W.Minh Tuan
The Secret Service, or the US Secret Service-USSS, which is responsible for protecting the US President, Vice President, and their families, is the strangest agency in the world, because it was established in 1865, originally under the US Treasury Department, not under the police or military.
It was not until 2003, after the terrorist attack on the Twin Towers in New York City, that the Secret Service was transferred to the Department of Homeland Security, according to the decision of US President George Bush. At that time, the Department of Homeland Security had just been established by President Bush in 2003 to deal with terrorists.
The 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln (1861-1865), was the one who signed the decision to establish the United States Secret Service in 1865, with the initial mission of fighting counterfeit money, because at that time, the United States had just ended the North-South civil war, everything in the country was in chaos, very unstable, and counterfeiting was rampant.
Therefore, President Lincoln decided to establish the Secret Service to investigate and prevent counterfeiting, and therefore, the Secret Service at that time was under the Ministry of Finance- Treasury.
And ironically, on that very day, April 14, 1865, after President Lincoln signed the decision to establish the Secret Service, that evening, the President went to see a play, and was assassinated on that tragic evening of April 14, and the next day, April 15, 1865, President Lincoln passed away, at the age of 56.
Although US President Lincoln was assassinated, the mission of the Secret Service at that time remained unchanged, being limited to the scope of investigation and combating counterfeiting, but not yet having the mission of protecting US Presidents and VIP.
And at first, the Secret Service worked very poorly, not very effectively in investigating and combating counterfeiting.
Therefore, in 1898, the famous American journalist named John Wilkie of Chicago Times, was appointed by the US Secretary of the Treasury as Director of the Secret Service, with the reason that it was necessary to change the way the Secret Service worked, and needed a journalist with good investigative reporting skills to lead the weak Secret Service, to reform the Secret Service to be more effective in the fight against counterfeiting.
In 1901, US President William McKinley was assassinated, because a madman shot 2 bullets into the President’s stomach, while he was meeting with workers in New York City. At that time, journalist-Director of the Secret Service John Walkie proposed to US President Theodore Roosevelt (1901-1909) – who had just succeeded President McKinley – that it was necessary to assign the Secret Service the task of protecting US Presidents.
But President Roosevelt seemed dissatisfied, he was fond of hunting, he did not want to be followed by secret service agents all day long. But journalist-Director of the Secret Service Walkie convinced President Roosevelt that there was no problem, the secret service agents would not disturb the President’s daily activities at all, would work very delicately, skillfully, completely respect the personal freedom of the President and the President’s family members, and at the same time protect the safety of the President and the President’s family.
At that time, President Roosevelt agreed to let the Secret Service do the job of protecting the President, but still with an uncomfortable attitude.
In 1909, there was a summit meeting between US President William Taft-who had just succeeded President Roosevelt- and Mexican President Diaz in Texas, which was then still part of Mexico (later Texas was sold by Mexico to the US, becoming the State of Texas today).
At that time, there was a lot of information about the plots to assassinate the US President among the anti-American Mexicans, so the US Secret Service showed its protection skills for the first time, organizing the work of protecting the US President very carefully, effectively, under the direction of journalist-Director of the Secret Service John Walkie, with more than 4,000 security guards of all kinds, inside and outside the area of meeting.
And it was the first time the Secret Service proved its protective effect, when Secret Service agent Burnham discovered just in time, and promptly arrested a terrorist carrying a gun standing just a few meters away from the two Presidents, but before he could draw his gun, Burnham punched him down, locked his hands, and took away his gun.
However, the conservatism in the US Government remained stubborn, still only letting the Secret Service be under the US Treasury Department, lasting more than 100 years later, until terrorists crashed planes into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York on September 11, 2001, when President Bush established the Department of Homeland Security, and transferred the Secret Service from the Treasury Department to the Department of Homeland Security, in 2003.
But Secret Service until now, 2024, is still in charge of investigating on counterfeit money!!!
In the history of the US, there have been 47 Presidents, since the first President George Washington (1789-1797: 2 terms of 4 years, which is 8 years), since then the US has had the practice of the President only serving 2 terms, although the US Constitution does not specify how many years. Only President Franklin D. Roosevelt served 3 terms as President during World War II (1933-1945).
Up to now, in 2024, the United States has had 47 Presidents – President Donald Trump is the 45th and 47th President – of which 7 have been assassinated, of which 3 were assassinated to death, and 4 were only injured and escaped death.
The first President to be assassinated, but not killed, was President Andrew Jackson, the 7th President of the United States (1829-1837). He was originally a rebellious young man, leading a group of young vagabonds to fight on the streets, so the President had the reflexes of a street fighter. When President Jackson went to meet the American people on the street, someone pulled out a knife to attack the President. President Jackson reacted very quickly, punching the attacker and grabbing the knife, while the soldiers protecting him were still panicking and confused, not knowing how to react.
The second President to be assassinated, and died, was the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln (1861-1865), as mentioned above.
The third President to be assassinated and die was the 20th President, James A. Garfield (1881). He was only President for 4 months, when he was shot and seriously wounded by a madman, and then the wound became infected, and he died in September 1881, after being shot for more than 1 month.
The fourth President to be assassinated and die was President William McKinley as mentioned above (1897-1901), who was the 25th President of the United States. After President McKinley was assassinated, the US Secret Service was assigned the task of protecting the Presidents, Vice Presidents, and their families, from 1901.
The 5th President to be assassinated, the most tragic and famous death in the history of the United States, and the history of the world, was the young 46-year-old President, the 35th President of the United States, John F. Kennedy, born in 1917, died in 1963, at the age of 46, and during the Vietnam War, and when I-W.Minh Tuan, the writer of this article, was only 3 years old (I was born in 1960). He was shot in the head, as we known, and died immediately.
The 6th President to be assassinated but not die, was President Ronald Regan (1981-1989), the 40th President of the United States, and a former film actor. He was shot in the chest by a man, but was treated in time, and still kept his sense of humor and courage when he was shot, and when in the operation that the bullet was removed from his chest.
And now, the seventh assassination, in 2024, the President-to-be Donald Trump, the 45th and 47th President of the United States, was shot by a madman in July 2024 while campaigning for the presidency, but fortunately, the bullet only grazed his ear, causing it to tear, and bleed, but did not endanger his life, and President Trump still kept his strong, resilient spirit, he raised his fist high, shouting “fight, fight, fight” when being helped away by secret service agents after being shot.
The failed assassination of US President Donald Trump has shown that the US Secret Service has made a series of silly mistakes, there have been deadly loopholes that have lasted for many years in the Secret Service, making the work of protecting the President just a formality, showing off, making a lot of noise, but completely without any real protection effect.
We still see the familiar image of US Secret Service agents wearing sunglasses, hair crew cut, big belly, fat body, looking strong – actually not sure if they are strong – looking fierce, it seems good at martial arts, good at shooting,,,.
But in fact, that is just a “empty barrel makes a lot of noise”.
Wearing sunglasses is actually a very serious mistake, because sunglasses obstruct vision, and hinder protection activities.
No boxer or MMA fighter wears sunglasses to compete and fighting.
Wearing sunglasses only makes you look fierce and majestic, but in fact it is the biggest obstacle in the protection work.
Yet American bodyguards have continued to wear sunglasses for more than 100 years, and 7 Presidents have been assassinated, and up to now, American bodyguards continue to wear sunglasses to perform, show off, and act to beautify themselves, not to protect the President.
In the failed assassination of President Trump on July 13, 2024 in Butler City, Pennsylvania, the killer used a drone to fly 11 minutes before 1 hour in the area where President Trump was going to give a speech, but the American bodyguards still did not know anything, because they were busy choosing sunglasses to look impressive, busy trimming nose hair, trimming eyebrows to look pretty,,,.
After that, the assassin struggled to carry the rifle weighing nearly 10 kg to the rooftop. Many people found it suspicious and called the police, but neither the American police nor the American bodyguards did anything. They were still busy running around, fussing, and making a fuss, only pretending to be important to themselves.
Then the assassin leisurely and calmly fired more than 10 bullets, one by one, and finally he was shot down and killed.
The murderer was discovered thanks to an American police officer who was not a member of the Secret Service, but during his break, accidentally discovered him, called the Secret Service, and had a Secret Service sniper shoot and kill him, thanks to which US President Trump was saved.
Let’s look at the US Secret Service training program: 20 sit-ups, 20 push-ups, 2 km run, push a car tire a few meters.
That’s it only.
But look, many Secret Service agents’ bellies are too big, how can they run fast, how can they react quickly to protect the US President?
When US President Obama went on a business trip to Colombia, Latin America, in 2012, Secret Service agents brought prostitutes into a hotel to have sex, but did not pay, and were made noisy by prostitutes who came to the hotel to demand paying money. It is really shameful for American culture, and for the US President, and for the US Police, and for the US Secret Service.
I heard that the selection to become an American bodyguard is very difficult, only 1% of 15,000 candidates are selected. And the salary of American bodyguards is quite high, the salary for new entrants is about 7,000 USD/month. For officers with seniority of about 10 years, the salary can be up to 20,000 USD/month, plus other allowances.
Yet they do their work in a slow bureaucratic manner, mainly posing for movies like the failed assassination attempt on President Trump in July 2024.
If I were appointed by President Trump as Director of the US Secret Service – I was also a journalist like the first Director of the US Secret Service, John Wilkie, from 1898 to 1911, and I also did many famous investigative reports in Vietnam, had a provincial party secretary removed from office, a deputy prime minister removed from office, and a police officer sentenced to death for shooting and robbing someone – if I were appointed as Director of the US Secret Service, the first thing I would do would be to ban wearing sunglasses.
The second thing would be that any agent with an excessively large belly would have to change to another job.
Thirdly, secret service agents would have to practice flying over a taxi, like Vietnamese bodyguards are doing. Vietnamese bodyguards of the Vietnam Security Department must train and be able to jump and fly over a taxi, in order to be able to fly to a criminal and knock him to the ground. When doing close protection work, standing around the person you are protecting, you cannot use a gun at close range, because you can accidentally shoot at civilians, and even accidentally shoot at the person you are protecting.
Therefore, the most important job of a bodyguard is to have quick, bright eyes, not wear sunglasses, detect criminals in time, and react quickly, jump and fly to knock down the criminal, and use your body to shield the person you are protecting.
All current American bodyguards do not have the ability to jump and fly like that, and also do not have the ability to use the naked eye to detect bad guys, because American bodyguards wear sunglasses, which reduces their vision.
And let the Secret Service focus on protecting VIPs, and no longer need to be distracted by the Ministry of Finance’s anti-counterfeiting work.
Of course, I am Vietnamese, so how could I be appointed by President Trump to the position of Director of the US Secret Service?
But I am no different from the American billionaire Elon Musk.
Mr. Musk was born in South Africa, and used to be a South African citizen. Then, he became a Canadian citizen following his mother’s nationality, and in 2002, Mr. Elon Musk became an American citizen.
And in 2024, in the US presidential election, Mr. Musk actively supported Mr. Trump. Sometimes, Mr. Musk’s excessive positivity did more harm than good to Mr. Trump, but in the end, “the good results justify the action“, Mr. Trump was elected President for a second term, and surely there was no small contribution from billionaire Elon Musk.
So, nationality is just a certificate, but honesty, loyalty to the President, and the ability to work are really important.
America needs to radically reform the Secret Service, to effectively protect the President, Vice President, and their family members, and to effectively protect other important figures of America and the world when visiting America.
If the President is assassinated, all the policies and actions of the President to make America great again will become meaningless.///