When Bob Schieffer began this book in January 2001, he wondered how the people involved in many of the events he would be discussing felt about these events with the passing of time. Over the next 18 months he talked to two former presidents, Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford. During the Middle East crisis in the spring of 2002, President George W. Bush even found time to talk to the author about his feelings on 9/11. The author's list of interviewees included former Secretaries of State Alexander Haig and James A. Baker III, former Defense Secretaries Melvin R. Laird and James Schlesinger, the widow Eugene McCarthy, and George McGovern. Many of those in Lyndon Johnson's inner circle, especially George Christian and Joseph Califano, spoke candidly to the author about Johnson's reelection in 1968, and his later regret about withdrawing from the race.
When Bob Schieffer began this book in January 2001, he wondered how the people involved in many of the events he would be discussing felt about these events with the passing of time. Over the next 18 months he talked to two former presidents, Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford. During the Middle East crisis in the spring of 2002, President George W. Bush even found time to talk to the author about his feelings on 9/11. The author's list of interviewees included former Secretaries of State Alexander Haig and James A. Baker III, former Defense Secretaries Melvin R. Laird and James Schlesinger, the widow Eugene McCarthy, and George McGovern. Many of those in Lyndon Johnson's inner circle, especially George Christian and Joseph Califano, spoke candidly to the author about Johnson's reelection in 1968, and his later regret about withdrawing from the race.