Book Review: Zero Fail: The Rise and Fall of the Secret Service

 

Zero Fail is a book detailing major events in the history of the Secret Service, focusing mainly on the years from 1961 to 2020. The book lays out the good, the bad, and the ugly (sometimes very ugly) of the Secret Service over the years, and how the protection of the Presidents changed over the years, mostly in response to the JFK assassination and the attempted assassination of Ford, Regan, and Presidential candidate George Wallace. And, the book sheds a lot of light (and provides a lot of behind-the-scenes detail) on events like "Hookergate" and the intrusions into the White House complex by fence jumpers that occurred in more recent years.

Leonnig, a Washington Post reporter, does briefly discuss the origins of the Secret Service but the book mainly focuses on events like the JFK assassination, the attempted assassination of Regan, dealing with JFK and Bill Clinton's womanizing, how Nixon wanted to use agents to spy on his rivals, and how it basically became a frat with agents boozing and fucking anything that moved during their later years, and how the culture within the Secret Service caused embarrassment (at the very least) or put the lives to their protectees in danger. Some of the more interesting details involved how the different Presidents and First Ladies reacted to the agents, and as a result who the agents liked (Regan and the Bushes) and who they disliked or hated (Hillary Clinton).

The book is just under 400 pages but is actually a very fast read. If you read fairly quickly, you can easily get through the book in a week or less. The chapters are all relatively short (20 pages or less) so it is something that is easy to read just before bed and still finish a chapter before you get too tired. It is a book that is part expose, part history lesson, and part political reporting. If you are a fan of history and/or politics it is definitely worth checking out.