Next on the next on the presidency, presidency. Andrew cohen andrew looks at two days in jfks cohen looks at two days in jfks presidency. Presidency. June 10th and june 10th and 11th, 11th, 1963, that defined 1963. It defined his response to the his response Nuclear Arms Race to the nuclear arms and civil rights. Rice and civil rights. Mr. Cohen is mr. Cohen is author of two days authors in june. John author of two days in f. Kennedy and the june, 48 hours that jfk and the made history. 48 hours that made the white house history. The White House Historical association Historical Association provided this video. Provided this video. And you, tell us about andrew, tell us about your book which your book. Focuses it focuses on on two days in the two days in the Kennedy Kennedy presidency. Presidency. June 10th and june 10th and june 11th, june 11th 1963. 1963. Why why did you did you decide to decide to write a book write a book focused focused on only two days of the on only two days of the Kennedy Kennedy presidency presidency and why did and why did you you pick those pick those two days two days to focus on . To focus on . Thank you thank you,. Its colleen. Its a great honor to be here a great honor to be here with you and with you and the at the White House HistoricalWhite House Historical association. Association, very meaningful particularly meaningful to to me because me because as i just said it was founded by it was founded by Jackie KennedyJackie Kennedy in the white house 60 years 60 years ago. Ago. I had i had been looking for been looking for a way a way into the into the Kennedy Kennedy administration for sometime. Administration for sometime. Part of it is maybe part of this to believe that one of the most seminal made days of my to be believe life was. One of the most seminal days of my life was november 27 22nd 1963. Its an november 22nd, eightyearold, i 1963. As an learned of the eight year old, i learned assassination of president of the assassination of kennedy. It president kennedy. It is not unusual for isnt unusual for someone like me or someone like me or anyone of my anyone of my generation to generation no remember where he or she was, matter where here she was but it did, but it did seem to me to seem to me to change something change something. And it a developed for me developed for me a fascination a fascination. As i as i grew grew up, up. My friends were my friends who were interested in interested in captain cook, and the captain cook and the final final frontier, frontier, i was i was interested in interested in jfk and the new frontier. Through my career jfk in the final as a journalist frontier. Through my career as as a journalist a student and student before. That, i had been looking for a way into the kennedy story. Of course, colleen, there were monumental biographies. There were heavy memoirs. There were academic studies. There was scarcely a part of jfks legacy that had not been dissected and inspected and examined. I wondered if there was something new to say. Then i came upon these two days in june. We are on the eve, is suddenly, of the 57th anniversary of june the 9th and june the 10th and 11th 1963. What could i say that was new . When i thought about it, i said to myself, my goodness, two extraordinary speeches. One at America University on june the 10th, 1963, in the morning. One on civil rights on the evening of june the 11th, 1963. Those would be two of the most extraordinary speeches of what was a rhetorical presidency. Between them, and they are the pillars of this study, but they are also the parentheses. Because in between, i saw an opportunity to explain, to illuminate the presidency, hour by hour in a granular atmospheric away that would try to give a 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 he did on the two a little issues of notch of his era, civil rights of nuclear arms. When i wonder what two days to pick. They invariably talk about the bay of pigs. These two days are what i call the high news of the kennedy presidency. When the book begins, kennedy is waking up on air force one. He is flying back to washington d. C. From hawaii where he has just given this speech. Only a few hours 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 why kennedy wanted to give it at that moment in time . To give us a bit of context, colleen, this is the spring of 1963. John f. Kennedy has been in office two and a half years. I think it is fair to say his record was mixed as president. His first year in 1961, he authorized the disastrous bay of pigs. He had a difficult meeting with nikki to khrushchev in vienna where he was bullied in a sense. He watches the berlin wall go up in august of 1961. By the end of that year, when a reporter says i would like to write a history of your first year in office. Kennedy turns to him and says, why would you want to write a history about disasters . By 1962, things are changing. He faces down the executives of what we call big steel who were trying to raise prices. He faces down the key to khrushchev at what is the given missile crisis. By 1963, hes feeling confident about his presidency. He also knows that america is at a turning point. At the height of the cold war around nuclear arms and civil rights. Lets deal with nuclear war. I had just mentioned the cuban missile crisis of 1962. 13 perilous days in the autumn of 1962, when historians still say today that we came as close to Nuclear Annihilation as we have before or since. Kennedy was shaken by that and so wasnt the key to khrushchev. Nick in the winter of 1963 and into the spring, jfk is looking to change the channel. Both of them felt that america and the soviet union, havent come to this near Nuclear Apocalypse or armageddon, had to find a way through. So a back channel has been established. The pope is involved. Evening reviews involved. There is an attempt by both parties to come to some conclusion or to begin some process that would lower the temperature and begin a certain process of disarmament. Kennedys big gambit in the spring of that year is a speech. It will be called a strategy of peace, but it will come to be called the peace speech. It is written over 46 weeks. It isnt a secret but its done by a tightly knit circle of trusted aides. Kennedy does not sure what he is going to propose because its almost subversive. It is not shirt with the joint chiefs of staff. He does not go to the state department or department of defense. It does not consult the cia and leaves out the joint chiefs of staff and the congressional leadership. All people who he might have consulted given what will become the major Foreign Policy speech of his administration. He is 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 in America University a 10 30 am after having flown across america and the pacific, nine hours, having left hawaii the night before. He touches down at Andrews Air Force base at about 8 50 am and gets on marine one and choppers to the white house. Within 100 minutes of landing on that tarmac, he will be dressed in a gown and mortar board. Again, he wont wear the hat, before an audience of convocation at America University in northwest washington where he will make a speech in which, for the first time, he will talk about the russians in human terms. He will compliment the russians. He will humanize the russians. He will talk about their achievements in industry and their economy. In science and space. Americans are very familiar with what just has happened because sputnik has gone up in 1957 and theres 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 even higher than that. Of all that the russians have done as a society, he will put aside the rhetoric of the cold war, of soviet treachery, of the big russian bear, of the gulags, of all of that that had become the standard, and staple of american politicians. He will do that and very carefully worded in a carefully worded address under repressive heat. It was 98 degrees at American University that they. People are wilting and they set up triage stations because people are fainting. There, he will not only talk about that, but he will make an offer. He will invite the soviet premier to enter with the United States in a negotiation over a comprehensive test ban treaty. It isnt comprehensive in the end, it would be limited, but kennedy is proposing that as the cold war goes on and as we both stockpile weaponry which can kill us many times over, why dont we simply stop testing . No tests in the atmosphere. No tests under the ocean. No tests in space. Where 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, which is seen as quite hawkish. John calibrate has always said dont judge kennedy by his inaugural address, judge him by what will become known as the peace speech. When kennedy says in the final analysis, we all inhabit the same planet. We all read 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 joseph stolen in 1944 and 1945. When khrushchev heres this several hours later, because while the speeches broadcast live in the United States, it takes a lot longer to make its way to moscow. He cannot believe what he is hearing. There will be a negotiation, and six weeks later, sometimes things to happen from speeches. There will be a nuclear limited test ban 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 they kennedy gives at American University, your book details about how 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 think that it might be a Pivotal Moment in civil rights history . In the velocity of these 48 hours, i called them these feverish 48 hours. He does pivot. He pivots on both issues. He has to pivot within a day. So he leaves American University. Its about five or six miles from the white house. He jumps into the Lincoln Continental that the candidates have designed and kennedy has started using. He goes back to the white house. His thoughts turn from diplomacy in the cold war and nuclear arms to George Wallace, civil rights and the university of alabama. Because down in alabama, George Wallace, the band to wait a small man with a very 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 and vivian malone, who the court has ordered, are to be admitted to the university of alabama. George wallace, to make a show of it, will stand at the School House Door and physically prevent those two from entering. The court has ordered this. The kennedys notice and sodas wallace. Wallace, however, is determined to make a spectacle of this and the candidates 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 or the cuban missile crisis. The roots of the civil rights speech are seven months earlier at the university of mississippi when ross barnett, the governor of mississippi, like George Wallace, is refusing to integrate the university of mississippi. These are the last of the great big public universities in the south. All others have been integrated at this point. In 1962, the candidates have to send in the National Guard, shades of today, send in the National Guard to preserve the rights of James Meredith to enter that university. It does not go well. Theres 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 candidates feel betrayed and they are not going to let that happen again. Before the show down in alabama, the kennedys, led by Bobby Kennedy, the attorney general of the United States will, he has been working at the Justice Department to ensure nothing goes wrong. They are gaining scenarios. How would they remove George Wallace if you refused . What will happen if he does refuse . Should they hold him in contempt of court . Because there is a court order, calling, 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 and education . So the candidates have been preparing for this assiduously. They have studied maps provided by the United States forestry service. They have even positioned a vote 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 was a threat of tens of thousands of class men outside the door of the university, outside the gates of the university. This is happening that day. Kennedy on monday is preparing for this. The confrontation wont take place until tuesday, but on monday he is gaming. This one advantage we had of writing the story and i did not know it till well into it, there was a documentary film team led by robert drew one of the earliest cinema very tail 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 piece speech which is june the 10th, and in the morning of june the 11th. You see how seriously the kennedys were taking this and how they were preparing for the confrontation with George Wallace. In your book, as you explained earlier, it is about two days, but you really use those two days as a lens into some of canadas most intimate and personal and most political relationships that he maintained. One person you feature in the book quite extensively is ted sorensen. Law can you tell us a little bit about this ted whole sorensen and why decided to heavily profile him and include him in the book . Ted sorensen, who deserves a biography of his own, which i have started to write and hope to return to. His kennedys speech writer ted sorensen leaves nebraska and arrives in washington and jack kennedy leaves the house and goes to the senate in 1953. Sorensen does not know kennedy. He is interviewing henry jackson, the senator from washington and his interview with jack kennedy. Interesting mainly enough the speech writer is interviewing the senator. Ted sorensen was considered so good out of nebraska. He was young, at the time in his early 20s. He is advised to go with jackson, but chooses 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 nikki. Hes a master craftsman and a words smith. He works for jfk we himself is a writer and values writers and had written with Ted Sorensens help profiles and courage. He admired writers and called them his friends. He appreciated eloquence and made eloquence and rhetoric a centerpiece of the style of the kennedy administration. With sorenson, and kennedys sense of occasion and sorensens facility with a pen, they were magic, the two of them. So at this time, ted sorenson is not just writing the piece speech, he is writing a number of speeches including the speech that jfk will give in berlin two weeks later. He will be writing under different circumstances, which im sure we will get to, the civil rights speech that jfk will deliver on june 11th. They are an extraordinary combination, which does not mean they are friends. They do not socialize together. Ted sorenson is absolutely devoted to jfk. It comes at some cost that will destroy his marriage and ravage his health, and shake at times his self confidence. He will never recover from the death of john f. Kennedy five and a half months later. But while they are together and on these particular two days, is the height, for