Bodyguard

Memoirs Of A Presidential Bodyguard

Being in the Secret Service means a different thing to Americans from what it does to the British. riiHTS is made clear by U. E. -A- Bavghman, in his Secret Service Chief —a position from which he has recently retired.

Secret Service to a Britisher usually means M. 1.5, spies, the whodunit works. Mr. Baughman’s main job, on the other hand, was protecting the US President (or Pre dents—Truman, Eisenhower and Kennedy were all under his care at different times).

When other people saw (on TV) the lectern take fire at President Kennedy’s inauguration they just laughed. But to Mr, Baughman it was no laughing matter. He thought it might be a bomb and had a fit of the horrors; in fact, he devotes the first chapter of his book to de scribing just how he did feel, and what he did.

Reason For Fear He has very good reason for fear.

Three US Presidents have been assassinated while in office and, the way he tells it, there appear to be enough odd-balls at large in the US to make a fourth an ever-present possibility. Protection extends not only to the President but to the President’s children (even when they are full-grown), and their children and, in total, makes a very large operation.

What Mr. Baughman has to say about it is no doubt fascinating to the average American (just as I was Princess Margaret’s Bodyguard would be to the British, if written by a Scotland Yard Inspector), but we doubt whether it will set any other worlds on fire.

In his literary task the Chief was assisted by Leonard Wallace Robin son but even with Mr. Robinson’s professional services, Mr. Baughman just turns out to sound like a good, honest cop.

(Secret Service Chief. Published

by Heinemann. 37/6.)