**"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.
