The Secret Service

As the Civil War came to its end, the U.S. faced an immense counterfeiting crisis: Between on-third to one-half of the printed money in circulation in 1865 was fake. Part of the problem was that until 1862, each state designed and printed its own money. So, on July 5, 1865, the Secret Service Division of the Treasury Department was formally established and given the mission of restoring"public confidence in the money of the country" by finding and arresting counterfeiters. The spring of 1894 was the first time agents were assigned to the White House to protect the president. But this was actually illegal, and outraged Congress when they discovered it. It was not until 1906, five years after President McKinley's assassination, that Congress authorized the use of public funds to protect "the person of the President of the United States." And it wasn't until 1951, after two would-be assassins burst into Blair House (where President Harry Truman was temporarily living while the White House was being renovated) and fought a blazing gun battle with agents, that Congress permanently authorized--and funded--the Secret Service to protect the president. Since then, the Service's dual function of protecting the country's money and its president has continued to complicate the work of the agency and the lives of its agents. Today, in America after 9/11, the complications have become more severe. And that's why this book is so important now. -- Inside jacket flaps.