JFK, MLK, RFK & What If....

 Ask not what could have been....Fore it could have been grand

What would the World have been like now if John F. Kennedy had been able to fulfill his full term as  President? How much different would the world have been today? Would his life have changed things for the better as so many believe? For that matter, what would have happened to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and even JFK’s brother Bobby? Would he have followed in his brother’s footsteps as he had intended to in 1968 and thrown his hat into the political arena attempting to become President as well? 

These three men made a difference but they could have done so much more....

On June 6^th, 1968, Robert Francis Kennedy was assassinated while on a Presidential Campaign stop in Los Angeles. He was the third important political figure to be assassinated in the mid to late 1960’s following the assassination of his brother John F. Kennedy on November 22^nd, 1963 and, just 2 months before RFK, Martin Luther King Jr. was murdered in cold blood by a single assassin. 

He wanted freedom but on his own terms....he was taken far too soon from us

All 3 of these men were civil rights leaders in their own way. JFK was the first Catholic US President and had seen America through the Bay of Pigs and Cuban Missile Crisis. He also oversaw the forced de-segregation of the first US college in the Deep South (Alabama, among the worst in terms of civil right violations) when he forced an all-white college to allow a black student admission by sending in the National Guard to protect him and 2 other black students. His beliefs were always questioned as was his decisions as President. His assassination was the beginning of a tectonic shift in the way politics and politicians conducted themselves as the controversy and conspiracy theories mounted over who killed him (without resolution) and why.

One incident alone was not the tipping point but once Martin Luther King was murdered, followed closely by Robert Kennedy, both of whom had taken the 5 years since the death of JFK to spur the civil rights movement forward, demanding equality and freedom for all peoples under law, things were beginning to change. Much too quickly it would appear for some people at that time.

Dr.  Martin Luther King Jr. had been an advocate of peaceful resistance to government actions against their protests for equality and freedom in the South and had been vilified by the all white media as well as many US congressman and State Governors, who feared that the same protests and demands of the Black community in Alabama would migrate to their States. In essence, Alabama was the frontline state where civil rights activists and racists alike had drawn a line in the sand and Martin Luther King was considered to be the most influential leader in the civil rights movement at the time. He was the General fighting the good fight peacefully on the front lines.

This battle for equality would prove to be the most important battle in US history with both Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy fighting against the establishment.  This put both men firmly in the cross hairs of many different factions that all supported the continuation of the status quo, wherein white men had all the power and everyone else was subjugated under their “rule”.

The argument could be made that their assassinations actually spurred on the civil rights movement faster than it would have asserted itself had the two men actually lived. I strongly disagree with this notion and, in fact, when you add in the survival of JFK as well, I firmly believe that the world we live in today would have been vastly different on a multitude of levels. Lets start with a simple premise and go with the concept of “What if…”

What if JFK had not been shot and killed in Dallas on November 22^nd, 1963?

I believe that it was clear in his 3 years as President that JFK was unafraid to make the big decision. He was, after all, the one who gave the go ahead for the Bay of Pigs fiasco. At the same time, he learned from that error in judgment and was able to successfully navigate the world through the Cuban Missile Crisis only a year later, averting what was surely going to be a nuclear war with the Soviet Union through an intelligent blockade of Russian ships to Cuba where the Soviets had been stockpiling long range nuclear missiles aimed at New York and Washington. The biggest error JFK made was not reigning in Bobby when it came to his crusade as Attorney General, against organized crime. Let’s say for this blog’s sake, that he was in fact able to control Bobby’s ambition and get him to tone down his vigilance against them. Not only do I believe that he wouldn’t have become a target to mobsters all over the country, but he would have also shown that special Presidential quality that supersedes everything, even family.

It is my belief that JFK would have easily won a 2^nd term in office in 1964, meaning that Lyndon Johnson and his war-mongering cohorts would not have been able to push the USA into a war in Vietnam to the same extent that we actually saw. While it is very probable that the US would have still been involved in some capacity in the region, given how the Bay of Pigs had gone, it is doubtful that JFK would have lept in, feet first, into another conflict halfway around the world simply at the behest of his military advisors, of whom he was already suspicious of to begin with.

The fact he never ws able to become President cost us so much in the long run...

So rather than sending thousands of drafted young men to their deaths (the average age of the men who fought in Vietnam was 19), JFK would have taken a more cautious approach and, given how he had used radical strategy to avoid nuclear war during the Cuban Missile Crisis, who’s to say that the same type of outside-the-box thinking wouldn’t have resurfaced against the Vietnamese Government as well?

Going back to 1961, JFK was the one who forced integration in the Southern US College system when he used the National Guard to protect the first Black students to enroll it what had been previously an all white institution. Given how he handled that situation, it is logical to assume that the demands being made by people like Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King would not have fallen on deaf ears all throughout the 1960’s. Segregation of the school system would have been the next major domestic issue JFK would have tackled, removing Martin Luther King from the line of fire in the sense that his demands would no longer have been termed to be so subversive to the culture of the time.

I believe that had JFK lived, he would have been the first sitting President to denounce segregation and call for full civil rights for all citizens, regardless of race.  It is my firm belief that given the way in which he governed in his short 3 years in office, JFK would have been a transcendent President who would have pushed the government into forcing them to acknowledge the rights and liberties of all of its citizens’ regardless of their race.

While this may have taken some of the revolutionary aspects of Dr. King’s life away (and most likely prevented his assassination in the process), Dr. King would have still been seen as a pioneer for his new role in helping States complete their integration process. I could easily see that once the dangers of his fight were taken away, Dr. King would have been freed up to focus on the important aspects of the civil rights fight. He would have become the first Black man to have the ear of a sitting President as I believe JFK would have found an important role for him to play in the transition from the past to the future of race relations in American history.

These two men should have been allowed to push their agendas through the White House

With the increased race relations and the smaller role of America in Vietnam under JFK, Bobby Kennedy’s role reduced (or restricted), I believe he would have chosen to leave JFK’s cabinet and ventured out into the private sector as a lawyer. That flirtation would have lasted all of about 8 years as it is more than likely that after his brother left office, Nixon would have won the next election and attempted to make up for lost time with regards to Vietnam.

The American people would have become disenfranchised with him very quickly and, after 4 years, in 1972, Bobby Kennedy would have entered into the race and won the Presidency back. Dr. King would have seen much of his hard work pushed aside under Nixon and returned to his roots and continued to mount pressure on the Government not to turn back the clock to the pre-JFK days. Dr. King’s influence would have been especially strong during the 4 years of Nixon’s uneventful Presidency.

Two great men who could have had an even larger role in our history

With Bobby as the new President-elect of 1972, the next 8 years start to look as if they could be great for the country on so many levels. Bobby always was more open to innovative ideas and willing to look at things from a different perspective, even more so then his Brother. In terms of civil liberties, he would ensure that the gains made under JFK would be expanded upon. Dr. King would have been able to once again revert back into the “peace-time general” he would have been under JFK’s full 8 year Presidency and continue to build upon his own personal legacy of peaceful change.

If all of these actions had been the way our history had played out, Dr. King would have made someone like Malcolm X pointless in the sense that Dr. King himself would have been able to secure the changes he and many others fought so hard to gain without having to resort to violence to get them. Groups like the Black Panthers wouldn’t have been necessary. The Nation of Islam and their grip on the Black community in the early 1960’s to mid 1970’s wouldn’t have been nearly as tight as it was. Violent protest and police crackdowns on innocent people wouldn’t have been the norm in many of the larger US Cities like Detroit, New York and particularly in the Bay Area.

Bobby was a man who didn't see colour when he looked at people

Bobby Kennedy would have been an even more influential and dynamic President then his brother because of the way he looked at things through a different lens. A father of 9, an attorney who knew more than just what the text books said about how to interpret law, he was a determined and focused man who once set to task, was like a pit-bull on a bone. His experience as a lawyer had taught him that there was always 3 sides to every story and so there were always 3 ways of doing things; the right-wing way, the left-wing way and the way in between where both sides make concessions in order to achieve a higher goal. In politics, the middle road is the one that always makes headway, something the current US Congress needs to remember as they stall and bicker with President Obama time and again just because they can.

It is absolutely frightening to think of the dominos that fell after the deaths of these 3 historic figures. The way the world would have evolved instead if even one of them, particularly JFK, had not been murdered, would have altered much of how we look at the world today and how we look back on the events of the recent American history.  If JFK had not been gunned down in cold blood, Dr. King and Bobby wouldn’t have either (in my estimation) as JFK’s Presidency would have paved the way for a much brighter future.

More emphasis would have been placed on technology and innovation as it was JFK himself who demanded of NASA that America be the first nation on earth to visit the Moon setting off a space race that the Americans ultimately won 6 years after his murder. He was a fair man politically and would have fought for Civil rights of all people of all races. He would have forced more schools to acquiesce to the Federal Government and de-segregate faster than Lyndon Johnson did when he took over as President. His actions would have forced states to recognize the equality of all its citizens sooner without the unnecessary strife and bloodshed that transpired from the early 1960’s up until the mid to late 1970’s (and still goes on in some small pockets of the Deep South).

 In a private moment, we can only imagine what might have been...

If Bobby had been able to become President in 1972, something tells me America would be in a much better position globally then they find themselves today. The oil shortage of the mid to late 1970’s would have created a new form of race as I firmly believe that Bobby would have had the foresight to try and diversify the energy resources and supplies of the US. I really believe that he would have had the wherewithal to start looking alternative energy sources or possibly cutting an energy pact with OPEC before they became the Oil Cartel they are today.

While there are some aspects of society today that these three men would not have been able to change alone just with their presence (like our materialistic society, the influence of corporations on government are just 2 such examples), I think it is quite clear that these men were taken from us at far too soon a time for the good of the world in general. These men are viewed through the lens of history are seen as 3 of the most influential men of the 20^th century. Had they lived instead of being murdered for their ideals, not only would the United States have been a much better place for it, but the world in general would have been in a much more secure and fundamentally sound place.

Who knows, with the cultural influences that these men had on our society in death, their influence in life may have been even greater. We may have even had the chance to have avoided ever seeing people like the Kardashians on TV as we could have had a much more intelligent use for the medium then that with which we are using it now.

One could only dream….