Analyzes the last three days of the presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower in January, 1961, including their foundations in Eisenhower's personal experiences as well as their effects on the presidency of John F. Kennedy and beyond.

November 1943: World War II teetered in the balance. The Nazis controlled nearly all of the European continent. Japan dominated the Pacific. Allied successes at Sicily and Guadalcanal had gained modest ground but at an extraordinary cost. On the Eastern Front, the Soviets had already lost millions of lives. That same month in Tehran, with the fate of the world in question, the 'Big Three,' Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin,...