The Impeachment and Trial of John F. Kennedy | Bryce Zabel & Harry Turtledove | WGAw #1119082

CHAPTER 2: DUCK & COVER (Part 1)

Winter of Our Discontent: The Impeachment & Trial of John F. Kennedy
Written by Harry Turtledove & Bryce Zabel

    Trumpeted by television, radio, and the press, Lee Harvey Oswald’s reaction to Connally’s death and Kennedy’s survival rocketed across the country.  The first reaction was often shock.  Then it expanded into a national parlor game, pondering whether his words proved he’d aimed at the President.  Finally, for most Americans, came fury.  Only the old remembered McKinley’s murder, though a few commentators did note that FDR was the target of an assassination attempt.  But that anyone should try to snuff out the life of the young, vital President struck most Americans as particularly outrageous.

    This was true in Dallas perhaps even more than elsewhere.  Police operators lost track of the number of telephoned death threats against Oswald.  They did note that almost all were for trying to kill President Kennedy, not for actually killing Governor Connally.

    The threats rose dramatically following Oswald’s reaction to discovering the President survived.  Some were explicit enough to alarm Dallas Police Chief Jesse E. Curry.  For the first weekend, the suspect stayed in a maximum-security cell on the fifth floor.  Fearing a possible lynch mob, Curry also called back off-duty policemen to help protect Police Department headquarters.

JFK's Reality Before Dallas

Our alternative-history take on a world where President Kennedy survived the assassination attempt in Dallas springboards to his likely impeachment for two reasons. The first is obvious: that without being martyred, the resulting investigation would have been much more likely to delve into details of his public and personal life that JFK had been able to keep quiet. The second is one that is not widely talked about, specifically because JFK was martyred, and that is that he had his share of political resistance before he ever got on the plane to Dallas.

Our case in point is this issue of Time magazine which was, ironically, just hitting the nation's newstands and mailboxes as the real events in Dallas unfolded. It's dated November 22, 1963.

The cover features Washington hostess Nicole Alphand, wife of then French ambassador to the U.S. Herve' Alphand. It details the capitol's social whirl, saying that from September to May there are roughly 200 official parties a month in Washington, perhaps 20 times as many private ones, and that Alphand was among the best of the dozens of hostesses keeping the champagne pouring and the canapes circulating. It's hard to imagine the French ambassador and his wife being the toast of Washington these days, isn't it?

What is arresting about this issue, however, is the political talk and the reporting that mentions President Kennedy. It's easy to look back now and think that Kennedy was a shoo-in for re-election but this issue starts out with its "Nation" section devoted to Republicans who seem to be falling over themselves for a chance to take him on.

In the late fall of 1963 the basic Republican Party facts are these: Only a year ago Nelson Rockefeller seemed to have his party nomination wrapped up, and only a month ago that same nomination appeared to be Goldwater's for the asking. But, unless it has an incumbent President seeking re-election, no party can afford to concede its highest prize so far in advance.

CHAPTER 2: DUCK & COVER (Part 2)

    Duncan woke an hour before his alarm would have gone off on Sunday morning, giving him time to buy seven different papers at the corner news stand and go over them while he watched “Meet the Press.”  The NBC show featured Attorney General Robert Kennedy.  “We are keeping all lines of communication open between the various law enforcement jurisdictions,” he told moderator Ned Brooks.  “At the same time, the Justice Department, working with Mr. Hoover’s FBI, has begun its own internal investigation.”

    The highlight to the show was Brooks’s question, “What did you and the President discuss when you first talked?”

    Bobby Kennedy paused.  “My only concern was his safety,” he said to Brooks.  “And his was that the American people should pray for Governor Connally and Special Agent Hill.  And later, of course, Officer Tippit.”

    Duncan enjoyed the show even though he wished he knew what was going on behind the scenes.  But he needed to be at St. Matthew’s Cathedral on Rhode Island Avenue within the hour.  The Kennedy family worshiped there, and they would be out in force today.  Even in a city where skyscrapers were popping up like toadstools after a rain, the big, cross-shaped red-brick building with the weathered green copper dome was a conspicuous landmark.

CHAPTER 2: DUCK & COVER (Part 3)

    In Dallas, Oswald phoned New York attorney John J. Abt, seeking his representation on the charges pending against him.  Abt declined to take Oswald as a client.  Oswald asked whom he would recommend, saying he himself preferred a lawyer from the American Civil Liberties Union.

    Abt suggested that Oswald seek the services of another New York attorney, William M. Kunstler.  Kunstler was making a name for himself by defending clients no other lawyer wanted to take on.  Oswald phoned Kunstler--he was given free access to a telephone by the Dallas Police Department.  Kunstler agreed to defend him.

    In Austin, preparations for Governor Connally’s funeral continued.  Connally’s wife, Nellie; Texas’ new governor, Preston Smith; and Secret Service agents were all involved in the planning.  The Secret Service wanted airtight security because President Kennedy would be there.  Agents feared another attempt on Kennedy’s life, and tried to talk him out of going back to Texas.  They failed.  Once Kennedy made up his mind, he did what he intended to do.  He wasn’t always right, but he had few doubts.

    The Secret Service wanted to order crowds kept to side streets, away from the funeral procession.  Nellie Connally refused. “I am not going to keep the people who elected my husband away from him,” she said.  When she threatened to go public, the Secret Service, fearing more bad publicity, yielded.

CHAPTER 3: DAMAGE CONTROL (Part 1)

    Tuesday was raw and chilly, with a biting wind blustering down from the north.  It reminded Lefkowitz how shabby his overcoat was.  One of these days, when he could afford it, he needed a new one.  On what the Ledger paid, that day was liable to be the twelfth of Never.

    As he drove his old Ford across the Potomac to Arlington, he thought it was odd how Robert E. Lee’s mansion and grounds had become the chief military burial ground for the country Lee fought so hard to defeat.  Up until 1961, the incongruity never once crossed his mind.  He wasn’t sure how he’d known Arlington was Lee’s old estate.  The Civil War centennial was more insidious than he’d thought.

    Other reporters’ cars and television trucks in front of the mansion showed he’d come to the right place.  He had a fresh notebook for the occasion.  He’d labeled it “Lefkowitz and Duncan, JFK” on the front cover.

    A lot of the mourners--the real mourners, not the professional vultures of the press--were Secret Service agents.  They were easy to spot, and not just because they sat together.  They were fairly young and tough and clean-cut.  From the pictures he’d seen of Clint Hill, the dead man fit right in.  Would they have taken a bullet the way he did?  A lot of them would have, unless Lefkowitz missed his guess.

CHAPTER 3: DAMAGE CONTROL (Part 2)

    Lefkowitz liked Senator Everett Dirksen.  He didn’t care for Dirksen’s politics; the Illinois Republican was a moderate only by the standards of his own party.  But Dirksen the man was a kick.  He had curls that came close to rivaling Harpo Marx’s.  And his voice was a pipe organ he could use for any sort of sound effect under the sun.
   
    Best of all, he knew he was a kick.  He was the biggest ham outside an Armour can.  Even when he was saying nothing, he was good for a story because of the way he said it.
   
    Today, he wasn’t saying anything.  He was saying what he would be saying a couple of days from now.  He looked and sounded as somber as a bloodhound whose grandmother had just died.  “I am going to call for an investigation,” he boomed.  “Congress needs to look into this.”  He eyed the dozen or so reporters in the small Capitol conference room.  “Why, gentlemen, do you know it’s not even a Federal crime to assassinate the President of the United States or any other official of the government?  That is--I say, that is--a shame and a disgrace.”