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Director of the Secret Service, Lewis C. Merletti, filed a court brief in May detailing his argument against allowing Secret Service agents to testify about what they hear when in close proximity to the President. Merletti's argument, which has been echoed by the President's supporters, pundits, and the mainstream media, is that history demonstrates that assassinations occur when presidents do not have agents in close proximity. Merletti bases his report on five examples of attempted assassinations in American history, but uses inaccurate and misleading accounts to make his points. A careful examination of assassinations in American history actually argues against Merletti's conclusions.
William McKinley
The cornerstone of Lew Merletti's argument is that the assassination of President William McKinley could have been prevented if agents were in close proximity to the President. From Merletti's Supreme Court filing:
9. "In retrospect, the assassination of President McKinley has served as a watershed moment in the history of the Secret Service and demonstrates the overwhelming need for the Service to maintain close proximity to the President at all times.
10. On September 6, 1901, President McKinley attended the Pan-American Exposition. As we understand from historical records, a receiving line was set up for members of the public to greet the President. By prior arrangement, a Secret Service agent was to stand directly by the President's side as he greeted the public. At the request of the president of the Pan-American Exposition, who wished to be standing next to the President, the Secret Service agent was moved away from President McKinley's side. According to our understanding, it was only a matter of minutes before President McKinley was shot at point-blank range. Given the nature of this assassination with the assailant approaching the President with his hand wrapped rather obviously in a handkerchief in an attempt to hide his gun - there is a substantial likelihood that an agent or officer within close proximity of the President would have averted the assassination."
Merletti's account does not mention the fact that there were eleven protective personnel within hearing distance of President McKinley when he was shot, as researched by the Warren Commission:
"Long lines of people passed between two rows of policemen and soldiers to reach the President and shake his hand. In the immediate vicinity of the President were four Buffalo detectives, four soldiers, and three Secret Service agents. Two of the Secret Service men were facing the President at a distance of 3 feet."
Contrary to Merletti's misleading presentation, the McKinley assassination is a history lesson not in proximity but in vigilance, for it proves that despite a phalanx of protective agents surrounding a president, assassinations will still occur if those agents let down their guard for even an instant. Eleven guards within earshot of McKinley witnessed a man approaching the President with a suspicious item in his hand, and none acted. Knowing their history, the Supreme Court and Appeals Court must have seen right through Merletti's incorrect statement that "there is a substantial likelihood that an agent or officer within close proximity of the President would have averted the (McKinley) assassination."
John F. Kennedy
Merletti indicated to the court that the assassination in a moving limousine of President John F. Kennedy "might have been thwarted had agents been stationed on the car's running boards." Merletti makes no mention of the proximity of other Secret Service agents during the Kennedy assassination. There was one agent driving Kennedy's car, a man who later testified that he was able to hear every word Kennedy, his wife, and Texas governor Connelly spoke in the moments before the assassination. There were two agents on motorcycles, one on each side of Kennedy's car, and a car of six agents behind the Kennedy limo. The four times that Kennedy's limo was approached by crowds of pedestrians, agents from the trailing car ran to the limo to better protect the President.
Contrary to Merletti's arguments, it is unlikely that the presence of a permanent agent on the runner of Kennedy's limo would have prevented the assassination. More importantly, it is apparent that despite Kennedy's willingness to allow a Secret Service agent to remain within earshot of him, an assassin was still able to shoot Kennedy because the Secret Service had not taken proper precautions to secure buildings with unobstructed views of the parade route. Once again, the primary factor allowing an assassination proved to be lack of vigilance, not lack of proximity.
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Harry S Truman
Merletti cites the attempted Truman assassination in passing, not to lend evidence but rather to facilitate a mention of the death of officer Leslie Coffelt in a melodramatic attempt to gain sympathy for the dangers his men face. The reason the facts of the assassination attempt that Coffelt helped thwart are not mentioned is because those facts actually argue against Merletti's thesis. Two Puerto Rican nationals stormed the president's residence on November 1, 1950, but were mowed down by Secret Service agents and policemen before they were able to gain entry to the residence. President Truman was never in danger, and a Warren Commission historian remarked years later, "Had the assassins succeeded in entering the front door of Blair House, they would probably have been cut down immediately by another Secret Service agent inside who kept the doorway covered with a submachine gun from his vantage point at the foot of the main stairs."
The lesson learned from an attempt on Truman's life, regarding the presidential residence: there is literally no chance that an armed assassin will be able to breach its incredible security measures. It also does not appear that a lack of proximity to the President interfered with any of Truman's Secret Service agents' abilities to keep unknown assassins from getting close enough to kill.
William J. Clinton
Merletti cites the spraying of the White House by bullets in 1994 and the crash of a plane into the White House in 1995 as examples of how proximity to Secret Service agents may have twice saved President Clinton. Considering that the windows of the Oval Office are bullet- and bomb-proofed, and that the body of a Secret Service agent would be unlikely to stop the oncoming mass of a ten ton plane, Merletti's uses of these examples as arguments for proximity are silly at best.
Ronald W. Reagan
Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981 while surrounded by Secret Service agents. In this case, there is no doubt that the agents' close proximity to Reagan was the primary factor that allowed Reagan to survive the attempt. However, the circumstances of the Reagan attempt fit the pattern of most all assassination attempts: a leader is assaulted while in a public setting, with little or no reasonable expectation of privacy. Merletti is concerned that presidents will push their protection away due to privacy concerns, but considering that nearly all major assassination attempts occur in public venues, it is unlikely that the need for conversational privacy will arise in a location that holds potential for assassination. Privacy of conversation in public places takes a backseat to a politician's desire to be close to his public, and this is the principle from which true threats of assassination are born. In the cases of Kennedy, McKinley and Franklin Roosevelt, agents were ordered to stand back, not for conversational privacy purposes, but rather so that the President would not be seen as a coward, and could greet his public without the unpleasant sight of interloping armed agents.
Other Infamous Assassinations
Robert F. Kennedy was shot in the head even as two protective agents pressed against his hips and back in an attempt to shield him. Yitzhak Rabin had two bodyguards touching him as he was shot while walking from a podium to his limousine. Franklin D. Roosevelt was shot at, and a fellow passenger was killed, as the two rode a car through a parade. And Abraham Lincoln was shot in a public theater while his guard stepped out to a local tavern for a few beers. The common thread in each of these assassinations--they all occurred in public places; in locations where the victims had absolutely no expectation that anything they might say would be unheard by others. Of the nine assassinations discussed in this article and in Merletti's brief to the Supreme Court, not one makes the point that Merletti is trying to argue: that if a president pushes his agents away in order to conduct sensitive conversations in private, assassination will be more likely to follow.
The Supreme Court is not alone in recognizing the lack of merit in Merletti's arguments. Abraham Lincoln would have argued against Merletti's points as well, as is evidenced by an incredible statement Lincoln made to one of his protectors on the day of his assassination:
"Crook, do you know I believe there are men who want to take my life? And I have no doubt they will do it.....I know no one could do it and escape alive. But if it is to be done, it is impossible to prevent it."
Lincoln knew the truth; that Presidents cannot concern themselves with assassination as a prospect. A determined assassin will find a way to perform his sacrificial deed, despite the best efforts of the President's protectors to stop him. Were he alive today, Lincoln might very well advise President Clinton, Janet Reno, and Director Merletti that the risk of assassination is a small price to pay for the honor and glory that accompanies the office of the President of the United States, and that the threat of assassination should never be used as a shield against truth, lest it diminish that office's honor.
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(Editor's note: the following was found in the People's Almanac by a reader:)
"A 28 year old ex-factory worker & farmhand named Leon Czolgoz moved toward McKinley & drew an Iver Johnson .32 caliber revolver from his pocket. Holding it in his right hand, he wrapped it in a large white handkerchief. He dvanced toward the front of the line. A Secret Service Agent touched his shoulder. "Hurt your hand?" the agent asked. "Maybe you better get to a first aid station." "Later," Czolgoz muttered, "after I meet the president. I've been waiting a long time."
Czologoz approached McKinley and said, "Excuse my left hand, Mr. President." McKinley shook his hand and the farmhand moved on. After several more citizens extended their greetings Czolgoz stepped up again, standing not more than 3' from the President. Secret Service Agent Samuel Ireland grabbed Czolgoz's shoulder in order to move him along quickly. Czolgoz brushed away the agent's hand and lunged forward, firing twice in rapid succession."
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