Fox News Correspondent Brett Baier speaks about his book "Three Days in January: Dwight Eisenhower's Final Mission." on Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2017, at the Knicely Center. (Austin Anthony / photo@bgdailynews.com)

Fox News Correspondent Brett Baier said Wednesday he just can’t sleep most nights.

That insomnia was the genesis and also his writing window for “Three Days in January: Dwight Eisenhower’s Final Mission.”

Baier discussed the book, now No. 3 on the New York Times best-seller list, for the Warren County Public Library speakers series Wednesday in a 500-seat auditorium at the Knicely Conference Center. Just about every seat was filled in the room on the south campus of Western Kentucky University.

Baier, a self-professed golf “nerd,” stayed in the historic Eisenhower Cabin at Augusta National Golf Course, home of the Masters, and realized during a typical sleepless night that modern-day generations really don’t know about the Kansas-born World War II general who rose to serve two terms as a Republican U.S. president. Later, Baier used sleepless nights at home to compose the book.

The Eisenhower Cabin served as the U.S. President’s office away from the White House during the 29 times Eisenhower stayed at Augusta National. It was filled with Eisenhower memorabilia and that Georgia stay by Baier then led to a trip to Abilene, Kansas, where while wearing white gloves, Baier held in his hands the actual papers on which Eisenhower had labored for 21 different drafts of his final televised address to the nation. In it, Eisenhower warned against the power of America’s “military industrial complex,” an interweaving of armament manufacturers, politicians and an enormous amount of money.

The book deals with that last public address broadcast in black and white, quickly to be followed by the “in living color” televised inaugural address by President John F. Kennedy three days later in January 1961. The last chapter of the book ends with President-elect Donald Trump meeting with then-President Barack Obama.

Because of book publication deadlines, Baier said he had to write two endings for the last chapter, Hillary Clinton winning and Trump winning.

He said when Election Night began, his sources were saying Clinton would have the required Electoral votes to capture the presidency by 11 p.m. that night. He thought, “That Clinton chapter is looking pretty good.”

Later, when at 2 a.m. Baier was announcing Trump’s Pennsylvania win, which catapulted the New York businessman to the presidency, Baier was thinking, “That Trump chapter isn’t bad.”

Baier also took questions from the audience and that brought up the subject of Twitter, President Trump’s favorite form of communication.

“Eisenhower would first ask, ‘What’s Twitter?’ Then he would say, ‘Get off Twitter,’ ” Baier said.

Baier said Eisenhower, a bridge player, would keep his cards close to his chest during his time as president, not allowing even close associates in on his thought processes. Trump on the other hand, Baier said, plays a “public hand,” where there is the “shiny thing” that everyone is watching while Trump is also working behind the scenes. For example, Baier told the audience that once Trump took charge, media covering him in Washington, D.C., began to realize how much of the Obama-Trump transition discussions they didn’t know about.

“They (Obama and Trump) talked a lot more than we knew,” Baier said.

Dalton Workman of Frankfort bought a copy of the book and said he has been a big Baier fan for years.

“I’m glad to finally meet him,” said Workman, a 2015 WKU graduate who works for the GOP state Senate leadership at the state Capitol.

Mira Fishburn of Bowling Green also bought the Baier book.

“I’m probably as much a ‘screaming liberal’ as anyone,” she said. Stationed at West Point U.S. Military Academy and a now retired U.S. Army Sergeant First Class, Fishburn said she enjoyed Baier’s talk and was familiar with Eisenhower’s final address.

“I like to listen to the other side of the story,” she said.

At the end of the program, Baier received a Kentucky Colonel proclamation signed by Gov. Matt Bevin. State Rep. Jim DeCesare, R-Bowling Green, who presented the honor, told Baier it was quite rare since few Kentucky Colonel proclamations have been signed by Republican governors.

— Follow business reporter Charles A. Mason on Twitter @BGDNbusiness or visit bgdailynews.com.