Just 2 Seconds (57 page)

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Authors: Gavin de Becker,Thomas A. Taylor,Jeff Marquart

631.
Date: August 8, 1962
Target: President Charles De Gaulle
Location: Paris, France
Details: OAS terrorists planned to shoot De Gaulle in his car as he traveled to the airport to greet former U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower. A civilian car got in the way as the motorcade approached, and the terrorists aborted their plan.

632.
Date: February 1963
Target: President Charles De Gaulle
Location: Paris, France
Details: A plot was uncovered to assassinate De Gaulle during the Ecole Militaire ceremonies. A sniper on a rooftop was to kill De Gaulle, but for unreported reasons, the attack did not occur.

633.
Date: July 1, 1966
Target: President Charles de Gaulle
Location: Orly Airport, France
Details: De Gaulle was being driven to the airport. A group planted a car, containing a ton of dynamite, within inches of the road along the route. The night before the attack, the plotters were all arrested after an armed robbery. The robbery was an attempt to steal enough money to disappear after the assassination.

634.
Date: February 1966
Target: Vice President Hubert Humphrey
Location: Australia
Details: Peter Kocan, a 19-year-old student, planned to assassinate Humphrey with a sawed-off shotgun, during his visit to Australia. Due to Secret Service precautions, Kocan was unable to get close enough.
(2-STARS: Protective Strategies or Resources at the scene favorably influenced safety/survival.)

635.
Date: April 5, 1967
Target: Vice President Hubert Humphrey
Location: West Berlin, Germany
Details: Humphrey was the target of a failed murder plot for which eleven conspirators were arrested.

636.
Date: 1968
Target: Governor Ronald Reagan
Location: Sacramento, California
Details: Governor Reagan, then a presidential candidate, was awakened one morning by the sound of gunfire. Running down the hall of his Sacramento home in his pajamas, he was met by a Secret Service agent who explained that two men with a firebomb had been spotted outside his children's bedroom.
(2-STARS: Protective Strategies or Resources at the scene favorably influenced safety/survival.)

637.
Date: July 9, 1971
Target: President Alejandro Lanusse
Location: Argentina
Details: More than a dozen RPA men and women were arrested in a plot to kill Lanusse and Uruguay President Jorge Areco, while both were reviewing a military parade. The plan called for a tank truck loaded with gas to be detonated near the reviewing stand.

638.
Date: January 12, 1971
Target: Secretary of State Henry Kissinger
Location: Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
Details: Six defendants were indicted for a plot to kidnap Kissinger, and blow up the heating systems of federal buildings in Washington, D.C. Their plan was to dynamite five locations in Washington's underground tunnels.

639.
Date: April 22, 1972
Target: President Richard Nixon
Location: Ottawa, Canada
Details: Having traveled to Canada with the intent to assassinate Nixon, Arthur Bremer heard the motorcade route announced over the radio. He attempted to get into the arrival site at a military airport, but was denied access because he didn't have a military ID. He saw numerous police officers, RCMP officers, and Secret Service agents along the route. He asked a police officer where he could stand to watch the president and was directed to an empty gas station along the motorcade route. Bremer waited in a small crowd with a .38 revolver in his pocket. In his diary, he described one Secret Service agent as "Mr. Moustache," and wrote:
"I exchanged looks at the Mr. Moustache, my gun inside my pocket. Fantasied [sic] killing Nixon while shooting right over the shoulder of that cop."
As Nixon's motorcade sped past, Bremer did not get the chance for a clear shot. Police and Secret Service agents prevented cars from following the motorcade. Bremer described it as "a neatly run operation." He blamed anti-war demonstrators for causing security to be so tight.
(2-STARS: Protective Strategies or Resources at the scene favorably influenced safety/survival.)

640.
Date: April 22, 1972
Target: President Richard Nixon
Location: Ottawa, Canada
Details: Nixon was scheduled to give a speech at the Parliament Building, and Bremer waited outside with a gun in his pocket. Bremer planned to shoot Nixon if he shook hands with people in the crowd (which he didn't). Bremer saw the motorcade drive past and thought about shooting the car. He later wrote in his diary:
"Waiting for him to come out that last time I even thought of killing as many SS men as I could. Because I was pissed at them & myself & Nixon killing 5 or 6 Secret Service agents would get me in the papers SOMETHING to show for my effort. Killing 'em right in front of Nixon -- dig it? I wasn't sure my flat-tipped .38's would go thru the bullet-resistant glass. Didn't want to get emprisoned [sic] or killed in an unsuccessful attempt. To have absolutely nothing to show -- I couldn't take that chance." (2-STARS: Protective Strategies or Resources at the scene favorably influenced safety/survival.)

641.
Date: May 13, 1972
Target: Governor (Presidential Candidate) George Wallace
Location: Dearborn, Michigan
Details: Unable to get close enough to President Nixon, Bremer decided to kill Wallace. At a rally in Dearborn, Bremer stood in a crowd with his .38 revolver in his pocket. He glimpsed Wallace standing backstage, but did not attack because he would have to shoot through a window that separated the crowd from the stage.
(2-STARS: Protective Strategies or Resources at the scene favorably influenced safety/survival.)

642.
Date: May 14, 1972
Target: Governor (Presidential Candidate) George Wallace
Location: Cadillac, Michigan
Details: Bremer attended a Wallace rally in a high school gymnasium. He later described the scene in his diary:
"Two SS men flank the stage on each side as Wally talks, center stage behind his usuall [sic] high bullet-resistant podium. More agents flank the crowd & stage entrence [sic]. Bored gargoyles. Unmoving. Unemotional. Searching. One with a coat on his lap. Rifle inside? I am, at the very most, 35 feet from my target. In the 5th row. Too far to risk. Need a sure shot ... I want to get closer. Shake Hands. Shake Hands, I cry."
Wallace departed the rally without approaching the crowd.
(2-STARS: Protective Strategies or Resources at the scene favorably influenced safety/survival.)

643.
Date: October 17, 1972
Target: President Ferdinand Marcos
Location: Manila, Philippines
Details: Four assassins -- two armed with rifles -- were arrested in a car outside the palace grounds in a plot to kill Marcos.
(2-STARS: Protective Strategies or Resources at the scene favorably influenced safety/survival.)

644.
Date: March 4, 1973
Target: Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir
Location: New York, New York
Details: Khaled Jassem, an Iraqi national who worked as a PLO official in Cyprus, was accused of planting bombs in rented cars parked outside the El Al facility at Kennedy Airport and two Israeli banks, during Meir's one-day visit to New York. The bombs failed to go off, because of faulty detonators. The FBI identified Jassem as a member of the Black September and Fatah terrorist groups.

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