One of the things I am most proud of is that I really do try to read a little bit of everything. With that in mind I can't help but be a little bit picky when it comes to non-ficiton. My greatest dread is a dry, boring book, fiction or non. Now I have gotten rather lucky with the non-fiction and biographies that I have choosen. So far there has not been a non-fiction book that I haven't found fascinating. And I have taken a little bite out of a few different non-fiction sub-genres. Biography, autobiography, history from different times and all have been rather exceptional. My latest non-fiction book was "The Kennedy Detail" written by Gerald Blaine and Lisa McCubbin and published by Simon & Schuster. What it is, is the story of the Kennedy assassination told through the eyes of the secret service agents who were on President Kennedy's detail at the time. I read it mainly because I didn't really know anything about the Kennedy assassination and thought this might be a good introduction. I was right.
The book starts out a couple of weeks before the assassination, shows the assassination and the aftermath. For all those out there that were around and old enough remember what it was like when President Kennedy was shot, the world literally turned upside down. This book brought us civilians right into the middle of it. Every story that was told was filled with love and respect for John Kennedy and for Jackie. President Kennedy knew all the agents on his detail as well as the agents on his wife's and children's details. He became a friend to them all and all of them grew to love him. The day he was killed was traumatic to all the agents even those that were doing the advance work for the next leg of the trip, and therefore not even with him. Every one of them felt as if they had let the country and the agency down.
The book wasn't all that well written, the timelines sometimes jumped around too much but the story was well worth reading. Through reading this book I have grown to love the secret service. They are so focused and so hard working. They have one job and one job only, to protect the President. Or the first lady or the first family but their job is to protect the President from any kind of harm. The amount of work that goes into a Presidential motorcade is simply amazing. The agents that do the advance work for Presidential visits have so much work that they do. They have to be ready for every scenario, they have to think about every possible threat. This book really showed just how much work the secret service has to do and it gave me a very great respect for them.
"The Kennedy Detail" is the real deal, it's not full of guess work and conspiracies. It is the real story of what happened on Novemeber 22, 1963. And it is stunning to read. When they spoke of the assassination itself and everything that happened that day I was in tears. The emotion that was felt in those few seconds when the agents realized what was happening literally leapt off the page. And when the doctors pronounced President John F. Kennedy dead even the well trained agents were unable to hide their tears. It was heartwrenching to read, I can't imagine what it was like to live it.
This is a book that I recommend with high praise, not for the writing, but for the story. If you are at all interested in what happened the day the world changed forever you need to read "The Kennedy Detail." It really is an important part of history one that will live in the memories of every person that experienced it. This book gives us a look not only at the pain the country felt but an intimate look at what it was like for those who were closest to the President. It's a pain that the agents lived with for the rest of their careers, and for those that passed on, for the rest of their lives. But this book isn't only about that pain and that day. It is about the men that had the priviledge of protecting a man that they were able to call their friend, a man that they respected, and a man that they saw was maybe able to change the world for the better. That is something they remembered for the rest of their lives as well.
I was 13 at the time of the shooting. I was in Junior High School. As has often been said, I was stunned. It was an event beyond my experience. In reflection, I recall some of my classmates crying, some of the boys, and some not sad, because they did not like Kennedy. Yet, this was one of the great tragedies of the American story. There have been four presidents assassinated. Lincoln, arguably the greatest of the American Presidents -Garfield, McKinnley and Kennedy.
ReplyDeleteThe horror of the Kennedy assassination had to due with Hope. John and Bobby (also later killed) embodied the hope of youth. They were marching to the drum of a new direction. The country felt it, and was strong around that hope. Then, the hope was stopped cold. That is what took the wind out of us that day.
A day of Hope Lost.