Is it not a fact that probably the greatest deterrent that you have is the very fact that the public knows that there is a Secret Service?
Mr. Rowley. Yes, sir.
Representative Boggs. That you do guard the life of the President. And that the chances of an assassin escaping with his own life are pretty remote. So this psychological weapon is one of the things you rely on?
Mr. Rowley. That is correct.
Representative Boggs. And you must necessarily keep a degree of secrecy about the methods you employ.
Mr. Rowley. Yes, sir; otherwise they could develop countermethods, to thwart anything we might set up.
Representative Boggs. Exactly. Thank you very much.
Mr. Rankin. Chief Rowley, do you in the Secret Service obtain the benefit of cooperation with other governmental agencies in the protection of the President?
Mr. Rowley. We receive cooperation from every agency. If I may name a few—we were scheduled to visit Puerto Rico in 1948 or 1947—I am not quite certain—with President Truman, who was then vacationing at Key West. We had no office in Puerto Rico at the time. We did not know the situation other than that it could be sticky because of the Nationalist Party of Puerto Rico.
(At this point, Representative Boggs withdrew from the hearing room.)