Under Construction @ Keele 2017 Under Construction @ Keele Vol. III (3) | Page 47

Sorensen and Schlesinger contributed to many Americans identifying Kennedy’s
handling of the three aforementioned events as his greatest accomplishments in
office.
Previous discussions about how these texts helped to establish Kennedy as a
great president do not discuss any of his achievements in detail. Cimpean and White
both noted how Kennedy and A Thousand Days described many of Kennedy’s
successes, including resolving the 1961 Berlin Crisis, aiding Latin American
countries, and signing the 1963 Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. 10 As White argued, both
books ‘asserted Kennedy's greatness as a leader’ and ‘played a key role in
constructing’ a ‘worshipful attitude towards the slain president’. 11 However, White
and Cimpean did not single out any event in particular for extended discussion which
under-emphasises the importance of specific events during the Kennedy presidency
and of their analysis, as provided by Sorensen and Schlesinger.
Sorensen’s and Schlesinger’s books have been selected due to their historical
significance in the scholarship of the Kennedy administration. Both authors worked
closely with the late president. Sorensen served as Special Counsel to the President
and as speech-writer. 12 Schlesinger served as liaison to United Nations Ambassador
Adlai Stevenson and as adviser to Kennedy. 13 Both texts enjoyed commercial
success and featured on The New York Times best-seller list for 26 weeks from 1965
to 1966. 14 It is important to remember that the authors wished to emphasise the
successes of the Kennedy era. Sorensen admitted his book was not ‘neutral’ and
praised Kennedy ‘out of deep pride and conviction’. 15 Schlesinger confessed his
book ‘would leave no question about the greatness of’ Kennedy’s presidency. 16 As
Cimpean argued, ‘memoirs are, by definition, subjective and rarely granted the
quality of factual relevance’. 17 While this might possibly generate some problems for
historians, the bias in the texts is helpful for showing how Kennedy intimates
constructed the late president’s legacy.
Ibid., 48-53; White, Kennedy, 93-97.
White, Kennedy, 91.
12
Hugh Sidey, John F. Kennedy: Portrait of a President (London: Andrew Deutsch, 1964), 5.
13
Pierre Salinger, With Kennedy (New York: Doubleday & Co., Inc., 1966), 69.
14
“The New York Times Best Seller List: April 10, 1966,” Hawes Publications, accessed March 07,
2017, http://www.hawes.com/1966/1966-04-10.pdf, 2; “The New York Times Best Seller List: May 29,
1966,” Hawes Publications, accessed March 07, 2017, http://www.hawes.com/1966/1966-05-29.pdf,
2.
15
Sorensen, Kennedy, 5-6.
16
White, Kennedy, 91.
17
Cimpean, The JFK Image, 43.
10
11