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    In the President's Secret Service: Behind the Scenes with Agents in the Line of Fire and the Presidents They Protect
    Unavailable
    In the President's Secret Service: Behind the Scenes with Agents in the Line of Fire and the Presidents They Protect
    Unavailable
    In the President's Secret Service: Behind the Scenes with Agents in the Line of Fire and the Presidents They Protect
    Audiobook8 hours

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

    Written by Ronald Kessler

    Narrated by Alan Sklar

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    Secret Service agents, acting as human surveillance cameras, observe everything that goes on behind the scenes in the president's inner circle. Ronald Kessler reveals what they have seen, providing startling, previously untold stories about the presidents, from John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson to George W. Bush and Barack Obama, as well as about their families, Cabinet officers, and White House aides.



    Kessler portrays the dangers that agents face and how they carry out their missions-from how they are trained to how they spot and assess potential threats. With fly-on-the-wall perspective, he captures the drama and tension that characterize agents' lives.



    In this headline-grabbing book, Kessler discloses assassination attempts that have never before been revealed. He shares inside accounts of past assaults that have put the Secret Service to the test, including a heroic gun battle that took down the would-be assassins of Harry S. Truman, the devastating day that John F. Kennedy was killed in Dallas, and the swift actions that saved Ronald Reagan after he was shot.



    While Secret Service agents are brave and dedicated, Kessler exposes how Secret Service management in recent years has betrayed its mission by cutting corners, risking the assassination of President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, and their families. Given the lax standards, "It's a miracle we have not had a successful assassination," a current agent says.



    Since an assassination jeopardizes democracy itself, few agencies are as important as the Secret Service-and few subjects are as tantalizing as the inner sanctum of the White House. Only tight-lipped Secret Service agents know the real story, and Kessler is the only journalist to have won their trust.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Audio
    Release dateAug 18, 2009
    ISBN9781400183128
    Unavailable
    In the President's Secret Service: Behind the Scenes with Agents in the Line of Fire and the Presidents They Protect
    Author

    Ronald Kessler

    Ronald Kessler is an award-winning journalist and bestselling author of more than twenty books, including Escape from the CIA, Inside Congress, and Inside the Whitehouse. He lives with his wife in Potomac, Maryland. 

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    Reviews for In the President's Secret Service

    3.5/5

    202 ratings27 reviews

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    • 3/5
      Sometimes informative, sometimes gossipy.
    • 3/5
      Interesting. Pretty much as expected with regard to way the respective presidents and their families treated subordinates with the exception of Jimmy Carter.
    • 3/5
      Very interesting were the parts where the agents talked about how they were treated by the presidents and their families that they protected. Less interesting, but more important were the interspersed chapters discussing the extra workload put upon agents with more protectees assigned, but no increase in budget to cover more agents, and other ways in which their protectees are more at risk now because of bad decisions in the agency. I suppose this is meant to be a warning that changes need to be made, and I hope that such has been the case since this book was published in 2009.
    • 4/5
      Another review bombed by this website... dang this is getting bad. Another, really enjoyed this book and the narrator was excellent. I had no idea what the SS had to go thru to care for their charges, and how arrogant and annoying those charges can actually be. However, it really doesn't matter how a president treats his SS bodyguards, and the book seems to hint that this is (was) and important part of evaluating a president. It's not. Anyway, highly recommend, easy to listen to, straightforward book, and entertaining to boot.
    • 3/5
      A perfectly serviceable look at the Secret Service, written with knowledge and insider stories. Makes me fear for the protected, however, based on the stories of how thinly stretched the Secret Service is.
    • 3/5
      An interesting book by Ron Kessler who has a fairly impressive background. A bit dated when I read this but lots of good info on what the Secret Service does and how they deal with many obstacles. There are profiles on the Presidents going back as far as Kennedy. The behind the scenes tales of their mannerisms and quite frankly with some, pettiness, is quite entertaining. Kessler delves often into the difficulties agents face with the long hours and grueling schedules and how it impact their personal lives greatly. There is quite a bit of lobbying for reforms in the service and how laxness in administration is cause for concern as we have witnessed. A fairly wide sweeping perspective on this most important security force and the challenges it faces.
    • 4/5
      Read like a tabloid and I am not sure of the validity. But it was entertaining! If half of it is true, it is amazing. He said that agents are not suppose to reveal what goes on and then he writes a book quoting anonymous agents. So that is what I question. Also he seems very partisan in what is printed as if maybe he sought out agents to support those he wanted to support. But entertaining.
    • 5/5
      Excellent read, a book every American Citizen should read to see how corrupt our country is getting, sure would be nice to have some respectable men in office for a change. It is very sad to see how our Secret Service has gone down hill since Homeland Security took them over, also shows that that department never should have been set up. Would be nice to see some honesty coming out of Washington for a change.
    • 4/5
      Quick read and enjoyable.
    • 3/5
      I read In the President's Secret Service while riding in the car on vacation with my husband. He can always tell when I am finding a book to be interesting because I will stop every few pages and tell him little tidbits from the book. So that's what I did for our entire drive while reading this book (which I'm sure drove him crazy).

      Most of what I knew about the Secret Service prior to reading this book had been gleaned from watching episodes of The West Wing, and movies such as In the Line of Fire. In other words I had a very Hollywood view of the Secret Service.

      I was most surprised to find out that the Secret Service was originally formed as a division of the Department of the Treasury in 1865 in order to track down counterfeiters.

      At the time, an estimated one third of the nation's currency was counterfeit. States issued their own currency printed by sixteen hundred state banks. Nobody knew what their money was supposed to look like. Page 3


      I also didn't know that investigating fraud is still one of their responsibilities, and that they and the FBI sometimes investigate the same cases.

      Topics covered in the book range from training and responsibilities of the agents to personal dirt on each of the presidents and their families for the past fifty years. The author also spends a great deal of time focused on ways the agency is lacking (by being short staffed, having old equipment, lack of proper crowd screening at events, etc.), and how this could threaten the security of our leaders.

      The book really jumps around a lot from topic to topic. It would switch back and forth from the training of the agents, to gossipy stories about the presidents and their families (which I have to admit were fun to read in the same way as reading tabloid headlines at the checkout counter).

      A good deal of the last section of the book is devoted to the inadequacies of the Secret Service. If they are true, then it makes a scary case for the lack of security currently provided for our leaders (and makes me wonder at the wisdom of giving people ideas by outlining the weaknesses of our leaders' protection).

      I recommend reading In the President's Secret Service if you don't know very much about the history of the Secret Service or how it operates today. I have to be honest and say that I enjoyed this book the most for its gossipy information about the presidents and their families.
    • 1/5
      This book was full of gossip about presidential personalities. What shocked me the most is how secret service agents seemed to be so eager to gossip with the author. As I understand it, most of the gossip has been printed in magazines and newspapers, so no big revelations. I was shocked at the author's negatives on the Democratic side, while the love and sweetness was all over the Republican side. The book was obviously partisian.
    • 5/5
      Let the contents of this book be a cautionary lesson to all future presidents, first family members, presidential candidates, etc: The Secret Service agents who protect you will eventually give Ronald Kessler all of the embarrassing details about you that they were able to observe, along with a candid assessment of how well or poorly you treated the people around you.
    • 3/5
      Seems a bit one-sided (mostly critical of Democratic presidents). However has some great stories. And provides pretty serious criticism of the management and operational challenges facing the Secret Service that should be of great concern to all Americans.
    • 3/5
      This was an easy and interesting book to read, at first. I love history so learning about the early days and creation of the secret service was fascinating. Even getting a glimpse of the kind of people previous presidents were was eye-opening in some cases. However the last few chapters were spent pointing out how inadequate the current situation is and how much it needs to get with the times. Definitely leaves me with a defeatist attitude and with a feeling of inevitable tragedy to come. The world we've built and live in created a need for the service. And now that they've done their job so well, they're being taken for granted. It's a sobering thought.
    • 4/5
      This books has surprising depth. The first part of the book seems to be an exercise in genuflection to the agents and reveled in sordid gossip about presidents and their families. To get an idea of the first half of the book's flavor the phrase "well endowed" is used frequently to describe lovers of presidents and one president himself. It is interesting to know what people were like. At times the agents come across as small minded and petty.But the last part of the book is he most interesting and revealing. Kessler outlines in undeniable detail the poor treatment of agents and mismanagement of the service. He shows how budget restraints and increased duties have stretched the secret service thin and left protected people at risk. He is especially critical of the decision to speed crowdsi nto venues without passing through metal detectors to please political staffers wanting big crowds.There is a bit of Republican bias. to be sure. He tangentially shows that agents had no knowledge of Bill Clinton having affairs, but doesn't refute the rumors either. But. later he states it is impossible for people to hide their affairs from agents.Excellent book.
    • 3/5
      In the President’s Secret Service, a new book about protecting our Commander in Chief, by Ronald Kessler, is a quick read full off interesting tidbits about past presidents’ quirks, preferences, and personality traits. Kessler also does a nice job explaining the history of the President’s security force and goes into great detail about past assassins’ attempts and breaches of security that the public never knew existed for our first family.However, the book would flow much better if chapters were more chronological in nature and didn’t jump from the Kennedy administration to more dry, historical facts from the turn of the century. The reader will enjoy learning about Reagan’s dependency on his wife’s advice and the uncivilized antics of the Johnson years. Many embarrassing and very private scenarios are revealed about the Presidents and their families, but I’m not sure the public needed to know that Jimmy Carter treated the staff “disrespectfully” and lied about drinking alcohol in the White House. The public needs to understand that our leaders are human and have flaws like all of us. Enjoy, In the President’s Secret Service for the rich history about the protective detail and the challenges it faces everyday on the job.
    • 3/5
      Not great literary writing, but interesting none the less.
    • 2/5
      Have wanted a good book about the Secret Service for awhile now, so was really excited to discover this book. Sadly - it turned out to be disappointing. While there were good tidbits throughout, and overall I learned a fair bit about the SS - there were plenty of annoyances, biases and agendas I had to slog through in the process. Overall my rating on it is "meh".
    • 2/5
      This would have been a better book without the gossip about USSS protectees. I was hoping for a book about the way the service works and how the agents who work for the service are chosen and trained. I expected there would be some discussion of the quirks of the principals. In a few chapters, the author started to touch on these subjects, but then would dart away back to scandal and trivia. This made the whole book trivial for me. On the plus side, a very easy read. Took me less than a day, so I do not feel that I wasted a lot of time.
    • 4/5
      Lots of dish about former presidents and complaints about poor secret service management. Interesting, though.
    • 1/5
      Horrible. Written poorly and especially very poorly edited. It jumps around. Chapters titled for one topic that isn't even mentioned until the next. Chapter titled for one topic that is mentioned in one paragraph, then rambles on and on, on other topics. It was very apparent that the author had an agenda which was repeated over and over...the Secret Service needs better/tighter organization and especially more funding. There is some interesting info about former administrations, which I did enjoy for the gossip factor, but seriously, you can get that from elsewhere in a WAY better read.
    • 3/5
      This book is so badly edited that I'm surprised it got published as is. The secrets revealed are shocking - seems every President we've ever had has been a strange sex crazed egomaniac. If you don't mind chapters that jump from one idea to the next every paragraph, then you should read this book just for the juicy gossip.
    • 3/5
      While the novel contains some fascinating trivia about the secret service and the men and women in their care, the writing is quite simplistic. Sometimes the dirt reads like a hollywood tell all AND with so many un-named sources it is hard to know how factual it really is.......Despite these problems, the reader learns a great deal about the men and women of the secret service. The author certainly did keep my interest and raised valuable questions concerning the protection of our country's leaders. This novel gives secret service officers credit for the important work they do, often without anyone's knowledge. Worth reading but could have been so much better......
    • 3/5
      Offers some interesting tidbits about presidents past and present. No earth shattering revelations here, but Kessler seems hell bent on shaking up the Secret Service suggesting that it's poorly run organization will one day soon lead to disaster. Not the most elegant of writers, but workmanlike.
    • 4/5
      I actually liked this book. I did not really know what the Secret Service did other then protect the president ,until after I finished reading the book. It was very informative, easy to read, and understand. It amazed me of what went on behind the scenes of the president, his family,etc. Each protectee (president etc.) is assigned a code name. The names are randomly selected by the Secret Service , starting with the same letter for each family. The Secret Service really do have a hard job. They sacrifice their lives both personel and professional for this job.Management also remains remains a concern for the agents and until they hire from outside things will remain the same.
    • 2/5
      About: Kessler gives a far-reaching look of the Secret Service by interviewing agents and management as well as touring department facilities.Pros: Interesting, if true.Cons: Unremarkable writing, repeats information, photographs bunched in middle, much of book is shallow dirt on Secret Service protectees, if agents really did provide all of this information, they severely violated the tenets of the job, stupid chapter on how a psychic supposedly prevented an assassination, no citations or bibliography.Grade: D
    • 2/5
      While this book held great potential and revealed some interesting facts about various presidents and their real personalities, the writing was nearly impossible to read. It was as if the writer had compiled a long list of interesting facts and then just listed them in a book with no compelling narrative to link things together. I kept checking that the author really had won prizes for journalism, because this book read like it had been written by an amateur. As for content, it looks like the American people have been duped by most of our elected presidents. Had I known half of the things I learned in this book, I would have appalled to know that men like Richard Nixon, LB Johnson, and even John F. Kennedy had ever been charged with running our country. Shame on them! I couldn't finish this because of the poor writing style.