Rawhide Down: The Near Assassination Of Ronald Reagan By Del Quentin Wilber

"Rawhide Down: The Near Assassination of Ronald Reagan" by Del Quentin Wilber reads like a thriller, but is entirely true. The entire book focuses on one single day: March 30, 1981. The day that President Reagan walked out of a hotel in Washington, D.C., after giving a short speech, and was shot by would-be-assassin John W. Hinckley, Jr. I, like most people, know of the assassination attempt. And as someone who met President Reagan, and has studied our former president more than many, I thought I knew a fair amount about that near tragic day. I sure didn't know the entire story, and now, thanks to Wilber, an award-winning reporter for "The Washington Post," I and everyone else can know the rest of the story, the entire story.Through a ton of research, Wilber was able to write a detailed history about that single day. This book explores all of the key players and the important roles they played in saving President Ronald Reagan's life. The story also shows just how close our c
ountry was to losing another president to an assassin's bullet.Again, it reads like a thriller, not a newspaper report. Wilber did not just relay the facts of the incident, but delves into each of the main character's life, motivations, feelings, and thoughts on that eventful day. This includes the President himself, the Secret Service agents protecting him, and saving him that day, all of the hospital staff that tended to and operated on the President, and saved his life. Wilber also explores what was going on with Hinckley himself, as well as others in the White House and how they reacted to the news of the shooting.Wilber tells this electrifying story at an incredible pace, turning that single day into a page turner, even though you know that the President lives in the end. He paints a picture that show the heroic actions of the Secret Service agent who saved the president's life. (It's scarey to think that if that agent had made the wrong decision, we may have lost the P
resident.) We learn of the others who were shot, and how the surgeons worked to save not only President Reagan, but the others as well.I've learned a lot by studying about Ronald Reagan, and I still cherish the half hour I spent with him in 1993. "Rawhide Down" is an excellent book to add to the works on the 40th President, and I recommend it for anyone who has an interest in President Reagan naturally, but also for anyone wanting a thrilling read about a true assassination attempt and how all the pieces fit together to make it the "Near Assassination of Ronald Reagan."

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