After this session. The books are available in the sales tent, and well be signing in the main author tent just around the corner here. Now, before we begin, clint, did you want to Say Something . Hello, austin [cheers and applause] its great to be back near the hill country where i spent a great deal of time. A great deal of time with lbj. And were going to tell you, were going to give you a glimpse into our book, five president s, now as much as we can for about 35 minutes, and then well open it up to questions and answers for the last portion. First, i have to figure out how to make this thing work. [inaudible conversations] he said it takes a bit. All right. Takes a minute. Clint hill was born in 1932, the middle of the great depression, and his mother realized she couldnt care for him. So she had him baptized and dropped him off at the north dakota Childrens Home in fargo, north dakota. Fortunately, when he was about three months old, he was adopted by a wonderful family, chris and jenny hill and their daughter, janice. He grew up in this home in washburn, north dakota, population 912. Clint, growing up in that tiny town in north dakota, did you always want to be a secret service agent, or how did that come about . [laughter] no, not at all. My intention when i went away to college was to become a history teacher and to coach athletics. But the korean war interceded, and i had to go into the military. I went through basic training for the u. S. Army, and they selected me out and sent me to the Army Intelligence center where they trained me to be a special agent in counterintelligence. And i did that for the United States government for a number of years. And when it was time to get out, i looked around to find what i wanted to do the rest of my life, and i wanted to continue that same type of activity. I found that the secret service was an extremely small organization, had a great history of investigations, and so i applied. Unfortunately, there were only 269 agents in the entire organization at that time. Worldwide. Be so it was almost impossible to get in unless somebody died or retired. And in my case, a gentleman retired, and i got his slot. And thats how i became a secret service agent. So that was in 1958. Dwight d. Eisenhower was president. Thats clint hill standing in the doorway there. Within a year of entering the secret service, he was promoted to the elite white house detail and, clint, what was it like working for president eisenhower . What kind of a man was he . He was a wonderful, personable individual, but he had spent almost his entire life in the military, and he brought into that into the oval office, including some members of his former staff who were military officers. He was one of those individuals who, if we told him we had to leave at 9 30 in the morning, at 9 29. 30, he was in the car ready to go. [laughter] we never had to worry about a schedule with eisenhower. He referred to us mostly as his troops. He didnt call us by name, hed just say, hey, agent, and we would respond. One of the very nice things about it is he loved to play golf. And that gave us a chance to be on the golf course with him. Wed be, have agents parallelling him, id be one of them out in the trees alongside the fairway carrying my bag with about three golf clubs in it and a. 30 caliber caribbean rifle and carbine rifle, and down the fairway wed go. We had the opportunity to see some of the best golf players in the world including arnie palmer, who got to be a friend, and he was a joy to watch. The ball would go down about 200 yards, 3 feet off the ground and zoom skyward and were right on the green almost every time. So it was really a pleasure to work with president eisenhower. And in december of 1959, clint, you got to go on a fantastic journey with president eisenhower visiting 11 countries in 19 days. Yes. The air force had acquired three big commercialtype 707s and made them available to the white house. President eisenhower took advantage of it, and we took off one day, and we flew to rome. From rome to ankara, then to karachi, up to kabul, down to new delhi, a little side transcribe to see the taj taj m. Then went back to new delhi, then to tehran to meet with the shah, down to athens to see the king. Got onboard a big ship out in the mediterranean, it was the uss des moines, and we took that over to tunis and tunisia, and then we got back on the ship, took it to france, got on an express train to paris, met with de gaulle, went down to ma rid to see madrid to see franco, flew to casablanca to meet with the king, and then finally we got to come home. [laughter] and that was your first trip outside of the u. S. My first overseas trip. Not bad for a kid from north dakota. [laughter] no, pretty special. And you can see the crowd, this is a photo in new delhi, the crowds that surrounded president eisenhower. He was tremendously popular around the world. And, clint, you were also involved then in the election of 1960 during the campaign. Yes. President eisenhower hadnt done much to help Vice President nixon in that election in 1960, but he finally decided he would, and and we went to new york and went to, outside of new york to long island and up to westchester county. But then we came back into manhattan, and my job was to secure the parade route down through what we call the can johns of new york city up to canyons of new york city up to harold square. And i had both the president and the Vice President in an open car, and there were millions of people on the street and looking out of windows, hanging out of windows. It was a very dangerous situation. But in 1960 john f. Kennedy won the election, and there was a transition now from 70yearold general to this young, this young man from massachusetts. What was that transition like for you . Well, we went from a 70yearold grandfather to a 43yearold father of a, i guess he was 3 years old at the time and a wife who was only 31 who was pregnant from at the time. So we knew it was going to be a real different activity level once the kennedys moved into the white house. But now you werent assigned to president kennedy as you had thought you were going to be. What happened . Well, i was down on the golf course with eisenhower in augusta, georgia, the day after the election in 1960, and kennedy won. And i finally got a call from my boss tell thing me to get on the first plane back to washington. Went into his office, was met there by the chief, the deputy chief, two inspectors. They began to interrogate me, and they did so for about 90 minutes, asked me guess. I knew they already had the answers because of my background investigation. Do you speak languages, can you swim, do you play tennis, all kinds of things. Finally, they went over to a corner and conferred and came back, we made a decision, youre assigned to mrs. John f. Kennedy. And how did you feel about that . I was devastated, anger ored. [laughter] i didnt want that job. I knew what the agents did with bess truman and mamie eisenhower. They went to tea parties, Fashion Shows [laughter] they watched canasta games. That was about it. [laughter] you didnt want any part of that, huh . No, thank you. I wanted to be where the action was. But as it turned out, clint hill had the best job in the secret service, protecting Jacqueline Kennedy. And one of the things that you found immediately was that she was so popular that just the people surrounded her all the time, wanted to get close to her. That was one of our biggest problems, was crowd control because everybody wanted to touch them or see them, get an autograph or something. So it became a very difficult situation. Now, you spent a lot of time with them up in hyannis ported. What was that like . Theyd go to hyannis port for the summer and through labor day, and then theyd go back there on thanksgiving. And then christmas, new years and easter said be at palm beach. But up on the cape, they were almost all the time out on the water. The president would come up on fridays from the white house on air force one, get into a helicopter and and theyd fly him over to the kennedy compound. We set a cough course out there golf court for him to use, hes yell out anybody for ice cream, and that was the signal for all of his nephews, his nieces, caroline and john to come running, get on that golf cart with him, and he was going to take them two blocks away to the ice cream store, and then hed have to foot the bill. [laughter] now when he was thereupon, people would up there, people would think he was on vacation, but really a president is never on vacation as you saw up close. Theres no such thing as a president ial vacation, believe me. The press says there is, but theres not. This photo is rather indicative. This is mrs. Be kennedy and the children and their dogs, but you see the president s back in the corner. Hes on the telephone. And thats what went on constantly. A president is either on the phone, being briefed by an aide, going over material that has to be acted on immediately or having, trying to solve some problem in some foreign country that has just developed. Its 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. There is no down time. Now, its because you were assigned to mrs. Be kennedy that you ended up going on that trip to texas. Yes. Mrs. Kennedy came to me and told me she was going to make this trip to texas in 1963. She said that she, in 1960, was not able to do as much as she should have to help president kennedy get elected because she was pregnant at the time. And so this time she said she was going to do Everything Possible to help him get reelected. And so this is a great photo of clint with president and mrs. Kennedy x this was taken on the morning of november 32nd, 1963 22nd, 1963. Well, the trip began on the 21st, and we flew down to san antonio for the president to make a speech and dedicate a hospital. Then we flew over to houston for a meeting with a group of hispanic people and then to pay tribute to congressman Albert Thomas there in houston whod brought the space center there. Then we went over to fort worth to spend the night, got up the next morning. President had a breakfast to go to. We finally got in the cars and went out to air force one at Carswell Air Force base and flew over from fort worth to dallas. Now, that sounds kind of ridiculous, im sure, to everybody in this entire audience. [laughter] because you just dont fly from dallas to fort worth or fort worth to dallas. You drive. Well, we would have preferred driving, but the political people wanted a photograph of president and mrs. Kennedy coming off the rear of air force one in dallas at love field, and so thats what they got. And tell us what were seeing in this photo here. Well, this is at love field just after we got everybody in the car ready to begin the motorcade going to the trade mart in dallas where the president was going to make a speech. So we started out in love field and went down through the town of dallas down toward main street. The crowds began to build, became larger and larger. We went down to main street, they were so large that the driver of the car was keeping the car to the lefthand side of the street to keep the president , who was in the right rear, away from the crowd on the right side. But that put mrs. Kennedy right up next to the crowd on the lefthand side of the street. So i would get up on the back of the car periodically to be as close to her as i could so that nothing could happen to her. We got down to the end of main street, we had to turn right on houston in order to get over to elm street and go underneath a triple underpass to get on the 7 freeway going toward the trade mart. As we made the left turn on elm, we were about, oh, maybe 150 feet down elm street. I was scanning the area to my left, the grassy area in the dealey plaza area and then the trade or the triple underpass is right in front of us. And all of a sudden i heard this explosive noise over my right shoulder. Came from the rear. So i started to turn toward that noise. But i only got as farah as the back of the president ial as far as the back of the president ial vehicle because i saw how the president responded. I saw him grab at his throat like this, and then he started to fall to his left. I realized then this had been a gunshot, and i jumped from my position on the followup car immediately behind the president s car and started to run toward the president ial vehicle with the intent of getting up on the back to form a barrier or a shield there to protect president and mrs. Kennedy and all the occupants in the car. When i jumped, i had to get between a motorcycle officer who was on the lefthand side and the car i was riding on. They both were making considerable noise, engine noise. They told me later that there was a shot that came during that running time of mine i didnt even hear that. But as i approached the president ial vehicle, just as about i got there i heard and i felt a third shot. Be the president was, at that point, with husband head way down to his left. Something like that. And the shot hit the president in the back of the head here, and it exited right out here above the right ear. It took with it the scalp and the bones from the skull and they just flapped forward, but out of the wound erupted blood and brain matter, bone fragments all over mrs. Kennedy and all over myself. As i got up on the back of the car, mrs. Kennedy came up on the trunk. She was trying to grab some of that material that came out of the president s head, and she did manage to get hold of some of it. I got her, and i put her in the backseat. When i got her in the backseat, the president s body fell to its left with his head in her lap. I could see his eyes fixed. There was a hole in the skull. I could see there wasnt any more brain material in that swire area, so i entire area, so i assumed it was a fatal wound. I turned and gave a thumbs down to the followup car crew, turned and screamed at the driver to get us to a hospital, and we raced down the freeway being led by chief curry from Dallas Police department. And you were on the back of the car for about four minutes racing to parkland hospital. ÷÷ what was going through your mind at that time . All i could think about was can we get there fast enough to do any good. I was quite sure that that the wound was fatal. I couldnt see how he could survive. So it was just a matter of getting there in case. And you can see the position clint is on the back of the car here. They were going at speeds up to 80 miles per hour. Now, there were only three shots fired that day, but he didnt know that only three shots were coming. He fully expected more, and he was in that position to protect the occupants of the car. So, clint, you were then there when the transition took place to the new president aboard air force one. Yes. I was Onboard Air Force one as Vice President johnson took the oath of office. He asked mrs. Kennedy to stand beside him while he did so, and she willingly did that. She thought it was important that people see that there was an orderly transfer of government, but also that she refused to clean up or change clothes because she wanted the people to see what they, what had been done. And so we took off from love field, and we flew directly to Andrews Air Force base in maryland and then transferred the body out to bethesda Naval Hospital where an autopsy was performed. And so you were assigned to stay with mrs. Kennedy for one more year. They decided that they should have somebody with her. They asked her who she wanted, and she asked that some of the agents who had been with the children stay with the children, and she asked if i could stay with her for that year, and i did. And so this is a photo taken in october of 1964. It actually was a photo that we found in clints collection and was not published before our latest book came out. What was going on here that day . Well, johnson has was running for the presidency for the first time in his own right, and and it was 1964. Bobby kennedy was running for the senate seat in new york. And so mrs. Kennedy had moved to new york, and i was living up there myself in the carlyle hotel, and be president johnson wanted to see mrs. Kennedy while he was campaigning in new york, so he came to her residence at 1040 fifth avenue to pay his respects to her, and thats what you see in this photo as theyre saying bye. Its mrs. Kennedy, president johnson, Robert Kennedy and myself. So then in november of 1964, clint was transferred back to the white house detail under president johnson. What was that transition like going from Jacqueline Kennedy to lbj . [laughter] well, it was quite a transition, going [laughter] going from the banks of cape cod to the banks of the ferdinalis [laughter] from clam chowder to chili. But it was one of those things. Its just a part of the job. And from what youve told me, president johnson was not nearly as predictable as president eisenhower had been or kennedy. He was not predictable at all. He had the opinion that if he didnt tell anybody what his plans were, nobody could do him harm, and that included us. [laughter] and so often times what wed see is wed be on post, and wed see the valet come out of the kitchen door with a little satchel and a hangup bag. Now, we knew the valet wasnt going anywhere, but we that meant the president was. [laughter] we didnt know where. Hed get in a golf cart and head for the parking zone where we had jet star and a helicopter, and then we had cars. So he had one choice out of three, he was either going to fly to st. Louis or detroit or houston, take a helicopter into austin or get in a car and go over to a neighboring ran are. We didnt know until he got there, and then wed have to quickly respond and react and let everybody know. But he loved that ranch, and you spent a lot of time down there. The president would bring all kinds of people there. He brought heads of state, members of congress, members of the cabinet. This photograph is a group of the joint chiefs of staff, the secretary of defense and the assistant secretary. Theyre sitting on the front lawn of the lbj ranch. Theyre deciding the budge for the Defense Department the next year and how best to do things in vietnam. [laughter] so then you were there for the inauguration of 1964. Yes, i was. I was succeeded in the stands seated in the stands this is in, im sorry, 1965. Yeah. Happened to use the same car. Yes, we did. The car that was used in dallas was the secret service car 100x. That was the car that president are kennedy was assassinated in. It was specially fabricated prior to that event, but it was not armored, didnt have any armor on it at all. It did have a plastic top we could use, we called it a b