Richard N. Goodwin
| Richard N. Goodwin | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
Richard Naradof Goodwin December 7, 1931 Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Nationality | American |
| Other names | Dick Goodwin |
| Education | Brookline High School |
| Alma mater |
Harvard Law School Tufts University |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Spouse(s) |
Sandra Gail Leverant (m. 1958; d. 1972) Doris Kearns Goodwin (m. 1975) |
| Children | 3 |
Richard Naradof Goodwin (born December 7, 1931) is a Jewish American writer who was an advisor and speechwriter to Presidents Kennedy and Johnson and to Senator Robert F. Kennedy.
Goodwin was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of Belle (née Fisher) and Joseph C. Goodwin, an engineer. Goodwin was raised Jewish. He attended Brookline High School and graduated summa cum laude from Tufts University in 1953. He went on to study at Harvard Law School, graduated summa cum laude in 1958 and joined the Massachusetts State bar the same year. He was married to Sandra Leverant from June 15, 1958 until her death in 1972. After clerking for United States Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter in 1958, Goodwin came to Senator John F. Kennedy's attention in 1959 while working as special counsel to the Legislative Oversight Subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives, where Goodwin was involved in investigating the Twenty One quiz show scandal (which provided the story for the 1994 movie Quiz Show in which he is portrayed by actor Rob Morrow).
Goodwin joined Kennedy's speech writing staff in 1959, and after Kennedy's successful presidential bid, served as assistant special counsel to the President in 1961. 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, and met secretly with Che Guevara in Uruguay in August 1961. From 1963 to 1964, Goodwin served as secretary-general of the International Peace Corps and in 1964 became special assistant to President Lyndon B. Johnson. Goodwin was specifically named by Johnson to write Johnson's 1965 civil rights speech, a speech considered one of the best, if not the best of Johnson's speeches. Goodwin, who expected to write the speech was at Arthur M. Schlesinger's house the night before, but went to bed when he went home because he never got a call. Jack Valenti gave the writing duty to Horace Busby, so when Johnson came in he asked Valenti how's Goodwin doing on the speech and when Johnson was told that Horace had written it he said "What! Don't you know that a liberal Jew has his finger on the pulse of America." He has been credited with naming Johnson's legislative agenda "the Great Society."
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