next, "q&a" and then prime minister david cameron of the british house of commons and then another chance to see mike huckabee speaking in iowa about the midterm elections. >> this week on q&a, to members of the secret service to the guarded john f. kennedy. gerald blaine wrote a book about it called for "the keedy detail." >> gerald blaine, offering of the "kennedy detail,"what did you write this book all these years later on that day? >> we wanted to set the record

straight. after the assassination it made such a powerful impact on us that we did not even talk about the assassination to the other. -- together. it was only at a reunion in dallas this last year that we had a chance to sit down and communicate about it from the emotional aspect. we all have our responsibilities of writing reports and so forth, but emotionally, we never got it out. >> plant hill, when did you first talked about it? >> i had a meeting with 60 minutes in 1965. i did not going to duck that that time. i did another interview with 60 minutes in 1991 or so and national geographic, but i have never gone into detail until i agreed to help jerry wright this book. >> were due to start?

>> i started when i retired a little over 5.5 years ago. i went into the private sector in 1964 and kept very busy during that time. i want to go see the movie jfk and it was so absurd that i decided that i was not going to read any more conspiracy tales. i worked in the private sector and retired and all of a sudden, i thought that there was one issue that still hangs over me and it was the assassination of president kennedy. i started looking on the internet and i was reading stories about agents of being part of a conspiracy, agents shooting the president, an agent

in the fall of car shooting the president accidently. then i read something about temple florida. conducted the events in tampa florida and i read a book. it was so absurdly that i've pulled out my reports because all of our agents maintained their investigative reports, expense accounts, and ultimately, the shift accounts. i have a very good record of what happened in tampa, florida and it was so off base. they talked about a four man hit team. the fact that president kennedy knew about the four man hit team. and they covered it up even though we knew what we did not

say anything about it. they did this because they thought that all the reports had been destroyed. after i read that, i decided that it was time to contact the agents and let's find out what really happened all the way through and communicate. we are the last of a dying breed, here. there have not been many of us left. we felt that we owe it to the public to give a balance to history. >> four days before the 22nd, what was the controversy in tampa, florida? >> the controversy was whether president kennedy ordered the agents of the car? you have to put this in perspective, what was happening historically at that time. president kennedy was elected to pass a civil rights bill. the first three years of his administration was tied up in

the cold war and the bay of pigs and the cuban missile crisis. access to berlin and he had no time at all once these issues were resolved in september and october. we covered about nine states. he had confidence that his programs were being accepted. i, as an agent, was concerned. we have 11 experienced agents lead in the month prior to the assassination. that man that with a trip like this, we had to send a number of agents in advance and the day shift was the same shift that worked dallas and only had to

bow -- only had two agents. we had 28 miles of motorcade when we showed up. i talked to floyd and said we needed to go ahead and put them on the back end of the car and approach it that way. floyd said that he did not know whether the boss was going to buy that but we would go with it. we started in and the agents were on the back of the car from the very first stop at love field. they mounted the car and it was not long before we hit a gap where there were no crowds and president kennedy must have noticed the agents standing there. next time he got up with a crowd, he held onto the hand rail and told floyd to have them

get off the car. i was riding in the lead car and i heard floyd say that the president wants the ivy league of charlatans of the car. i told him that that had to come from the president. emory heard and said that we were going too fast in floyd said to have him back down and the agents duck down and the minute it cleared up, the agents fell back to the follow up car. after that, president kennedy said that his political style was to go out and shake hands with the people and to greet them and so forth. floyd had evidently had a discussion with him on the way down there and said that if --

the president said that if he did not get out and shake hands with the people, he could not get elected as dogcatcher. he said that he did not want the agents riding on the back of the car in taxes. >> what relevance does this have to your life and what happened in dallas? >> i was informed prior to dallas that that was the -- that was what the president wanted. after we got to dallas, we were going down main street there were dense crowds the driver of the car was running the presidential vehicle. that put this kennedy next to the crowd. occasionally, i would get up on

the back of the car. >> what was your job during this? >> i was kennedy's protection. i did that four or five times until we get to the end of main street when we turned onto houston and the crowd dissipated. there were very few people. when we turned left on elm, right in front of the school book depository, there were very few people on the left and we knew that we were about to hit the stands freeway and expressway -- de sremmons freeway and expressway -- of stemmons freeway. >> gerald blaine, what was your job? >> i was supposed to go to dallas to help complete the

advance. we had connections in dallas, so i joined the midnight shift. we were in the white house and we caught a twin-engine navy plane and flew to fort worth and stood watch that night. the next day, when the assassination occurred, and we were in austin texas. >> were you on the presidential detail or were you running? what was your title? >> i was a special agent on the detail. i had been on the detail for five years. >> how long did you work for the secret service? >> just a little over five years. >> how long did you work for the secret service? >> 17.5 years. >> why did she leave?

>> i was forced to leave because of retirement and disability. >> what have you done since then? >> i have mostly been retired. i pretty much have been retired. >> what did you do when he left the service? >> i went to work for ibm and took a leave of absence. there were some concerns. i went back to work for ibm and during that period of time, i realized the potential for law enforcement. we were pre technology. we operated by hand signals. there were very few of us. we were like brothers. wore sunglasses. we carry a stack of3x5 cards.

if we notified somebody -- noticed somebody, our job was not to go after that somebody, our job was to shield the president. we would get the vehicle out of the area if we could. with ibm, i helped design the national crime information center and worked with the people that were working on a system that the agency called walmart. we worked on -- "walnut." >> when did you decide to participate in this book and why? >> gerald blaine, since i had known since 1959, called me and said he was going to write a book. i was not enthusiastic at all because i had been offered the opportunity to contribute and

write one myself and i said no. he assured me that it would be factual, no false material, no gossip, and i could check it for facts. then i agreed that i would participate. >> what did you -- what is your contribution to this book you have never said before? >> some of what happeneat rkland hospital. hurt mrs. kennedy' attitudes what is new in this book? >> >> there are a lot of gaps that day. all of the other agents went back to shift reports and i went to the archives.

i looked at the kennedy file and to all the files. those that i had not seen before. we have to make sure that i had fact on everything we put it in from the agents perspective. we worked 60 hours a month over time we ended up making about the $80 and our -- $1.80 an hour. we had our shift leader that had won two silver stars and i did not find out until he died. we were a very closed now all likeut we were

brothers. we were a fantastic group of men. >> how many of the agents from november to the second 1963 are deceased? >> -- november 22, 1963 are deceased? 17 are still a lot of the people that work on the kennedy detail from 1961 on. >> how many would have been on the detail in total? >> at any one time, there were 34 agents on the president's detailed and 6 agents on mrs. kennedy and the children's detail. >> we have some video from youtube. one of the things you say in your book that made you want to write this book or all the conspiracy theories and you talk about the movie by oliver stone.

this is a man that says that he sit you a 22 page letter -- sent you a 22 page letter. >> he called me and i said hello and that was about it. >> over the years, have you both been called about the assassination on many occasions? >> i have been called numerous times. >> how have you approached people? >> i have had no comment. >> what is that? >> most of it is for people who are writing conspiracy theory books. if they are not want to deal in fact, that i do not want anything to do with it. >> how about you? >> the same thing. i have never talked to an offer of a book. -- to have author of a book. i felt those were issues that you should never talk to anybody

on the outside about. i had to wait and evaluate when i wrote this book because i felt that i was not talking about the secret service, i wasn't talking about the kennedy family, but i was talking about the agents that i worked with in the incidents that occurred. those were my friends. that is what i dided to write. >> to have to get permission to do this from the secret service? >> no. >> so this was not clear what the secret service? >>o, but we had lunch with the director of the secret service. he thanked us very much for our contributions. >> here is the video. it is not very long. this is a citizen who has taken it on his own to become an expert. he is an act but she is from pennsylvania -- he is from pennsylvania. let's watch this and i will get your reaction.

>> i am a self-described secret service agent. i have to read this book. it is rich. page 287. this is what rowley said. he said that since you were in the lead car, did you see this as well? >> yes sir, i did. i heard exactly what you were told. this is the whole thing about the charts. jerry blaine told me that this came from the guys. i cannot remember who said this. they got really good five years later and he is now saying that he heard it over the radio. it is unbelievable. this is amazing to me. there never would have been a 22

page letter to clint hill but this time of so much that jerry blaine cannot with this book. this is a nice thing that i recommend everybody to buy through the this is my first amendment right. to buy. this is my first amendment right. this is obvious. mind is at 3 stars. this is a veiled attempt to reach -- to rewrite history without trying to blame kennedy for his own assassination. >> first of all, his is not the best of the reviews, there are seven with five stars. what is your reaction? >> he wrote an assessment of the boat up -- of the book about five weeks before it was released and the second time on

amazon.com. he and four of his friends or four of his aliases made statements on assessing the book. my assessment of him is that he called all the agents. one agent that answers the phone is going to answer a question, "was president kennedy easy to protect?" probably, he was too easy to protect because he was assassinated. the fact that the agents are not going to tell him anything, and he alludes to the fact that when i wrote the book, most of these people were dead. well, i work with these people. i knew them like brothers. i knew exactly what was going on. i always respected jim reilly because the always stood up for

the issue. he said that he could not say the president invited himself to this. that was the word throughout the secret service. mr. ballmer -- that offer has no credibility. -- of that offer has no credibility. -- that author has no credibility. he keeps creating solutions to the assassination until they are proving -- proven wrong. he alleges that because he sent me a 22 page letter that i discussed that with jerry. i doubt that i ever got a 22 page letter from this individual until i heard him say it on tv.

i never discussed it with jerry. it did not seem important to me. as far as him being an expert, i do not know where the expert part came from. i spent a long time in the secret service in protection and i am not an expert. apparently, he became an expert somewhere in consoling him. i do not know where. >> -- somewhere in pennsylvania. i do not know where. >> describe your relationship with mrs. kennedy. >> we were very close to a very professional. i always refer to her as mrs. kennedy and she referred to me as mr. hill. at one time, she asked me if i would bring my children over to pay with -- to play with john and caroline. i told her that would be a bad idea to bring my children with the son and daughter of the president. i could just see one of my sons

causing a problem and breaking a tooth of one of her children and i would never get over that period we were very close. she was a private smoker. -- she was a closet smoker. she would say, mr. hill, can i have a cigarette. we would stop the car and i would get in the back of the car and light a cigarette and give it to her and we would drive on and discuss what was going on in the white house and any problems she had. it was a very close to a very professional relationship. >> thomas to to talk to her after the assassination-how much the to talk to her after the assassination -- ho much did you talk to her after the assassinion? >> i stayed on for one year. she and i never discussed it. we discussed a lot of other things. she had to move out of the white house.

someone loaned a house to hurt in jamestown. -- to her injuries counterbid -- in jamestown. she decided she would move to new york. i was with her during all that time. we had a very close relationship. >> would you go back to that day, where were you when the president was shot? >> i was in austin. i had probably been in bed about 5 minutes when there was a banging on the door and it was a shift leader telling me that the president had been hit. we packed up our bags, went out to the airport space outside of austin and wrote a strategic air command tanker with john daly,

who was the head of the democratic national committee and we had five agents on our shift and three or four other agents who have conducted the advance in austin. we did not say a word on the way home, either. we did not find out until at andrews that the president was dead. >> how did you go about doing a book? it has also been a documentary on the discovery for two hours. how to go about getting it sold and all the information? i know that you had a moment that did a lot of the riding -- a lot of the viking -- a lot of the writing. >> i typed out a few questions for agents and i found out that this was a cold way to do it. if i had a question, i would call on the telephone and we

would start talking and pretty soon we had talked for 45 minutes about other things and so forth. we all of a sudden found out that we all felt the same. this had been a shadow hanging over us. there are not many jobs were you can have 100% below year. we considered had a 100 percent failure. the agents down in dallas and discussed on the discovery channel the impact and how we felt. it was a good session. >> one of the critics will -- one of the things that critics say about the book is that it is an attempt to blame president kennedy for what happened down there because of the idea that

you could not ride on the side of the actual limousine? what is your reaction to that? >> nothing could be farther from the tree third certainly, we do not blame president kennedy. i went back to dallas in 1990. i walked dealey plaza and when up to the sixth floor and looked out the window and went back again this past june and did the same thing for about a week. there is only one conclusion that i could make and that was what happened there was due to many things. the weather was part of the problem, the street configuration was part of the problem, the location of the building was part of the problem and the shooter had an ideal situation. i came to the conclusion that there was nothing that i did, personally, that i could have done any differently. from that point on, i quit blaming myself for the president's death. he certainly did not contribute to that death in any way.

was not his fault in any way. we failed in a responsibility to protect him for that was our job. >> how did you fail? is there any way that you could a prevented that from happening? -- could have prevented that from happening? >> one thing about it, he take a photograph of main street that day in dallas, and look at all the buildings, you can find that almost every building had windows open. people on about the knees, people on rooftops. -- people on balcony's, and people on rooftops. what could we have done? the only thing we possibly could have done is make sure that every building and every -- that every window in every building was closed. but that would have been impossible. he saw theoke, shot.ent' after the first

he had to catch up with 80 feet. the cars traveled 80 feet from the time he left until the time he reached the car. the car was going 11 miles an hour, which mean that plant had to be running about 15 miles an hour and darn near missed the back of the car. he could have been laid out flat. but the president was shot in the head before clint got there and he gave it a superhuman effort. >> we have another one of these videos from youtube. this is from somebody that says "." the truth will ou you can watch on the monitors here and comment on it. >> watch the left side of your screen. the aero points to agent in roberts in charge.

-- emory roberts. he is calling the two most important body guards, the bodyguards whose job is to protect the president's back about the motorcade. -- to route the motorcade. -- throughout the motorcade. watch again. >> the confusion inside the follow-up car that results -- watch again the confusion inside the follow-up for the results. now, watch the right side of your screen. the arrow points to one of the boat agents whose job was to act as a human shield. he is obviously perplexed. watched as he shrugs his shoulders three times in dismay.

each truck more dramatic than the last -- each shrug more dramatic than the last. as you watched this one final time, ask yourself if this is the conduct you would expect from an agency that sent an advance prior to the president's arrival to make preparations? >> mr. hill? >> i was the agent on the left side running along the side of the car. the agent on the right rear isn't agent don watson. his job was not to ride in the fall car. he was supposed to remain at love field and secure the airport for is when we came back. -- airport for us when we came back. he was saying that he was going

to lunch. have a good trip. i talked to him within the last month. he really-he reiterated it to me the same thing. -- he reiterated to me the same thing. two stand on the warren commission? i have read the warren commission and all three books on it and i think they come up with the solution. it has been 47 years now for it any good investigator would tell you that if a conspiracy is committed, it is lucky to last 60 days. this has been going on for 47 years and there is not one shred of evidence that it was a conspiracy. if you go through the books can , hefollow oswald's actions

had the type a personality. he could not talk to anybody five minutes without totally lida leading them. he failed at everything that he did. he could not even be a good defector. i believe that he felt that somebody was going to realize that lee harvey oswald lives. >> in the book, there is a lot about what happened to you. that you would through depression and you started drinking at all that. would you tell that story? here you are, are you both 78? >> yes. >> what happened? >> i got a desk job and i was not exactly as i had been. i began to think about the assassination and what i could have done and it started to eat at me. by 1975, when i was retired, it really had gotten to me.

then i was interviewed by 60 minutes and after that interview, it seemed to deteriorate and i hid myself in my basement with a pack of cigarettes and a bottle of all and a friend of mine told me that i would either have to put what i was doing or die. so, i quit drinking and i quit smoking. i got progressively better. >> what impact did it have on your married life and family? >> my children suffered a great deal because i was born 80 percent of the time. they grew up almost without a father. today, we are very close. my wife was very supportive during that time. >> after the assassination, you bet on to become head of the detail for lbj.

>> at first, i was transferred from mrs. kennedy back to johnson in november of 1964. first, president johnson did not object to me. he recognized me as coming from the kennedy detail and he asked that i not be there, that i'd be removed. another agent that he trusted told him that i was there as a professional, that i had nothing to do with politics and he agreed to accept me. a few weeks later, a became the agent in charge of protection for president johnson. what was the difference between president johnson and president kennedy? >> night and day. their personalities were very different. lyndon johnson was very unpredictable. we never knew for sure whahe was going to do, and that is what he preferred. if he could do something as a

complete surprise, that was his preference. whereas, with president kennedy, we knew. he would keep us informed and we knew exactly what was going to happen. president kennedy knew every agent by name. president johnson knew many of us, but not as many as president kennedy. they both have their individual personality. you just have to except them. except what they do and how the act. >> one of the criticisms of the book comes from the people that do not believe in any of this. you are covering up the fact that jack kennedy had extramarital affairs and you mentioned a situation with marilyn monroe and set it aside and said it didn't mean anything. >> what i tried to state is that

we protect the president when he is out in public. when he goes up into his residence and so forth, there may be visitors. what happens up there, none of the agents know. all i know is that there were two times that i saw marilyn monroe and we left before maryland did -- marilyn monroe did. the president went in and changed into swim trunks at his sister's house and shook hands with people and came back again and got into his clothes and left. the second time, that was when she sang happy birthday to the president in madison square garden. there was a reception at a residence and therefore a number of stars and people from the administration that were there.

the president left and went back to carlisle. >> what is your attitude about when you see something about extramarital affairs? >> i always use the statement that president kennedy never asked me about me -- about my sexual life and i never asked him about his. >> i have no knowledge of any extra marital affairs between the president or anybody else. >> what five presidents to work for? eisenhower, kennedy, johnson and more. >> in 1963, the budget for the secret service was $4.1 million. 300 agents. today, the budget is one. $6,000,000,000.3999 agents. what has changed -- today the budget is 1.6 billion agents and

4000 -- one. $6,000,000,000.3999 agents -- $1.6 billion and 4000 agents. >> the secret say this is the same today as it was in 1963. -- the secret service is the same today as it was in 1963. >> the weaponry today is so sophisticated when you can shoot head shots from over a mile away with a sniper rifle with nuclear capability, biological, chemical, all of the threats that we had, but more sophisticated.

other companies are working on much like what we use in afghanistan, but miniaturized. any nation that has ever been on protection has to realize that there is no 100% guarantee. there is always a gap. you give your all and you may prevent it or you may have an assassination. that has not changed. >> over the years, what have you both read or watch? you mentioned that you saw the oliver stone film. you read the book on the assassination? >> i tried to stay away from it. i read the warren commission report and i wrote that i read bill manchester's booked-i read still- i read phil manchester's

book. he disproved a lot of theories that were out there. what concerns me, in some ways, we had an agent who was manning the a r-15 and another that was an expert on project three and firearms and they stated that this agent stood up and when the car moved out, he fell backward and accidental shot the president. edelman that is a curator at the sixth floor museum happened to dig out a film and found out that the agent by the name of hickey had not even stood up. he was in the process of starting to stand up when the

third shot fired. if he had fired the shot at that time, it would have gone right between other agents and would have had to go through the windshield of the follow car. that book is still on the market. >> what happens when you are out in public? can you go through meeting people outhouse out kinney go through and the people? -- can you go through meeting people? if the word got out, word spread pretty fast. for the most part, they are very kind and generous. >> what has been your attitude about talking about it? >> i am willing to talk to the people about it. i have no reservations about it. just do not want any book

material. >> there is a photograph on the screen of you on the back of that lincoln continental on that day. what are you doing right there? >> i cannot see myself. >> with mrs. kennedy climbed on the back of the truck, what were you doing? >> when the third shot hit, right about now, i was just about to get onto the car and i slipped. i regained my stepped and got up on the car and mrs. kennedy was coming out on the trunk to try to retrieve something that came off the president's head a went off to the right rear. she did not know that i was there. i pushed her back into the rear seat. when i did that, the president felt down into her lap with the right side of his head exposed. i could see that his eyes were

fixed and there was a large hole above the right here just to the rear of the right here. that part of the school was missing. there was brain matter it looked like somebody had taken an ice cream scoop and removed part of the brain and threw it on the back of the car. she was covered with blood and debris. i turned and gave a thumbs down to the follow car to let them know for all intents and purposes what had happened. we went past the lead car and screamed at them to get us to a hospital. we did not know where a hospital was. they took us to parkland and when we got to parklan, we had a problem getting people out of the car. i noticed the front of connelly's shirt had blood on it. i knew he had the shot. there were no gurneys that

there. -- there were no gurneys there. we have the problem of moving governor calling out of the -- governor connally out of the car first. he was sitting in the jump seat in front of the president. we moved the jump seats forward. we had a problem getting the president out. mrs. kennedy was probably leak not one can touch one to let go of the body. -- mrs. kennedy was not on wanting to let go of the body. >> how old were you on that day? with 31. >> how old was she? >> 34. >> you were about to say something earlier.

>> these upper film cost -- zappruder film, when the car was stopped, you will notice that the car actually does not stop at all -- absolutely does not stop at all. this happens six seconds after the president is it in the throat. then, everyone breaks these approver film -- is the -- the zappruder film. you will notice that when mrs. kennedy, after the first shot, she is directly in front of the president's face and people have accused bill greer of pulling a

gun out and shooting the president. he would have to shoot to the congolese and shoot through mrs. kennedy. andhrough the connelly' would have shot mrs. kennedy. >> after the president was shot and you got to the hospital, what did you do with mrs. kennedy? what was your responsibility then? >> the governor was in the emergency room and the president was right across the hall. mrs. kennedy with in to be with the emergency room with him. there got to be so many doctors in there that there was hardly room for anybody she was -- anybody. she was helped to get a chair.

my supervisor asked me to call the white house. i got the telephone number and called the dallas white house. or ever we traveled, white house communications would set up a switchboard. i got the dallas white house and ask them to put me through and to keep the line open. i began to tell someone what happened and i explained -- about that time, one of the doctors came up and said he was dead. we rushed in. i was trying to explain what had happened and the operator cut in and said that the attorney general kennedy was on the phone.

he asked me what happened and i told him that both the governor and the president had been shot. he asked how bad it was. i did not want to tell him that his brother was dead. i simply said that it was as bad as it can get. he then hung up. at about that time, the gentleman came back, and it with the bleeding, his body get moving with air or something. we continued to talk to the white house to explain what had happened and make sure that they were completely informed and i told them to contact members of the family so that we told them before the press did. when they determined that the president had died, they decided to tell the press and then we

have the problem where president johnson had to be taken to hospital and of the house o be secured. we got to parkland, and one of the senior agents realized that the situation was so dire that he took the agents and went to help secure the vice president. he knew that there was nothing that he could do for the president, which was the correct thing to do. he made the right decision. it was instantaneous. we were waiting for the decision to be made about what would happen. the vice president would go to the airport. we want him to go immediately to washington. we thought it best if he got out of the area. he did not want to leave dallas without mrs. kennedy. >> mrs. kennedy would not leave

without the body. he just waited to find out. we had a problem at the hospital removing the body because texas state law requires an autopsy on any individual killed in that jurisdiction and the autopsy had to be conducted in that jurisdiction. we would not be allowed to remove the body from the south. we try to convince them that this was the president of the united states and he represented all the people and we should take a back to the nation's capital. this was state law. so, we tried to call a state judge. one of them came to the hospital. after a lot of give-and-take back-and-forth, it was decided

that if we took the body of the hospital and back to washington, it had to be accompanied by somebody who was a medical professional at all times. i said that we have the right person for that job and that was admirable -- admiral george berkeley who was the president's doctor. the body net per left his side- the body never left his sight. -- the body never left his sight. >> gerald, was the hardest part of putting this all together and how long did it take you? >> after all of my research, it did not take long to write the book. once we got the outline, the most difficult thing was i was concerned about the agents that i talked to. there were two agents that could

not confront that day and i knew that it was painful whenever i brought the subject of. because i knew how i felt and that was the toughest thing. the more we talked, the more people opened up. recalling that situation, it has been a healing process for me. >> and healing process for me, too. >> explain why. >> just because we were like brothers. it was like sitting around together and talking about and trying to resolve the issues. we never asked how you felt or what impact you had. we did not have any counseling. right after the assassination, we have to go to work.

we ended up working more hours than we had worked before. we were never for to let that mistake happen again. -- never going to let that mistake happen again. at the end, we had not resolved it. >> in your case, how did this hill? >> it allowed me to respect the feelings i had. the other author interviewed me and we got the impression out to get a load off my back. >> there is a rather large book tour underway. are you both going to all locations. >> yes.

what are you doing that? -- >> what are you doing that? >> -- >> why are you doing that? >> to get the truth out. the youth between the ages of 18 and 29, 82% believed in a conspiracy. that is on jfk assassination. assassination. if all of these theories come down, the only solution was that we decided we needed to make history understand from our perspective what happened and hope that the youth is that -- buys that. >> what are you doing this? >> for the same reasons.

this book is fact, not fiction. the other information that is being peddled out there is strictly theory. they have no firsthand knowledge of anything that happened and they decided to make a lot of money by writing a book. >> when the two of you think of that day, what is the first thing that comes to mind right away? >> the first thing that comes to my mind is what i saw in the back of the car. >> i have sympathy for whoever was there because i knew they were giving their all. he felt sorry for the agents -- you felt sorry for the agents. the fact that the president was dead, we failed. that is the way that everybody felt. >> if you had to do all over again, what would you have done differently? >> if you took everything into consideration, we probably would not do much differently. riding in an open car that was

not armored. what i would do differently, i do not know. i probably could not do anything differently. >> in the book, i called a confidence factor. -- i called it a confidence factor. the president was in -- , we had a 95% confidence factor. with president kennedy, there is the issue about the bubble top car, whether it was on or off. if you go through a look at all the pictures, the bubble top off was standard. only if mrs. kennedy was

writing for it was raining when the bubble top 01. we have a confidence factor of about 7%. >> we only have about a minute. what is different today than from those these? >> the main difference is probably the number of people involved in the service. they have good cooperation from all law enforcement agencies in the government. when they go abroad, right now they are in india, the get cooperation from the indian government or whatever government they are visiting. it is not to the extent that we get today. -- it was not to the extent that we get today. they have in some communications between agents. we did not have that.

-- instant communications between agents. we did not have that. the types of threats are more dangerous. >> we are out of town. the name of the book is "the kennedy detail." we thank you very much for joining us. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> >> for a dvd copy of this program call 1-877-662-7726. for free transcripts or to give us your comments about this program, visit us at q&a.org. q&a programs are also available as as c-span podcasts.