A month before taking office, Carter committed the kind of unforced political error that would hamper his presidency. Without consulting a wide circle of advisors, Carter chose a nominee for CIA director that baffled members of his own party—former Kennedy administration aide Ted Sorensen. A gifted speechwriter who had been called JFK’s “chief of staff for ideas,” Sorensen was a member of JFK’s brain trust, but he had no experience in intelligence and had never run a large organization. Joe Biden, at the time an ambitious young member of the newly created Senate Intelligence Committee, made a
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