The Cuban Missile Crisis could have meant the end of the world. Instead, rational leaders managed to maintain control of their powerful militaries, and Fortune smiled on a number of potentially disastrous situations. Through patience, diplomacy—and very much good luck—disaster was diverted. But what if something had gone wrong? Eyeball to Eyeball is the first book in a speculative history series that examines this question by making one fictional modification to actual events. The ensuing story presents a world hurtling toward the precipice, with the possibility of annihilation resting in the arms of forces greater than mere human will. Is this, as President John F. Kennedy feared, the “Final Failure”?