Five Presidents

My Extraordinary Journey with Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, and Ford

By: Clint Hill, Lisa McCubbin Hill

Narrated by: George Newbern

Length: 14 hrs and 31 mins

Publisher's summary

A rare and fascinating portrait of the American presidency from the number-one New York Times best-selling author of Mrs. Kennedy and Me and Five Days in November.

Secret Service agent Clint Hill brings history intimately and vividly to life as he reflects on his 17 years protecting the most powerful office in the nation. Hill walked alongside Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard M. Nixon, and Gerald R. Ford, seeing them through a long, tumultuous era - the Cold War; the Cuban Missile Crisis; the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert F. Kennedy; the Vietnam War; Watergate; and the resignations of Spiro Agnew and Richard M. Nixon.

Some of his stunning, never-before-revealed anecdotes include:

• Eisenhower's reaction to Russian prime minister Khrushchev's refusal to talk following the U-2 incident
• The torture of watching himself in the Zapruder film in a Secret Service training
• Johnson's virtual imprisonment in the White House during violent anti-Vietnam protests
• His decision to place White House files under protection after a midnight phone call about Watergate
• The challenges of protecting Ford after he pardoned Nixon

With a unique insider's perspective, Hill sheds new light on the characters and personalities of these five presidents, revealing their humanity in the face of grave decisions.

©2016 Hill McCubbin, LLC. (P)2016 Simon & Schuster, Inc.

Tremendous!

This book was excellent. I love presidential history but am always a little skeptical of someone claiming to have insider information. I thought Clint Hill did a very good job of telling a very interesting story through his eyes without sensationalizing the details. I listened to this book on a long drive and found the hours flying by.

Easy, interesting reading

This book was an interesting read. Particularly enjoyed the balance between the focus on presidents and their policy and the “background”working and events.

Great book! Recommended! But...

This is an excellent book that gives insights into Presidents that only someone as close as a Secret Service agent could give. Hill goes into great detail (sometimes a little too much when it comes to international trips,) about what it takes to protect the President and how each of them responded to having a detail of agents constantly close by. He also provides great insight into the widely varying personalities and management styles of the five Presidents.

My only quibble with the book is with the choice of narrator. I'm not saying he's a bad narrator, He does an excellent job with most of the material. But what was Simon & Schuster thinking when they hired a young guy to narrate a book by man who was well into his 80s when the book was written? The narrator, as fine as he is, sounds like he wasn't even born yet when the events in the book took place. This takes away some of the credibility of the story, and leads to many mispronunciations in the book (Sander Vanocur, John Sirica, My Lai, and many of the Vietnamese names.) Those of us old enough to remember the events will recognize the errors, and it's a bit disconcerting. Again, this is not as much the fault of the narrator as it is of whoever it was that decided to hire a young guy to narrate on old man's memoirs. Other than that, I highly recommend it.

An absolute must read for any proud American.

Full of stories and insights you could get no other way than from the source. An absolutely wonderful book.

Minot

The writing of this book was so well done. I only wish that the reader of this book would have asked someone how to pronounce the City name Minot, drove me crazy every time it was pronounced incorrectly.

An inside look at history

History as seen from a different vantage point. An incredibly interesting insight into some of America's most tragic times, and a behind the scenes look at those at the forefront.

A c.f. dry human take on real history

great book. great take on a bird's eye view of the realities of a part of life we forget about...
no matter our politics or assumed conclusions of a President. the job is difficult and changes the lives of all involved forever. Thank you for sharing such a eye opening and personal journey.

I'm surprised by how much I enjoyed this story.

I was struggling at the beginning because it felt like a dry history book at first. Im glad I stuck with it. Get past the first bit and you'll love it too!

Interesting!

A little dry, but then I seldom read something this “historical”, and am really happy I did!

truly the most interesting man in the world

this was a very heartbreaking and inspiring story of a very interesting human. I would definitely recommend the listen.