In January, 1953, freshman Senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts hired a 24-year-old Unitarian from Nebraska as his Number Two legislative assistant - on a trial basis. Despite the difference in their backgrounds, Sorenson in the eleven years that followed became known as Kennedy's "intellectual blood-bank," "top policy aide" and "alter ego."
Sorenson knew Kennedy the man, the Senator, the candidate and the President as no other associate did throughout these eleven years. He 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 speech to the Protestant clergy of Houston, 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. Sorenson relates the role of the White House staff and evaluates Kennedy's relations with his Cabinet and other appointees. He reveals Kennedy's errors on the Bay of Pigs, his attitudes toward the press and Congress, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and his handling of Berlin and the Cuban missile crisis.
Three months to the day after Dallas, Sorensen left the White House to write the account of those eleven year that only he could write.
