Older Americans: Had JFK lived, where do you think his presidency would have led the states?

We may have avoided such a large involvement in Vietnam. We may have avoided becoming a debtor nation. Our system of social welfare programs may have been implemented differently, bringing us more in line with the Social Democracies of western Europe rather than the very expensive, inefficient patchwork we have today, especially in the realm of national health insurance, Medicaid and Medicare.

The 11 years between the Kennedy assassination and the Nixon resignation were neck snapping.
That we could have avoided all that, with a softer transition is another element of the tragedy.
and by the way, the conspiracy theories are not boring.

It’s hard to say, he was a good person supposedly, but had some kind of stimulant problem as Robert took cocaine from him after his death. It was attributed to his chronic pain.

And remember, he was part of a powerful, entitled family. My mom thinks he was wonderful and would have changed the world though.

Whether conspiracy theories are boring or not is a matter of opinion, you should leave it at that.

I just watched a news item, one of many aired today no doubt, & the cross on the road indicating where the fatal shot hit has been removed. Every documentary i’ve seen has the cross in place, anyone know when it was removed?

@filmfan, Wow. I didn’t realize there was only 11 years between those two events. I was so young it seemed like a lifetime!

I don’t know. Any speculation on my part would probably be wrong – or at least biased, because JFK, the first president I was old enough to vote for, was one of my early heroes. All I do know is that yesterday when I heard a scratchy recording on NPR of Boston Symphony Orchestra conductor Erich Leinsdorf announcing at the November 22, 1963 concert that the president was dead and hearing the wave of gasps from the audience, I literally choked up and felt tears in my eyes. That horrible event was half a century ago, but the memories that came rushing back and the emotions they brought up were as fresh as on that day and many days that followed. (I was a young adult in 1963, a Texan, working in NY for a major newspaper.)

Leinsdorf went on to say that despite the orchestra’s wishes to halt the concert he insisted they go on because, when his father died, it was at a concert where he found consolation, and he hoped this audience would find similar consolation in the piece they were about to perform.

NPR story here

@Pachyderm_In_The_Room Wow. ^^^That was poignant. Thanks.

@Espiritus_Corvus, thank YOU.

@ucme, the X’s on the street were removed long ago, but people keep painting them back. One expert claims that one of the X’s is fairly near the right point, but they honestly can no longer be considered accurate.
@Pachyderm_In_The_Room what a special story you have!
Me, I was in diapers when it happened. I remember my mommy :) putting me in front of the tv so she could clean my lunch mess in peace. There was lots of people and it got my attention. Suddenly my mom came into the room screaming, and I jumped. Then she was on her knees, crying and denying. I got very frightened and tried to crawl on her lap, such as it was, but she pushed me away. From what I could gather, I thought my daddy had died. When the funeral procession aired, I still hadn’t seen my daddy., he was a trucker. Somebody visiting to watch it on our tv pointed out John John and told me it was HIS daddy. I went from feeling miserable for me, to miserable for him.
How would things have been different? We had a royal family. If he lived, his affair(s) would have come out. It would have had an awful effect. No telling how effective he would have been in office for a while. It might have lit a fire under him though, to achieve something really special to get the love back. Maybe it was like the tower of Babel though. Maybe they were too much like a royal family, and this country was just never meant to have a king. The tower just HAD to come down. I think it’s very sad, but I guess lots of people expected lots more from him than I would have.

Exactly where it is now.

Cheers @Jonesn4burgers & nice one @Pachyderm_In_The_Room

@Pachyderm_In_The_Room Thank you for that. I was not born yet when it happened. But that just gave me chills.

Thank you, @anniereborn, @Jonesn4burgers and @Espiritus_Corvus. Here’s a P.S.

It was 3 a.m. when I finally left work. I was exhausted physically and emotionally, so instead of riding the subway uptown from Times Square as I normally did – heaven knows there was nothing normal about that day—I took a cab. I was feeling guilty about being from Texas and opened up about that to the cabbie. I remember how kind he was. He assured me that he understood my feelings and sympathized, but that while I was right to feel sorrow, I should not feel guilt simply because I was a Texan; he knew people all over the state and especially Dallas were as horrified as I was and feeling exactly the same way. It wasn’t a lot to make me feel better somehow it did – at least for the amount of time I was in the cab.

Erm, un-be-li-ev-ab-le

@ucme, curious—does your comment relate to mine, and if so, what does it mean?

Indeed sir, yes it does in so much as you thanking folks for their appreciation of your post, all except me…what does that mean?

I guess that Cuba would have been invaded and Castro killed, and a resulting war with Russia and nukes being used. Also the space race would have been put on the back burner for stuff like Star Wars anti-missile shields .

My most humble apology, @ucme. Honestly, I didn’t see it. I thank you a million times.

Tee-hee, a hint of sarcasm, loving it :)
Seriously though, I guessed that you might have missed it, but I must confess to stamping my feet & sucking my thumb, but only for a moment.

No, I really meant it, @ucme. I like to acknowledge my jelly friends. Peace and cheers.

Huffington Post article:

What Would The World Look Like If JFK Survived?

I just stumbled across a marvelous quote…

We can all agree that history would be totally different if history had been totally different.

Kennedy would have been elected to a second term and from there everything would have been different. He would no doubt have pulled the troops out of Viet Nam, seeing the futility of having them there. And SE Asia would not have fallen to the Communists as some predicted.
Lyndon Johnson would have been forced to resign as VP as part of the fallout from a scandal involving pal Bobby Baker. Eventually, late in his term, thanks to some back-door diplomacy, relations between the US and Russia would have thawed and the US would have established some type of diplomatic relations with China – something Nixon eventually did.
And yes, we would have made it to the Moon during JFK’s lifetime. Oh yeah, Bobby would have run in ‘72 and been overwhelmingly elected.
Overall, the world would be a much different place than it is now.