What would have happened if RFK lived?

[coloradodem2005]

What would a timeline with RFK alive have been like?

[LastKnight]

1. more civil rights legislation faster? nt

[villager]

2. I think it was more of a definitive crossroads for the U.S.

...than JFK's assassination.

The country grows in an entirely different direction after RFK wins the '68 election...

Especially coming right after the, um, "lone nuts" killed King, too... That kind of finished off the idea of America being able to heal itself in any meaningful way...

[gauguin57]

3. Fewer heads cracked open

at the '68 convention. RFK in office from 1969-76. The whole country would look different. We'd probably have gotten out of Vietnam earlier. Fewer names on the wall. Peace and prosperity.

No Watergate, so Woodward and Bernstein would be just another couple of reporters. Henry Kissinger would have been just a WANNABE war criminal instead of a real one. Who knows who might have run in 1976, on either side of the aisle.

And maybe Teddy would have had to watch his behavior more closely, being the brother of the president again. Mary Jo Kopechne might still be alive, and maybe so would Teddy's presidential hopes.

[progdonkey]

4. everything would have been different

RFK would have surely won the election, resulting in Nixon's leaving politics (losing to two different Kennedys in one decade is a bit much!); we would have left Vietnam much earlier. The Civil Rights Act would still have been passed. The Liberal and Progressive ideal would've been kept alive through the years. I would even wager that, barring any scandal under RFK, we wouldn't have even gotten Reagan ten years later.

The day RFK was shot was a day where everything really did change.

[H2O Man]

5. It reminds me of the old saying

that if one thing was different, everything would be different. To start with, the Chicago convention would not have occured in the violent manner it did -- it is hard to accurately determine how much damage that did to the party, and to America. One can only speculate who he would have selected as his VP, and the consequences of that choice in 1976, (assuming RFK was re-elected in '72). He would have negotiated a settlement in Vietnam by 1970.

RFK had a strained relationship with LBJ, yet there is no question that the great Society would have benefitted from the end of the war, and the change of investment of national resources. His personal relationship with MKL had some past strains, yet he shared the same dream and goals. RFK also had had his eyes opened by some of the traditional Native American leaders.

Our relationship with Central America would have been another important focus. If you take his growing awareness of Indian "issues" in our country, and look at Central America, you can see what direction he would have taken us there.

Many people say that the 11-22-63 killing of JFK was a coup. It really wasn't. The "system" merely got back on track, having rid itself of the problem that threatened it. JFK being elected had actually been the "coup." Malcolm going to the UN represented a similar threat; he was removed. No one in real power gave a shit if MKL sat next to a white man in a coffee shop or public toilet; when he threatened the economic system, he was removed. RFK was, in my opinion, the face that represented the combined threat of these three. If he hadn't been killed in CA, it would have happened the next week, or a few days later.