Burns, Paul A. Papers

Special Agent in Charge, Truman Protective Division, U.S. Secret Service, 1968-1973.

The papers of Paul A. Burns contain activity reports, administrative records, correspondence, and other materials documenting Burns’s career as an agent in the U.S. Secret Service, and especially his work with the Truman Protective Division, which was assigned to provide security for former President Harry S. Truman and Mrs. Truman in Independence, Missouri.

Size: Less than one linear foot (about 1,000 pages).
Access: Open, with the exception of one document that was partially closed by statute or by the originating agency.
Copyright: The donors gave their copyright interest in this collection to the United States of America. Documents created by U.S. government officials in the course of their duties are in the public domain. Copyright interest in other documents presumably belongs to the creators of those documents, or their heirs.
Processed by:
Updated by: Annali Cler (2016) as part of the Truman Library Internship Program; Randy Sowell (2025).
Supervising Archivists: Randy Sowell and David Clark.

The papers of Paul A. Burns contain activity reports, administrative records, correspondence, and other materials documenting Burns’s career as an agent in the U.S. Secret Service, and especially his work with the Truman Protective Division, which was assigned to protect former President Harry S. Truman and Mrs. Truman in Independence, Missouri.

The collection contains brief reports summarizing Burns’s daily activities as a Secret Service Agent from 1963 to 1973. The activity reports reflect his role in protecting Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson at the White House and during their travels, as well as his subsequent work on counterfeiting cases as an agent in the Kansas City field office. Beginning in 1966, Burns was frequently assigned to help guard former President Truman and Mrs. Truman. The reports indicate that almost all of his time from 1968 to 1973 was devoted to the Truman Protective Division in Independence, except for a few special assignments such as security service before and during the 1968 Republican National Convention in Miami Beach, Florida.

The administrative records in the collection include information about Mr. Truman’s funeral arrangements and Burns’s promotions, pay increases, and marksmanship training. The correspondence includes letters from Bess Truman and Lady Bird Johnson. The papers also contain certificates received by Burns and travel vouchers documenting his trips on official business. Biographical information in the collection includes an unpublished memoir by Burns in which he discusses his life and career in the Secret Service, his association with Mr. and Mrs. Truman, and the assassination of President Kennedy. (Burns was in Austin, Texas preparing for the President’s scheduled visit to that city when the assassination occurred in Dallas.)

The Truman Library also has records of the U.S. Secret Service (Record Group 87) relating to the protection of Mr. Truman during his Presidency.