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                                                                  Order  Code  RS20821
                                                                  Updated  April 5, 2006



 CRS Report for Congress

               Received through the CRS Web




         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.' The intervening years have witnessed a variety of



1 For background information and citations, see: U.S. Congress, House Select Committee on
Assassinations, Report: Findings and Recommendations, H.Rept. 95-1828, Part 2, 95th Cong., 2nd
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, American Assassins:
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, Feb. 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, Sept. 14,2001, pp. 17-27, and Newsweek, Extra Edition [Sept.
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