Remembering America: A Voice from the Sixties

by Richard N. Goodwin

From the speechwriter and top adviser to presidents Kennedy and A behind-the-scenes history of the most momentous decade in American politics. Richard N. Goodwin entered public service in 1958 as a law clerk for Supreme Court Associate Justice Felix Frankfurter. He left politics ten years later in the aftermath of Senator Robert F. Kennedy’s assassination. Over the course of one extraordinary decade, Goodwin orchestrated some of the noblest achievements in the history of the US government and bore witness to two of its greatest tragedies. His eloquent and inspirational memoir is one of the most captivating chronicles of those turbulent years ever published. From the Twenty-One quiz-show scandal to the heady days of John F. Kennedy’s presidential campaign to President Lyndon Johnson’s heroic vote wrangling on behalf of civil rights legislation, Remembering America brings to life the most fascinating figures and events of the era. As a member of the Kennedy administration, Goodwin charted a new course for US relations with Latin America and met in secret with Che Guevara in Uruguay. He wrote Johnson’s historic civil rights speech, “We Shall Overcome,” in support of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and formulated the concept of the Great Society and its programs, which sought to eradicate poverty and racial injustice. After breaking with Johnson over the president’s commitment to the Vietnam War, Goodwin played a pivotal role in bringing antiwar candidate Eugene McCarthy to within a few hundred votes of victory in the 1968 New Hampshire primary. Three months later, he was with his good friend Robert F. Kennedy in Los Angeles the night that the young senator’s life—and the progressive movement that had rapidly brought about such significant change—came to a devastating end. Throughout this critical decade, Goodwin held steadfast to the passions and principles that had first led him to public service. Remembering America is a thrilling account of the breathtaking victories and heartbreaking disappointments of the 1960s, and a rousing call to action for readers committed to justice today.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Memoir, Politics, American History, Biography, American

716 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1988

About the author

Richard Goodwin was born in Boston on 7th December, 1931. He graduated from Tufts University in 1953. He then went on to study law at Harvard University.

Goodwin joined the Massachusetts State bar in 1958. He worked for Felix Frankfurter before being appointed as special counsel to the Legislative Oversight Subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives.

In 1959 John F. Kennedy appointed Goodwin as a member of his speech writing staff. The following year he became Kennedy's assistant special counsel. Goodwin was also a member of Kennedy's Task Force on Latin American Affairs and in 1961, was appointed Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs, a position he held until 1963. As one of Kennedy's specialists in Latin-American affairs, Goodwin helped develop the Alliance for Progress, an economic development program for Latin America. Goodwin also served as secretary-general of the International Peace Corps.

After Kennedy's death Goodwin joined the staff of President Lyndon B. Johnson where he worked as a speechwriter and adviser. Goodwin resigned in 1965 and became a fellow at the Center for Advanced Studies at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut and a visiting professor of public affairs at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Goodwin continued to be involved in politics and wrote speeches for presidential candidates Robert Kennedy, Eugene McCarthy and Edmund Muskie. He also wrote for several magazines, including The New Yorker and Rolling Stone. He also published The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys (1986) and Remembering America (1988).

In March, 2001, Goodwin was a member of a United States delegation that visited the scene of the Bay of Pigs battle. The party included Arthur Schlesinger (historian), Robert Reynolds, (the CIA station chief in Miami during the invasion), Jean Kennedy Smith (sister of John F. Kennedy), Alfredo Duran (Bay of Pigs veteran) and Wayne S. Smith (Executive Secretary of his Latin American Task Force).

Reviews

[Lorna · Rating 5 out of 5]

“‘Remembering America’ is an absolutely compelling book about the sixties; a beautifully accurate narrative of a man who saw it all trip the inside. It was a unique period in American history—a time of hope and a time of tragedy—and Dick Goodwin has captured it all.” — Tip O’Neill

“Intimate, percipient, wry, marvelously anecdotal and often profound in its grasp of politics, character and paradox. John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson walk through these pages like major characters in a big novel.” — Norman Mailer

Remembering America: A Voice from the Sixties is a powerful voice from the tumultuous and heady years of the sixties by one intimately involved, Richard Goodwin. He was an intimate colleague and friend of the many public figures of that time including John Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, and Eugene McCarthy. Goodwin was a speechwriter for both Presidents John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, later working with Robert Kennedy to secure his nomination in the 1968 campaign for president. This memoir is not only a remembrance but a plea to all for remembrance of this extraordinary decade with all of its hopes and dreams and ideals and to those inspiring men and women who sought to achieve them.

After serving as law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter, Richard Goodwin joined Senator Kennedy’s staff in 1959. As special counsel and speechwriter, Goodwin informs one of the many hardships of the 1960 campaign while citing how a dynamic presidential candidate, John Kennedy electrified a generation of voters. As one of the trusted “president's men,” he followed Kennedy to the White House where he was instrumental in many programs including the Alliance for Progress.

After the assassination of President Kennedy, Richard Goodwin was one of the few men invited by President Lyndon Johnson to join his circle of advisers. Goodwin originated the Great Society concept which became the center of the early Johnson administration. This was fascinating as we are witness to a master politician bringing Congress and the nation his will. As President Johnson forged his Great Society and the civil rights movement, much of it a tribute and legacy to the ideas put forth by John Kennedy.

“The Great Society. . . demands an end to poverty and racial injustice. . . But that is just the beginning. The Great Society is a place where every child can find knowledge to enrich his mind and enlarge his talent. . . .where leisure is a welcome chance to build and reflect, not a feared cause of boredom and restlessness. . . where the city of man serves not only the needs of the body and the demands of commerce but the desire for beauty and the hunger for the community.

“It is a place where man can renew contact with nature. . . .which honors creation for its own sake and for what it adds to the understanding of the race. . . .where men are more concerned wtih the quality of their goals rather than the quantity of their goods.”

Johnson then began to sketch out the application of these principles to specific afflictions of American life.

And then the alarming deterioration of President Johnson’s mind and spirit as the war in Vietnam began to accelerate. During 1965, Johnson was transforming the nature of the presidential institution with Johnson trusting their loyalty. It is noted that these men were not linked by simple loyalty to Johnson, but by their own profound involvement in the growing conflict. They had counseled , urged, the president toward escalation. The emphasis was they were going to succeed.

“In the mid-1960s the ‘stress point’ was deep within the hitherto-secluded recesses of Lyndon Johnson’s mind the hammer blow—not a single strike but a multitude of unremitting taps—the determined ferocity of a multitudinous enemy concealed a month the villages and jungles of South Vietnam. What was broken was Johnson himself, and along with him the Great Society, the progress of a nation, the faith of a people, not only in their leadership, but in the nobility of their destiny to lead a troubled world out of the wilderness of war and the miseries of almost universal poverty. For in the single year of 1965–exactly one hundred years after Appomattox—Lyndon Johnson reached the height of his leadership and set in motion the process of decline.”

Leaving the White House at the end of 1965, Richard Goodwin developed a close personal and political association with Robert Kennedy. After openly breaking with the administration on the war, Goodwin joined Eugene McCarthy in his campaign for an end to the Vietnam tragedy. Johnson’s subsequent withdrawal from the primary race, Goodwin rejoined Robert Kennedy for the “last crusade of the sixties, which coursed through the crucial primary states and ended as Goodwin and his colleagues stood silent vigil in the Los Angeles hospital where Robert Kennedy’s life, and with it the sixties—and all they meant of hope, expectation, and promise—came to an end.”

“In a voice that is eloquent, impassioned, and at once funny and shrewd, Goodwin evokes the spirit and the emotion of that turbulent and ebullient era, and the dream of creating a greater and more just society for all Americans.”

[CoachJim · Rating 5 out of 5]

In Richard Goodwin’s Remembering America he reminisces about his life during the 1960s. He captures the spirit of the early sixties for that “brief shining moment.” This is an excellent account of the political landscape, of the candidates and campaigns, as told by an actual participant and eyewitness to these times.

The author admits that memoirs are a partial misrepresentation. He quotes Justice Frankfurter who said “Memoirs are the most unreliable source of historical evidence. Events are always distorted by refraction through the writer’s ego.” (Page 211) I think this also applies to narrative histories.

Goodwin is reminding us that the 1960s were a time when the hopes and dreams of liberty and justice for all Americans was believed possible. This was a belief reflected by the Kennedys, Martin Luther King, and the Great Society of Lyndon Johnson. The idea was born with the Kennedy presidency, but much of the initial progress was the result of Lyndon Johnson’s political savvy in enacting the legislation of the period. It was a time when America elected two presidents that embodied that belief.

He started the sixties as a speechwriter for John Kennedy. After the assassination he became the principle speechwriter for President Johnson. He helped write Johnson’s 1964 commencement address at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor where the term “the Great Society” gained popularity. He wrote the speech Johnson delivered to a televised joint session of Congress in March of 1965—a speech about the Voting Rights bill in which he used the term “we shall overcome.”

In this book Goodwin also recalls the memories of a time when dreams of a greater and more just society were being actively sought, but he also recalls the horrors of the assassinations. He asks the bigger question of whether that time is over for America. Has the pursuit ended of the American dream where all have a chance to share in the growing abundance, where huge inequalities of wealth do not exist, where there are no class divisions. and a land where everyone has an opportunity to achieve their goals?

He felt the problems addressed by the Great Society are still with us, and because of our indifference have become more serious, but he is reminding us of a time when people could believe that there was a possibility of change. It was a time of the Civil Rights Movement, the War on Poverty, and the beginning of the Women’s Movement. It was the time of the New Frontier and the Great Society and the dream of Martin Luther King. That dream did not fail—it was abandoned to pursue a war in Vietnam.

[Silvio111 · Rating 5 out of 5]

You may have (fictionally) encountered Richard N. Goodwin if you saw Robert Redford's 1994 film, QUIZ SHOW (with actor Rob Morrow playing the role of the prosecuting attorney who tried to crack the fraud in the hit 1960s TV quiz show), and apparently some of the material in the movie came from Richard Goodwin's memoir of his time in politics and government during the 1960s.
But to read his own book shows you not only his intelligent mind but also his unapologetic idealism about democracy and his commitment to racial justice in our society. As a young Jewish boy in the Boston, he understood racism, although he did not let it inhibit his own determination to succeed. He finished in first place in his class of 500 in Harvard Law School.

The times he lived through (law clerk for Supreme Court Justice Frankfurter and later speechwriter to the JFK white house, among other things) contained many events and issues that our present time can relate to and learn from.

This is a fascinating book, especially if you lived through those times, but even if you did not, I think it will resonate with today's issues. Plus it is impossible not to feel affection for the writer as he reveals his whimsical and feisty nature.

It is also worth noting that he is married to eminent historian, Doris Kearns Goodwin; a fact I was not aware of before, and which now makes him one of the family.

[Mike (HistoryBuff) · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5
This is a very good account of the political landscape of the Sixties as told by an actual eyewitness.
Richard Goodwin was a speech writer for JFK and LBJ. His views on Kennedy and Johnson make for a compelling read.
Admittedly, I was aware of some of Johnson's achievements during his administration but was unaware of his downward mental spiral while in office. You can draw some parallels between Johnson and other presidents. As you read about what the nation is going through, you will say to yourself, "Hey ,this sounds familiar . " As individuals and as a nation, the learning never stops.

[Sue · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this memoir absolutely fascinating. Although I read it in fits and spurts among other reads, every time I read it I was enthralled. I picked it up after re-watching the film "Quiz Show" and finding that the movie is based on this book. The quiz show scandal is actually a small part of the book at the beginning to set the stage for his life and show it as a precursor to his main themes of the Sixties. But that section was very interesting, as was the entire book. I studied the Kennedy era during college, and have subsequently done much reading about that time and I just don't remember Dick Goodwin in my reading. Yet he was a principal speechwriter for JFK, LBJ, basically the initial campaign manager for Eugene McCarthy, and a close personal friend of RFK. He was present for many momentous events during that time period and actually responsible for many things. I was fascinated to learn all this from his wonderful prose and descriptions, all couched in fascinating theories and philosophies of the period and its legacy on the world as he was writing in the late 1980's. I completely loved this book.

[Mark Hartzer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I remember loving this book back when it came out in 1988. Much has changed in the 30 years between then and now, but historical themes have a way or recycling themselves. In June of 1968, I turned 10 years old shortly after Robert Kennedy was gunned down in California. While our armed forces are still bogged down in the 'Graveyard of Empires', that war is not what is truly ailing us. In this country and in much of the Western world, the public weal is under the control of the 1% and our corporate overlords. Our government exists not to serve us, but rather to serve those interests. It was not always so.

Mr. Goodwin (RIP) is now perhaps more well known as the husband of historian, Doris Kearns Goodwin, but Richard Goodwin should be himself more widely known.

p. 63: “Some writers later reflected that the quiz show scandals marked the beginning of our loss of innocence. But it was not so. The intensity of indignation, the extent of public outrage, was testimony to an American innocence of belief strong enough to survive this and graver challenges to come; an innocence that was to quicken the public movements and private rebellions of the sixties until it dissolved in the futilities of Vietnam. For innocence is a strength. It supports the animating will to believe which nourishes protest against deception and injustice, gives courage to the oppressed and discontented. The hopeless do not revolt. The cynical do not march. Only when what we call 'innocence' is also a reality-success a seeming possibility-are we strong or courageous enough to assault the ramparts of established order.” I submit Goodwin is exactly right.

Here he is on page 99 quoting Kennedy: “My campaign for the presidency is founded on the single assumption that the American people are uneasy at the present drift in our national course, that they are disturbed by the relative decline in our vitality and prestige and that they have the will and strength to start the US moving again. If I am wrong in this assumption, and if the American people are satisfied with things as they are, if Americans are undisturbed by approaching dangers and complacent about our capacity to meet them, then I expect to lose this election. But if I am right, and I firmly believe I am right, then those who have held back the growth of the US during the last years will be rejected in November and America will turn to the leadership of the Democratic party.” Doesn't that seem to mirror our current condition? I think the following passages are completely relevant in 2018.

“Each generation must measure and adapt its own performance against the changing requirements of the American idea – that we are a nation constantly moving toward some large and worthy future purpose...” p. 237

“Our conservation must be not just the classic conservation of protection and development... its concern is not with nature alone, but with the total relation between man and the world around him. Its object is not just man's welfare but the dignity of man's spirit. This means that beauty must be part of our daily life. It means not just easy physical access, but equal social access for rich and poor, Negro and white, city dweller and farmer.” p.289

“It is a fearsome lesson in the potential power of the modern presidency to ignore and override the process of democracy. Jefferson counsel(ed) that democracy does not depend 'on confidence but jealousy,' that power alone can check power, and if the restraints, not of men but institutions, are dismantled, then democracy is in mortal danger.” p. 390

“In the years that followed it became fashionable, even mandatory, to speak of the 'failure' of the Great Society. But the Great Society did not fail. It was abandoned.” p. 424

“Only now, a generation later, can we detect a resurgence of the discontent, a mild but swelling dissatisfaction with the arid, self-seeking complacency of the age... And perhaps the energizing essentials of will and belief are not dead at all, but merely dormant.” p. 426-427

“Opinion polls showed that a majority of the country still 'supported' Johnson and the war. Yet behind the polls and precedents one could sense a growing discontent and frustration; a subtle but expanding change in the mood of the nation.” p. 470

“During the twenty years since the events I have described, we have abandoned this pursuit, preferring instead to fortify the barriers – of race, of class, of income – against which the fair expectations and 'inalienable rights' of millions are dashed. Today the clamor from the streets and public platforms, which marked the sixties, is gone, replaced by a strangely muted discourse. It is not an improvement.” p. 542

Perhaps I am missing Goodwin's point, but what I took away was the underlying thread of hope and opportunity. Yes, those optimistic times faded into cynicism and often despair, but does it not seem like an awakening has been recently taking place? Yes, we are currently ruled by some of the worst grifters, liars and outright frauds since the founding of the country. But I think our fundamental goodness remains. A fuse has been lit. Millions of people are ready for not only real leadership, but also simple enforcement of the law. The issue of the 99% vs. the 1% must be addressed. John Kennedy himself said: “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.”

Thank you Mr. Goodwin.

[Kressel Housman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Richard Goodwin served as speechwriter for Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, but he has other claims to fame. He was also the attorney who exposed the game show “Twenty One” in the late fifties (Chapter 3 of this book and plot for the movie “Quiz Show,”) and he’s married to historian Doris Kearns Goodwin. Talk about a power couple! He’s served two presidents, she’s a presidential scholar, and both of their writings have been adapted into Oscar-winning movies.

Having recently read about the Kennedy assassination, I turned to this book to learn more about his life, but the most vivid portrayal in the book is Johnson’s. The Great Society and Civil Rights chapters are the most exhilarating parts of the book, and the Vietnam chapters the most damning. Goodwin stresses that Johnson was much more willing to stick his neck out for civil rights than Kennedy, and though he clearly states we cannot know what Kennedy would have done in Vietnam, he also makes it clear that the Bay of Pigs fiasco made him highly cautious of listening to a small cabal of advisors. Johnson’s self-justification, also reflected in The Presidents Club, was that if he appeared weak on communism, he wouldn’t get re-elected, and his Great Society programs would go to rot. Ironically, though, because of Vietnam, he couldn’t get re-elected, and his Great Society programs went to rot. “The Great Society did not fail,” Goodwin argues. “It was abandoned.”

My main impression from this book is that Johnson was in some ways one of our best presidents, and in others one of the worst. It’s the same with the man himself. You can’t help but admire a man who grew up in the Deep South detesting the racism that surrounded him, even if his manners sometimes were brazen. But Goodwin also makes some serious accusations about Johnson’s mental stability, and I’m in no position to agree or disagree.

I’d read several 1960’s memoirs before this one, but those were from hippies and rebels. This was the first memoir I’d ever read from a member of “the establishment.” But Goodwin’s views seem to line up perfectly with most protestors’. He was pro-civil rights and anti-Vietnam. When he split with Johnson and began working with the youth movements, he found them immensely invigorating. So he concludes his memoir with a nostalgia for that the sixties ideal of “doing for your country,” reminding us that the attitude didn’t just belong to the sixties. It goes back to the founding of America. So while the book is a personal memoir with plenty of history lessons, it is also a call to action. You don’t have to agree with everything Goodwin says to learn from him. I, for one, learned plenty.

[Elliott · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books about politics I've ever read!

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Summary: A personal history of the 1960’s, written by an adviser to President’s Kennedy and Johnson.

Richard N. Goodwin was an adviser to Presidents Kennedy and Johnson and to the 1968 campaigns of Eugene McCarthy and Bobby Kennedy. This personal history/memoir offers his insider perspective to some of the most important events of the 1960’s from the hopes of the Great Society to the tragedy of Vietnam and the retreat from a vision of what America could be.

Goodwin begins with his studies at Harvard law and his clerkship with Justice Felix Frankfurter. We see a young man with a promising legal future drawn to politics, beginning with the quiz show investigations of the late 50’s, giving him his first connections with the Kennedys, leading to becoming a speechwriter for Kennedy as he ran for president.

He was awarded with an appointment as Deputy-Secretary for Inter-American Affairs. He describes the development of the Alliance For Progress, including his contribution to its naming, and the tremendous hope it raised for America’s relationship with Central and South American countries. A conference of leaders ends with an off-the-record meeting with Che Guevara, who asks him to convey his thanks for the Bay of Pigs debacle and for how it solidified Castro’s support in the country. He narrates the growing engagement with civil rights and social programs, tragically cut short in Dallas.

He describes being recruited from a backwater job with the Peace Corps to be a speechwriter for Lyndon Johnson and his work on some of Johnson’s most famous speeches on voting rights and the Great Society, and the exhilaration of Johnson’s breathtaking vision and political savvy in enacting legislation. And then Vietnam and the dawning realization that it could not be won, that the dream of the Great Society was going down the drain, and his own judgement that Johnson was becoming increasingly unstable, leading to his decision to leave his position for a series of academic jobs and writing gigs, while becoming more vocal in his own opposition to the war.

He chronicles Bobby Kennedy’s indecision about entering the 1968 race, and his own to join the McCarthy campaign because McCarthy was the only one campaigning on his opposition to the war. He takes us inside the army of youth who were “clean for Gene” in New Hampshire, achieving a near victory in New Hampshire and beating Johnson in Wisconsin, leading to Johnson’s withdrawal from the race. Then Kennedy jumped in, and because of the longstanding friendship, Goodwin joined the campaign, which rapidly gained steam until that fateful night of his victory in the California primary, that ended on a hotel hallway floor.

Goodwin captures the sense of these years, at least for a “brief shining moment,” that America could realize its dreams of liberty and justice for all, a society where all would flourish and poverty be banished, and that America could lift other nations as she lifted herself. He also captures a growing sadness that pervades the latter part of the book as that dream vanishes.

Richard N. Goodwin was the late husband of Doris Kearns Goodwin, one of my favorite historians. Her new An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s is on my “to read” list, as it appears to weave together this story, that of her husband, and the treasure trove of documents from these years, a story only partially rendered in Remembering America–one they reflected upon together in his last years.

[Rick Burin · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lengthy, overwritten memoir from Dick Goodwin, who played a key role in American public life from 1958 until Robert Kennedy’s assassination a decade later, before retiring to the relative obscurity of a writing career. Goodwin was the young investigator who exposed the quiz show scandals of the late-‘50s – brought to life in Robert Redford’s incisive 1994 film, Quiz Show, and a handy prologue to the main business here – before becoming a speechwriter for JFK, RFK and LBJ. This book isn’t a comprehensive autobiography, but a series of first-hand impressions about the 1960s – a transformative decade, one of optimism and violence, its incalculable promise burned up in the jungles of Vietnam.

Goodwin had a front seat to history – he was a catalyst behind much of it, writing Lyndon Johnson’s immortal ‘We shall overcome’ speech of 1965 – and his access is, of course, extraordinary. His sketches of his contemporaries – from presidents to aides to journalists – are deft, forceful and at times unexpected. He idolises his best friend, Robert Kennedy, though portrays him largely as a man shouting in grumpily from the other room. Eugene McCarthy, who essentially brought down LBJ ahead of the 1968 election, is depicted as a poet who lacked the hard-headedness required to capitalise on his virtues. And Robert McNamara plays the role of nemesis: lying and scheming as he escalates a bombing campaign against North Vietnam for no logical reason. It’s striking that Goodwin doesn’t even try to articulate what he imagines might be the real reasons for the conflict, stressing only its abject irrationality. If it was just an act of madness, then Goodwin thinks he knows why. The best chapter in the book is a gossipy chronicle of LBJ’s mounting paranoia, a dossier of aberrant behaviour pitched somewhere between a history book and the National Enquirer.

That tonal awkwardness isn’t an aberration. Remembering America is a curious jumble of elements: at times deeply self-involved, at others as impersonal as a textbook, and only occasionally calling for a return to the values of American postwar liberalism – which Goodwin claims to be its raison d’être. He can write beautifully now and then, and sections of the book are gripping, moving, unexpected, but his style is generally flabby and longwinded – you wish he’d write about more things at shorter length. Not only are his sentences too long, he quotes too much from speeches in the earlier parts of the book, and has the speechwriter's irritating knack of listing place names – a fallback of much political rhetoric that aims to be all-encompassing, used by everyone from Michelle Obama to Owen Jones. He is also absolutely determined to share amusing anecdotes, despite having no natural aptitude for it.

Still, the period this book deals with is enduringly fascinating, and there are more than enough insights into seismic events and totemic figures to make it worthwhile – within a broader paean to a progressive America – provided you don’t mind being slightly bored along the way.

[Adam‘’s book reviews · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Remembering America: A Voice from the Sixties" by Richard N. Goodwin offers a unique perspective on the 1960s through the lens of a White House insider. Goodwin, a speechwriter and advisor to Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, provides firsthand accounts of their administrations' triumphs and struggles.

The book delves into Goodwin's work on South American foreign policy during the Kennedy era, offering a broader perspective beyond the Bay of Pigs fiasco and the Cuban Missile Crisis that dominate most accounts of the period. This was a particular strength for me, as I appreciated the deeper understanding it provided of US involvement in South America.

It avoids getting bogged down in excessive details, making it a refreshing read compared to denser political memoirs. Unlike similar memoirs, Goodwin largely avoids delving into his personal life. While he mentions his wife, Doris Kearns Goodwin, a few times, their personal relationship is not a focus of the book. Readers seeking a more personal account may be disappointed. However, its focus on the political landscape of the 1960s, including a nuanced view of South American affairs, offers valuable insights for readers interested in American history.

[Kathryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is absolutely no doubt that Richard Goodwin had a brilliant mind and was a compelling presidential speech writer, and the behind-the-scenes firsthand accounts of the 1960, 1964 and 1968 (up to RKF's assassination) were fascinating. The only problem I had with the book was the self-praising tone of the author, and I found the parts on Latin America to be boring. (Goodwin was Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs under JFK.)

The most interesting part to me was the look at the first three years of LBJ's presidency. I wonder how much of Goodwin's theory that LBJ was actually paranoid to the point of being mentally ill was actually true, though. I do think that it is a shame that most people think of LBJ only in the sense of "Hey, hey, LBJ -- how many kids did you kill today?" and 'forget' all he did for civil rights. (I admit that I am one of those people who absolutely hated his conduct of the Vietnam War and it took this book to remind me that LBJ actually did a lot of good for a lot of people in this country -- even though that does not outweigh the fact that he was responsible for thousands of young men being senselessly killed, in my opinion.)

[Bogdan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I started reading this after seeing Quiz Show hoping it would be the next best thing to seeing the movie again for the first time. And the book was different of course, as it covered most of the author's career including his position as a speechwriter for John Kennedy. I was expecting his writing style to come with a good amount of pride and gold dust, given his role and given that he witnessed and influenced several crucial events in the 60's. Refreshingly, the book resembles the movie in this regard, and reading most of it felt like a long train ride with someone you admire in the next seat.

For someone who wasn't necessarily interested in the cuban war, Fidel Castro, or Che Guevara, I had to read up on some of these in order to get through some chapters. I suppose the book actually made it worth getting familiar with some of them.

Yes, the book version of the Quiz Show scandal missed the dramatic tone and all the brilliant things that make the movie worth seeing but it worked, given my original intention of reading it to get more out of the movie's main character.

[Eric Gilliland · Rating 4 out of 5]

Richard Goodwin was a policymaker and speechwriter for JFK and LBJ. Although the memoir is uneven at times, it's also a remarkable journey through a decade by an observer and a participant. Goodwin spends the first part of the book on his years as an investigator for congress, playing a pivotal role in the quiz show scandals of the 1950s. He became a speechwriter for Kennedy for the 1960s campaign and served in his White House. Goodwin portrays Kennedy as a pragmatic and distant figure, but also an inspirational one who learned fast on the job. As a speechwriter for LBJ, Goodwin wrote the "We Shall Overcome" speech. As the Vietnam War intensified Goodwin left the White House and worked for Eugene McCarthy and Bobby Kennedy. Goodwin's insights on policy failures and successes are of note, as well as reflections on the decade as one of lost opportunity. Some parts get a little long winded, certain sections amount to speech transcripts, but still a book I would recommend, allowing the reader to experience events as they happened.

[Terry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some one gave me this years ago with an urgent recommendation. I finally got around to it thanks to the Covid-19 lockdown and more time available for reading. So glad I did. It's an excellent eye-witness account of the major political events of the 1960s. Goodwin worked on John Kennedy's campaign and then in the White House. Lyndon Johnson kept him on until he became disillusioned with Johnson because of the war in Vietnam and what he describes as Johnson's increasingly erratic and paranoid behavior. He went on to work on Sen. Eugene McCarthy's 1968 campaign challenging Johnson and then switched to Robert Kennedy (a close friend) when Kennedy belatedly decided to run for president. The book ends with RFK's assassination. It's a memoir, but Goodwin's ego doesn't overwhelm the narrative. He was a first-hand participant through this sequence of leaders and he's a shrewd witness without blowing his own role out of proportion.

[Sandra Strange · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a first person account of the history of the 60's from someone witnessing the top echelon of government. The author was a major speech writer for JFK and LBJ, as well as a good friend and aid to RFK during his ill fated candidacy which lead to his assassination. Of course, the author frankly lets his various biases show, but that makes his account even more authentic. His view of the politicians in this colorful era doesn't rehash their lapses in morality, focusing instead on what he knows best: their public and private political views and actions. His portrayal of LBJ shows changes that help explain his actions leading to the acceleration of the Viet Nam conflict--which the author uses to explain his break with the president. Sadly, the author leaves at the end of the 60's largely disillusioned, so the book isn't overly positive. It is worth reading if one keeps in mind it is one inside view of the decisions, politics and tragedies of this era.

[Shazi L · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like some other readers of this book, I stumbled upon it after thoroughly enjoying the movie Quiz Show. I would not recommend picking up Goodwin’s account solely based on wanting to know more on that topic, as it’s covered rather briefly. Alas, that is what I did, but I found myself enjoying the other details of the political climate of the ‘60s, as the novel went on.

There are some bits that were slow for me and some prose that felt like tripping over cracks in a sidewalk, but overall, I’d recommend this book. It’s full of insightful lines and recounts of figures that sometimes seem larger than life. Definitely was fascinating to read this in the time of Trump, as the call for what makes someone presidential really hits hard.

[Joel · Rating 5 out of 5]

From Peter Pan: all of this has happened before. And all of this will happen again.” It seems we live with hopes and dreams and some very few times, they seem to be about to become true. That was the sixties and this book recalls the political and cultural best and worst. I don’t know if the book will have the magnetism it did for me for those who didn’t live in those recent times. I hope it can. At least it’s a warning and a hopeful way forward. Goodwin faithfully describes the really larger than life people: Jack Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Martin Luther King, Gene McCarthy, and Robert Kennedy.

[James Thompson · Rating 4 out of 5]

As someone who grew into adulthood during the 1960s and who was intensely interested in politics, I found the book extremely interesting. Goodwin had a fascinating career as speechwriter for both Lyndon Johnson and Robert Kennedy. His portrait of Johnson is of particular interest; he greatly admired Johnson until Johnson entered the war phase of his presidency at which point Goodwin detected signs of mental illness and actually consulted psychiatrists about the situation. He was really close to both Kennedy's (of whom I was a fan) and I loved the glimpses his book gives into both figures.

[Carl · Rating 4 out of 5]

I very recently read Doris Kearns Goodwin's "An Unfinished Love Story". I liked it immensely & gave it an appropriate rating & review. I was especially impressed by the life, thought, influence & associations of her husband, Richard Goodwin, & I resolved to read some of his work. I'm starting out with this memoir, "Remembering America" & not I find myself to be somewhat disconcerted about ut both books which seem to me to be nearly identical in content & wording. I'd be glad to learn if anyone who reads this has read both books & would inform me of their conclusions.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Richard Goodwin died relatively recently, in 2018. REMEMBERING AMERICA was published in 1988. I do not know what his reactions to the intervening years were. I can only reflect on his memories of the 60s and of his exceedingly competent verbal skill.

This book tells his first-hand proximity to the halls of American power during the 1960s. The decade opens with great optimism and a positive idea of potential changes that might be possible; it ended with the assassination of both Robert Kennedy and the wonder of that possible change.

Goodwin's prose characterized the verbiage of much of political addresses throughout the 60s. He writes with an elegance and sensitivity to the topics at issue.

The 60s was my maturing decade. This book fills in the many holes in my knowledge of what was really going on at that time. That history provides an important foundation for my understand of what is currently happening.

[Don · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bittersweet memoir from a man who wrote speeches and became friends with the major figures dominating and shaping the sixties. Goodwin recounts his memories of JFK, Lyndon Johnson and Robert Kennedy, and gives wonderful insights into the politics and politicians of the era.

[John Carroll · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fascinating but sobering insider view of the White House in the time of JFK and LBJ by a man who not only saw history but made it writing speeches and advising two presidents two other presidential candidates. Growing up in that era I could not put it down.

[Richard Walden · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fine look at the 60s from an insider and speechwriter who knew all the major Democratic political figures of the times. A truly frightening picture of the paranoiac state of LBJ as the Vietnam war was escalated and began to tear apart the country.

[HARVIE DALE HARRIER · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exquisite depiction of the Hope found during the Sixties followed by despair

An exquisite depiction of our hopes occurring in the sixties followed by depths of despair. This book is exceptional related to Mr. Goodwin’s remarkable prose and the events which he experienced

[Cathy Allen · Rating 5 out of 5]

turbulent 60’s

Well written history of turbulent 60’s. Only wish was for it to continue to the 1968 democratic convention. Highly recommend

[Rich Perry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read about 60% for quiz shows, Kennedy, and Vietnam. Liked that portion.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

After a slow start, This was an interesting insight into the activities and backstory of what goes on in the White House and in particular with two past presidents. Written by one of Kennedy and Johnson’s speech writers, there is a lot of information. It seems to be presented in a fair manner.

[Socraticgadfly · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a fascinating look at a key period in history.

Goodwin was a late 1950s friend of Jack Kennedy's who joined his 1960s campaign staff, becoming a White House counselor and then a political appointment at the State Department before eventually becoming a White House counselor and and speechwriter for LBJ.

Leaving the LBJ White House in 1965 over Vietnam, he soon made new ties with Bobby Kennedy. But, when Bobby refused to jump in the race quickly enough in 1968, Goodwin went to work for Eugene McCarthy. When Bobby belatedly decided to run, Goodwin waited several weeks to go back to Bobby. And, in his telling at least, handled the departure from McCarthy, the letting Bobby wait, and everything else, with both tact and integrity. The book is worth a read for that alone.

That said, it's main focus is on LBJ, both the Great Society and Vietnam. Goodwin wrote the 1965 speech where LBJ addressed a joint session of Congress calling on passage of his Civil Rights Act, the speech in which LBJ told Congress "We ... Shall ... Overcome."

But, by the middle of 1965, he realized that the Vietnam War was unwinnable without many more troops than LBJ would tell Congress or the public and was built on deception.

Here's the meat of the book.

Before reading this, I would have considered Tricky Dick Nixon the most paranoid president in American history. He's quite arguably in second place in my estimation now.

Before leaving the White House, Goodwin thought about visiting a psychiatrist. Not for himself. But, to see if he could get an extended grant of client-counselor privilege to discuss LBJ's mindset. He was going to tell Bill Moyers about this plan, but then decided not to, not knowing how Moyers might react.

He went ahead with the rest of the plan, anyway -- and later learned that Moyers was doing exactly the same thing.

Goodwin would later be called not only a collaborationist with Communist front groups but a Communist himself -- by LBJ.

Again, a great read for political science/history buffs.

[Bailorg · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 rounded down to 3 stars.

Decent memoir from someone who worked with JFK, LBJ, Eugene McCarthy, and RFK during the 1960s. Provides essentially the standard, mainstream liberal viewpoint of the era. Particularly noteworthy is his insight into the creation, operation, and ultimate abandonment of the Alliance for Progress. Also seems like this book could have been an inspiration for The West Wing's theory that presidential speeches can drive policy decisions. Another strong point is his first hand account of his dealings with LBJ.

Unfortunately the book gets less detailed/over simplified when it comes to the events of the second half of the decade, specifically his analysis of how the US was sucked into the quagmire that was Vietnam and the 1968 presidential campaign.

In short very much worth reading for his involvement in the JFK and first part of the LBJ administration, but for a better account of US involvement in Vietnam, I'd recommend David Halberstam's The Best and the Brightest and for 1968 The Last Campaign of Robert F. Kennedy by Jules Witcover and Nixonland by Rick Perlstein.