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Periscope by Niall O'Dowd

What if John F.Kennedy had survived Dallas 1963?- New Stephen King time travel book poses question

Posted on Wednesday, November 30, 2011 at 08:34 AM

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JFK in Dallas 1963

What if John F.Kennedy had survived the assassin Lee Harvey Oswald's bullets in Dallas on November 22 1963?

It is a question that will haunt history forever but a fascinating new book by Stephen King takes a stab at what might have happened.

King's book 11/22/63 tells the story of a time traveller, Jake Epping, who is sent back in time to prevent the murder of Kennedy.

The theory is that Kennedy would have kept America out of Vietnam, hundreds of thousands of lives would have been saved and the world would be a much better place.

No Kennedy assassination, no murder of RFK, no killing of Martin Luther King, no Black riots, etc,a kinder gentler America

It is fiction, of course,mixed with fact about the assassination and King portrays the world of Oswald, the communist sympathiser and of Dallas in 1963, with extraordinary insight .

It is 800 pages long but I found I could not put it down during the Thanksgiving weekend

Though Oswald was an avowed Cuban sympathiser he was also strangely mixed up with right wing groups, Russian expatriates and mafia types.

He was also just 22, a deeply weird guy who slept with his controlling mother until he was 11, lived in the Bronx for a time where he was diagnosed as having delusions of grandeur by a psychiatrist.

Most of the conspiracy theories arise because Oswald himself is such an insignificant figure who took down the most important man on earth. As King makes clear however, the evidence is overwhelming that he did just that acting on his own.

King does an amazing job pointing out just how much of a hothouse of hate on several different Dallas was on the eve of the Kennedy visit. There was deep racial tension, right wing and left wing feuding and a deep sense of America on the verge of a major breakdown.

All this is wonderfully drawn out and explained by King who also throws the reader a curve ball after (spoiler alert)..... the president's life is saved.

Instead of America the noble, it actually gets worse in a second Kennedy term, he is unable to drive through the civil rights legislation that Jonson was able to with his superior senate experience.

America collapses even worse than it actually did and saving Kennedy proves a disaster.

The book is a fascinating exercise in what might have been but will never be-- and more's the pity..

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riverman222 | Dec 06, 2011, 02:29 PM EST

colkelly - Sorry but I can't let you get away with passing around such inaccurate info. The first Marine Corps combat unit in vietnam was the ninth Marine Regiment - and they landed in 1965, well after President Kennedy was killed. Also, look up NASM263 issued by pres. Kennedy on oct. 11 1963 (national security action memo). This nasm called for the beginning of the phased withdrawl of troops from vietnam. President Johnson issued nasm 273 on Nov.26 1963 which revoked Kennedy's withdrawl order. When Kennedy was killed their were just over 16,000 troops in viet nam and the USA had suffered fewer than 300 Killed IN Action, some of which were lost on Pres. Eisenhower's watch. The time would come when America would have over 500,000 troops in vietnam and lose over 58,000 KIA's, but Johnson and Nixon have to answer for that. As for the rest of your comments, they are silly. JFK did pull some strings to get into the Navy, but it was to get in the fight. Compare that to present day leaders (Clinton-Bush-Cheney-Biden) and many others who pulled strings and stayed on the sidelines while others took their place in the war. I look forward to reading King's book because the world would have been much different (and better off) if Kennedy had lived. Challenging this country to put a man on the moon (which advanced technology), creating the Peace Corps, and avoiding a Nuclear War are just a few of the things JFK contributed in his short time in office. Be a Kennedy hater if you want colkelley, but nov.22 1963 was a tragedy.

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gobdawpaddy | Dec 02, 2011, 06:41 AM EST

There are many respected historians who believe Kennedy would not have escalated Vietnam, many who have written that he wanted all advisors out by early 1964 and several conspiracy theorists who belive he may have been assassinated for this reason. Several historians also speculate that the cold war would have ended much sooner had he lived, himself and Khrushchev having concluded in 1962 that nuclear war was not an option.

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colkelley | Dec 01, 2011, 09:56 AM EST

Stop the fantasy about how Kennedy would not have "kept us out of Vietnam" since the first Marines landed at Kam Ranh Bay under his orders. What would have likely happened was Old Joe Kennedy's fantasy - JFK would serve two terms, then RFK would serve two terms, then by the time Teddy was ready for his second term the American people would have made him King of America by popular acclaim and the Kennedy\s officially the Royal Family they have always believed themselves to be. Don't forget where the Kennedy thug clan came from and where they got their money - from Joe Kennedy running rum. Don't forget Joe Kennedy offered the Japanese his services as Governor of Hawaii when they conquered Hawaii (which is why he disappeared from public view) and how Joe opposed JFK joining the Navy. You're talking about a family that has proven time and again (through drug addicts, alcoholics, and murderers) that they are of the lowest moral character. The only Kennedy I ever saw who provided a ray of sunshine of what the Kennedys MIGHT have been was the late JFK, Jr. - his death was the real loss.

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Monsoonman | Nov 30, 2011, 08:05 PM EST

Interesting Niall...Of course JFK would have switched to Republican, I suppose Left leaning Stephen never went there. I have read many of his books though and am amazed at his genius to understand and portray characters.

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RedBranch | Nov 30, 2011, 12:21 PM EST

What's King doing out of Maine? Here's a question: What if Niall O'Dowd had never left Ireland? Riddle me that.

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jamieLM | Nov 30, 2011, 11:31 AM EST

JFK was taking a lot of meds for chronic back pain and Addison's, so who knows how that may have eventually affected him physically and mentally. He may not have had the health to finish out a 2nd term, or maybe, he might have failed to be re-elected in the first place if certain personal information had gotten a lot of press. I doubt LBJ would've been on the ticket to deliver Texas for JFK's 2nd term. What might have been is interesting to entertain, and the "what ifs" are endless, but it's all pure speculation - none of us will ever know for sure. I suppose that's what makes it so fascinating. Almost any scenario is plausible.

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