 In contrast, U.S. military commanders (notably the Chief of the Air Force, General Curtis LeMay) are portrayed as the saviors of the nation.During the course of the novel Landry gradually discovers that it was Kennedy who sought to prevent the crisis over Cuba from escalating into war, and that last-minute attempts to achieve a deal with Nikita Khrushchev to end the crisis were deliberately sabotaged by LeMay and other generals.The second plotline concerns British-U.S. relations.