The Majority Party immediately convenes its National Committee, torn between the supporters of California Governor Ted Jason and those of Secretary of State and former Illinois Senator Orrin Knox.

[2] The cliffhanger ending of Preserve and Protect allowed Drury to offer two concurrent and conflicting sequels: one in which Knox dies and Jason goes on to become president, and the other with the opposite result.

The Soviets immediately take advantage of the weak Jason, and are able to achieve dominance over the United States by the end, including the repression of civil liberties.

The title refers to lines in the 1897 poem Recessional by Rudyard Kipling which hints of civilizational impermanence: These two cities are mentioned in the Bible: the Phoenician Tyre, whose King Hiram was the ally of King Solomon and helped build the Jerusalem Temple; and Nineveh, whose inhabitants repented of their evil ways after the Prophet Jonah warned them of God's intention to destroy their city.

Knox continues to assist anti-Soviet rebels in Panama and the fictional oil-rich African nation of Gorotoland, despite mounting pressure by the international community and within the United States to retreat.