Stephen F. Knott is professor of National Security Affairs at the United States Naval War College and author of Alexander Hamilton and the Persistence of Myth; Secret and Sanctioned: Covert Operations and the American Presidency; and At Reagan's Side: Insiders' Recollections from Sacramento to the White House. He codirected the presidential oral history program at the University of Virginia's Miller Center of Public Affairs and has also served on the staff of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library.