To those whose important contributions to this book are catalogued and acknowledged in the Author’s Note, I must add a number of others.
First, I owe a great debt of gratitude to David McCormick of McCormick and Williams, who saw potential in a single New York Times op-ed and who pursued me with a patience and persistence without which the long-term aspiration represented by this book might have remained permanently unrealized.
I am similarly grateful to Webster Younce, then of Simon & Schuster, who first decided to take a chance on an untried author.
To the entire team at Simon & Schuster I owe much. The legendary Alice Mayhew, muse to many eminent writers, must have wondered frequently how she could have been saddled with me. This book would never have achieved its current form but for her guidance. Jonathan Cox and Stuart Roberts were both patient and efficient in guiding me through the publication process. Ann Adelman, my copy editor, was nothing short of brilliant.
Lists of acknowledgments always include ritual recognition for the forbearance of the author’s all-suffering family. In this case, though, neither the degree of my family’s forbearance nor the extent of my thanks can be adequately expressed.
Special thanks go to Daniel Markey of the Council on Foreign Relations, every inch the scholar and intellectual that I am not, who was so generous with his time in making sure that I did not do violence to the truth in the historical sequences of this book. Any lapses, needless to say, are mine.
And finally, I would be remiss if I did not extend thanks to “C,” who cannot be identified even in alias, but whose long-ago, offhand comment convinced me that this book simply had to be written.