sorensen will come to the stage for written questions from the audience and concluding remarks.
So please join me in welcoming to the stage of the Kennedy Library Robert McNamara, Carl Kaysen, Lee White, Adam Frankel, and Tom Oliphant for this extraordinary Evening with Ted Sorensen. [applause]
TOM OLIPHANT: Thank you, Mr. Ambassador, very much. The Kennedy administration was famous for its-- most of the time -- its precision, its care, and its organization. This panel will have none of those features. We’re going to spend a wonderful 45 minutes talking about Ted Sorensen and the unique role he filled in the evolution, really, of the modern White House. The only thing that’s a little odd for our discussion is that the great man himself is sitting in the front row here. But given the nature of the intellects to my right, I think that’s likely to make them even rougher on him than if he weren’t here.
I’d like to begin, if I could, by asking each of our panelists to help introduce this astonishing man to all of you. Following protocol, Secretary McNamara, when we talked earlier this week, you spoke to me of the extent to which President Kennedy depended on Ted Sorensen in the functioning of his office. And I was wondering if you could introduce us to this guy you met so long ago, and what it was that caused President Kennedy to be so dependent on him
ROBERT MCNAMARA: First, let me say, I’m dependent on him. I would not be here tonight were it not for him, and I don’t mean the invitation to come! It was he who inspired me to join the Administration. And I think it was that quality which the President depended on. And I don’t say this with any attempt to limit the President’s enormous influence on our country. I’m extremely proud to have been a member of that Administration. But I don’t believe the public has any understanding of the degree to which he depended on Ted.
I brought along this book, Profiles in Courage. And I’m not attempting to find out whether Ted wrote it or didn’t write it. And that’s not important. [laughter] That’s really not important to me, in this sense: I know! And I’m not asking him. I just know; I don’t have to ask him that he did a lot of the research of this book. And if you haven’t read the book recently, please buy it and read it! It will inspire you as it inspired me. And I think it was that inspirational quality that Ted had that inspired the President to do so many of the great things that we all admire him for. Let me stop there.
TOM OLIPHANT: Except I’d like to follow up, just a little bit, Mr. Secretary, and ask you to help us understand what this inspirational quality was. What was it like to talk to him?
ROBERT MCNAMARA: Well, as I say, I’m here because of him, because he invited me to be a member of the Administration. But it was the inspiration that he conveyed to me, his view of what this country could be. And I don’t think we have that inspiration today. And that inspiration came, to a considerable degree, from Ted.
So, I say, I’m not trying to find out what he wrote or didn’t write. I don’t need to ask. I know how he inspired the President. I was present on numerous occasions when that inspiration occurred. We all owe him a tremendous debt of gratitude.
TOM OLIPHANT: Thank you very much. By the way, when we get to Adam, here-- and for those of you who’ve read the book, there’s a full, complete, encyclopedic account of the writing of Profiles in Courage that ought to lay to rest all questions about it forever. And I won’t tell you what it says; you have to buy the book to read it. Dr. Kaysen, you’ve seen White House staffs from many perspectives. Intelligence community, defense establishment, the White House itself.
As a result, I think, of a couple of memos during the transition from Clark Clifford and Professor Richard Neustadt, this concept of somebody called a Special Counsel to the President evolved. And if I understood the original brief, Mr. Sorensen was to be the President’s principal advisor on domestic policy. But as the administration unfolded, it became so much more than that. And I was wondering, as somebody who has worked with him off and on for a long time, if you could describe for us the process by which Mr. Sorensen became so much more than what he was designated as at the time.
CARL KAYSEN: To answer that question, Tom, let me step back a little and characterize the White House staff in the Kennedy Administration. It was quite small. It was informal. It was as un-bureaucratic as could possibly be. In that context, and given the President’s uninterest in organization charts, and interest in assessing and sizing up people as to what they could do and what they couldn’t do, Sorensen simply became the all-purpose quarterback.
Now I didn’t join the White House staff until May of ’61, so I think the situation had already settled into or developed into the breadth of responsibility which Sorensen had. So I can’t speak to its origins. But I can say that there was no important question, whether it would be a good idea to think about devaluing the dollar, whether we needed to buy 1000 Minutemen and 36 Polaris boats, or something I know more secondhand -- what was it wise to do when George Wallace stood in the door -- that Ted wasn’t involved in.
He was and is dazzlingly bright. I’m an academic and something of an academic snob. And I thought I’d met all the smart people in the world. But I was quite wrong. And in a group of people of distinguished academic careers, Jim Tope (?) and Jerry Wiesner, there wasn’t anybody with as quick a mind and as deep an ability to grasp a new subject as Ted.
And,finally, he was a perfectly unpretentious person. He wasn’t a shrinking violet in any way. He assessed rightly his own competencies, but didn’t feel he had to boast about them or be self-important. And I remember an occasion-- I’m not sure what the subject was, I think it was foreign aid, and had to do with a man called Fowler Hamilton, the first unsuccessful administrator to the Agency for International Development. And we were sitting around the table in the Cabinet Room, a bunch of us, Ted, Dave Bell who succeeded to that job, I think Walter Heller or somebody, I’m not sure, and discussing the issue. And when we finished, Ted looked around and said, “My Gosh, is this the government of the United States?”
TOM OLIPHANT: If I could get you to talk just a little longer, Dr. Kaysen, many of us … After all, when you entered the White House, the United States governmental culture was becoming more and more specialized, demanding higher and higher degrees of higher education. The problems were beginning to be extremely complex. President Kennedy did not use, formally, a Chief of Staff. But could you understand the role of a generalist, in a way, dabbling in so many decisions that affected so many very specific things?
CARL KAYSEN: I have to repeat something I just said. It wasn’t that Ted was a generalist that made him so effective, it was that he was a brilliant man and a tremendously quick learner, so that he could get into the specialized issues very readily and grasp the central point very effectively.
And I think that-- and this is Carl Kaysen’s opinion, for what it’s worth -- that the lack of formality, the small size, the personal ease amongst the staff members made all that work better. A Chief of Staff sounds like an organization chart and a "who is allowed to talk to whom" and all that. And there was literally none of that that I perceived in the Kennedy White House.
TOM OLIPHANT: Lee White, you go back pretty far with Ted Sorensen. To law school, I believe, at the University of Nebraska. And I was going to ask you to elaborate some on what this guy is like, and how he functioned. One of my favorite sentences in the book is a self-description of Mr. Sorensen. He refers to himself as a Danish Russian Jewish Unitarian who happened to be from Nebraska. What was he like, and what was he like to work with?
LEE WHITE: Ted was a very good student. In fact, he was so good that he and I used to study for law exams in his father’s law office, very close to the campus. And I would explain things to Ted. And then if he couldn’t get them, I’d explain them again. And you know what? He always got better grades than I did! [laughter] I tried to figure out why. Well, I found out that there were two reasons. One, he’s smart as hell, and second, he writes beautifully. And that is what we found out about his remarkable talents.
Not too long ago, Ted was in Washington at Politics & Prose, a bookstore. And I had worried a little bit that he was going to be labeled a speechwriter. And I notice his book does not say speechwriter, it says counselor, which sounds a great deal better. But when Ted was pushed on that point on that bookstore, he said he didn’t mind, because some of the better speeches that President Kennedy did, and with Ted’s collaboration, really stand out.