Zero Fail
By Carol Leonnig
The Rise and Fall of the Secret Service. Penguin Random House, 2021.
Summary of Zero Fail book by Carol Leonnig
The rarely told tale of the protectors of the US president from assassination attempts, whose success is increasingly under threat as mismanagement and political meddling have taken their toll.
Chapters in Zero Fail book summary
What do you get from this book? The scandals and successes of the US Secret Service through several presidential terms
The earliest mission of the Secret Service was crushing counterfeiters, not protecting presidents
Three presidential assassinations turned the Service into a protection agency, which suffered its only fatality while protecting Harry Truman
Ignored clues and slipping standards, including Secret Service agents drinking on the job, raised risks of an attack on JFK
JFK’s assassination was a catastrophic failure—and a brutal lesson—for the Secret Service
James Joseph Rowley was the level-headed leader of the Service’s renaissance who fought for the funding to expand it
Nixon manipulated the Service to his own ends after railing against it following the shooting of a presidential candidate
A brutal attack on Ronald Reagan killed bystanders and maimed multiple agents—but also demonstrated the Service’s new excellence
Clinton was grimly reminiscent of JFK in his dangerous extramarital meetings, while technological advancement risked leaving the Service underequipped
The Secret Service’s problems went from salacious to serious as 9/11 threw the threats to national security into cold relief
Obama’s presidential term, combined with the rise of social media, caused a huge increase in threats to the president’s life
A prostitution scandal in Colombia upended the Service, while continued failures allowed yet another attack on the White House
Under Trump, the Service was politicized and declined further, and it remains dangerously under-resourced
Summary of the key insights
Selected critiques in brief
Final word
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Zero Fail — Book Summary Snapshot
Who should read Zero Fail book
- Politics buffs
- budding secret agents
- spy fiction fans
- conspiracy theorists
- those interested in US law enforcement
About the author of Zero Fail
Carol Leonnig
Carol Leonnig is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist. She has written for The Washington Post and The Observer, and has been featured on NPR, Fox News and MSNBC. Her publications include Zero Fail, A Very Stable Genius, and I Alone Can Fix It.
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