John F Kennedy’s Secret Service agent reveals biggest regret and two word message

At the age of 92, Clint Hill, the Secret Service agent who leaped on John F Kennedy’s car after the president was shot, sums up how he would like to be remembered, saying: “Two words. I tried.” He continues: “That’s all that needs to be said. I tried.”

Iconic images from the assassination on November 22, 1963, show Clint scrambling onto the presidential limousine to shield First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy after her husband had been shot by Lee Harvey Oswald.

It was 12 years later, in 1975, that Clint spoke publicly for the first time about the assassination, giving an interview to Mike Wallace on the US show 60 Minutes, during which he blamed himself for JFK ’s death, saying if he had acted “five-tenths of a second faster” the president would be alive.

Now, in a new podcast titled Secret Service Agent #9 – 60 Minutes: A Second Look, Clint reflects on the 1975 interview and tells how it helped to bring him out of a dark place. I would have just lingered in a horrible situation and never come out of it, probably.

“That was the thing. I didn’t talk to anybody about the ­situation in Dallas, other than I testified to the Warren Commission. I gave them the facts. I wrote a statement for the Secret Service. We didn’t discuss it as agents. I never talked to my family about it.”

On the day of the assassination, Kennedy was in Dallas for a campaign trip ahead of the 1964 election. Clint was on the running board of the follow-up car, behind the presidential limo.

As the motorcade entered Dealey Plaza, Clint heard a gunshot and saw the president grab his throat. Clint sprang from his car and raced toward the limousine. As he climbed aboard, a bullet hit the president’s head.

In a harrowing moment, the First Lady climbed on to the back of the car, and Clint pulled her back into the vehicle, using his body as a shield while the limousine sped to the hospital. Asked if he still blames himself for JFK ’s death, Clint says: “Well, maybe there was something I could have done. I don’t know any more.”

Clint remained assigned to Jackie Kennedy for a year but neither of them ever spoke about her husband’s death. Clint says: “It was hard to spend that year after it happened. No question. We never talked about it. She never talked about that at all. That thing was avoided and has been avoided by the Kennedy family for years.”

He still has not fully forgiven himself. He says: “My dad drilled into me that when you’re given an assignment to do, you do it until it’s fully finished. I had an assignment to keep the president and Mrs Kennedy alive. I only kept one of them alive. One died on my watch.”

To listen to the CBS News Secret Service Agent #9 podcast, listen here