The Kennedy Detail Georgetown Preview - Political Daily
Five former members of John F. Kennedy's Secret Service detail gathered at Georgetown University on Monday night for a public discussion of their time serving the iconic president. The event, which included a preview of an upcoming Discovery Channel documentary on the agents' careers, touched on the defining facets of the Kennedy presidency and ranged from lighthearted anecdotes about time with the first family to somber recollections of Kennedy's assassination in Dallas in November 1963.
Among the most powerful moments of the night occurred when Clint Hill -- famously visible in the Zapruder film of the assassination as he climbed onto the back of the president's limousine -- spoke about those first terrifying minutes in Dallas.
"When I got to the presidential vehicle, just as I approached it, a third shot rang out, hitting the president in the head, just above the right ear and left a hole about the size of my palm," Hill recalled, his voice halting. "There were blood and brains spewed about over myself and the car."
When Hill finally managed to get Jacqueline Kennedy off the trunk of the limousine, where she had climbed, the motorcade began speeding to Parkland Hospital, where the president was pronounced dead a half-hour later. According to Hill, there were few moments of cogent conversation during the brief trip. "She said something about, 'Oh, Jack, what have they done? What have they done?' " Hill recalled of the former first lady.or the agents, the chance to reunite for the documentary and a book -- "The Kennedy Detail," co-authored by former agent Gerald S. Blaine and journalist Lisa McCubbin -- was part of a long-deferred healing process. For the film, the agents returned to Dallas and the scene of the shooting. "Going back to Dallas was an opportunity to let my emotions finally be released," Hill said.
"After the assassination, we had a responsibility to go to work," said Blaine, who was also on the president's Secret Service detail that day. "We didn't have trauma counseling or anything else. We decided we were probably going to have to resolve the issue within ourselves."
The agents also discussed life in the White House -- even addressing rumors of an affair between President Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe (unfounded, as far as they knew). They also explained that, despite their rigorous training, they were often unprepared for the star-struck awe they experienced at presidential events with such Hollywood figures as Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra.
The agents also recalled unexpectedly leaving a campaign stop in Chicago to head back to Washington in October 1962. The given reason was that the president had a cold, but the agents knew better. The Soviet Union, of course, was building missile sites in Cuba, igniting a standoff that took the United States and the Soviets to the brink of nuclear war for 13 days.
Blaine, who was with Kennedy for most of the crisis, recalled that the president was visibly strained during the negotiations with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev. But when the threat had finally passed, Kennedy made sure to let his security detail know. "I was down in the Situation Room after he finished talking to Khrushchev," Blaine said. "He came out and said, 'Well, are you ready to go to Palm Springs?' So that's when we knew everything was going to be okay."
The agents also discussed more lighthearted moments with the first family, whom they liked personally.
"She was a closet smoker," Hill, now in his late 70s, said of Jacqueline Kennedy. "A lot of times we'd be riding in the car going to Middleburg and she'd say, 'Mr. Hill, can I have a cigarette, please?' . . . And I'd get in the backseat and light the cigarette and give it to her. Nobody knew that. And as soon as anybody showed up, the cigarette was put in my hand very quickly." Hill laughed. "I became the smoker."
Besides personal healing and an obligation to history, the agents said they had another reason for speaking out 47 years after Kennedy's assassination. With the book and the documentary, they hope to set the record straight -- and put assassination conspiracy theories to rest. "Most of history today has been written by what I call a cottage industry called 'conspiracy,' " Blaine said. "If we didn't speak up and give a balance to this, history would never know exactly what happened."
The Library Journal Reviews AEI Clients Blaine and McCubbin's The Kennedy Detail
Blaine, Gerald with Lisa McCubbin. The Kennedy Detail: JFK's Secret Service Agents Break Their Silence.Gallery: S. & S. Nov. 2010. c.464p. bibliog. index. ISBN 9781439192962. $28. HIST
Almost a half-century after the JFK assassination, Blaine, a member of Kennedy's Secret Service detail, describes how he and his colleagues tried to protect Kennedy that day under impossible circumstances. Blaine describes how JFK did not want agents near his car in the Dallas motorcade so he could be close to the crowd, which made him an easy target for lone gunman Lee Harvey Oswald. With journalist McCubbin, Blaine, who resigned from the Secret Service in 1964, has written this compelling book in the third person because it is the story of the 34-member detail; however, much of the book focuses on the author and Clint Hill, the agent assigned to protect First Lady Jackie Kennedy. This book is Blaine's rebuttal to what he says is the outrageous maligning of the Secret Service, especially in Abraham Bolden's The Echo from Dealey Plaza, which charges the agents with drinking and carousing.
Verdict This account will create controversy as it denies all conspiracy theories about who shot President Kennedy. It is an important contribution to Kennedy assassination literature for its presentation in riveting detail from the agents' perspective and descriptions of the lifelong emotional burden the agents endured when their best efforts were not enough.—Karl Helicher, Upper Merion Twp. Lib., King of Prussia, PA
http://www.libraryjournal.com/lj/home/887516-264/xpress_reviewsthe_first_look_at.html.csp
Renegade lands cable projects Discovery orders 'Assailant,' 'Kennedy Detail'
Renegade 83, the shingle behind Discovery's "Man, Woman, Wild," has landed two more projects at the cabler.
Company, which produced the popular syndie series "Blind Date," is also back in the dating space, developing the strip show "Excused" with CBS TV Distribution.
At Discovery, Renegade has landed an eight-episode order of "The Assailant" (working title), which principal David Garfinkle described as what would happen "if Jason Bourne were to do a competition reality show."
Episodes will feature four contestants from the military and police worlds, all of whom battle to become the "perfect human weapon."
"We find bad-ass, special ops guys, and put them through mental and physical challenges," Garfinkle said of the show, which will shoot in Southern California starting in January.
Also at Discovery, "The Kennedy Detail" is a two-hour documentary set to air Nov. 22 -- the 47th anniversary of President Kennedy's assassination.
Based on the Gerald Blaine book of the same name, the special reunites the five members of JFK's Secret Service detail from that day.
"They had all these reunions, but they never talked about that day in Dallas," said Renegade partner Jay Renfroe. "They kept their mouth shut. But we took them down to Dallas and Dealey Plaza for the day."
For the record, Renfroe said the five men believe Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone.
Discovery has additionally given Renegade a second season order of "Man, Woman, Wild," which debuted in July. Show follows an Army vet and his journo wife as they attempt to survive in inhospitable climates.
"We've developed this great relationship with Discovery," Garfinkle said.
At CBS TV Distribution, "Excused," hosted by "Last Comic Standing" winner Iliza Shlesinger, was pitched as "'Blind Date' meets the 'Bachelor.'" Show will include dating and competition elements.
"It's already shot, and we're out selling it now," Garfinkle said.
Renegade is also in its second season with "Smash Cuts," a syndie series it produces for CBS TV Distribution.
Renegade additionally is producing the series "Wildlife Rescue" for the international marketplace, and has projects set up at Lifetime, G4, Style, Bravo and Sundance.
Contact Michael Schneider at mike.schneider@variety.com
JFK's Protectors Share Firsthand Accounts
President John F. Kennedy’s secret service agents worked for about $1.80 an hour, according to those featured in a Discovery documentary screened for the first time at Georgetown Nov. 8.They also had no computer databases to work with – just 3 x 5 cards in their pockets with names of people threatening JFK.
“We were pre-technology,” former agent Gerald Blaine told a packed audience in the university’s Gaston Hall. “We operated by hand signals. …The one thing we always feared was somebody in a window or hidden away with a rifle, which is what happened.
The publishing of The Kennedy Detail, Blaine’s book with journalist Lisa McCubbin, coincides with the documentary of the same name.
Georgetown Connections
A Georgetown alumnus, Kenneth Atchity (C’65) served as an executive producer of the documentary, which premiers Nov. 21 on the Discovery Channel.
The book authors and four other agents assigned to protect the Kennedy family came to Georgetown at the behest of University Librarian Artemis Kirk, who noted that the university has a large collection of intelligence and espionage materials.
“These materials assist faculty, students and researchers in a wide range of disciplines from peace and security studies, to international diplomacy and global area studies,” Kirk explained.
No Conspiracy
Blaine said he wrote his book “mainly because history today has been written by what I call a cottage industry, called conspiracy.” He said conspiracy rumors surrounding Kennedy’s assassination are pure fiction.
“It’s been 47 years,” he said. “Anybody who’s worked investigations on conspiracy will tell you that if a conspiracy lasts for 60 days it’s a miracle. But over 47 years there has not been one single bit of evidence to show that it was a conspiracy.”
Modern Concerns
Max Gottlieb (C’14) asked if the agents ever felt nervous watching other presidents travel. Former agent Clint Hill, who jumped on the back of Kennedy’s car after the first shot was fired, said that he does, and cited President Obama’s trip to India this week.
“Any time a president goes outside White House grounds, I’m concerned,” Hill said.
