• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

By Root 1436 0

then conducted his walk-through of the building to ensure that everything was ready to go. At noon, he briefed the more than two dozen Secret Service agents who would cover a variety of posts: outside the Hilton’s entrance, on nearby rooftops, in the hotel’s hallways, and in the area under the ballroom’s floor. By the time a team of agents and officers with bomb-sniffing dogs began scouring the ballroom and other sensitive areas, Green was escorting a group of agents through the Hilton. One by one, he dropped them off at their posts, giving his most experienced agents the most critical assignments. He walked outside to verify that agents and police officers were in their proper places, then ducked back into the hotel for yet another check of security procedures. Finally, he authorized the opening of the ballroom doors to the waiting crowd of union members.

The president’s arrival was now about thirty minutes away.

CHAPTER 5

THE ROPE LINE

By 1:10 p.m., the presidential limousine was waiting near the White House’s diplomatic entrance. The 21½-foot car, code-named Stagecoach, was a black 1972 Lincoln Continental weighing 6½ tons. Covered in heavy armor plating and with windows of thick bulletproof glass, it had a powerful V-8 engine, a rear bumper that folded into a platform capable of carrying Secret Service agents, and a self-sealing fuel tank designed to reduce the risk of an explosion. Hidden hooks allowed for secure tie-down in cargo planes, and an extra large sunroof enabled the president to stand and wave to crowds. Oddly, its rear doors opened backward.

The armored car was a necessary protection. Four presidents—Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield, William McKinley, and John Kennedy—had been slain while in office. President-elect Franklin Roosevelt and President Harry Truman had survived assassination attempts that killed others. In 1975, a quick-acting Secret Service agent stopped a woman from shooting President Gerald Ford; seventeen days later, another woman fired a shot at Ford but missed. Presidents were at their most vulnerable, of course, when away from the White House and out in the open.

Reagan was not one to dwell on the dangers of holding public office, but he knew the risks. When Robert Kennedy was killed in Los Angeles in 1968, Reagan was governor of California and running as a favorite-son candidate in his state’s presidential primary. He was quickly assigned Secret Service protection. Within weeks, an agent in Reagan’s detail surprised two men as they attempted to firebomb the governor’s Sacramento home.

The threat of assassination was one reason Reagan had gone out of his way to keep Vice President Bush informed and brought him into so many meetings. At his seventieth birthday party in February, Reagan had leaned over and asked Barbara Bush whether her husband was enjoying the job. “Does he feel what he’s doing is worthwhile? I just want to be sure he’s doing enough. If the awful-awful should happen, George should know everything.”

A month and a half later, on March 21, Reagan attended a black tie gala at Ford’s Theatre. During a performance featuring Twyla Tharp, Tony Bennett, and Luciano Pavarotti, Reagan gazed at Lincoln’s box and tried to imagine the horrific moment when John Wilkes Booth assassinated the president and then leaped to the stage. Today, no president would ever be so exposed, but Reagan well understood that, despite his armored limousine and the Secret Service detail, a determined assassin might one day kill him.

Now, at 1:45, with the president safely ensconced in the car’s gray leather seats, the limousine pulled away from the White House. Riding next to Reagan in the passenger compartment was Labor Secretary Ray Donovan. Formerly a construction executive in New Jersey, Donovan had earned his position in the administration by soliciting donations and advising Reagan’s campaign about politics in his home state.

Earlier that day, Donovan had spoken before the Building and Construction Trades Department of the AFL-CIO; he got a chilly reception. As the two men rode toward