February 27, 2012
In November 1960, Hill, who had been on President Eisenhower’s Secret Service detail, wasn’t looking forward to his new assignment—which he viewed as a demotion—of protecting Jacqueline Kennedy. But a disappointed Hill soon realized he was actually serving the president “by protecting the things that were most important to him, personally—his wife and his children.” Hill was completely won over by the first lady’s spontaneity, curiosity, sincerity, and joie de vivre. He accompanied her to Greece twice; on the first trip, in 1961, he was under strict if baffling instructions from JFK to keep his wife away from Aristotle Onassis. Hill was with Mrs. Kennedy on a Virginia hunt where she flew headfirst over her horse and a rail fence, through the death of infant Patrick and in Dallas when the president was assassinated. Hill is close-mouthed about JFK’s infidelities. His book is most valuable for his perceptive recall of the daily routine and problems faced by the Secret Ser-vice detail. This is a worshipful, competent insider’s glimpse of a matchless first lady whose diplomatic skills and glamour enabled her to do the unthinkable: briefly wrest the Mona Lisa from France. Photos.
Starred review from March 1, 2012
Evocative memoir of guarding First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy through the young and sparkling years of the Kennedy presidency and the dark days following the assassination. Secret Service Special Agent Hill had not looked forward to guarding Mrs. Kennedy. The action was with the president. But duty trumped preference, and he first met a young and pregnant soon-to-be First Lady in November 1960. For the next four years Hill would seldom leave her side. Theirs would be an odd relationship of always-proper formality combined with deep intimacy crafted through close proximity and mutual trust and respect. Hill was soon captivated, as was the rest of the world, by Mrs. Kennedy's beauty and grace, but he saw beyond such glamour a woman of fierce intelligence and determination--to raise her children as normally as possible, to serve the president and country, to preserve for herself a playful love of life. Hill became a part of the privileged and vigorous life that went with being a Kennedy, and in which Jacqueline held her own. He traveled the world with her, marveling at the adulation she received, but he also shared the quiet, offstage times with her: sneaking a cigarette in the back of a limousine, becoming her unwilling and inept tennis partner. When the bullet ripped into the president's brain with Hill not five feet away, he remained with her, through the public and private mourning, "when the laughter and hope had been washed away." Soon after, both would go on with their lives, but Hill would never stop loving Mrs. Kennedy and never stop feeling he could have done more to save the president. With clear and honest prose free of salaciousness and gossip, Hill (ably assisted by McCubbin) evokes not only a personality both beautiful and brilliant, poised and playful, but also a time when the White House was filled with youth and promise. Of the many words written about Jacqueline Kennedy, these are among the best.
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April 15, 2012
It's impossible to think of the day President Kennedy was assassinated without remembering the footage of Jackie Kennedy crawling on the back of the open car and a Secret Service agent pushing her back in. That man was Clint Hill, who guarded Mrs. Kennedy while she was in the White House. Hill has kept silent about those years until now. This is an odd book in some ways. Hill was with Jackie most of the time and either has a remarkable memory or kept copious notes (perhaps his cowriter was just good at research). But for all the details about what Mrs. Kennedy wore and who she traveled with, there is precious little about her relationship with the president and nothing about whether she knew of his indiscretions. (If she chose not to know, it was clear why. As Hill tells it, she hated the White House and was almost never there, preferring to travel or spend time at one of her other homes.) Then there is the question of Hill and Jackie's obviously close relationship, which comes through loud and clear. This may raise more questions than it answers, but it brings history alive.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)