Secret Service and lessons learned from assassination of JFK
Never forget - but implement the lessons of failure. That was the collective vow of the US Secret Service after the assassination of John F. Kennedy 50 years ago this week.
Never forget - but implement the lessons of failure.
That was the collective vow of the US Secret Service after the assassination of John F. Kennedy 50 years ago this week.
The killing sparked a revolution in how presidents are protected and led to the current ring of steel and formidable firepower around the US leader. The circumstances of Kennedy's murder in Dallas - with the 35th US president a sitting duck in a slow-moving, open-topped limousine - are unthinkable today.
The assassination was a singular but never forgotten failure for the Secret Service, the government agency charged with protecting presidents since 1902.
As little as possible is left to chance. They eliminate every minute risk
"The Secret Service every year at this time is reminded that on that day in 1963, the Secret Service failed," said Dan Emmett, who served as an agent between 1983 and 2004.
"Its mission is to keep the president alive at all costs, and on that day it didn't do that. It was somewhat of a painful day," said Emmett, author of the memoir about his service with the elite US protection force.
