December 17, 1997

Secret Service Agents Are Told to Keep Quiet

By TIM WEINER

ASHINGTON -- The director of the Secret Service has sternly reminded his agents to shield the secrets of the people they protect -- particularly presidents.

In a message sent on Dec. 5, the director, Lew Merletti, said statements by four former Secret Service agents regarding President John F. Kennedy's philandering with prostitutes were "very troubling and counterproductive to the mission of the Secret Service."

The former agents described their embarrassment and anger at Kennedy's womanizing in "The Dark Side of Camelot," a new book by Seymour M. Hersh. In a typical passage, one former agent, Larry Newman, told Hersh: "You were on the most elite assignment in the Secret Service, and you were there watching an elevator or a door because the president was inside with two hookers."

Merletti's message, which also went out to the members of the Association of Former Agents of the U.S. Secret Service, warned against "providing information to any source regarding any aspect of the personal lives of our protectees."

He asked all agents, present and former, "to refrain from discussing any information or activity associated with our protectees regardless of its content or significance." The job, he said, carries "a confidence that should continue forever."

One former agent quoted in the book, Tony Sherman, said in an interview Tuesday: "The director of the Secret Service, a taxpayer-funded agency, has sent out a letter that suppresses and attacks my right of free speech. He implies that perhaps the four of us are not worthy of trust and confidence. This is a slap at us. What we said, I think, contributed to the history of the United States."

"I liked JFK," Sherman said. "He was one of the nicest guys I ever met. But he was reckless, morally. And for 35 years I kept my mouth shut."

A spokesman for the Secret Service, Arnette Heintze, said Merletti did not intended to attack personally the four former agents who discussed their experiences of protecting Kennedy.

Heintze also said Secret Service agents were law-enforcement agents, and hypothetically duty-bound to report a crime committed by a person they protect. But, he said, that agents are sworn to be "worthy of trust and confidence," and that maintaining that trust requires confidentiality and discretion.

"This is a very critical issue for the Secret Service," Heintze said. "This goes to the core of our mission. This has to do with trust. Most of us take this with us to the grave."

The Secret Service employs 2,100 agents, 1,100 of them uniformed. Established in 1865, it has protected presidents since 1901, after the assassination of President William McKinley.