Counselor - A Life at the edge of history

On May 17th last I was privileged to be part of a small group of approximately 150 people to attend a fascinating, and sometimes moving, "fireside chat" type conversation between Ted Sorensen, the former legal counsel, policy adviser and chief speech writer for Senator (1952-1960) and latterly President Kennedy (1961-1963), and Pulitzer Prize winning historian Professor David Kennedy of Stanford University, California. The event was hosted by the Commonwealth Club of San Francisco.

At 82 years old Sorensen is almost blind, one of the after effects of a severe stroke he suffered in 2001. That being said he is a wonderfully articulate and vocally impressive man. His delivery style is that of a man who has been writing all his life and he possesses an extraordinary command of historical facts and personal memories. One of the questions posed by Professor Kennedy was to describe the relationship he (Sorensen) had with President Kennedy as it related to speech writing. Sorensen described this relationship as "collaborative" where he would create a first draft for JFK's review, Kennedy would edit and make small changes or request deletions, Sorensen would re-draft and they would continue in this vein until the final text was agreed.

Remember, he is the man who drafted every major speech given by JFK from 1952 to 1963 including the famous "Ask not what your country can do for you..." inaugural address, the American University speech of June 10th 1963, Kennedy's civil rights 'moral issue' speech to the nation the very next day and his brilliant address to Dail Eireann (the Irish parliament) on June 28th 1963, among many, many others.

It was fascinating to hear this man's firsthand accounts of his experiences in the White House, at the side of the President, while tumultuous events like the Bay of Pigs, the Berlin crisis, the civil rights demonstrations and the Cuban Missile Crisis unfolded around them.

At the book signing afterwards, I shook his hand. He told me that the speech he wrote that JFK delivered to Dail Eireann on June 28th 1963 was one of his favorites. He then proceeded to sign my book and for good measure recited, verbatim, off the top of his head, a verse from "The Foggy Dew".