"AGENTS WERE NOT LOOKING FOR SNIPERS"

SECRET SERVICE LACKED MANPOWER IN 1963

Dallas, Texas (JFKD) On September 13, 2021, the Smithsonian Channel aired a documentary on the assassination of JFK titled "Ten Steps to Disaster."  

The program, buying into the "lone gunman" theory, goes through ten steps, or "mistakes," which led to JFK's death.  It claims to utilize "new research, first hand accounts and unpublished CIA files."  In this post we look at "Step 7:  Lack of Manpower."

We start off with data provided in the program which is mind boggling.  In 2021, the annual budget of the United States Secret Service was 2.25 BILLION dollars with a staff of 3000 secret service agents.  In 1963, the annual budget of the USSS (in today's equivalent value) was 35 MILLION dollars with a staff of 28 secret service agents.

It was a "different world."  A successful assassination of a president had not taken place in over sixty years (McKinley 1901).  A rifle bullet had never taken the life of a chief executive.  In 1963, the Secret Service agents were "not looking for snipers."

As President Kennedy rode through the streets of Dallas on November 22, 1963, he passed by/under some 20,000 windows.  Some of those windows were open and some had people gazing out of them.  It was the job of the agents "to watch the windows as they go."

"10 Steps to Disaster" concludes that Secret Service procedures "changed almost overnight" after JFK was killed.  Although attempts have been made (ie: Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan), the SS has not lost another POTUS since JFK.

JFKD NOTE

"Step 7" I find both informative and interesting.  It is obvious that the Secret Service was in a very difficult, if not impossible, position given their lack of funding and manpower to protect the POTUS riding in an open car through a major city with so many buildings & many more windows, some of them open, and all of them unchecked beforehand.

Today, the President rides in a closed bullet-proof car.  He or she would not be out in the open for the public to see or for potential assassins to attack.  That is the one good thing that resulted from the events of 59 years ago.

On the negative side, this documentary completely buys in to the "lone assassin" scenario saying at one point that JFK was "an easy target for Lee Harvey Oswald."  That the President was "an easy target" is certain, but as to "for...Oswald" is far less certain.

SOURCE

"Ten Steps to Disaster, Step 7:  Lack of Manpower," The Smithsonian Channel, Original air date, September 13, 1921. 

 

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