Thirty-five years ago today, President John F. Kennedy was killed. I wonder if the world we live in today would be different if that had not happened?

-- pshannon (pshannon@inch.com), November 22, 1998

Answers

If Kennedy had lived, the Vietnam conflict/war would have turned out differently in some way. And Vietnam was a major factor in the huge ways the U.S. changed between 1965 and 1969.

Y2K will go down in the history books as well.

-- Kevin (mixesmusic@worldnet.att.net), November 22, 1998.

In my opinion, we'd all be dead. Nothing in particular about Kennedy, but we had one chance in 100 of getting through the end of the 20th century without vaporizing ourselves into radioactive ions - and now that the danger has lessened, we are beginning to find out how close we came, and how often. We were lucky. If Kennedy had lived, everything would be different, and we'd be rolling a different set of dice. A hundred to one, we wouldn't be here.

This actually has something to do with Y2K! One of the reasons we allowed ourselves to use two-digit years for so long, was that many of us never thought we'd live to see the new millennium.

-- Ned (entaylor@cloudnet.com), November 22, 1998.

Kennedy almost got us wiped out with the Bay of Pigs fiasco. Clinton is heading us down the same road. IMHO they are both the same person, just a different era.

-- Nobody (Nobody@nobody.com), November 22, 1998.

Bay of Pigs? Don't you mean the Cuban Missile Crisis?

If Kennedy had displayed some nerve during the Bay of Pigs and deployed the USAF and Navy, Castro would be a short paragraph in Cuban history and there would never have *been* a missile crisis.

-- Leo (leo_champion@hotmail.com), November 22, 1998.

My fourth birthday, and the earliest memory I have is the sadness of that day.

-- Buddy (DC) (buddy@bellatlantic.net), November 22, 1998.

TO:Buddy (DC)

Happy Birthday Buddy.

May this one be the best that you have ever had - and the worst that you will ever have.

S.O.B.

-- sweetolebob (buffgun@hotmail.com), November 22, 1998.

Happy Birthday, Buddy!!! WOW, you're getting close to the BIG 4-oh! Your birthday next year may be VERY interesting! :-)

The point about Lincoln and Kennedy reminded me of an e-mail I just got. I've seen this before, but it's making the rounds again:

Lincoln vs. Kennedy

Abraham Lincoln was elected to congress in 1846. John F. Kennedy was elected to congress in 1946.

Lincoln was elected president in 1860. Kennedy was elected president in 1960.

The names Lincoln and Kennedy each contain seven letters.

Both were particularly concerned with civil rights.

Both their wives lost their children while living in the white house.

Both Presidents were shot on a Friday.

Both were shot in the head.

Both were shot in the presence of their wives.

The secretary of each President warned them not to go to the theater and to Dallas, respectively.

Lincoln's secretary was named Kennedy. Kennedy's secretary was named Lincoln.

Both were assassinated by southerners.

Both were succeeded by southerners.

Both successors were named Johnson.

Andrew Johnson, who succeeded Lincoln, was born in 1808. Lyndon Johnson, who succeeded Kennedy, was born in 1908.

John Wilkes Booth, who assassinated Lincoln, was born in 1839. Lee Harvey Oswald, who assassinated Kennedy, was born in 1939.

Both assassin were known by their three names.

Both names have 15 letters.

Booth ran from the theater and was captured in a warehouse. Oswald ran from the warehouse and was captured in a theater.

To cap it all off, Booth and Oswald were assassinated before their trial.

-- Gayla Dunbar (privacy@please.com), November 23, 1998.

Very different, that's why he was bumped off in the first place.

-- Andy (andy_rowland@msn.com), November 23, 1998.

Buddy: We share the same day of birth.

-- bardou (bardou@baloney.com), November 23, 1998.

If JFK had lived -- hmmmmm -- a much changed history of the Vietnam War, perhaps the beginning of a presidential dynasty -- JFK, RFK, then baby Eddy. No Nixon, no national crisis of confidence called Watergate with all that came after. (Future historians will judge Watergate, IMO, as a turning point in the history and psychology of the American Empire.) Government would be much more secretive -- all those Sunshine Laws resulted from Watergate, remember -- and the media far less ravenous.

-- JDClark (yankeejdc@aol.com), November 23, 1998.

Happy Birthday, Bardou!!!

-- Gayla Dunbar (privacy@please.com), November 23, 1998.

History repeats itself, what was so bad about breaking into the Watergate building anyway, who gives a stuff about files held by a political party. Unfortunately we still have this bloodgate, even Dianagate everythinggate business in the press. All politicians lie since they wish to impose their beliefs on most of the population. They don't only wish to, they actually do so.

-- Richard Dale (rdale@figroup.co.uk), November 23, 1998.

Well, happy mutual birthday Bardou!

-- Buddy (DC) (buddy@bellatlantic.net), November 23, 1998.