Chapters 1-2 Summary and Analysis

"A cold day in December. Long afterward, after the assassination and all the pain, the older man would remember with great clarity the younger man's grace, his good manners, his capacity to put a visitor at ease. He was concerned about the weather, that the old man not be exposed to the cold or to the probing questions of freezing newspapermen, that he not have to wait for a cab. Instead he had guided his guest to his own car and driver. The older man would remember the young man's good manners almost as clearly as the substance of their talk, though it was an important meeting," (Chapter 1, p. 9).

The book opens with a meeting that takes place at President-elect Kennedy's Georgetown townhouse. Kennedy is in the process of putting together an administration for his first term as President...