From Publishers Weekly
A readable and frequently engaging memoir of the author's 23 years in the Secret Service focuses on his time in the personal protective detail, guarding President Reagan and his family. In detailing his four years in that capacity, Petro burnishes the image of the Reagans as personally agreeable, even admirable, and easy to deal with in a professional context. A particularly moving part of the book deals with the Geneva Summit at which Reagan and Gorbachev substantially thawed the Cold War, and the author's perspective on some of Reagan's mediagenic faux pas shed further light on a much-discussed aspect of the Great Communicator. The Reagans were not the only VIPs that fell into Petro's sphere—the Quayles didn't like being protected and did like vigorous sports (such as whitewater rafting, during which Marilyn Quayle once fell out of the raft). The author provides hints of tactical and ethical principles of the protection detail, as well as the internal politics of the Secret Service. He finishes with one of his most demanding jobs, protecting Pope John Paul II through a 10-day, 114-stop tour of the United States. This is a thoroughly readable narrative of professionalism in action in a delicate sphere of activity; notably, while this is Petro's first book, it is his college roommate Robinson's 19th. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.


From Booklist
Former Secret Service agent Petro protected Henry Kissinger, Nelson Rockefeller, Gerald Ford, Walter Mondale, Ronald and Nancy Reagan, Dan and Marilyn Quayle, and Pope John Paul II. His memoir of 20-plus years standing post or watching crowds is replete with anecdotes arranged to show what the Secret Service does. Petro stresses the friction inherent between safety and public visibility, and illustrates that point by recounting the negotiations that occurred between those being protected and the men and women with the earplugs and impassive visages. Petro introduces this main topic with an account of his arrangement of a Reagan trip to a baseball game, and sustains it though various settings, whether an international summit conference or a restaurant. More personally, the author confides his recruitment to the Secret Service and his investigations, such as infiltrating John Kerry's antiwar group. True to the Secret Service's ethos of confidentiality, Petro shies from gossip but imparts just enough to imply his opinions of the people he guarded, which is the part that will be of most interest to his readers. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Book Description
Joseph Petro served for 23 years as a special agent in the United States Secret Service; eleven of them with presidents and vice presidents. For four of those years he stood by the side of Ronald Reagan.

Following his career as a Navy Lieutenant, during which he patrolled the rivers and canals along the Vietnamese-Cambodian border, he worked his way up through the Secret Service to become one of the key men in charge of protecting the President. That journey through the Secret Service provides an individual look inside the most discreet law enforcement agency in the world, and a uniquely intimate account of the Reagan presidency.

Engagingly, Joseph Petro tells "first hand" stories of: riding horses with the Reagans; eluding the press and sneaking the President and Mrs. Reagan out of the White House; rehearsing assassination attempts and working, then re-working every detail of the president's trips around the world; negotiating the president's protection with the KGB; diverting a 26 car presidential motorcade in downtown Tokyo; protecting Vice-President Dan Quayle at Rajiv Gandhi's funeral where he was surrounded by Yassir Arafat's heavily armed bodyguards; taking charge of the single largest protective effort in the history of the Secret Service-Pope John Paul II's 1987 visit to the United States; and being only one of three witnesses at the private meeting between President Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev that ushered in the end of the Cold War.

Joseph Petro provides an original and fascinating perspective of the Secret Service, the inner workings of the White House and a little seen view of world leaders, as a man who stood next to history.



About the Author
After his time in the Secret Service, Joseph Petro went on to become head of global security and investigations for Citigroup. He lives in New York and Pennsylvania.

A college roommate of Joe Petro's, Jeffrey Robinson is the author of eighteen books, including the bestselling The Laundrymen. An expert on international crime, he has been a keynote speaker on the subject for the United Nations, Interpol, U. S. Customs, the FBI, and many other organizations. He appeared on Fox News, Bloomberg News, and MSNBC. He lives in London.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"Joseph Petro served for twenty-three years as a special agent in the United States Secret Service. He spent eleven of those years guarding presidents and vice presidents, and for four of them he stood by the side of Ronald Reagan." "Petro served as a navy lieutenant during the Vietnam War and patrolled the rivers and canals along the Vietnamese-Cambodian border. After his stint in Vietnam, he joined the Secret Service, where he worked his way up to become one of the key men in charge of protecting the president. That journey through the Secret Service provides an individual look inside the most discreet law enforcement agency in the world and a uniquely intimate account of the Reagan presidency." Petro tells firsthand stories of riding horses with the Reagans; eluding the press and sneaking President and Mrs. Reagan out of the White House; rehearsing assassination attempts; working, then reworking every detail of the president's trips around the world; negotiating the president's protection with the KGB; diverting a twenty-six-car presidential motorcade in downtown Tokyo; protecting Vice President Dan Quayle at Rajiv Gandhi's funeral, where he was surrounded by Yassir Arafat's heavily armed bodyguards; taking charge of the single largest protective effort in the history of the Secret Service - Pope John Paul II's 1987 visit to the United States; and being one of only three witnesses at the private meeting between President Reagan and Premier Mikhail Gorbachev that ushered in the end of the Cold War.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

A readable and frequently engaging memoir of the author's 23 years in the Secret Service focuses on his time in the personal protective detail, guarding President Reagan and his family. In detailing his four years in that capacity, Petro burnishes the image of the Reagans as personally agreeable, even admirable, and easy to deal with in a professional context. A particularly moving part of the book deals with the Geneva Summit at which Reagan and Gorbachev substantially thawed the Cold War, and the author's perspective on some of Reagan's mediagenic faux pas shed further light on a much-discussed aspect of the Great Communicator. The Reagans were not the only VIPs that fell into Petro's sphere-the Quayles didn't like being protected and did like vigorous sports (such as whitewater rafting, during which Marilyn Quayle once fell out of the raft). The author provides hints of tactical and ethical principles of the protection detail, as well as the internal politics of the Secret Service. He finishes with one of his most demanding jobs, protecting Pope John Paul II through a 10-day, 114-stop tour of the United States. This is a thoroughly readable narrative of professionalism in action in a delicate sphere of activity; notably, while this is Petro's first book, it is his college roommate Robinson's 19th. Agent, Ed Breslin. (Jan.) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

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