I always think if JFK had not been assassinated...

[jodymarie aimee]

he would have had a 2nd term...Bobby would have been elected...Nixon would never had gotten ahold of America power....nor any of the Rs...citizens would live and prosper under Democratic admins and have no need of the R brand at all..no Reagan no Bushes and certainly no you know who...

[Reggie18]

1. And no Vietnam War

I think JFK would have pulled the plug early on.

[FarPoint]

3. History shares..

In 1961.. President Kennedy sent 400 Special Forces and advisers to South Vietnam...and so it begins....

1965 President Johnson sent the first deployment of troops...

[shanny]

2. And no CIA.

Which in my view has always caused more trouble than it prevented.

[PJMcK]

4. Sorry, it's impossible to speculate

There are far too many variables to make a reasonable guess as to what our history would have been. However, had President Kennedy not been assassinated, we would be living in a very different world.

Stephen Sondheim wrote a musical called "Assassins" with a scene that addresses the Kennedy murder. For context, Oswald (in the white tee shirt) is in the book depository where he is visited by the spirits of those who tried or succeeded in killing a president. They are prodding him to go ahead with his plan. Booth has the thick mustache and is holding the rifle.

As a side note, it's an odd confluence of days that the joy of Thanksgiving falls on the 55th anniversary of one of the saddest days in our history.

[brush]

5. I'd like to think JFK would've also worked with MLK on civil right as LBJ did.

[former9thward]

6. I think he would have gotten a second term.

But Bobby would not have been elected. Americans have gone back and forth between R and D presidents for 160 years now. That would not change.

[elocs]

7. Why do we so often assume that if we change something bad

that would ensure the future would be better, because it ain't necessarily so?
Beware the Law of Unintended Consequences.

[edhopper]

8. Bobby would have been President

if he hadn't been murdered.
I always questioned why that happened in Nixon's home State.

I think JFK would have gotten a second term. He probably would not have gone into a full war in Vietnam like Johnson, though the Pentagon Papers showed that was always the Military's plan.
I wonder if he would have been as successful with Domestic Legislation as Johnson. The Great Society and Civil Rights laws were historic accomplishments.

[question everything]

9. And perhaps the 60s would not have been so... different

On the other hand, the Civil Rights Act passed by Johnson as, among other things, a way to remember JFK so one will never know.

I will always remember that day, I will always remember the funeral with the drums sending shivers down my spine, with the riderless horse..

[Initech]

10. I feel like that day is when America jumped the shark.

Nothing has been the same since.

[TeamPooka]

11. I don't think RFK would have been elected in 68 if JFK had just served two terms

I think Vietnam would have been the same because the military drew both JFK and Johnson into it.
I think the real change would have been if RFK hadn't been shot.
There would have been no President Nixon then for sure