Presidential speechwriter coined ‘Great Society’ term for LBJ’s ambitious reforms

Richard Goodwin, who has died of cancer aged 86, was an adviser and speechwriter to US presidents John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson and was credited with coining the term ‘‘the Great Society’’ to describe Johnson’s ambitious domestic agenda of the 1960s before parting ways with him over the Vietnam war.

Early in his career, Goodwin was something of a prodigy of public service. Before he turned 30, he was a law clerk at the US Supreme Court, a congressional investigator who helped uncover the television quiz-show scandals of the 1950s, a speechwriter for Kennedy, and a White House official.

Known for his craggy face, blunt manner and ever-present cigars, Goodwin had a sharp mind

– he was first in his class at

Harvard Law School – and, some would say, sharper elbows. He was considered one of the closest confidants of Kennedy and his brother Robert, then the attorney-general.

In his book A Thousand Days, about Kennedy’s presidency, White House adviser Arthur Schlesinger pronounced Goodwin ‘‘the supreme generalist who could turn from Latin America to saving the Nile monuments, from civil rights to planning a White House dinner for the Nobel Prize winners, from composing a parody of Norman Mailer to drafting a piece of legislation, from lunching with a Supreme Court Justice to dining with [actress] Jean Seberg – and at the same time retain an unquenchable spirit of sardonic liberalism and unceasing drive to get things done’’.

During the 1960 presidential campaign, Goodwin was one of Kennedy’s most gifted phrasemakers. He then became the top White House authority on Latin America and launched the Alliance for Progress, an economic development programme for Central and South America.

In 1961, soon after the catastrophic Bay of Pigs invasion that attempted the overthrow of the new socialist Castro regime in Cuba, Goodwin had a secret meeting with Ernesto ‘‘Che’’ Guevara while both were in Uruguay to ratify the Alliance for Progress.

‘‘But, of course, when we started this conversation though, he said, ‘Goodwin, I’d like to thank you for the Bay of Pigs,’ ’’ Goodwin recalled in a 2007. ‘‘He said, ‘We were a pretty shaky middle class, support was uncertain, and this solidified everything for us.’ So what could I say? I knew he was right.’’

After Kennedy’s assassination, he joined the Johnson administration as a speechwriter and special assistant to the president.

Goodwin took the name the Great Society from a 50-year-old book by a British sociologist to describe an idealistic vision of America encompassing advances in civil rights, healthcare, education, environmental

In 1961 he met Che Guevara, who told him: ‘‘Goodwin, I’d like to thank you for the Bay of Pigs.’’ ‘‘What could I say?’’ Goodwin later recalled. ‘‘I knew he was right.’’

Presidential aide b December 7, 1931 d May 20, 2018