Book 55 of my 2021 Reading Challenge
Five Days in November
by Clint Hill
Summary (via Goodreads)
published 2013
On November 22, 1963, three shots were fired in Dallas, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, and the world stopped for four days. For an entire generation, it was the end of an age of innocence.
That evening, a photo ran on the front pages of newspapers across the world, showing a Secret Service agent jumping on the back of the presidential limousine in a desperate attempt to protect the President and Mrs. Kennedy. That agent was Clint Hill.
Now Secret Service Agent Clint Hill commemorates the fiftieth anniversary of the tragedy with this stunning book containing more than 150 photos, each accompanied by Hill’s incomparable insider account of those terrible days. With poignant narration accompanying rarely seen images, we witness three-year-old John Kennedy Jr.’s pleas to come to Texas with his parents and the rapturous crowds of mixed ages and races that greeted the Kennedys at every stop in Texas. We stand beside a shaken Lyndon Johnson as he is hurriedly sworn in as the new president. We experience the first lady’s steely courage when she insists on walking through the streets of Washington, D.C., in her husband’s funeral procession.
A story that has taken Clint Hill fifty years to tell, this is a work of personal and historical scope. Besides the unbearable grief of a nation and the monumental consequences of the event, the death of JFK was a personal blow to a man sworn to protect the first family, and who knew, from the moment the shots rang out in Dallas, that nothing would ever be the same.
That evening, a photo ran on the front pages of newspapers across the world, showing a Secret Service agent jumping on the back of the presidential limousine in a desperate attempt to protect the President and Mrs. Kennedy. That agent was Clint Hill.
Now Secret Service Agent Clint Hill commemorates the fiftieth anniversary of the tragedy with this stunning book containing more than 150 photos, each accompanied by Hill’s incomparable insider account of those terrible days. With poignant narration accompanying rarely seen images, we witness three-year-old John Kennedy Jr.’s pleas to come to Texas with his parents and the rapturous crowds of mixed ages and races that greeted the Kennedys at every stop in Texas. We stand beside a shaken Lyndon Johnson as he is hurriedly sworn in as the new president. We experience the first lady’s steely courage when she insists on walking through the streets of Washington, D.C., in her husband’s funeral procession.
A story that has taken Clint Hill fifty years to tell, this is a work of personal and historical scope. Besides the unbearable grief of a nation and the monumental consequences of the event, the death of JFK was a personal blow to a man sworn to protect the first family, and who knew, from the moment the shots rang out in Dallas, that nothing would ever be the same.
First Impressions/Judging a Book by Its Cover
I've had this book on my 'to-read' list since 2014 and I'm reading it now because my library had a copy and my mental bandwidth seems only up to shorter stories at the moment. This book being photo-heavy on a topic I know will hold my interest made it a pretty quick grab for me.
The book is oversized horizontally but not vertically which make the pictures large and clear but the book itself not overly cumbersome to hold and read. Having the book written 50 years later by someone incredibly involved in the moments means I'll probably learn something too.
My Opinion
5 stars
This was an excellent book. Clint Hill shared his personal knowledge and details without exploiting the situation or making himself the main character. He humanized the people involved in a way many others that have talked about it haven't. The respect he felt for the job and the family came through even when writing about it fifty years later.
The photos were excellent too.
A Few Quotes from the Book
"As [Lyndon B. Johnson] takes the oath of office, the reality of what has happened begins to sink in. Three hours earlier, we arrived in Dallas on Air Force One with a vibrant, charismatic president, whom I greatly admired and respected, and now we are returning to Washington with his body in a casket, his widow, and a new president.
It is a historic moment, but crushingly sad for all of us who witness it."
"At midnight, I realize November 22, 1963, has finally ended. It is a day that is seared into my mind and soul, a day I will relive a million times over.
What could I have done differently?
Could I have reacted faster?
Run faster?
For the rest of my life I will live with the overwhelming guilt that I was unable to get there in time."
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