Just yesterday I was reading about Ted Sorensen and his involvement with choosing the head of America's propaganda agency, USIA, after Kennedy's election in 1960.
Sorensen, who died today at age 82, put together an outline of the qualifications needed for telling America's story to the world:
- Experience in world affairs and knowledge of foreign peoples
- Should comprehend the 'revolution of rising expectations' throughout the world, and its impact on U.S. foreign policy
- Pragmatic, open-minded, and sensitive to international political events, without being naïve
- Understand the potentialities of propaganda while being aware of its limitations
It was, as Alexander Kendrick writes, "an excellent, almost a hand-tooled description of Edward R. Murrow."
Theodore Sorensen we all know as the great speechwriter, but he was so much more. Sorensen shared Kennedy's commitment to psychological warfare and foreign information programs. Shortly after JFK accepted the nomination for President, he asked the American people:
Can we carry through in an age where we will witness not only new breakthroughs in weapons of destruction but also a race for mastery of the sky and the rain, the ocean and the tides, the far side of space and the inside of men's minds?
It's hard to imagine but Ted Sorensen was a 32-year-old member of the New Frontier, the youngest member of the inner circle of 30- and 40-somethings that dominated Kennedy's cabinet. Murrow, at 52, joked that he was the "Satchel Paige of the Kennedy administration."
Ted's brother Thomas C. Sorensen, who died in 1997, was part of the USIA "troika" that included Sorensen as Director of Policy, Edward R. Murrow as Director and Donald M. Wilson as Deputy Director. Tom Sorenson penned one of the best books on that era called The Word War: The Story of American Propaganda, which includes several chapters on Murrow during the Kennedy years. What a talented brother duo they made.
I take pause today to remember Ted Sorensen for penning one of the greatest presidential speeches of the 20th century, Kennedy's American University Commencement Address on June 10, 1963. Kennedy's post-Cuban Missile Crisis posture was to open up dialogue with the Soviet Union. The United States would call on the USSR to enter into more peaceful negotiations and disarmament talks. Kennedy chose this speech to make his long-distance détente call:
Some say that it is useless to speak of peace or world law or world disarmament, and that it will be useless until the leaders of the Soviet Union adopt a more enlightened attitude. I hope they do. I believe we can help them do it. But I also believe that we must reexamine our own attitudes, as individuals and as a Nation, for our attitude is as essential as theirs. And every graduate of this school, every thoughtful citizen who despairs of war and wishes to bring peace, should begin by looking inward, by examining his own attitude towards the possibilities of peace, towards the Soviet Union, towards the course of the cold war and towards freedom and peace here at home.
First examine our attitude towards peace itself. Too many of us think it is impossible. Too many think it is unreal. But that is a dangerous, defeatist belief. It leads to the conclusion that war is inevitable, that mankind is doomed, that we are gripped by forces we cannot control. We need not accept that view. Our problems are man-made; therefore, they can be solved by man.
With the help of Murrow's USIA, Kennedy's speech was made available to the world. USIA got thousands of requests for copies; India alone requested 35,000 copies. And what did the Soviet Union do in response? It stopped jamming Voice of America broadcasts, announced a willingness to accept a ban on atmospheric testing and on August 5, 1963 signed the Nuclear Test Ban treaty.
With Sorensen's passing, I can only think that words still matter, are powerful, and can change the world, even if for a moment.
Nancy Snow (nsnow@fullerton.edu) received her Ph.D. in international relations from American University's School of International Service. She is Associate Professor in the College of Communications at Cal State Fullerton and Adjunct Professor at USC Annenberg. Her forthcoming book, Truth is the Best Propaganda: Murrow in the Kennedy Years, will be published in 2011, fifty years after Murrow's appointment as Director of the U.S. Information Agency.