All reviews for In the President's Secret Service: Behind the Scenes with Agents in the Line of Fire and the Presidents They Protect (2009)
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This is a book in two halves; both unexpected and interesting if disappointing for different reasons. In the first part it appears Kessler got many agents to talk about the secrets the learned from the Presidents they served and many of these are ascribed by name to the agents that divulged secrets from Kennedy (who has a room for assignations with Monroe and got alerts when Jackie was coming home) to the Obamas (Barak still smokes as of this writing. While thee revelations, almost salacious are interesting, it is disappointing to learn how easily it appears to have been to get agents to reveal secrets. We also learn of the adulteries of LBJ, the human sides of Ford and Carter and what unruly imps the Bush twins were. The second part is how since post-9/11 the Service was rolled into Homeland Security it lacks in funding, is spread too thin also investigating modern day financial crimes, and suffering under effective indentured service (unfair transfer and overtime policies) driving away talent so that in the so-called War on Terror our heads of government have no better protection then when Lincoln's security office left Ford Theatre for the saloon.
This book is almost written as two books. One part is a fascinating history of past presidents, filled with amazing anecdotes, a really great read. The other part of this book is a hard analysis of administrative budgets, rules, and procedures. It is this latter subject matter that takes the book down, as the analysis turns into somewhat of a rant, no matter how worthy the arguments. Above all, what stands out are the amazing details and observations shared through the professional and trained eyes of the secret service. (The narrator has a great voice and adds to the audio book version.)
Scary...very scary.