JFK Adviser Theodore Sorensen Dies at 82

Theodore Sorensen, adviser to John F. Kennedy, died Sunday in New York. He was 82. Sorensen helped write some of Kennedy’s most famous speeches, coining the line “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country,” among many other memorable rhetorical flourishes. Sorensen started working for Kennedy as a researcher just after the beloved pol was elected senator of Massachusetts. He went on to become a political strategist, adviser, and speechwriter. Sorensen also drafted much of Kennedy’s 1956 book Profiles in Courage. Even Kennedy’s opponent, Richard Nixon, had respect for Sorensen. “You need a mind like Sorensen’s around you that’s clicking and clicking all the time.” After Kennedy’s assassination, Sorensen went on to practice law and politics.