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Counselor

A Life at the Edge of History

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Counselor

Written by: Ted Sorensen
Narrated by: Ted Sorensen
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In this gripping memoir, John F. Kennedy's closest advisor recounts in full, for the first time, his experience counseling Kennedy through the most dramatic moments in American history.

Sorensen returns to January 1953, when he and the freshman senator from Massachusetts began their extraordinary professional and personal relationship. Rising from legislative assistant to speechwriter and advisor, the young lawyer from Nebraska worked closely with JFK on his most important speeches, as well as his book Profiles in Courage.

Sorensen encouraged the junior senator's political ambitions - from a failed bid for the vice-presidential nomination in 1956 to the successful presidential campaign in 1960, after which he was named special counsel to the president.

Sorensen describes in thrilling detail his experience advising JFK during some of the most crucial days of his presidency, from the decision to go to the moon to the Cuban Missile Crisis, when JFK requested that the 34-year-old Sorensen draft the key letter to Khrushchev at the most critical point of the world's first nuclear confrontation.

After Kennedy was assassinated, Sorensen stayed with President Johnson for a few months before leaving to write a biography of JFK. In 1968 he returned to Washington to help run Robert Kennedy's presidential campaign. Through it all, Sorensen never lost sight of the ideals that brought him to Washington and to the White House, working tirelessly to promote and defend free, peaceful societies.

Illuminating, revelatory, and utterly compelling, Counselor is the brilliant, long-awaited memoir from the remarkable man who shaped the presidency and the legacy of one of the greatest leaders America has ever known.

©2008 Ted Sorensen (P)2008 HarperCollins Publishers
Biographies & Memoirs Professionals & Academics American History Military Vietnam War Franklin D Roosevelt Imperialism War Self-Determination
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What the critics say

"Ted Sorensen's Counselor is that rare gift to history: an account of mighty events by a participant who stood at their heart, and a writer masterful enough to make us understand them as well." (Robert A. Caro)
"This clear-eyed but loving memoir is fascinating." (Walter Isaacson)
"Ted Sorensen's words inspired a generation, and his counsel and judgment helped steer our nation through some of its most difficult hours....Sorensen has written a book that will be cherished for generations." (Barack Obama)

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INSPIRING

The inspirations and accomplishments of the truncated Kennedy administration were well documented in many ways, but none could rival the accounts being told by an insider as in this book. This is a great short history of the Kennedy years, and one cannot help but nostalgic of that period. This is particularly true when compared with the current state of affairs in government and politics in particular, which was very well summed up in the conclusion of the book. Well done. The bad policies and governing will pass and be replaced by new leadership, we just have to keep our faith.

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