I guess most people who read this blog regularly know that I like history, and I like John Kennedy, and I like science fiction. I combined those into an alt.history for the NBC "Dark Skies" series and now it looks like I've done it again.
What if they missed in Dallas?
Yeah, I know, I know. This is the classic "what if" and it's been done a few times. Historians love to speculate on this scenario, wondering if magically the nation would have been spared the pain of Vietnam and even Watergate. Knowing what we know now, it seems like they've missed the point. There's a new twist to the answer that wouldn't have been possible to even dream of until about a decade ago.
If he’d gotten out of Dallas alive, John Kennedy might easily have suffered the same fate as his arch-nemesis Richard Nixon -- humiliation and removal from office.
That's the premise of a novel I've been working on for over a year with Harry Turtledove who is pretty much the dean of alternative history novels. Our project is called:
And before you freak out and start calling me names, both Harry and I are life-long Democrats. We don't hate JFK. We have been as compelled by his story as anyone. We just think that this is one of the best alt.history ideas either of us has ever worked on. Our premise is pretty simple:
With the eyes of the world on the United States and the media in a frenzy, with JFK himself alive and not a martyr, an immediate investigation would have been launched into who might have been interested in killing our popular American President. Starting with the Secret Service, the blame-game would have taken on a life of its own, forcing explosive revelations in mere months that have instead dribbled out over decades. Kennedy’s reckless conduct would have become public: the lies about his medical condition, contacts with mobsters, election money-laundering, numerous attempts to assassinate foreign leaders, and even the hundreds of high-risk sexual encounters that endangered Kennedy’s safety and, by extension, our country’s security.
This alternative history novel covers the period from the November 22, 1963 near-miss assassination attempt of President Kennedy in Dallas, Texas through the events of early 1966 when the fate of John F. Kennedy was in the hands of 100 United States Senators worried about their own careers in the next election.
If you'd like to see the whole bit, just CLICK HERE or on the BANNER ABOVE to visit the site.
