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| Counselor: A Life at the Edge of History | 
 enlarge | Author: Ted Sorensen
Publisher: Harper
Category: Book
List Price: $27.95
Buy New: $13.95
You Save: $14.00 (50%)
New (51) Used (24) Collectible (3) from $8.94
Avg. Customer Rating:  33 reviews
Sales Rank: 3381
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 576
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2
Dimensions (in): 8.8 x 6.2 x 1.8
ISBN: 0060798718
Dewey Decimal Number: 973.922092
EAN: 9780060798710
ASIN: 0060798718
Publication Date: May 1, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand New. 100% money back guarantee. All books shipped from Strand Bookstore, New York City, USA.
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| Customer Reviews:
 First rate in every way! May 19, 2008
5 out of 11 found this review helpful
I had the distinct pleasure to meet Mr. Sorensen 19 years ago when he very graciously gave me an hour of his time to talk about JFK. I knew that night that I was in the presence of a special person. I loved this compelling book. Get it now!
 "Counselor" Could Have Used Some Counseling July 11, 2008
5 out of 9 found this review helpful
Counselor: A Life at the Edge of History I was very disappointed in Sorensen's book, primarily because about the only thing he gives JFK credit for is his hiring him! It is as if he believes he was the president himself. Most offending is that clearly he does not connect his speechwriting rules "less is more" to his biography. After almost every description of a positive development in JFK's, Sorensen adds a paranthetical note crediting himself or noting how he predicted the outcome, making it an aggravating read. Sorensen has forgotten that he was part of a team and should have left the credit with the subject that is interesting; JFK and his administration (and subsequent relationships).
His opening comment is completely disengenous about his being uncomfortable about too many "I's". This is a man that is so full of himself...
Sorensen deserves credit for his service to the country, as I am sure he is a phenominal individual and was instrumental in shaping policies to the benefit of his sponsor and the US. But he is not an individual that one should devote the first 90 pages about his upbringing and background about...he simply is not that interesting...he was not the president of the United States...and this book is not that interesting because of it.
 A Pleasant Read June 6, 2008
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
An interesting mix of the author's own autobiographical details and his personal and historical insights into John Kennedy's presidency. Lacks the flair and fascination factor of Arthur Schlesinger Jr.'s recent memoirs, but should be of reasonable interest to students of recent American history
I Don't Think So June 11, 2008
3 out of 22 found this review helpful
Well, I could not finish this effort and so the reader must take that into account. That said, Mr. Sorensen is a marginal reader -- whatever may be said of the text. I was never clear on the vision here except that we all understand just what a swell guy Ted Sorensen is. Point noted.
Classic Memoir June 14, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
I listened to the audio of this book, read by Ted Sorensen, the author.
I highly recommend the audio, especially if you lived through this period or would like to know more about it. It will be a classic audio for the ages.
Mr. Sorensen relates some really interesting episodes that I didn't know or had forgotten. He says President Kennedy called the New York Times to get them to fire the late brilliant prophetic journalist and author David Halberstam, because Halberstram was trying to warn America against escalating involvement in the Vietnam conflict.
Halberstram later wrote "The Best and the Brightest", relating the irony of the brightest brains in America under Kennedy and Johnson lead America into such a disastorous war in Vietnam.
Ted Sorensen says, quite credibly, that he advised both President Kennedy and President Johnson against escalation in Vietnam. Tragically Sorensen's advise was not taken by either Kennedy or Johnson. Sorensen was the idealist, the pacifist, in the Kennedy brain trust.
As couselor to President Kennedy says in this book that he knew President Kennedy was thinking of making an overture to Communist China in JFK's 2nd term in office, should JFK be reelected.
In light of this, Serensen may wish to provide a sequel to this book, in which he could give his full analysis of Presdent Nixon's trip of reconcilliation to China, with Henry Kissinger, which effectively laid the groundwork for peace in Vietnam, and hopefully an end to America's wars in the Far East.
Most unfortunately, but understandably, Serensen does not mention Nixon's historic trip to China, in this book. This is a geat disappointment, because Serensen could provide great insight. Nixon and Kennedy were of course direct political opponents.
So the absence of any mention of Nixon's most historic trip to China is understandably not mentioned at all in this book.
Also, in light of Kennedy's near tragic confrontations with the Soviet Union in Berlin and in Cuba, it would be fascinating to learn of Serensen's views of the fall of the Berlin Wall and indeed of the entire Soviet Union and its empire during the Reagan-Bush Administrations.
Serensen does voice his view that Kennedy would not have have made the terribly tragic escalations of the war in Vietnam, had he lived, and his Vice President Johnson not become President upon the death of President Kennedy.
Although Johnson was a Kennedy appointee of course, and Johnson' war cabinet were virtually all Kennedy appointees as well, it is plausible that with Serensen advising Kennedy, Kennedy would have avoided the terribly tragic mistakes of the Johnson Administration in Vietman. Although it is Sorensen's conjecture, we don't know.
It is not hard to believe that JFK would have avoided the major escallation of the war in Vietnam that occurred after LBJ's landslide election of 1964.
With 20/20 hindsight, we wonder about the wisdom of JFK picking LBJ has his Vice Presidential running mate. The argument that JFK needed someone from the South makes sense, but one wonder's whether it would been better judgement to pick another Southern politician whom JFK had more confidence in as a prospective President.
One of the more amazing stories of the JFK era, and its aftermath, is the Nixon-Kissinger trip to China, which may be also one of the most important and brilliant foreign policy events in all of American history. Since Nixon and JFK were closely linked as opponents and as Cold Warriors involved in the Chinese-Vietnamese confict, it is a shame that Ted Soronsen did not mention it at all, or offer his own assessment.
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