Mrs. Kennedy and Me

To my surprise this book is a love story. Not a salacious inappropriate smut filled account, but rather one with stories of growth, fun times, laughter, dedication, respect! A story of sorrow and sadness that is uplifting because of caring and friendship. This book is a warm modern portrait the Mr. and Mrs. John F. Kennedy and their children from someone who was close to them with no axe to grind. Even the sad events are presented with compassion. There's a lot of love in this book. Secret Service Agent Clint Hill begins his association in late 1960 with the Kennedy administration in a fearful place. Fearful that after a couple of years of what he believed was success on President Eisenhower's detail, he's suddenly removed from the "main action" of protecting the president. Is this a demotion he bemoans? Like any macho Secret Service dude seeking to advance, Mr. Hill naturally dreads moving to the First Ladies detail with its potential daily doses of "fashion shows and the ballet." Yet, both loving his job and having a young family to support, Mr. Hill accepts his fate and reports to 3307 N Street, Georgetown, to meet (be approved by??!!) the young First Lady-elect (she's already rejected one perspective agent!!). Disappoint quickly turns to beguilement, as Clint Hill is thoroughly charmed and enchanted by this beautiful, fun, witty, intelligent, adventurous, sporty, irreverent and yeah, a bit of a spoiled rich girl (who knows how to get her way). Heck, he even learns to not mind the occasional fashion show (so long as it features the First Lady!), ballet in New York and even personally shopping for ladies apparel in Ravello, Itally!!!! Who woulda thunk it. No, I've not overdone it on the adjectives and yeah, this isn't your typical "Kennedy" bio. Mr. Hill doesn't criticize or attack, but showers his subject with affection. He and all the agents, because of the nature of their jobs, seemingly abandon their own lives and families in their service to the first family and all who they protect. One can see how the close private contact and the enormous amount of time spent away from the agent's loved ones can lead to feelings that are deeper and more personal towards the subject of their protection. Mr. Hill (and she's "Mrs. Kennedy - she adheres to proper address at all times) not only loves the First Lady, but he also very much cares for her husband and their children too. He just plain loves the Kennedy first family period - and says that despite what's been written, they were a loving and playful family. He even is amused by the extended Kennedy clan and their friends!! Mr. Hill doesn't portend to sell more books by detailing alleged unsavory dalliances and missteps. You will find no recollections or opinions about the first couple's sex life (apart from a remembrance about some suggestive art that the First Lady picks up in India...humorous not amorous). While Mr. Hill does mention a certain controversial birthday featuring a drunken female movie star and her singing, and he does hint at a certain rat pack crooners' rather inappropriate interest in Mrs. Kennedy's personal activities (this was new to me - and I've read at least 50 bios on the K's), Mr. Hill doesn't go further than what he truly knows to be true - which is that Mrs. Kennedy never shared her feelings about either. I felt his writing in this way showed not only respect for his subjects, but a certain truth missing in most other biographies that serve rumor as fact, and seem to relish ripping their subjects apart. Well, there's no ripping here. If one reads between the lines, here is a portrait of a woman who undoubtedly loves her place in life with her powerful, public servant, handsome husband (whatever his warts), and yet thrives on the one thing that is the antithesis of his job (and perhaps his entire being) - privacy. A lady who is tough and yet wears her vulnerabilities in "her espresso-colored eyes." A lady who claims to dislike the "fish bowl" existence inherent in the White House, yet secretly enjoys reading the gossip magazines featuring herself. Topics that Mr. Hill offers an accounting: Why Mrs. Kennedy spent so much time away from the White House (Mr. Hill says she spent about eight percent of her time AWAY from the White House during one time period in 1961). Mrs. Kennedy's various vacations and partying amongst the creme de la creme of the European social set without her husband (according to Mr. Hill, usually with her SISTER - and nothing out of line - except for the time she jumps in the sports car of a very, very young Greek Count who engages Mr. Hill and his fellow agents on a high speed chase...but that was about fun - not illicit romance). Onassis! I didn't know that President Kennedy felt so strongly about Mrs. Kennedy having nothing to do with Onassis as early as her visit to Greece in 1961!!! Mr. Hill felt very uneasy about the Greek tycoon. Despite the fun and adventures, in the end, this is a story about great pain, loss and sorrow. Also, about one man's journey to learning to forgive himself. This book is a great success for no other reason than its finally allowed Mr. Hill peace of mind.

Mrs. Kennedy and Me recounts Clint Hill's Secret Service assignment to protect Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy from November 1960 until Lyndon Johnson was elected in 1964. Written with dignity and respect, the book describes the challenges and rewards attached to guarding Mrs. Kennedy. The detail about Mrs. Kennedy's daily activities and overseas trips is extensive. Photos of her public and private life abound. Mr. Hill and co-author Lisa McCubbin write of her indomitable spirit, her coy humor and her grace. Hill clearly adored the whole Kennedy family and guarded them with diligence. He generously chronicles his time with Mrs. Kennedy. She was an expert equestrian, which forced him to find creative ways to protect her while riding. At one point, she mischievously bummed a cigarette off him while they were in a car out of the public eye. A lover of ballet, she teased him about his reaction to a performance she thought particularly moving. He describes her beautiful outfits for various state functions. Clothing was an important part of her image. American's adored her sense of style. She wanted to purchase some outfits while in Italy. Advising her against it, Hill found himself dispatched to women's boutiques with Mrs. Kennedy's shopping list. A Secret Service agent must problem-solve in situations we can't fathom: * Determining on the spot whether or not it was safe for Mrs. Kennedy to touch a baby elephant during a trip to India. * Safely transporting a horse gifted to Mrs. Kennedy by Pakistani President Ayub back to the United States. * Keeping Presidential moments private while maintaining adequate protection for the family. Mrs. Kennedy valued her privacy and wanted her children to have a normal life. Much of her time was spent away from the White House. Although this meant Mr. Hill would see his wife and children less, he never complained. It was simply part of the job. If you are looking for rumors and bits of scandal supposedly tied to the Kennedy Administration, look elsewhere. Wanting to bring a balance to salacious gossip about that time and negative stories of the Secret Service's response to the President's assassination, Mr. Hill breaks his fifty-year silence. The memoir is a positive and honest assessment of the joys and tests he met as an agent. The memoir overflows with respect for the Kennedy family. Hill writes eloquently about the depression and guilt he suffered because he felt he didn't move quickly enough to take the bullets that struck President Kennedy on that fateful day in November of 1963. The author of this memoir is a consummate gentleman who humbly went about his duties. He was at that time, perhaps, Mrs. Kennedy's closest friend. In Mr. Hill's own words, "What started out as uncertainty for both Mrs. Kennedy and me, had turned into a comfortable and enjoyable working relationship based on mutual trust and respect." Readers, you will be moved by this personal tribute to an unforgettable First Lady. I highly recommend Mrs. Kennedy and Me. Article first published as Book Review: Mrs. Kennedy and Me by Clint Hill and Lisa McCubbin on Blogcritics.

The short: This book is a moving memoir of the Secret Service agent, Clint Hill, who was assigned to guard Jackie Kennedy and who almost - but not quite - made it in time to take the fatal bullet for her husband, president John F. Kennedy, when he was brutally assassinated on 22 November 1963 in Dallas, Texas. It is a book for people interested in the 'normal' lives of the Kennedys (as normal as they could ever be!), and who want to read about the spectacular events and the everyday routines, the heartwarming and sometimes embarrassing, and look over the should of a first-hand witness to all of this as well as all the tragedies, such as the loss of baby Patrick and Kennedy Sr.'s stroke. It is all in this book, as experienced by the man who guarded and served Jackie Kennedy virtually 24/7. No gossip. Only a stint of politics. And absolutely no conspiracy-theories. You will have to go elsewhere for all that. The narrative is constrained at times by the understandable need for Mr. Hill to still protect his own privacy as well his laudable intention to protect some privacy for Jackie's memory - an intention which conflicts somewhat with the genre and topic, but there you have it. However, Mr. Hill's dry wit anecdotes and emotional (but never sentimental) accounts of how it was to be part of American history through all of these times more than compensates for that constraint. And it is an added bonus that there are many pictures of the family, and especially of Jacqueline, in less formal situations. This book has my warmest recommendations if you are just the least bit interested in this legendary first family of the United States. The long: This book is, for all intents and purposes, a decision to heal for Mr. Hill himself and a final gift to his beloved "Mrs. Kennedy" - as he always refers to her. It is healing in the sense, as Mr. Hill has described in the afterword, of being able to let go of the past by allowing his feelings about all that happened (good and bad) to finally be ... shared. Instead of keeping it all in the "dungeon", as he calls it - a dungeon from which he almost never emerged after a near-fatal battle with alcoholism in the late 70s and early 80s, following his Secret Service-retirement. Mr. Hill is indeed ably assisted in this healing process by co-author Lisa McCubbin and it is probably her pen that allows the most vivid descriptions of everything from Onassis' opulent yacht to the colorful crowd spectacles from Paris to Pakistan to come to life. I did, however, get the clear sense from reading - as well as from watching interviews with both of them on YouTube later on - that McCubbin has never played anything but respectful and conscientious role as facilitator for Mr. Hill's story. Since the book, from a commercial and journalistic POV, to a large degree has had to take into account the appeal to an audience who is probably very interested in the glamour that surrounded Jackie Kennedy, it is refreshing that every time her 'Camelot-life' comes close to exhausting the arsenal of English superlatives, then there is *always* a dry anecdote directly from Hill to balance it all. For example: His recollection of the logistical head-aches about "how to get that damn horse home", when the Pakistani president gifted JBK with just such an animal during a state visit. And not to forget - to balance the glamour, there is also, sadly, the whole series of soul-burdening events in the lives of the Kennedys: The stroke and incapacitation of Kennedy's father, the loss of baby Patrick, or the row of high-strung political exigencies, culminating in the Cuban Missile Crisis, when president Kennedy only narrowly avoided the unspeakable: Nuclear war. As for the political crises, however, they are only sketched - and the so called scandals are only hinted at. But I didn't feel any of the latter were 'glossed over' - never in a way which reduced my overall enjoyment of the book. Sometimes the deliberate downplaying of some of the salacious stories the Kennedy's have become known for actually made me smile and gain more respect for him at the same time: When Mr. Hill for example refers to Marilyn Monroe's infamous birthday song to the president with only one sentence: "We never discussed this" - I felt it spoke volumes both as to his awareness of what it *may* have signified to the president's wife - but also to his professional ethic of not going into the whole 'scandal-discussion' (read: alleged infidelities). He curtly acknowledges what may have been there and moves on. And I appreciated that. To my view the topics of, say, the alleged infidelity of JFK or the overspending of on 'excessive holidays' of JBK, seem somewhat petty considering that JFK were in constant physical pain, and dealing with crises that included avoiding possible nuclear war, plus the rest of his 24/7 political life and results. And Jackie lost her *second* child during all this and had her share of exhausting political duties as well, all the time being chased by paparazzi. Her many weeks abroad were definitely not spent *only* on water-skiing and sight-seeing. I have some mixed feelings, though, regarding the very limited focus on the family of Mr. Hill himself in the book. The consequences of such single-minded devotion to his job obviously cost his wife and children, but, like leading the United States, Hill's job was a job that *somebody* had to do. Somebody had to be willing to pay the price to protect the leader and his family all year round, on travels, etc. After thinking about it, I can only say that I feel it is a very modern POV that may compel us - myself included - to judge harshly a man from 50 years ago, who leaves his home 80 percent of the time to do this kind of job. It should also be highlighted that Mr. Hill was probably the sole breadwinner, although this is never stated specifically. But even if this was not so, his excessive work-hours were part and parcel of normal gender-roles in the 1950s and 1960s. I am not saying it was all 'okay', then. I am glad that the times, at least to some degree, seem to be heading towards more equality and consciousness about the importance of work/family-balance - even for military and other important jobs. Nevertheless, I did miss a bit more attention to the family consequences for Mr. Hill himself, though - and I missed it especially when I looked in vain for a comment on what he told his wife and children during the Missile Crisis! So that is why there is one star less than five in this review. However, I do think it is beside the point to make too big a deal out of this lack. Mr. Hill is obviously a very private person and those *were* different times. For some people in our Western world that is still the way roles are distributed in the family. (BTW: I did a YouTube-search and found a C-SPAN interview from 2012 with Mr. Hill. It answers some of the questions about the family repercussions from his career with the Kennedys, which are barely touched on in this book). The bottom line is: This book is NOT about Hill's family - or even about the Kennedy family at its deepest level. It was written, as said, as part of a path to healing - healing the trauma from having been unable to foil an *assassination* . That is worthwhile remembering. All of this brings me, at length, to the second purpose I believe this book had: It was also written to be a gift. To Jacqueline Kennedy. As this way of seeing the book dawned on me while I was reading, I gradually gave up trying to second-guess Mr. Hill's feelings from 50 years ago and label them either as 'being in love' or as 'friendship'. His feelings for Jacqueline were neither, the more I think about it. And it was not helpful, I found, to try to squeeze them into this or that category. It was - and is - enough for me to realize just this: There grew between Jacqueline Kennedy and Mr. Hill a strong human bond, including a high degree of mutual respect, both of which inevitably comes from living and working so close to another person, and for being responsible for her life and safety - even if you are in two very different leagues as regards economic and political class. The closest I can come to a categorization here is 'courtly love' - the relationship that a knight of old could have with a fair lady to whom he professed his undying devotion and dedicated protection. The knight would even swear that he was willing to go to his death for his lady, and add many heartfelt professions of 'love' to this vow- even though it was understood that he and his chosen lady would never speak personally or touch in a romantic or sensual way. It is definitely not the way of modern lovers. It is not a friendship in any normal sense of the word. It certainly is not a guise for sexual lust. It is ... something else. It is also deeply fascinating to me, when this kind of relation seems to crop up again in the modern world. And at one point Mr. Hill indeed remarks that many of the other agents felt the same way about Jackie. They were willing to go through fire and water for her. But he became the most dedicated of them all. Many people, myself included, probably won't ever understand the true quality of the bond Mr. Hill came to experience towards Jacqueline Kennedy ... and perhaps he doesn't even understand it fully himself to this day. He can only acknowledge that it existed, and for all its costs, it was something precious to him, even as it came to be precious for her - whatever particular reasons Mrs. Kennedy may have had herself to acknowledge this bond (which she does at some pivotal moments in the story). By sharing with the world some of that beauty that was indeed Jackie Kennedy's life - and especially that which was the bond between her and her protector - Mr. Hill has contributed to balance the glaring spotlight of endless political disseminations of the Kennedy years, the shadows of their many tragedies and of course the 'scandalism' which has always been magnetically associated to their lives. In sharing this story has also made a courageous attempt let go of a Guilt that must have lasted the better part of 50 years. A guilt, which at the end of the day, is about the most horrifying, unthinkable event of all: Not being able to save the life of someone you care about. It seems that this particular guilt has haunted Mr. Hill since that fateful day in 1963 and I think I can now understand why, although I never gave it much thought until this book dropped into my lap. I was always interested in the conspiracy theories, and to some extend in the politics. Not so much in the people, in the family. Mr. Hill invited me to focus on this, and by doing so he also took me to a point where I could care and sense the despair of not being able to protect them. For not only did Mr. Hill fail to save a husband and a father and a president, he also failed to save the *happiness* of this man's wife - whom he was devoted to and had also sworn to serve and protect. In a way, Mr. Hill must have felt that the bullets that took Kennedy's life had indeed did hit Mrs. Kennedy. Not in her body, but in her soul. It was just a few months after the most recent tragedy of her dead infant child, after all, and now the assassination had taken one who was most precious from her - her husband. The pain of this loss was real, and raw and shattering, whatever strains, real or imagined, that the Kennedy marriage had been subject to until that day. Mr. Hill's description of Jackie after the assassination leaves no doubt as to that. This book can never erase the horror that was real 22 November 1963. It can never completely erase the sense of failure and depression that inevitably had to come after, if you were a de facto part of the president of the United States' family like Mr. Hill seemed to have become. It is the same horror for everyone who is human - rich and famous or the millions of Others, lesser known, in this world who have lost loved ones to a murderer, in all of history. Murder is murder. Death is death. Failure to protect from this atrocity brings crushing guilt. Both grief and guilt may never truly be wiped away from the mind and the heart. But I believe they can, in time, be balanced in such a way that they become bearable to live with, maybe even fade into the background as the Good once again becomes what matters. I feel that with this book, Mr. Hill has made his deeply personal commitment, long overdue, to not let the guilt win. He has therefore opted to show us, alongside the horror and grief, the true beauty of both some very real parts of Mrs. Kennedy's life and of that special bond that grew between these two, admittedly, very different persons. All as he saw and lived it. I don't think there is any need to point out that you can never truly be a 'failure' if you unhesitatingly throw yourself between an assassin and that assassin's victim - even if the last shot has been fired (which you do not know) - and even if there was nothing in the first place which you could have done to reach that person *in time* to block the killing bullets. (Mr. Hill was on a car behind the Kennedys and he barely was able to reach the president's car in time to latch on to it and shield Mrs. Kennedy from further harm, before the car sped towards Parkland Hospital.) So there was failure for Mr. Hill that day, yes, but only in a professional sense. Never in a human sense. That is an intellectual exercise, however, and one which did not help Mr. Hill, especially in those years when he looked too deeply into the bottle. There inevitably arises a need to heal such a huge wound in your memory, by finally allowing the memory to *be* there - without further judgment; by finally deciding to lift your gaze up again so you can see and appreciate once more the *entire* picture of the lives and bonds that were real, and not just see them from the vantage point of the day they all ended. And then to give that beauty and love back, in the form of this book, to someone you felt that you had taken it all from, even if she is no longer with us in the here and now. For Mr. Hill had never really taken anything from Mrs. Kennedy. He only gave selflessly. With this book he has given her memory - and thus our memory - something precious.

Secret Service Special Agent Clint Hill was on President Eisenhower's detail when, in November of 1960, his superior directed him to meet the young wife of the President Elect. Bewildered at this apparent demotion from a presidential to first-lady detail, Clint met the determined woman who had already rejected one agent. My guess is that his superiors thought Clint Hill's personality would be a good match for that of Jacqueline Kennedy. And it was, as Agent Hill assured her that his job was to make sure she could do what she wanted--safely. Very quickly Mr. Hill, as Jackie and her children always called him, joined so many around the world who fell in love with Jackie. Only he developed a respectful affection for the real deal, while most of the rest of us fell in love with her ubiquitous press and photographs. I've been a Kennedy aficionado from the beginning, since the Kennedy years were my high-school years. I thought I knew the stories of Jackie in the White House, at Hyannis Port, the Virginia hunt country, in Paris, Vienna, India, Pakistan, Greece, Morocco...but now I know that history from the memories of one who was just steps behind Jackie everywhere she went for four years. The first three of those years were, as Jackie said, "the happiest ones for President Kennedy and for me." Then there was that dreadful day in Dallas, when Clint Hill was the only secret service agent in the car full of agents behind the limousine to put his body between Jackie's, the president's and the source of the first shot. I thought I knew the history of November 22 through 25 of 1963, but now I know it from the memory of the man who was with Jackie Kennedy throughout the four days which slammed shut the door on my seventeen-year old carefree exuberance and began for Clint Hill half a century of regret and guilt. I am grateful that writing his touching memoir has been a much-needed catharsis for him, as well as an up-front-and-personal history for his readers. There is only one passage in this excellent book which disturbs me. On page 305 Clint describes being called into the autopsy room at Bethesda Naval Hospital by his superior, who wanted him to see President Kennedy's body in case Jackie ever had questions. He was shown a wound in front of the president's neck caused by a tracheotomy which covered an exit wound, and he was shown the corresponding entry wound at the back of the neck. The description of these two wounds makes sense to me. The next one does not. Clint Hill was shown the gaping, flap-wound at the upper-right rear of President Kennedy's head and told that, "It appeared that the impact of the bullet hitting the president's head was so severe, it caused an explosive reaction within the makeup of the skull and brain, so portions of the brain erupted outward, and a portion of the skull with skin and hair attached became like a flap." Say what? You don't need a Ph.D. in Physics to understand that a bullet entering a skull from behind would exit the skull from the front--like the bullet which went from the back of the president's neck and out his throat did. Clint Hill is too intelligent a person to buy this. Perhaps he was too traumatized in the early morning hours of November 23 to question this absurd explanation of how the flap exit wound on back of the president's head was also the entry wound. One would hope that decades of reflection on that explanation would raise the suspicion of a coverup. Surely that horrific flap-wound on the back of our president's head, the wound which spewed his blood and brain matter all over Jackie and Agent Hill, was caused by an entry wound from the front. A wound from a gun fired from the grassy knoll in front of the limousine? The grassy knoll which several at the scene identified as the source of a gun shot. Since posting this review yesterday, I have been haunted by the explanation given to Clint Hill for the large, gaping wound on the back of President Kennedy's head during the autopsy at Bethesda Naval Hospital. So I just watched the Zapruder film in high quality/very slow motion on YouTube. Very clearly after President Kennedy clutches his throat, the exit wound from the first bullet, he is hit in the forehead by a shot fired from in front of him (and not from behind, where the Texas School Book Depository building was). His body clearly snaps back from that frontal bullet, which is the obvious cause of the horrific flap-exit wound which spewed the president's blood, grey matter and skull fragments all over his wife and Agent Hill, who was climbing on the trunk when the bullet exited the back of the president's head. By the time Clint Hill was shown President Kennedy's body in the autopsy room, some very fancy work must have been done to reconstruct John Kennedy's forehead. It's no wonder that seventy-five percent of Americans don't believe the single-shooter theory but do believe that the Warren Commission's report is a cover-up for the worst crime of twentieth-century America.

I finished this book the same day I received it a couple of weeks ago, and was done in about two hours. Once I started I was transfixed and could not put it down. Unfortunately, I am not of an age to have experienced the fabled thousand days of the Kennedy Presidency. I have no recall of it at all, except vaguely frightening memories of the muffled drums, horse-led caisson and wailing bagpipes of the three day State funeral...which I was much too small to appreciate or understand. Still, I have always been fascinated by the incredibly glamourous and ultimately tragic First Couple of the Kennedy White House. I have read almost everything in print on Jacqueline Kennedy.(sorry...much like Clint Hill I cannot stand referring to her as Mrs. Onassis!) After so many unflattering revelations in various books both before and after her death-the amoral, borderline depraved creature of Peter Evans "Nemesis" comes immediately to mind-it was quite a relief to read about this complex woman from someone who knew her as well as anyone and does not have an axe to grind. Here are a few of the things that stayed with me after I finished reading: ---The exalted circles the Kennedy family in general and the First Couple in particular moved in...a duke and a countess there, a prince and a princess here. And some of these people were in-laws and members of their extended family. --- There are SO many funny stories and anecdotes!Jackie attempting to tease poker faced Agent Hill into discussing the "Kama Sutra" by showing him sexually explicit drawings, the Secret Service nervously discussing JBK's desire to have some tiger cubs she was given in India roam freely on the White House lawn..the hilarious telegram from JBK to JFK berating the President for his "rudeness" regarding her new horse Sardar, a gift from the President of Pakistan.I didn't know whether to laugh OR cry after reading about the "goat sacrifice in Afghanistan" episode...that poor animal! By the way, I wish Mr. Hill had included more information about the famous Kennedy menagerie of dogs, including Pushinka the Space Puppy and Clipper, JBK's magnificent but reportedly badly behaved German Shepherd who was photographed with her so often in those days. Those dogs were a big part of the family's lives during their time in the White House and I would have loved to hear more about them. But I was delighted to read about her rapport with horses, and her daring and skill as an equestrienne. ---That photo of Agent Hill freaking out on the Italian Riviera in a boat that is about to capsize is PRICELESS...I think I laughed harder than Jackie just viewing it! ---The haunting description of JBK thrashing restlessly in her hospital bed the night her newborn son died made me cry. The fact that she was never told just how critically ill he was-so she could have possibly been prepared for the end-was simply heartbreaking. I won't discuss the assassination and funeral. It's just too horrible. Besides, I can't add anything that hasn't already been said. It struck me on page after page what a less tolerant, more "politically correct" time we live in now. For example, if word ever got out that Michelle Obama had shown sexually suggestive material to her SS agent even as a joke, I think certain members of Congress and the public would demand a Congressional probe into "sexual harrassment" of the Secret Service! And can anyone imagine how the Kennedy marriage, with it's upper class 18th century standards of behavior, would go over with our "family values" voting public today? How about their jet-set aristocratic friends, their posh vacations and high brow focus on culture and the arts? And if a First Lady now would ever DARE leave her babies-including a few weeks old infant and a toddler-in Palm Beach with a British nanny for six weeks as Jackie did, the public criticism and even outrage would be considerable. Yet JBK shines through the pages as the most sensitive, involved and doting of mothers. No one could ever accuse her of being anything other than an excellent parent, deeply bonded with her youngsters. Agent Clint Hill's integrity, loyalty and devotion, even after her death,to his beloved Mrs. Kennedy seems as poignant as it is quaint. He almost comes off like some medieval knight from another time. And even though this exquisite little memoir broke my heart I am so grateful to him for writing it, finally. I cannot recommend it highly enough. BRAVO MR HILL!

I've read many books about the Kennedys, and particularly about Jackie, but this one by Clint Hill (as told to journalist Lisa McCubbin) occupies a special place due to its intimate portrait of Jackie. Clint Hill, Jackie's Secret Service agent from 1960-1964, gained Jackie's trust by giving her as much freedom as possible, taking on duties well beyond his job description, and instinctively reading her every mood—in later years, long after they had parted ways, he could read Jackie's thoughts even from tabloid photos. Hill was with Jackie everywhere she went as First Lady, from fox hunting in Virginia to riding an elephant in India to cruising the Aegean on Aristotle Onassis's yacht after the death of baby Patrick Kennedy. Hill is the agent who famously saved Jackie's life by pushing her back into the car when she crawled onto the trunk during the JFK assassination. Although Hill was commended for his bravery (he used his body to shield Jackie and JFK from any further shots), he spent a lifetime grieving that he had failed to save JFK from the third bullet. There's a lot that's unspoken in this memoir: it's clear, for example, that Hill had strong feelings for Jackie even as his own marriage deteriorated. He also mentions nothing about JFK's philandering—it's unclear whether he didn't know about it or whether he's just being discreet. Long after his retirement from the Secret Service, Hill was called to the White House to meet President Clinton; ironically, he learned that very night (May 19, 1994) that Jackie had died of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, and he wept. One touching side note is that writing this memoir with Lisa McCubbin helped Hill deal with a lifetime of grief and self-recrimination. He found that he enjoyed going on the lecture circuit to promote the book, sharing his unique perspective on history with sympathetic audiences. He and Lisa McCubbin married in 2021, and they look very happy together!

Even as a fan of Hill's book on the Kennedy assassination, I delayed reading this book. Mrs. kennedy was an icon to many and I admired her, so wasn't sure if I really wanted to read a bit of an insiders look at her life, albeit from one taxed with guarding her. Hill's actions on that infamous day in Dallas as he scrambled to push Mrs. Kennedy back into the relative safety of the back seat of their limo after her husband's assassination is an image forever burned into our collective American memory. I guess, in all honesty, I didn't want to be let down, hence the delay until a friend told me to just read it, that I'd love it. Know what, that friend was right. Seeing not just Mrs. Kennedy but the entire Kennedy family through the eyes of one of their Secret Service agents was thought provoking. It also gave me an added appreciation for the job of the agents. Hill was away from his own growing family far more than with them, not to mention faced with finding ways to make things happen that he wasn't familiar with. His segments on learning to water ski because Mrs. Kennedy loved to water ski and wished he knew how, was both humorous and insightful. True, that willingness and ability to learn didn't extend as far as fox hunting, another passion of Mrs. Kennedy, but shows how adaptable and willing agents had to be to meet the needs of their charges. I won't reveal many details here, I'm sure their discussed elsewhere, but it was seeing those involved as humans, not the all-powerful President of the United States, but a young man with a wife and family that was the best aspect of this book for me. I do have to admit, that Hill's own rather stoic acceptance of the demands his job put on his personal life were revealing, too, making me ponder what today's agents have given up to guard the current president. These were all people and Hill captures that aspect. One of the memories that sticks with me is one that delves into the human aspect as Hill details a very special meal brought personally by the President to the agents on duty. Bottom line, if you have an interest in history, the Kennedy's, and how history impacted these very human souls, you should read this book. It's an easy read, told as if Clint Hill were sitting at your kitchen table telling it, and is nicely illustrated. I thoroughly enjoyed it and hope to read his more recent book soon.

Clint Hill's memoir is sad (of course), and brimming with the unspoken, unrequited adoration of a steward for the lady of the manor. It's clear that the careless Kennedys never knew the depth of Hill's feelings, though Jackie seems to have played on them as she pursued her "whim of iron." His stoicism took a terrible toll on him and leaves us to read between the lines. I was surprised, often appalled by the sacrifices Secret Service agents were routinely expected to make in those days. Hill seems literally to have been on call 24/7 for three years, on a $12/day stipend, watching and arranging while Jackie enjoyed a luxurious life aboard Onassis' yacht, in the Carlyle hotel, and in villas around the world. I'm not saying it was easy on her, as she and Jack subscribed to an aristocratic code that valued dash and courage above all, to a point of exhaustion and near-breakdown. But it all seems to have created a sort of hypnosis for Hill, as Jack and Jackie's magnetism bent everyone around them to Kennedy needs, regardless of their own. The end result of Hill's service, including his heroism at the assassination? A brief medal ceremony, deep trauma that went unacknowledged and years of barely functioning seclusion. And this telling detail: He could never bring himself to think of her as "Mrs. Onassis."

ジャクリーン・ケネディ・オナシスの一面が垣間見える一冊。 ホワイトハウスに必要な「クラス」を持った稀有なファーストレディだったと思う。 邦訳版も出ているが、彼女の正確なセリフが掲載されている原書をお勧めしたい。 世間で思われているスキャンダラスなイメージとは違った彼女の人柄が滲み出ている。 ゴシップ的な意味を期待している読者には本書は合わない。

Extremely well written account of a mans experiences with the First Lady, and his loyalty to a woman he was assigned to protect... The sacrifices he had to make with his own family in order to fulfill his duty in the Secret Service, as well as the trauma he experienced in the aftermath of the presidents assassination... It was during a time when Postraumatic Stress Disorders were not in vogue, and the critical counseling required to deal with such horrific circumstances were not readily available ... Clinton Hill is an amazing man to survive it all, and to share with us 'his story'... His experiences had no doubt had disasterous affects on his marriage and the rest of his life. An excellent read!

What a fascinating read. I've read tomes about the Kennedys and always think I must know all about them now, and then another book is released and (sometimes) I learn I don't at all. This is one of those times. I've waited over a year for this to become more affordable for me so was delighted when the price finally dropped from its £14+ inception cost !! I am a big fan of the Publisher's Font used in this as well. It's a really nice and very readable one. Wish my Kindle had one the same. It's written so well and he brings Jackie to true life better than any other writer has.....it was nice to hear of her lighting up a cigarette (I did use the f word here but Amazon bounced it back to me) in the backseat of the car with him and other mischief she caused.....he had his work cut out for those years but I would hazard a guess those were his favourite years of his illustrious career at the White House. It was nice to see some photos I hadn't seen before as well. The Secret Service certainly scrimp on their operatives....for all his time with her he only ever had one fulltime person with him and at times did the job on his tod which I found pretty staggering !! I was also shocked to read that Texas in November 1963 was the first and only time Jackie ever accompanied JFK on a domestic political trip !! This I found a poignant passage and I shed a few tears: "Three shots had been fired in Dealey Plaza. And the world stopped for four days." I was drawing some parallels with Princess Diana reading this.....compare the difference of JFK joking about accompanying Jackie Kennedy to Paris to Prince Charles' po-faced chops when crowds went wild over his lovely wife.....and there was the Al Fayed spectre in her life whereas Jackie had Onassis wanting to make a name for himself. I'd not realised that Jackie had done the solo Taj Mahal photo first, either, on the same spot, although looking happier. I did have the odd snivel again reading about JFK's last birthday and how Clint referred to it. I spotted the odd apostrophe mistake along with these hyphen mistakes.....comprehen-sion and father-inlaw and Aaron Copeland is spelt like this and Aga Khan not Agha....but that was it, which is pretty good going. I plan to get hold of his other book set in these same times, too. It's also written with Lisa McCubbin so I am sure will be as interesting as this one was.

Livre arrivé très rapidement et en excellent état!. Ce livre raconte, la vie de Jackie Kennedy, avant et pendant son séjour à la Mason Blanche: toujours avec beaucoup de respect. J'ai vraiment adoré ce livre et je le conseille vivement à tous ceux qui aiment les Kennedy.

Das Buch war wirklich toll. Ich könnte es gar nicht mehr weglegen und musste mich am Ende echt bremsen, um es nicht zu schnell fertig zu haben. Clint Hill ist einfach ein bemerkenswerter Mann, der viel miterlebt hat und bei vielen geschichtlichen Events dabei war. Ich hätte nicht gedacht, dass mir das Buch so gefallen würde, aber es ist eines der besten, die ich je gelesen habe. Ganz klare Empfehlung!