In the President's Secret Service: Behind the Scenes with Agents in the Line of Fire and the Presidents They Protect »

RONALD KESSLER is the New York Times bestselling author of The Terrorist Watch, The Bureau, Inside the White House, and The CIA at War. A former reporter for the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal, he has won sixteen journalism awards. Kessler lives in Potomac, Maryland, with his wife, Pamela.

From the Hardcover edition.

Never before has a journalist penetrated the wall of secrecy that surrounds the U.S. Secret Service. After conducting exclusive interviews with more than one hundred current and former Secret Service agents, bestselling author and award-winning reporter Ronald Kessler reveals their secrets for the first time.

•    George W. Bush’s daughters would try to lose their agents.
•    Based on a psychic’s vision that a sniper would assassinate President George H. W. Bush, the Secret Service changed his motorcade route.
•    To make the press think he came to work early, Jimmy Carter would walk into the Oval Office at 5 a.m., then nod off to sleep.
•    Lyndon Johnson gave dangerous instructions to his Secret Service agents and ­engaged in extensive philandering at the White House. 

Library Journal

For this book about the U.S. Secret Service, Kessler (The Terrorist Watch), a former investigative reporter for the Washington Post and Wall Street Journal, managed to get former agents to open up. Some of their shocking stories are hard to believe, but Kessler names most of his sources. Throw in some random critical evaluations of the Secret Service and Alan Sklar's (see Behind the Mike, LJ 3/1/09) laconic narration, and this almost seems like serious stuff. Library patrons will love it. [The Crown hc, published in August, was a New York Times best seller.—Ed.]—R. Kent Rasmussen, Thousand Oaks, CA

Prologue xi

1 Supervise 1

2 Lancer 10

3 Volunteer 15

4 Threats 22

5 Searchlight 30

6 Daro 40

7 Passkey 49

8 Crown 56

9 Jackal 64

10 Deacon 70

11 Stagecoach 80

12 Rawhide 87

13 Rainbow 94

14 Hogan's Alley 100

15 "I Forgot to Duck" 106

16 The Big Show 118

17 Timberwolf 129

18 A Psychic's Vision 139

19 Eagle 145

20 Cutting Corners 151

21 Potus 162

22 Shutting Down Magnetometers 171

23 Trailblazer 180

24 Living on Borrowed Time 188

25 Turquoise and Twinkle 195

26 Angler 205

27 Renegade 216

28 Grenade 229

29 Padding Statistics 236

30 Dereliction of Duty 244

Epilogue 251

Secret Service Dates 255

Acknowledgments 261

Index 263