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handle is hein.crs/crsahnv0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Order Code RS20821
Updated January 7, 2008
Direct Assaults Against Presidents,
Presidents-Elect, and Candidates
Frederick M. Kaiser
Specialist in American National Government
Government and Finance Division
Summary
Direct assaults against Presidents, Presidents-elect, and candidates have occurred
on 15 separate occasions, with five resulting in death. Ten incumbents (about 24% of
the 42 individuals to serve in the office), including four of the past six Presidents, have
been victims or targets. Four of the ten (and one candidate) died as a result of the
attacks. This report identifies these incidents and provides information about what
happened, when, where, and, if known, why. The report will be updated and revised if
developments require.
Concerns about the safety of Presidents have existed throughout the history of the
Republic, beginning with George Washington in 1794, when he led troops against the
Whiskey Rebellion in Pennsylvania.1 The intervening years have witnessed a variety of
1 For background information and citations, see U.S. Congress, House Select Conmmittee on
Assassinations, Report: Findings and Recommendations, H.Rept. 95-1828, Part 2, 95th Cong., 2 d
sess. (Washington: GPO, 1979); U.S. Department of the Treasury, Background Information on
the White House Security Review (Washington: Department of the Treasury, 1995), pp. 5 1-101;
U.S. National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence, FinalReport (Washington:
GPO, 1969), pp. 122-124; James E. Kirkham, et al., Assassination and Political Violence: A
Report to the National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence (Washington:
GPO, 1969), p. 22; U.S. President's Commission on the Assassination of President John F.
Kennedy, Report (Washington; GPO, 1964), pp. 504-515; James W. Clarke, AmericanAssassins:
The Darker Side of Politics (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1982); Frederick M. Kaiser,
Presidential Assassinations and Assaults: Characteristics and Impact on Protective Procedures,
Presidential Studies Quarterly, vol. 11, Fall 1981, pp. 545-558, and Origins of Secret Service
Protection of the President: Personal, Interagency, and Institutional Conflict, Presidential
Studies Quarterly, vol. 18, Winter 1988, pp. 101-128; Philip H. Melanson, The Secret Service
(New York: Carroll and Graf, 2002); Facts on File Yearbook, 1994, p. 877, and 1995, p. 361;
Police Shoot Man Near White House, Washington Post, February 8, 2001, pp. Al, A10;
extensive press coverage of the terrorist attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center, along
with the possible targeting of the White House or Capitol, on September 11,2001, including U.S.
News and World Report, Special Report, September 14, 2001, pp. 17-27, and Newsweek, Extra
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