ted sorensen is too young, 25 or 26, he will not be able to articulate those things. the introduction and the conclusion, those are more than kennedy's, that is basically his work. had he not won the pulitzer i don't think this would ever have been an issue. if i could come back to this. how he should have responded to the awarding of the pulitzer is a fair question. one of the proudest moments of his life he later said. is it reasonable to expect him to turn down the award? i don't know what that would have meant to an aspiring politician. there is no question the middle chapters were drafted by others, not just sorenson but professors who helped. this is more jack kennedy's book then perhaps you are allowing. >> i don't want to end on that minor disagreement. i want my audience to know we haven't talked about how the book ends but it is a marvelous account of the convention that came down in history, the 56 democratic convention and, you see jack kennedy at his best, knows how they play the game, detached enough, that he can take a loss now and it won't be the end o

he says ted sorensen when the tide his attorney says let's go.they leave their hotel room, they go to the hotel room, he gives this speech. it is an amazing moment. >> and a great ending and it makes you to get to volume two and finish volume two. [laughter] : : : fredrik: i think it's a leadership style characterized by an absolute consistent is part. and he himself and his aides need to be well-informed on the issues. he had very little patience for others who did not know their stuff down to the details. as a leadership style that is about becoming informed on an issue. and acting accordingly. this is something i find admirable. he does not want yes-men and yes women around him. his actually somebody wants people to have different views . wants to hear people's opinions about which path to take. then he liked accordingly. and there's much more to be said about this but the final piece to this may be that when he needs to make a decision, even those openly cautious on issues like civil rights which we can discuss, as i should latest lector over

time as first lady for the kennedy library in boston, and in one way or another, she helped out ted sorensen, chief speechwriter , and arthur/and or, the schlesinger. she remained good friends with schlesinger john kenneth , galbraith and stewart udall, the secretary of interior when was trying to heal, she went on rafting trips out west in the grand canyon. went to kind of get away, and eventually re-found herself , helpingrs of mourning bobby kennedy's political career but returning to her love of books and becoming an editor for doubleday. david: people forget how young she was when she was first lady. she was 31. president kennedy died when she was 34, but she tragically died at the age of just 64. dr. brinkley: i thought about that today, too. looking at her birthday, because this is what we are celebrating today, but she of course married and became -- she became a feature of tabloids in new york, probably the most sought after woman in the world. had two children making their marks and american life. i tend to think of her as living longer, but she died at that young age of 64 and suc

ted sorensen did most of the work on the book.ne thing kennedy did write was the preface in the acknowledgments. he wrote it and did not even mention sorensen's name. sorensen gives it an edit. sorensen says you should mention me. kennedy added the mention back in. then when the scandal came about, sorensen and kennedy both would refer to the acknowledgments and say that everything is above board in this book. we mentioned that ted did a little bit of work but it is kennedy's book. but that credit only existed because sorensen had to remind kennedy, maybe you should give the person who actually wrote the book the credit. that is not the cuban missile crisis in terms of historical import, but it is a human choice. it is a human being that decided this is how he wanted to act. i think readers and voters, it is ok to think in those terms and think of presidents as humans and evaluate them as, did they do the right thing as a person? host: there was a story much farther back in history where an author claims authorship. would you brie

kennedy's trusted advisor ted sorensen called it the worst disaster of a disaster filled period. sorensen observed evolution in kennedy's thinking after the invasion. what the bay of pigs taught kennedy that military ventures were not necessarily going to succeed. world problems required another approach. the one-two punch of the russian flight, that u.s. prestige by the bay of pigs invasion that reinforced the notion that soft power had a significant and necessary role to play in grand strategy at that moment. president kennedy asked his vice president lyndon johnson that he wanted an accelerated review of the status of the u.s. space program followed shortly by a request to find a space program which promised dramatic results in which we could win. the program would be project apollo. a few weeks later in response johnson responded to kennedy with these words. i will read them because i think they are revealing. other nations, regardless of their application of our idealistic -- appreciation of our idealistic values, will tend to align themselves with the country they believe w

and ultimately for compromise and democracy but those arguments those themes are jack kennedy's, ted sorensen at 25 or 26, he's knocking to be able to articulate those kinds of things. moreover, the introduction and conclusion i think for me the most interesting and important parts of the book i think those are more than kennedy's notes. that's basically his work. had he not won the pulitzer prize, i don't think this would've ever been an issue. ...... there's no question that the middle chapters were drafted by others, not just sorenson but they had some professors who helped them, and i write about this. but i guess i'm suggesting thisser more jack kennedy's book than perhaps you are allowing. >> well, before we go to question is don't want to end on that minor disagreement. i want our audience to know that we haven't even really talk about the way the book ends but it's a marvelous account of a condition convention that was no a great convention but the '56 democratic convention you see jack kennedy at his absolute best because he is maneuvering and showing he knows how to play the game an