Who wrote Kennedy’s moon speech?

The Story Behind “We Choose to Go to the Moon”: More Than Just Kennedy’s Words

Okay, let’s be real: President John F. Kennedy’s “We choose to go to the Moon” speech? Iconic. A total mic-drop moment in American history. It wasn’t just about space; it was about guts, ambition, and that can-do spirit that makes America, well, America. But have you ever wondered who really wrote those words? I mean, sure, Kennedy delivered it like a boss at Rice University on September 12, 1962, firing up the whole country to chase this crazy dream of landing on the moon before the decade was out. But who was the wizard behind the curtain?

Turns out, it wasn’t just a one-man show. Big speeches rarely are, right? It was more of a tag-team effort, but one name keeps popping up: Ted Sorensen. This guy was Kennedy’s right-hand man, his brain, his everything. Think of him as the ultimate presidential consigliere.

Sorensen wasn’t just some random staffer. He was a lawyer, a writer, and Kennedy’s go-to guy for, like, everything for over a decade. Kennedy even called him his “intellectual blood bank!” Can you imagine having that kind of trust from the President?

Now, Sorensen didn’t just pull the speech out of thin air. Kennedy had the big ideas, the vision, the whole shebang. But Sorensen? He was the translator. He took Kennedy’s thoughts and turned them into pure, unadulterated speech magic. He knew how to make it sound urgent, how to tap into that feeling of destiny, how to make everyone believe that landing on the moon wasn’t just possible, but inevitable.

And that famous line, “We choose to go to the Moon…We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard”? Yeah, that might have come from NASA originally! But Kennedy, ever the charmer, even threw in a little joke about the Rice-Texas football rivalry. Talk about knowing your audience!

But Sorensen’s influence goes way beyond just the Moon speech. Remember “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country?” Sorensen helped write that too! Though, he always gave Kennedy the credit for that particular zinger. And get this: he even pitched in on Lyndon B. Johnson’s “Let Us Continue” speech after Kennedy’s assassination. The guy was a speechwriting machine!

So, here’s the deal: JFK was the dreamer, the guy with the big, hairy, audacious goals. But Ted Sorensen? He was the one who gave those dreams a voice, a voice that still echoes in our ears today, reminding us that even the impossible is within our reach. He was the pen behind the promise, and without him, who knows if we would have ever made it to the moon. It makes you wonder, doesn’t it, who are the unsung heroes behind the great moments we celebrate?