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

New York: Gallery Books, 2010. First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. Very good/Good. xvii, [3], 427, [1] pages. Illustrations. List of Abbreviations and Code Names. Index. DJ has some wear and soiling, especially at lower back near spine. Jerry Blaine is a former U.S. Secret Service Agent and one of the country's leading experts in high-level, high profile security. In 1959, Jerry Blaine was hired as a Special Agent of the United States Secret Service, and was handpicked to serve on the elite White House Secret Service Detail, the team responsible for protecting President Dwight D. Eisenhower. When John F. Kennedy was elected in November 1960, Blaine was transferred to the President-elect detail and, for the next three years, traveled with President Kennedy all over the world-through Europe and Central America, from Hyannis Port to Palm Beach. President Kennedy's assassination on November 22, 1963 threw the country and the White House into sudden turmoil and despair. Abruptly, the Kennedy Detail became the Johnson Detail. There was no time to grieve, no time to deal with feelings of anger, frustration and guilt; and Lyndon B. Johnson was no John F. Kennedy. On July 4, 1964, Jerry Blaine resigned from the Secret Service to join the private sector. The extraordinary true story of the critical events leading up to and following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, as told by the Secret Service agents who were firsthand witnesses. 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. 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. 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 conspiracy theories and finger-pointing. A book fifty years in coming-a true, must-read story of heroism in its most human form.