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.... from the decision to go to the moon to the Cuban Missile Crisis, when JFK requested that the thirty-four-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.--From publisher's description.

List of Illustrations Prologue A Happy Family The Kennedy Children & Their World Period of Adjustment A Harvard Man The First Book The War A Hero in the South Pacific Joe The Second Son Emerges A New Candidate Portrait of a Congressman America's Younger Statesman To the Senate The Senator from New England The Senator & the World Dismal Days Profiles in Courage Madly for Adlai Preparing for Chicago The Showdown at Chicago The Pulitzer Prize-Winning Senator Human Rights Labor Reform The Perfect Politician Emphatic Reelection Courting the Liberals The Literary Campaign The Labor Trap Taking the Step Epilogue Notes Acknowledgments Index

From finding JFK's single bullet to questioning Anita Hill to impeaching President Clinton, one of Washington's most respected senators offers shockingly candid insights into the major political controversies affecting the nation over the past 50 years. 16-page photo insert.

Focuses on the late president's role as Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces through such pivotal events as the Bay of Pigs, the Berlin Wall, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the space program. Tour.