Five Presidents

April 1, 2016

Former Secret Service agent Hill, with journalist McCubbin (both, Mrs. Kennedy and Me), expands on his previous books that detailed his time protecting John and Jacqueline Kennedy with this logbook-esque memoir of serving in five presidential administrations from 1958 to 1975. Starting as a young agent during Dwight Eisenhower's second term, Hill was impressed by the aging president's stamina and ability to work in a daily round of golf no matter his schedule. With Kennedy's election in 1960, Hill was reassigned to the president's wife, Jackie. This is how he came to jump onto the presidential motorcade during the Kennedy assassination--a heroic action immortalized in the infamous Zapruder film. Suffering from undiagnosed PTSD, Hill nevertheless stayed on to guard Lyndon Johnson, Spiro Agnew, and Gerald Ford, witnessing turbulent elections, assassinations, and the effects of the Vietnam War and Watergate along the way. The best moments are the surprising, intimate ones with the presidents and their families (the author's own family gets passing mentions), but the book lags when recapping well-trodden historical events and figures and cataloging the crowd sizes during the seemingly endless foreign trips. VERDICT An eloquently written travelog through midcentury America from the periphery of political power. Best for casual readers of U.S. history.--Chad Comello, Morton Grove P.L., IL

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