Officially titled The United States Secret Service or USSS, the organization has been around since 1865. The USSS agents are way more than just bodyguards and there are probably a couple things that you didn’t know about them.
1. The USSS was created on April 14, 1865 by the 16th president of the United States. However, at the beginning, they were not responsible for protecting the President.
Ironically, Abraham Lincoln was shot and assassinated by John Wilkes Booth the very same day the secret service was created while he was attending the theater.
2. The original purpose for the USSS was to act as a treasury department. This was considered important because counterfeit currency was a problem that threatened to harm the American economy.
It wasn’t until later when more attacks were made towards the President that it was informally requested that the USSS also handle the President’s protection.
3. USSS agents started to watch over the President at all times after the assassination of President William McKinley in 1901.
When presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy was shot by Sirhan Sirhan, they began to look after presidential and vice-presidential candidates as well in 1968. When Barack Obama was running, he received protection a year and a half before election day, which is the earliest in history.
4. Despite dealing with thousands of death threats and still managing to prevent any harm, only one secret service agent has died on the job.
In 1950, the White House was undergoing renovations. During that time, the current president Harry Truman was staying elsewhere. One night, two Puerto Rican nationalists stormed the house to attempt an assassination.
5. Even though this might be hard to believe, the United States has never had a traitor within their USSS.
This is pretty impressive compared to the CIA, FBI, and NSA which have all been infiltrated by foreign spies.
6. The same way it’s usually depicted in movies and television, secret service agents use interesting code names to refer to people and locations such as the president, first lady, and white house.
They refer to the White House as ‘Castle’ and the Pentagon as ‘Calico.’ John and Jackie Kennedy were called ‘Lancer and Lace,’ and Ronald and Nancy Reagan were known as ‘Rawhide and Rainbow.’
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