First published 2021
The Secret Service protects presidents, but who protects the agency from itself? Carol Leonnig traces how America's elite protective force transformed from a sleepy government office into a proud unit after failing to save John F. Kennedy in 1963. The agency redeemed itself by stopping an assassin's bullet meant for Ronald Reagan in 1981. Then everything went wrong. By Barack Obama's presidency, armed intruders breached the White House while agents watched. Gunshots rang out at the presidential residence as the Secret Service stood idle. Agents hired prostitutes during overseas trips, creating security nightmares. Leonnig interviewed dozens of current and former agents who broke their silence about toxic leadership, obsolete equipment, and training failures. Her decade of reporting for The Washington Post reveals an agency in crisis, struggling with deep internal problems that put presidents at risk.
Genres: history, crime, non-fiction, biography-memoir, 21st-century, journalism, government, american-history
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: institutional-corruption, organizational-crisis
Setting: White House
Period: 1963, 1981
560 pages · Hardcover · Random House