Book excerpt: Charismatic and committed, John F. Kennedy remains one of the most revered, and most disliked, of US Presidents. Dedicated to changing 'the look' of the American Presidency, Kennedy was also pledged to changing the nature of US foreign policy-making. Victory in the Cold War was possible, he said, and the greatest challenge to that victory was in the Asian/Pacific region. Success there would signal the end of the communist versus capitalist confrontation. America 'can do it', he vowed. This book describes the Kennedy administration's desperate efforts to achieve the impossible dream: an American Cold War victory throughout Asia and the Pacific.