I had been looking for a way into the Kennedy Administration for sometime. Artists maybe to believe, but one of the most seminal days of my life was november 22nd, 1963, one as an eight year old i learned of the assassination of president kennedy. It isnt unusual for someone like me or any of my generation to remember where here she was, but it did seem to me like to change something. It develop for me a fascination. As i grew up, my friends were interested in captain cook and the final frontier. And i was interest in jfk and the new frontier. Through my career as a journalist, as a student before that, i had been looking as a washington correspondent for away as well for way into the kennedy. Story of course colin there, were a monumental biographies. There were heavy memoirs, there were academic studies, there were scarcely a part of jfks legacy that had not been dissected and inspected and examined. But i wanted to see if theres an i wasnt sure if there is nothing new to say. When i came essentially upon these two days in june. We are on the eve of the 57th anniversary of july 10th and 11th 1963. What can i say there was new . One of thought about her i said to myself my goodness. Two extraordinary speeches one on the American University on june 10th, 1963 in a morning. One and civil rights and the evening of june 11th, 1963. Those would be two of the most extraordinary speeches. What was a rhetorical presidency. Between them and, they are the pillars of the study, they are also the parentheses. Because in between, i saw an opportunity to explain illuminate the presidency hour by hour, granular atmospheric way that would try to give the reader who did not know much about jfk, like the students i teach for example who are of another generation what it was like to be jfk. What it was like to be president of the United States and what it was like to make the decisions that he did on the two pivotal issues. His presidency, his decade and his generation, civil rights in nuclear. Arms when i saw the opportunity those two days and when people asked me what todays did you pick . Invariably they talk about the cuban missile crisis. Its these two days that i call the high noon of the kennedy presidency. So when the book begins, canada is waking up from air force one hes flying back to washington d. C. Where gave a speech. If you are as later, he will be at American University giving a monumental speech on foreign affairs. Can you tell us about the substance of that speech and White Kennedy wanted to get, at that moment in time. To give us a bit of context, this is the spring of 1963. John f. Kennedy has been in office two and a half years. I think its fair to say his record was mixed as president. His first share, 1961, he authorized the disastrous bay of pigs. He had a difficult meeting with the key to khrushchev. He has he watches the berlin wall go up in 1961 of august. A Reporter Asks him to write a history about his term in office. He responds, why would you have to write history about tragedy . He faces down nita khrushchev in the given missile crisis. By 63, hes feeling confident about his presidency. He also knows america is at a watershed turning point. Both at the height of the cold war around nuclear arms, and around civil rights. But lets deal with nuclear war. I just had mentioned the cuban missile crisis of 1962. 13 perilous days, when historians still say today, that we came closest to nuclear nile a shunt both before and since. Kennedy was shaken by that as well as nikki to khrushchev. In the winter of 1963 and into the spring, hes looking to change the channel. Both felt that the soviet union and america had come to this point, back channels are established and hope is restored. They began a process that would lower the temperature and begin a certain process of disarmament. Kennedys big gambit in the spring of that here is a speech. It will be called a strategy. The strategy of peace, but it will be come to be known as the peace speech. The speech is written over six four to six weeks. It isnt a secret, but its done by a tightly a tight circle of trusted aides. Kennedy does not share what he was going to propose because it is almost subversive. He does not share with the joint chiefs of staff. He does not go to the state department or the department of defense. He does not consult the cia. He leaves out the joint chiefs of staff and the congressional leadership. All people who he might have consulted given what will become the major policy speech of his administration. Hes dealing with it that way because kennedy is going to say things about the russians that no american president has said since the cold war. Now 18 years of cold war. He will in that speech, he will arrive an American University at 10 am after having flown across america, across the pacific, nine hours. Having left a white the night before. Touching down at andrews our force base at about 8 50 am. Getting on marine one and chopping to the white house. Within 100 minutes of landing on that tarmac, he will be dressed in a gown and mortar board. He wont wear the cap. He will be before and audience where he will make a speech in which, for the first time, he will talk about the russians in very human terms. He will complement the russians. He will humanize the russians. He will talk about their achievements in industry and their economy. In science and american space. Americans are very familiar with what has just happened. Very familiar, because sputnik has gone up in 1957 and there is a great sense that america has fallen behind the soviets. He will talk about the soviets, or the russians contribution, in the second world war. 20 million as the figure was then, its actually higher than that. Of everything the russians have done as a society. He will put aside the rhetoric of a cold war, of soviet treachery, of the big russian bear, of the gulags, of all of that that had become a staple of american politicians. He will do that and very carefully word it. In a carefully worded address, under repressive heat. Its 98 degrees at American University that day. People are wilting. They set up triage stations because people are painting. And there, he will not only talk about that, but he will make an offer. He will invite the soviet premier to enter into negotiations with the United States over a comprehensive test boundary. This isnt comprehensive in the end, it would be limited, but kennedy is proposing that, as the cold where it goes on and as we both stockpiled weaponry which can kill us many times over, why dont we simply stop testing . No tests in the atmosphere. No tests under ocean. No tests in space. And it is all a radical idea that kennedy knows is not going to go down well with many elements, conservative elements in congress and elsewhere, who are hard line communists. Its important to know that jfk is no slouch when it comes to communism. His inaugural address, people like john calibrated said dont judge kennedy by his inaugural address. Judge him by what would become the piece speech. The rhetoric, the tone, when kennedy says in the final analysis, we all inhabit the same planet. We all breed the same air. We all cherish our childrens future. We are all mortal. He is almost universalist in his appeal. This kind of language had not been heard from the mouth of a president since perhaps Franklin Roosevelt was dealing with stalin in 1944 and 1945. Wind khrushchev heres this several hours later, because while the speech is broadcasted live in the United States, it takes a lot longer to get to moscow. He cannot believe what he is hearing. There will be a negotiation. Six weeks later, just to show you that sometimes things do happen from speeches, there will be a limited nuclear test treaty. The most important Foreign Policy decision and Foreign Policy achievement of the Kennedy Administration. A few hours later, after this really transformative Foreign Policy speech that canada gives at American University. Your book details about he out he has pivoted two hours later to eight another major pressing National Issue concerning governor George Wallace and desegregation at the university of alabama. How does kennedy begin to prepare himself to handle this crisis . And why does he believe it might be a Pivotal Moment in civil rights history . The velocity of these 48 hours, i call them a feverish 48 hours, he pivots. He pivots on both issues. He has to pivot within the days. He leaves American University at about which is about five or six miles from the white house. He jumps into the Lincoln Continental that the kennedy said designed. He roars back to the white house. His thoughts turn from diplomacy and cold war and nuclear arms to George Wallace, civil rights and the university of alabama. Down in alabama, georgia wallace, the band and wait, the small man with the big complaint, has announced that he will refuse to integrate the university of alabama. He will refuse to personally admit to black students. James hood ended ian malone, who the court has ordered our to be admitted into the university of alabama. George lawless to make a show of it, will stand at the School House Door and prevent physically those two from entering. The court has ordered this. The kennedy know it. So does wallace. But wallace is determined to make a spectacle of this and the kennedys realize that they have to allow him to do that. They will not bring the two students to the front door. They will admit them through a side door, but there will be a confrontation which will also be carried live on radio. The candidates have been preparing for this for sometime. As the roots of the peace speech are the cuban missile crisis, the roots of the civil rights speech and what happens that day are seven months earlier at the university of mississippi when the governor, like George Wallace, is refusing to integrate the university of mississippi. These are the last of the great public universities in the south. All others have been integrated at this point. 1962, the candidates have to send in the National Guard to preserve the rights of james meredith, the rights to enter the university. It does not go well. Its actually quite a disaster. There is a 15hour riot. Two people are killed including a french journalist. Hundreds are injured. Ross barnett has not done what he said he would do. The kennedys feel betrayed and they are not going to let that happen again. So before the show down at the university of alabama, the kennedys, led by robert kennedy, hes been working at the Justice Department to ensure nothing goes wrong. They are gaming scenarios. How would they remove George Wallace if he refuses . What will happen if he does refuse . Should they hold him in contempt of court . There is a court order ordering the integration of the university. How will they handle that . How will they preserve the dignity of the two black students, who after all, just one an education . So the candidates have been preparing for this assiduously. Theyve studied maps provided by the United States forestry service. They have even positioned a boat on the Black Warrior river at the edge of campus in case a lynch mob chases those two away. They were worried about that. There were there was a threat of tens of thousands of clansman outside of the door. The university, outside the gates of the university. This is happening on that day. On monday, kennedy is preparing for this. The confrontation wont take place until tuesday, but on monday he is gaming this. One advantage i had in writing this story, and i didnt know it until well into it, there was a documentary film team filming kennedy in the white house. It was led by robert drew, one of the first cinema very tight filmmakers. I had access to the raw footage which is held in hollywood. There i could see, i could watch the negotiations, the consultations that were going on in the white house both on monday after the peace speech, thats june 10th, and in the morning of june 11th. You see how seriously the kennedys were taking this and how they are preparing for that confrontation with George Wallace. In your book, as you explained earlier, its about two days, but you really use those two days as a lens into some of kennedys most intimate and personal and most political relationships that he maintained. One person that you feature in the book quite extensively is ted sorenson. Can you tell us a little bit about ted sorenson and why you decided to heavily profile him and include him in your book . He deserves a biography of his own. I started to write, put aside and hoped to return to. Ted sorenson is kennedys speech writer. He leaves nebraska and arrives in washington and jack kennedy leaves the house and goes to the senate in 1953. Sorensen does not know kennedy. Hes interviewing with Scoop Jackson, the senator from washington, and interviewing with jack hannity. Interestingly enough, a senator is interviewing a senator. Ted sorenson was considered so good, he led his class, he was young, in his early 20s at the time, that he is advised to go with Scoop Jackson but goes with jack kennedy. Theyre begins in association of 11 years, which i would argue, is the most Extraordinary Partnership between a president and an associate in the history of the modern presidency. There isnt anything that ted sorenson wont do for jfk. He reveres him. He is a master craftsman and a wordsmith. He works for jfk. He began his career after the war as a journalist. He called writers his friends. He appreciated eloquence and made eloquence and rhetoric a centerpiece of the style of the Kennedy Administration. With ted sorenson, with kennedys sense of occasion and ted sorensons facility with a pen, they were magic the two of them. And so at this time, ted sorenson is not just writing the piece speech, hes writing a number of speeches including the berlin speech that kennedy will give two weeks later. He will be riding the civil rights speech that some jfk will deliver june the 11th. They are an extraordinary combination. That doesnt mean they are friends. They dont socialize together. Ted sorenson is acting absolutely devoted to jfk. It comes at some cost. It will destroy his marriage and ravage his help and at times shake his self confidence. He will never recovered from the death of john f. Kennedy five and a half months later. While they are together, and on these particular two days, it is the height, for me, looking at the this and ministration, the height of their rhetorical flourish. Another major player that you highlight in the book regarding jfks decision in the university of alabama. Ted sorenson liked to say that he was the third most powerful man in washington. Thats because Bobby Kennedy was second and no one could displace bobby. Robert kennedy is a lot younger than jack. He has been drafted by joseph p kennedy, the kennedy patriarch, to serve his brother. Bobby did not want to be attorney general in 1961. Joe kennedy told jack, you will make bobby your attorney general. Jack famously introduces bobby saying, i see no reason not to give him a little bit of experience before he goes out to practice law. This was the chief Law Enforcement officer the United States. Bobby was a wonderful attorney general and Kennedy Justice is an extraordinary combination of passion and effectiveness. Drawing some of the leading lead legal thinkers and lawyers in america. Hes more than a lawyer and more than an adviser to jack kennedy. Particularly over these two degrees. If he was a Prime Minister on other days, today hes a field marshal. Hes almost a cool president , because when it comes to handling what is happening in mississippi, bobby is executing the moves through his Justice Department. Nicholas katz and back, one of his colleagues, is a road scholar who appears in the pictures towering over George Wallace. They are stage managing everything, that is the kennedys response to George Wallace. Bobby kennedy is following everything on the phone from his office. There is a film crew there to recorded. There is not only one with president kennedy in the white house, theres one with Bobby Kennedy at the Justice Department and one with George Wallace and the two students in mississippi alabama. Bobby kennedy is something of a show runner before the word was used. He is a choreographer. Nobody knows how all this will unspool, but bobby has ensured that, if anything that he is thought of everything and nothing will go wrong if he can help it. He does think of everything and nothing does go wrong. After George Wallace turns away nicholas cats and back in the morning, the kennedys mobilize federalize the National Guard. They arrived at 3 30 in the afternoon in alabama. 5 30 in washington. University will be integrated, the students who dont want to overthrow the system, they just want to join it, they will enroll at the university of alabama students. The thinking is then, what is next . Whats next is the civil rights speech that night. Right. Can you tell us the story of the speech on june 11th, 1963 . How was the speech drafted . Also, why does kennedy think this is the time in which to include the moral argument ab