The Kennedy Detail JFK's Secret Service Agents Break Their Silence

by Blaine, Gerald; McCubbin Hill, Lisa; Hill, Clint

• ISBN13: 9781439192993
• ISBN10: 1439192995
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-11-15
• Publisher: Gallery Books

Summary

The Secret Service. An elite team of men who share a single mission: to protect the president of the United States. On November 22, 1963, these men failed and a country would never be the same. Now, for the first time, a member of JFK's Secret Service detail reveals the inside story of the assassination, the weeks and days that led to it and its heartrending aftermath. This extraordinary book is a moving, intimate portrait of dedication, courage, and loss. Drawing on the memories of his fellow agents, Jerry Blaine captures the energetic, crowd-loving young president, who banned agents from his car and often plunged into raucous crowds with little warning. He describes the careful planning that went into JFK's Texas swing, the worries and concerns that agents, working long hours with little food or rest, had during the trip. And he describes the intensely private first lady making her first-ever political appearance with her husband, just months after losing a newborn baby. Here are vivid scenes that could come only from inside the Kennedy detail: JFK's last words to his tearful son when he left Washington for the last time; how a sudden change of weather led to the choice of the open-air convertible limousine that day; Mrs. Kennedy standing blood-soaked outside a Dallas hospital room; the sudden interruption of six-year-old Caroline's long-anticipated sleepover with a friend at home; the exhausted team of agents immediately reacting to the president's death with a shift to LBJ and other key governmental figures; the agents dismay at Jackie's decision to walk openly from the White House to St. Matthew's Cathedral at the state funeral. Most of all, this is a look into the lives of men who devoted their entire beings to protecting the presidential family: the stress of the secrecy they kept, the emotional bonds that developed, the terrible impact on agents psyches and families, and their astonishment at the country's obsession with far-fetched conspiracy theories and finger-pointing. A book fifty years in coming,The Kennedy Detail is a portrait of incredible camaraderie and incredible heartbreak a true, must-read story of heroism in its most complex and human form.

Author Biography

Gerald Blaine was privileged to serve three U.S. presidents as a Special Agent of the Secret Service on the White House detail. He later became an expert in high-level corporate security. He lives in Colorado with his wife of more than fifty years. Lisa McCubbin is an award-winning journalist, author, and media consultant. Having worked in radio, television news, and as a foreign correspondent in the Middle East in the aftermath of 9/11, she now lives in Colorado.

Table of Contents

Prologue	p. ix
Foreword	p. xv
Introduction: When Time Stood Still	p. 1
The Men
On the Detail	p. 9
The President-Elect Detail	p. 32
The Threats	p. 57
The Advance	p. 75
The Risks	p. 93
The First Lady's Detail	p. 103
The Job
The Summer of '63	p. 119
The Reelection Campaign	p. 135
Rising Tensions	p. 152
Texas	p. 157
That Day
The Final Hours	p. 181
Six Seconds in Dallas	p. 197
Breakdown	p. 220
The Unimaginable	p. 243
Darkness Falls	p. 251
No Time for Tears	p. 264
Burial	p. 283
Our Lives
The End of Camelot	p. 301
The Johnson Detail	p. 315
The Pendulum Falls	p. 326
The Verdict	p. 338
Confronting Conspiracies	p. 346
Clint Hill: Witness to History	p. 365
Clint Hill: Don't Call Me Hero	p. 379
Epilogue	p. 395
Acknowledgments	p. 403
List of Abbreviations and Code Names	p. 405
Index	p. 409
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