Five Days in November

Five Days in November by Clint Hill & Lisa McCubbin  243 pp.

Clint Hill is the Secret Service agent know as the man who jumped on the back of President Kennedy's limousine after Kennedy was shot. Hill's reason for his actions were to protect the First Lady who was his charge. He already knew the President was fatally injured from his vantagepoint in the Secret Service car following the limo. In this book he recounts that fated trip to Texas almost minute by minute. He also explains what made this trip a nightmare for the Secret Service even before the shooting. Kennedy's insistence on riding in an open car in multiple motorcades through thousands of onlookers essentially made the President a sitting duck target for anyone wanting to do him harm. Frequent stops to allow the crowd to shake hands with JFK and Jackie added to the hazards. Hill doesn't gloss over the the gory details including his viewing of the President's head wound. As he was trained, Hill's account is factual and mostly unemotional (except where the emotions are wholly appropriate). I appreciate Agent Hill's account of an event that occurred when I was in kindergarten but was unforgettable even for a five year old.  

Five Presidents

Five Presidents: My Extraordinary Journey with Eisenhour, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, and Ford by Clint Hill & Lisa McCubbin  451 pp.

With great candor, former Secret Service agent, Clint Hill tells of his career as a special agent who worked security details for five different presidential administrations. He reveals much about the personalities of the men in charge of our country from the 1950s to the 70s. Eisenhour's love of golf is at the forefront with Hill accompanying him to various courses toting a golf bag complete with a rifle. Hill also details his private hell over the Kennedy assassination because of his feeling of guilt that he didn't get to the car fast enough to take the bullet for President Kennedy even though he threw himself over Mrs. Kennedy to protect her. (He was in charge of the First Lady's security detail.) At the time PTSD did not have a name or any kind of treatment so Hill suffered in silence until being forced to resign from the Secret Service for reasons of mental and physical health during the Ford Administration. This revealing "60 Minutes" interview shows just how bad it was for Hill even a dozen years later. Aside from this, the book is full of tales of trips with the Presidents including a hastily planned whirlwind round-the-world trip with Lyndon Johnson which culminated in everyone, including a pajama-clad President, shopping for gifts on Christmas Eve in the PX at a military base in the Azores. Johnson's time in office was the most challenging for the service because of the President's insistence on doing things his way, especially at the LBJ Ranch. The actions of President Nixon revealed a man who was seriously disturbed in a number of ways. And in spite of having to resign in disgrace, Spiro Agnew comes off as a sincere and nice person.  This book provoked laughter, shock, and tears which occasionally was a problem as I listened to the audio book while driving. My only complaint was the narration by George Newburn. The frequent mispronunciation of names, e.g. Sander Vanocur and Chou En-lai/Zhou Enlai, was annoying

Mrs. Kennedy and Me

Mrs. Kennedy and Me by Clint Hill & Lisa McCubbin  343 pp.

This is a wonderful memoir about the former first lady written by the Secret Service agent assigned to protect her from the time of Kennedy's election through the year after his assassination. It is a love story but not a romance. The relationship between Mrs. Kennedy and Hill was strictly professional. Hill was at first disappointed to be assigned to the First Lady after having been on Pres. Eisenhower's protection detail. Mrs. Kennedy was not happy about having the Secret Service invading her privacy at all. In the four years that followed the two developed a mutual respect and affection for each other. Hill did his best to accommodate her wishes while still maintaining her safety while Mrs. Kennedy's plans kept him guessing during their travels throughout the U.S. and the world. It is also a memoir of Hill's fifty years of guilt over being a split second short of shielding the President from the deadly bullet that killed him. Agent Hill reads the epilogue on the audiobook version and it was just one of the many parts that brought tears to my eyes.