"DOES HE FEEL" Wilber, Rawhide Down, 65.
"I JUST WANT TO BE SURE" Ibid.
"IF THE AWFUL-AWFUL" Ibid.
TWENTY-FOUR: The President Was Struck MY EVERY INCLINATION Untermeyer, When Things Went Right, 43.
HAVE YOU EVER KNOWN Ibid.
DRIZZLING IN WASHINGTON Untermeyer, When Things Went Right, 39. My account of the Reagan assassination attempt owes much to Chase Untermeyer's When Things Went Right and to Del Quentin Wilber's Rawhide Down, an excellent narrative of the drama of the day. Bush's own recollections, both in contemporaneous notes and in LF, 21725, were also valuable.
AT 8:55 A.M. LF, 218.
BUSH HAD ARRANGED FOR THE CIA Wilber, Rawhide Down, 49.
THEY HELICOPTERED OUT TO Untermeyer, When Things Went Right, 39.
AWAITING BUSH ABOARD THE JET Ibid., 3940.
THE FLIGHT TO FORT WORTH LF, 21819.
BUSH ASKED UNTERMEYER Untermeyer, When Things Went Right, 40.
AT ABOUT A QUARTER TO ELEVEN Ibid.
IN TEXAS THE WEATHER Ibid.
UNTERMEYER NOTED THAT Ibid.
BUSH'S FIRST STOP LF, 219220.
IN THE WHITE HOUSE, REAGAN WAS HAVING Wilber, Rawhide Down, 5860.
IN FORT WORTH, BUSH WAS DRIVEN Untermeyer, When Things Went Right, 40.
HE SPENT AN HOUR AND TWENTY MINUTES LF, 219.
JIM WRIGHT, THE HOUSE MAJORITY LEADER Untermeyer, When Things Went Right, 40; LF, 218219.
AN AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER Wilber, Rawhide Down, 132.
"ARE YOU CONTINUING" Ibid.
"WE'RE HEADING TO AUSTIN" Ibid.
A SECRET SERVICE AGENT ON THE PLANE Ibid.
ACCORDING TO THIS FIRST REPORT LF, 219. See also Wilber, Rawhide Down, 132.
"SIR, WE'VE JUST RECEIVED WORD" Wilber, Rawhide Down, 132.
"WHERE DID IT HAPPEN?" LF, 219.
"OUTSIDE THE WASHINGTON HILTON" Ibid.
IN THE INTERVAL Wilber, Rawhide Down, 7787, details the shooting itself.
GETTING OFF SIX SHOTS Ibid.
AT FIRST NO ONE, INCLUDING REAGAN Wilber, Rawhide Down, 88.
THE PRESIDENT COMPLAINED Ibid., 89.
AT THE DIRECTION OF Ibid., 91.
DOCTORS AT THE HOSPITAL Ibid., 11, 217.
AN INCH FROM HIS HEART Ibid., 139.
BARBARA BUSH LEARNED OF THE SHOOTING BB, 165.
JIM BAKER AND ED MEESE WERE Wilber, Rawhide Down, 11213.
AL HAIG REACHED BAKER Ibid., 112.
HE WOULD CONTACT BUSH Ibid.
HAIG, STILL IN HIS TRENCH COAT Ibid., 131.
"MR. VICE PRESIDENT, THIS IS" Ibid.
BUSH HEARD THAT MUCH Ibid.; LF, 220.
THEN DON REGAN LF, 220.
"ANY ATTEMPT ON" Ibid.
"WE HAVE NO WAY" Untermeyer, When Things Went Right, 41.
HE WAS HANDED THE DECODED TELEX LF, 220.
"MR. VICE PRESIDENT" Wilber, Rawhide Down, 132.
THIS WAS THE FIRST BUSH KNEW LF, 220.
"IT HAD TO OCCUR TO ME" Ibid.
"THE [HOTEL TEXAS]" Ibid.
"EVEN THE PLANE" Ibid.
ON THE ROBERT MUELLER MUNICIPAL AIRPORT Ibid., 221.; Wilber, Rawhide Down, 177.
PICKED UP THE ABC NEWS COVERAGE Wilber, Rawhide Down, 133. See also Untermeyer, When Things Went Right, 41.
"THE CRACK OF GUNFIRE" LF, 220.
THE PLANE LANDED BRIEFLY Ibid., 221.
OUTSIDE AIR FORCE TWO Untermeyer, When Things Went Right, 41; LF, 218.
ON THE GROUND IN AUSTIN, BUSH CALLED LF, 221.
"TO SAY A PRAYER" Ibid.
THE PLANE WAS SOON IN THE AIR Untermeyer, When Things Went Right, 41.
"I REALLY NEEDED" BB, 165.
"UNTIL WE HAD MORE INFORMATION" LF, 223.
"STAY CALM" Ibid.
FRED FIELDING, WAS AT WORK Wilber, Rawhide Down, 16667, 181.
"THEY'RE PREPARING PAPERS" Untermeyer, When Things Went Right, 42. See also Wilber, Rawhide Down, 16667, 181.
"HE SEEMS SO CALM" Wilber, Rawhide Down, 178.
"THERE MIGHT BE" LF, 222.
POLLARD AND MATHENY ARGUED Ibid., 224225; Untermeyer, When Things Went Right, 4142.
THE "MOST BASIC OF ALL THE RULES" Ibid., 225.
"AT THIS MOMENT" Untermeyer, When Things Went Right, 41.
"TOO SELF-IMPORTANT" Ibid., 42.
THERE WAS PRECEDENT Ibid.
"BUT WE HAVE TO THINK" Ibid.
"BY GOING STRAIGHT" LF, 224.
"THE PRESIDENT IN THE HOSPITAL" Ibid. The italics are Bush's.
"WE'LL BE COMING IN" Ibid., 22425.
AT AROUND FOUR P.M. Wilber, Rawhide Down, 17173.
"IF THE PRESIDENT" Ibid., 17273.
"I CANNOT ANSWER" Ibid., 173.
"LARRY, WHO'LL BE" Ibid.
WORRIED THAT THIS SERIES Ibid. For National Security Adviser Richard V. Allen's account of the afternoon-one based on his tapes and notes of what unfolded in the Situation Room-see "The Day Reagan Was Shot," The Atlantic, April 2001, http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2001/04/the-day-reagan-was-shot/308396/.
HE DID NOT PAUSE Wilber, Rawhide Down, 173.
OUT OF BREATH AND PERSPIRING Ibid., 174.
"I JUST WANTED" Ibid.
BILL PLANTE OF CBS Ibid., 175.
"CONSTITUTIONALLY, GENTLEMEN, YOU HAVE" Ibid.
"IS HE MAD?" Ibid.
BUSH WATCHED HAIG'S PERFORMANCE Untermeyer, When Things Went Right, 42.
AT TEN AFTER FIVE EASTERN TIME Ibid.
"IT'S HARD TO DESCRIBE" Ibid., 43. See also Wilber, Rawhide Down, 13233.
"HAVING TO BE THE PERSON" Untermeyer, When Things Went Right, 4243.
AT 6:08 P.M. LF, 223.
ED MEESE WAS CALLING Untermeyer, When Things Went Right, 43.
MEESE WOULD MEET BUSH Ibid.
"SEE YOU AT THE HOUSE" Ibid.
LOOKING OUT THE WINDOW Ibid.
THE COMBINATION OF THE SETTING SUN Ibid.
THE AIRCRAFT LANDED Ibid.
BARBARA, WITH MEESE Ibid.
UNTERMEYER AND FITZGERALD WENT Ibid.
"HAVE YOU EVER" Ibid.