by contributor Donna Shor
Photo credit: Donatella Mulvoni
Franco Nuschese is the genial proprietor of Cafe Milano, Georgetown’s prime spot to see and be seen. When he heard that a longtime friend had just written a book focusing on a day that rewrote American history, Franco celebrated “Five Days in November” with a brunch for fifty at the restaurant honoring his friend Clint Hill.
Clint Hill
When Franco welcomed his guests, he spoke movingly of the man’s character and his courage, for Clint Hill was the Secret Service agent who climbed onto the back of the presidential limo, flinging himself across the wounded president and the nation’s first lady when those shots rang out in Dallas.
Franco Nuschese
Hill was accompanied by his co-author Lisa McCubbin. Videos and images from the book were projected on two screens; the co-authors took turns commenting on the happenings the views evoked.
Lisa McCubbin and Clint Hill
Among the guests were Lucky Roosevelt and Lloyd Hand, both of whom have served as Chief of Protocol at the State Department, ABC’s Polson Kanneth, columnist Ruth Marcus, Wolf Blitzer, Jim Lehrer and from the White House: Social Secretary Jeremy Bernard and Ellie Schafer, President Obama’s appointee to run the White House Visitors Center. Hunter Biden, the vice-president’s son attended, as did broadcaster Diana Jones, Evan Ryan, former Congresswoman Ellen Tauscher, newsman Jonathan Capehart, Tammy Haddad and Ted Greenberg. On hand also was veteran political columnist and author Muriel Dobbin, longtime friend of Hill and McCubbin who visits them when she is in San Francisco.
Originally, three years before that day in Dallas, Hill was assigned to be the special agent guarding Jacqueline Kennedy, the wife of a president. He at first considered it a demotion as he had earlier been the agent assigned to guard a president himself, President Dwight D.Eisenhower. As time passed, he was proud to have been assigned to guard her and they developed a warm, though formal relationship. Her first words when she spoke to him, after the assassination, were “Oh Mr. Hill, what are you going to do now?”
He would continue guarding Mrs. Kennedy and her children for another year. Later he would guard presidents again, though for some years he spent his time drinking, grieving and reliving the events of that day. He had done everything he was assigned to do and more. He should feel no guilt, but you can see in his eyes, and in his actions, that he does.
Clint Hill and Franco Nuschese
In Texas that November, tension was high over the pending arrival of President Kennedy. Commentators had made it clear he was not welcome there; yet his stop in San Antonio had blessedly been without incident. As they drove through Dallas, with the President and the First Lady smiling and waving at the crowd from their open limousine, Hill, ever watchful, was in the car behind the presidential vehicle. At the first shots he was out the door, running to reach their car and straining to climb aboard.
Hearing the shots, the president’s driver suddenly accelerated; Hill lost his footing on the rear bumper and struggled to board the rushing car. Somehow he managed it, just as the third and fatal shot rang out. As he slid across the trunk, Hill found himself facing Jackie, in shock, scrambling over the back of her seat and trying to reach a piece of her husband’s skull lying on the trunk. Hill shoved her down onto her seat and flung himself over her and the president. But there were no more bullets; it was done.
In those few seconds, that took longer to tell than to happen, the course of the nation’s destiny changed. Had he not lost his footing, he would have reached the Kennedys seconds sooner. Hill would have taken the bullet instead of the president.
Lisa McCubbin says that for decades, Clint discussed his part in the event with no one, not with his then-wife, not with his two sons. Now, after fifty years, Clint Hill is able to talk, and even write, about that history-changing day in Dallas.
