Perhaps one of the most tragic but memorable events in American history was the assassination of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Fatally shot while traveling with his wife Jacqueline in a motorcade, both those who can still remember the dreadful day in Dallas and those from a younger generation understand the importance of that moment: a matter of seconds that changed the course of history.
The footage of the assassination remains haunting, forever etched in our memories. Loud, frightening sounds of gunfire were heard, and as President Kennedy fell, Jacqueline began to climb onto the back of the limousine. In the midst of the panic-stricken scene, a man sprinted and clung onto the limousine as it accelerated away. This man, this Secret Service agent, was Clint Hill.
Clint Hill, joined by moderator Tom Putnam, lead the forum entitled “Protecting Jacqueline Kennedy” at the JFK Presidential Library on September 12. Hill shared his memories of the Kennedy administration and his service protecting the First Family.
Growing up, Hill never imagined himself as an agent. However, his US Army career in counter-intelligence gave him the experience necessary to find work in the Secret Service in 1958. He was eventually assigned to the White House staff, where he would help protect President Dwight Eisenhower.
“Eisenhower was a general in the army. There were no names, just ‘you agent.’ We were much like his soldiers,” Hill recounted.
After JFK was elected President, Hill’s task was to protect the First Lady, Jacqueline Kennedy. Initially, Hill was not fond of the new assignment.
“I was really disgusted. I saw what former First Ladies did… fashion shows, balls, and tea parties,” said Hill jokingly. “But [Jacqueline] was different. We didn’t go to the tea parties I envisioned.”
Hill said he soon forged a friendship with the former First Lady, coming to realize she was a woman with a strong set of beliefs and morals.
He alluded to the Cuban Missile Crisis, and how Jacqueline said that she “was not going to give in to that dictator” when she declined to enter a bunker, declaring that she would not let anyone determine her future.
Hill claimed that one of his most profound experiences with Jacqueline was with her children.
He spoke of Jacqueline as “a great mother,” and that she refused to let the White House and the subsequent publicity control the lives of her children.
“She wanted the children to be brought up as normal children,” Hill said. “The agents were to treat them as one of their own. But when they fell down, you didn’t help them up.”
Early in 1963, Jacqueline became pregnant again and spent most of the summer on Squaw Island, near the Kennedy’s Cape Cod home. Clint Hill was present when she went into premature labor that August. Jacqueline gave birth to Patrick Bouvier Kennedy, and as his lungs were not fully developed, he died shortly afterwards. Hill still remembers the devastation it bought to Jacqueline.
Then there was the assassination. Hill is credited with saving Jacqueline’s life. He also assisted in managing the aftermath of the tragedy.
“I knew she wanted absolute privacy and didn’t want photographs taken of the president,” said Hill.
On the plane ride after the president was pronounced dead, Hill recalled a memorable conversation he had with Jacqueline.
“She reached out to my hand and asked ‘What’s going to happen to you now?” Mr. Hill.’ She was so much more concerned about my well-being and [that of] the other agents involved. She wanted to make sure that we were okay. She was more concerned about us than herself,” Hill said.
Clint Hill remained as her Secret Service detail for a year after the assassination. However, Hill remained haunted by it for many years.
“I had a real difficult time. By 1990, I began confronting the issue. I went to Dallas, to Dealey Plaza. I spent quite a bit of time there walking the area … looking at where the shooting could occur from,” Hill admitted. “I finally came to the conclusion that there was nothing I could’ve done. Whatever happened, happened.”
Three weeks after the assassination, Jacqueline wrote a letter to Douglas Dillon, Secretary of the Treasury, and the man who had given the citation and gold medal to Hill. She wrote about their Secret Service detail that went beyond the job:
“I would like you to ask one thing that was so close to Jack’s heart-he often spoke about it-it is about our Secret Service detail,” Jacqueline wrote. “You cannot imagine the difference they made in our lives. Before we came to the White House, the thing I dreaded most was the Secret Service. How wrong I was.”
She concluded the heartfelt letter by saying, these men who had served the president, “protecting his wife and children with such tact, devotion, and unobtrusiveness … made our White House years the happy ones they were.”
Clint Hill and co-author Lisa McCubbin are writing a book entitled, “Mrs. Kennedy and Me,” which will be published in the spring of 2012.
