Early last year, President Kennedy and his art adviser friend William Walton sat puzzling over an architectural model showing a proposed renovation of buildings surrounding Washington's Lafayette Square, across from the White House. As the President fiddled with tiny town houses and scaled-down Government office buildings, Walton apologized for bothering him with a matter of "less than global content." Kennedy quickly reassured him. "Hell," he said wryly, "that's all right. After all, this may be the only monument we leave."
Kennedy was still brooding over the matter at a naval reunion in April 1962, when he spotted a familiar face in the...