Surrounded by Enemies Read Online Free Page B

helped him out of his back supports, Kennedy indicated Trauma Two, where Texas Governor John Connally was fighting for his life. Inside, Dr. Charles J. Carrico, only two years a practicing physician, and two nurses were using surgical shears to cut the clothes away from the Texas governor. What they saw was not good; he had been hit three times, most grievously through the chest. Carrico checked for a pulse and blood pressure, and pronounced both “palpable.”
    Shaw explained the scene to the Kennedy party. “The governor’s in the care of Doctor Carrico. He’s on his way to the OR any minute.”
    From the side of the room, Jacqueline Kennedy spoke softly. “What about the agents? Where are they?”
    Without taking his eyes off the President’s body, now prone on the exam table, Shaw answered. “One of the agents was alert and is being attended in an OR. The other agent, Agent Hill, suffered extensive head trauma and spinal damage and has not survived his wounds. I’m very sorry.” As those words were spoken, the First Lady gasped, looked as if she might faint, and was given a chair by a nurse. His death made Secret Service Special Agent Clint Hill only the second member of the organization to be killed while protecting a United States President during an assassination attempt, along with Leslie Coffelt, who had died protecting President Harry Truman in 1950.
    Shaw carefully examined the President’s body, looking for wounds, as everyone watched. In a few cases, he used cotton gauze and alcohol to wipe away blood in order to satisfy himself that it had not originated from the President himself. After several minutes, Shaw offered his initial conclusion, spoken to the nurse assisting him: “I see no entry wounds.”
    President Kennedy was allowed to dress and did so in the same bloody clothes that he had entered with. He had discussed trading shirts and jackets with O’Donnell, but Jackie was most adamant that he not do that: “Let them see what they’ve done.” The Kennedys resolved then to wear these clothes until this day was over.
    Shaw instructed the President to remain in Trauma One for at least an hour for observation. Kennedy said he wanted to meet privately with Nellie Connally but was told such a conversation would have to wait. She was at her husband’s side, moving with the trauma team to the OR. Kennedy nodded, turned to O’Donnell: “Right before this happened, Kenny, she said to us, ‘You can’t say Texas doesn’t love you, Mr. President.’”
    At Parkland Memorial, chaos reigned. Dallas police officers, FBI agents, and Secret Service agents were everywhere, most of them with guns drawn. An intern was nearly shot when he tried to hide in a linen closet to deal with a panic attack. Meanwhile, Agent Hill was dead, and Governor Connally was near death. Only agent Kellerman looked like he would survive. Yet, despite the blood and carnage, the President of the United States and the First Lady had been physically untouched.
    In the middle of this, Kennedy, scheduler Kenneth O’Donnell, and presidential factotum David Powers commandeered Trauma One as a temporary Oval Office, given Dr. Shaw’s instructions that the President must stay for medical reasons. Finally, Jack Kennedy heard what he wanted to hear: “Your brother is on the phone.”
    “They fucking tried to kill us,” the President told the attorney general, based on the testimony of Doctor Shaw, who had refused to leave Kennedy’s side in case he went into shock. He later said, “It was odd. Aside from the curse word, which hardly surprised me under the circumstances, it was the way he phrased it. They tried to kill us.”
    Even though Attorney General Robert Kennedy’s phone line was thought to be secure, the FBI later disclosed it had transcripts of that call. The fact that the Kennedy brothers were speaking on a line that had been wiretapped without their knowledge would later prove to be more shocking than what was actually