Written for a general audience, this book tells the inside story of the most remarkable moment in the history of the Australia-US alliance.

In the period from December 1972 until July 1973 the Australia-US Alliance faced its greatest ever crisis. In the hands of two powerful, arrogant but ultimately flawed leaders - Gough Whitlam and Richard Nixon - a relationship that had endured the heights of the Cold War veered dangerously off course and seemed headed for destruction. This book tells the dramatic story of that breakdown.