Making use of previously classified materials from the Russian State Archive of Social and Political History, and the Archive of the Foreign Policy of the Russian Federation, as well as the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library and three hundred hot war messages between Roosevelt and Stalin, Butler tells the story of how the leader of the capitalist world and the leader of the Communist world became more than allies of convenience during World War II. Butler reassess in-depth how the two men became partners, how they shared the same outlook for the postwar world, and how they formed an uneasy but deep friendship, shaping the worldœs political stage from the war to the decades leading up to and into the new century.

Crossing the Atlantic in wartime -- Traveling to Tehran -- Tehran -- First impressions -- A meeting of minds -- Cementing the alliance -- Stalin searches for an ally -- Barbarossa -- Roosevelt, Stalin, and the second front -- Postwar planning -- Problems and solutions -- The new weapon: the atomic bomb -- Yalta -- Organizing the world -- Settling issues -- Post-Yalta problems -- Roosevelt dies -- Hopkins turns back the clock -- Epilogue.