— Musings —11.22.2023 02:12 AM
Sixty years ago today
What would the world have been, had he not been killed? What would have been different? What would have stayed the same?
Sixty years.
— Musings —11.22.2023 02:12 AM
What would the world have been, had he not been killed? What would have been different? What would have stayed the same?
Sixty years.
What would have been different?
Well, for starters, there would have not been thousands of American lives lost in Viet Nam.
JFK signed an executive order to bring all troops home 10 days before his death.
LBJ reversed the order, with a little prodding from the CIA and the military-industrial complex.
Stephen King imagined it in 11/22/63. Hero goes back in time to prevent the assassination and maybe prevent the Vietnam War. Instead(from wiki):
“Once in the future, Jake discovers that Earth has become a wasteland after a nuclear war in 1974, and that natural disasters occur regularly. Through a conversation with Harry Dunning, alive in this timeline, he finds out that many historical tragedies such as the Jonestown incident happened with an increased death toll, and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was never passed. The planet is on the verge of collapse, and many countries are involved in various recurring nuclear wars.”
Maybe Mary Jo Kopechne would still be alive?
Warren,
Like most of us, JFK was a lot more flawed than the public knew nor than he let on. Unfortunately for him, he was the son most like the old antisemite bastard Joe Kennedy in more ways than one. RFK saw the light in the wake of JFK’s assassination and changed his game for the better. In short, so much for the Camelot fantasy. Both were a lot more like LBJ than we would have imagined.
Which is ironic given that his Catholicism was an issue in the 1960 campaign.
Martin,
That was way beyond stupid. Rose was the only real Catholic in that family. The men behaved as if they were Catholic but quite pointedly weren’t really by any stretch of the imagination. We are what we do, not what we preach.
In short, Protestant clergy and evangelicals were concerned that JFK might view his duty to the Holy Father (Pope) and Catholic doctrine ahead of his duty as President.
JFK went on the record to dispel such doubts and lived up to his pledge.