DBWI: Kennedy Brothers Survive World War II

On August 2, 1943, Lt. John F. Kennedy was killed when a Japanese destroyer rammed into his navy patrol boat, PT-109. The impact threw Kennedy across the deck, injuring his already-troubled back. Despite all efforts to save his life, Kennedy died. He was 26.

A year and 10 days later on August 12, 1944, his older brother, Naval Aviator Joseph P. Kennedy Jr, died when the plane he was piloting detonated in the skies over England during Operation Aphrodite. His body was never recovered. He was 29.

Their father, Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., never recovered from losing his two sons and had hoped that Joseph Jr would enter politics and become the first Catholic President but it was not to be.

In 1946, Harvard University student Robert F. Kennedy was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives a month before his 21st birthday. He was the youngest state legislator in Massachusetts history. Four years later, Bobby was elected to Congress.

But, what if Jack Kennedy survived and Joe did not? Would Jack have pursued elective office and would he have been elected President? According to his Harvard classmate Benjamin Smith, Jack wanted to pursue a career as a journalist. Ultimately, it was Ted who became a journalist and TV news reporter.

To paraphrase Paul Harvey, we all know the rest of the story.
 
John's extensive medical problems would have inhibited (not prevented, but certainly inhibited) any political ambitions he might have had, so it was probably smart for him to go into journalism instead. If he was as good a political commentator/journalist as his brother, I could see NBC marketing some sort of Kennedy Brothers show. Though we'd still have the same complaints of conflict-of-interest during Bobby's political career as we did in OTL.

I think it would create some more interesting timelines if Joe survived instead. He probably would have been similar to his brother Bobby: a young charismatic politician who never quite lived up to his full potential. (For all of you hippies: yes, I know he was Johnson's VP for eight years from 1964-72, but for such an up and coming star in the democratic party, anything short of the presidency was a failure.) Maybe if it were Joe instead of Bobby then the 1972 election against Reagan would have been closer. Although if Joe somehow managed to take the nomination away from Humphrey in 1960, then maybe we could have been spared of that 4-year disaster that was the Nixon administration.

Back to the original topic though, at least if John lived it might have butterflied away Bobby's political career. Then we wouldn't have to keep hearing all of these "What if the Johnson-Kennedy ticket had been upside-down in 1964?" ATLs :rolleyes:. It's got to be the most cliched American political threads ever.
 
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