Six Shots at a Nation's Heart

April 13, 1981 TIME Cover: Moment of Madness
What Happened and Why Can It Never Be Stopped?

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telephone call from Deaver at the hospital. The President was not wounded, said Deaver, but Brady was badly hurt. "Oh, Jesus!" exclaimed Meese, listening on an extension.

Presidential Aide David Fischer took over the telephone at the hospital to keep the line open. Secretary of State Alexander Haig called Baker on another phone to ask about the shooting. "I will keep you advised," said Baker. Two minutes later, Deaver was on the hospital phone, speaking in somber tones. Then Reagan's personal physician, Dr. Daniel Ruge, came on to deliver the bad news: the President had been hit after all.

In rapid succession, Treasury Secretary Donald Regan—whose department includes the Secret Service—Haig and others joined the group of White House staffers in Baker's office. Initially, there was little talk of military alerts or providing for a transfer of power; they discussed such matters as notifying Brady's wife and Reagan's children. Meese suggested that he and Baker go to the hospital. It was a questionable move, since it separated the dominant troika (Meese, Baker and Deaver) from the Situation Room in the White House. Recalled one participant: "Meese was like a rock. Baker was shaken."

While the troika set up a mini-command post at the hospital, Haig, Regan, Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger and National Security Adviser Richard Allen moved to the Situation Room in the White House basement. It has elaborate communications links to U.S. military commanders and embassies throughout the world. CIA Director William Casey and Attorney General William French Smith soon joined the group.

Only Haig had been through a crisis in Government before. One of his first acts was to reach Bush. Since the telephone link was poor, Haig said that he would send a wire by a secure radiophone telecopier that Bush should read immediately. The message: "Mr. Vice President, the President has been struck."

"We're going to refuel in Austin and go back." Then he wondered aloud: "How could anybody want to kill such a kind-hearted man?"

When Bush's plane landed in Austin, Secret Service agents insisted he stay on board. Recalled one of his aides there:

"The first thing on our minds was security. If they got the President in Washington, were they waiting for the Vice President in Austin?" Texas Governor William Clements and his wife visited Bush as the plane was refueled. Then it headed from Texas back to Washington.

At 3:10 p.m., some 35 minutes after the Secret Service had learned that Reagan had been shot, the White House finally informed the press of the injury. That delay, and others that followed, contributed to a sense of confusion as television networks, breaking off regular programming, struggled to sift fact from rumor.

Haig contributed to the tension when, with the best of intentions, he sought to clear up any potential confusion about whether the U.S. Government was functioning, particularly among America's allies—and enemies—abroad. He was in the Situation Room about 4 p.m.

when Speakes gave reporters in the White House a brief explanation of Reagan's presurgery treatment at the hospital.