Here the President finds himself cast adrift. The voice in his ear is silent. His aides cannot help him. Looking at his clean desktop, where once Harry S. Truman had a sign saying "The buck stops here", he sees that even without a sign, this is the place where decisions have to be made, for better or worse. He tells Horton about his days at West Point, when he wrote what, to him, was a revelatory history paper about societal obsessions, such as monarchy and slavery, that got bigger and more all-consuming until they collapsed. His hopes for distinction were dashed when his tutor pointed out that Arnold J. Toynbee had already covered the same ground. Still, he realizes that he has been witness to just such a collapse. Summoning what leadership he can muster, he decides that he and only he can take the next step. He explains this to Horton.