WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF THE PRESIDENT OF THE U.S.A. WENT STARK-RAVING MAD?
‘A LITTLE TOO PLAUSIBLE FOR COMFORT’ NEW YORKTIMES, 1965
THE BESTSELLING NOVEL BY

WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF THE PRESIDENT OF THE U.S.A. WENT STARK-RAVING MAD?
‘A LITTLE TOO PLAUSIBLE FOR COMFORT’ NEW YORKTIMES, 1965
THE BESTSELLING NOVEL BY
Fletcher Knebel is the author of the number one bestseller Seven Days in May (with Charles W. Bailey II) and more than a dozen other works of fiction. From 1937 to 1964, he worked as a Washington correspondent for numerous American newspapers and magazines. He served as an air combat intelligence officer in the U.S. Navy during the Second World War, and later wrote a popular daily column, ‘Potomac Fever’, which satirised national politics and government.
In 1964, the year during which he wrote the New York Times bestselling thriller Night of Camp David, he was named president of the Gridiron Club, one of the oldest and most prestigious organisations for journalists in Washington. Born in Dayton, Ohio, in 1911, Knebel graduated from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, and died in 1993 at the age of eighty-one.
BOOKS BY FLETCHER
KNEBEL
(co-authored with Charles W. Bailey II)
No High Ground
Seven Days in May Convention
BOOKS BY FLETCHER
KNEBEL
Night of Camp David
The Zinzin Road
Vanished
Trespass
Dark Horse
The Bottom Line
Dave Sulkin Cares!
Crossing in Berlin
Poker Game
Sabotage
Before You Sue: How to Get Justice Without Going to Court
(co-authored with Gerald S. Clay)
20 Vauxhall Bridge Road, London SW1V 2SA
Vintage is part of the Penguin Random House group of companies whose addresses can be found at global.penguinrandomhouse.com
Copyright © 1965 by The Fletcher Knebel Rights LLC
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
First published in Vintage in 2018
Published in the United States by Vintage Books, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, in 2018
First published in the United States by Harper & Row in 1965 penguin.co.uk/vintage
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 9781529111576
Printed and bound in Great Britain by Clays Ltd, Elcograf S.p.A.
Penguin Random House is committed to a sustainable future for our business, our readers and our planet. This book is made from Forest Stewardship Council® certified paper.
1. After Midnight
2 | NIGHT OF CAMP DAVID
After Midnight | 3
| NIGHT OF CAMP DAVID
After Midnight | 5
| NIGHT OF CAMP DAVID
After Midnight | 7
8 | NIGHT OF CAMP DAVID
After Midnight | 9
10 | NIGHT OF CAMP
After Midnight | 11
|
After Midnight | 13
| NIGHT OF CAMP DAVID
After Midnight | 15
16 | NIGHT OF CAMP DAVID
After Midnight | 17
After Midnight | 19
20 | NIGHT OF CAMP
After Midnight | 21
22 | NIGHT OF CAMP DAVID
After Midnight | 23
| NIGHT OF CAMP DAVID
After Midnight | 25