Theodore Sorensen, 1928–2010

The JFK aide who shaped words and history

When critics of Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign dismissed Obama’s speeches as “just words,” Theodore Sorensen expressed disbelief. “‘Just words’ is how a president manages to operate,” Sorensen told a reporter. “‘Just words’ is how he engages the country.” Soren­sen’s own words had helped to make John F. Kennedy president, to rally the country behind him, and to steer JFK through his worse crises. Sorensen worked on Kennedy’s famed inaugural address and was a key advisor in the Kennedy White House. It was Sorensen’s hastily drafted letter to the Soviet leader, Nikita Khrushchev, in October 1962 that helped end the Cuban missile crisis and avert a nuclear war.

Born in Lincoln, Neb., to a lawyer father and a social worker, pacifist mother, Sorensen described himself as “a Danish Russian Jewish Unitarian.” His father served as Nebraska attorney general when Sorensen was an infant, and as a child Sorensen read “over and over” the words of the Gettysburg Address inscribed on a slab near the Nebraska Statehouse, said The New York Times. After earning undergraduate and law degrees at the University of Nebraska, he left for Washington, D.C. “He had never had a cup of coffee or written a check.” But 18 months later, after a stint as a government lawyer, he was hired by the new Democratic senator from Massachusetts, JFK. Sorensen said that Kennedy was everything he was not—“good-looking, glamorous, rich, a war hero, a Harvard graduate.”

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us