Richard N Goodwin

Presidential advisor, speechwriter, author and playwright

Richard Naradof Goodwin, speechwriter. Born: 7 December 1931, Boston, Massachusetts. Died: 20 May 2018, Concord, Massachusetts

Richard N Goodwin, a senior adviser and speechwriter for Presidents John F Kennedy and Lyndon B Johnson whose later work as an author, journalist and political consultant reflected his unswerving liberal outlook, died on Sunday at his home in Concord, Massachusetts. He was 86.

Goodwin’ swife,D or is Kearns Goodwin, the Pulitzer Prize- winning biographer and historian, said he died after a brief bout with cancer.

The author of books and articles on public policy and a play, Richard Goodwin was for years identified with the Kennedy clan and with leaders of the Democratic Party.

In 2000 he wrote the concessions peech that Vice President Al Gore delivered after the Supreme Court halted the Florida recount in the presidential election, effectively handing the White House to George W Bush. In 2004 he was a campaign consultant for the Democratic presidential nominee, Sen John Kerr y of Massachusetts, and in 2008 Barack Obama consulted him in his presidential campaign.

Good win called himself a voice of t he 19 60s, and with justification. He had written many of the memorable campaign and Oval Office speeches of the period, capturing the soaring hopes and lost dreams of two Democratic presidents, two senators who ran for the presidency and a nation caught up in nuclear perils, civil rights struggles, assassinations and divisions over the war in Vietnam.

In the Kennedy White House from 1961 to 1963, he specialised in Latin American affairs and was instrumental in creating the Alliance for Progress, an economic cooperation initiative between North and South America, which he named. He was deputy assistant secretary of state for Latin American affairs and directed the International Peace Corps, developing similar programs in other countries.

After K en nedy’ s ass as sination, Good win joined the Johnson administration, advising the new president on domestic policies and writing many of his speeches, including one that outlined his sig- nature legislative agenda, “the Gre a t S o c i e t y,” a p hr a s e he coined, and an address to the nation that affirmed Johnson’s commitment to the civil rights movement and reiterated the words of its anthem, “We shall overcome”.

“Dick Goodwin was a lion of liberalism before it became a dir t y word, crafting speeches for Democratic icons that defi ne t he p ol i t i cs and pro - gressivism of the 21st centur y,” Mark K Up degrove, t he president and chief executive of the LBJ Foundation, said in an email. “His ‘ We Shall Overcome’ speech, LBJ’S plea for the Voting Rights Act i n the wake of Selma’s ‘ Bloody Sunday’ resulting in direct action from a formerly reluctant Congress, ranks as one of the most eloquent and effective presidential speeches in history.”

Go o dwin hel p e d draf t t he landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965, which outlawed literacy tests and other discriminatory practices that had long disenfranchised black Ameri c a n s . Fo r a t i me, a s Go o dwin later recalled, he deeply believed in Johnson because of his work for civil rights and social reforms.

B r i l l i a n t , i n t e n s e , s o m e - times abrasive, Goodwin had the look of a rumpled professor. He taught at Wesleyan University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technolog y and wrote for Rolling Stone, The New Yo r ke r, The New Yo r k Times and other publications. His books included The Sower’s S eed: A Tribute to Adlai Stevenson ( 1965), Triumph or Tragedy: Reflections on Vietn a m ( 1 9 6 6 ) , The Ameri c a n Condition ( 1974) and Promises to Keep: A Call for a New American Revolution ( 1992).

H i s m e m o i r, R e m e m b e r - i ng America: A Voic e From the Sixties ( 1988), stirred cont roversy with a p or t rayal of Johnson as erratic, isolated, e v e n p a r a n o i d . S o m e wh o had known Johnson disputed Goodwin’s conclusions. Critics praised his passionate liberal assessment of the era, but said he i gnored p olitical re - evaluations of the 1960s.

Richard Naradof Goodwin was one of two sons of Joseph a n d B e l l e Fi s h e r G o o dw i n . Dick and his younger brother, Herbert, grew up in Brookline. Dick was first in his class at Tufts University, graduating in 1953, and in Har vard Law School’s class of 1958. .

In 1958 he married Sandra Leverant, with whom he had a s o n , Ri c h a r d . S h e d i e d i n 1972. He married Doris Kearns i n 1975. They had t wo s ons, Michael and Joseph. Besides his wife and sons, he i s survived by two granddaughters.

In 1959, Goodwin joined the staff of a House subcommittee investigating rigged television quiz shows. Par t of Rememb e r i ng America f o cused on the scandals and was a basis for the 1994 film Quiz Show, wh i c h h e h e l p e d p r o d u c e . His work i mpressed Rob er t Kennedy, and he was enlisted for Sen John Kennedy’s staff. He and Theodore C Sorenson wrote most of Kennedy’s presidential campaign speeches.

Goodwin’s play, The Hinge of the World, had its premiere in Guildford, England, in 2003. It was produced in Boston in 2009 as Two Men of Florence. N e w Y o r k T i m e s 2 0 1 8 . Distributed by NY T Syndication Service.