JFK dead in the Pacific Theater. RFK heir apparent?

Supposing in the days following JFK's rescue of his fellow sailors after the wreck of his PT boat, the group are spotted and some or all of them are killed by the Japanese - including JFK. JFK is decorated posthumously and his remains return to the country as those of an American hero.

Joe Jr. will surely still attempt to win his own medal by volunteering for Operation Aphrodite and presumably (for the purposes of this thread) would not come home either.

This leaves RFK as the Kennedy family Heir Apparent.

Can anybody think of interesting and plausible paths to the Presidency (or Candidacy) for RFK?
 
Military service? Political career? He wouldn't run until 1964, likely. Any thoughts on that? On his presidency? Civil rights? Nothing? Anything?

...C'MON!
 
One thing we can be, I think, reasonably certain about is that RFK's political path will not be identical to his older brother's. He can't run for Congress in 1946, since if I remember correctly he was born in 1925, making him ineligible. Similarly, if I have the birth date correct, Robert Kennedy isn't eligible to run for the Senate against Lodge in 1952. I can't be certain what the path would look like. Perhaps in this timeline, increased pressure from the Kennedy circle leads to Robert Kennedy becoming McCarthy's chief counsel instead of Roy Cohn, though McCarthy's fear of being perceived as antisemitic would still probably be a factor there. Perhaps I'm underestimating the influence of his brother, but I'd imagine that Kennedy would still have a vaguely similar career in the 1950's to the one he actually had. That is he is a Chief Counsel on some Senate committee, whether that be McCarthy's or another. The question would be how would Kennedy use that to place himself on a national stage. If Kennedy is prominent enough as a Chief Counsel, and McCarthyism ends with a whimper as opposed to the bang of the censure to the extent that Kennedy's associations with McCarthy doesn't automatically ruin any future prospect what so ever, the earliest point I could see Kennedy running for office is the 1958 NY Senate election. I'm speaking from a position of relative ignorance, so if I'm off base there I apologize. Anyway, let's say Kennedy wins that election. He's in the Senate in 1959. The question is, does he have a real road to the White House from there.

Also, presuming the massive increase in pressure from Joseph Senior is enough to make Kennedy take Cohn's place, what happens to McCarthy and McCarthyism in this alternate fifties?
 
In 1958 he will be helped by a pro-Dem tidal wave due to the recession, IOTL both Keating and Rocky barely scraped through. With a young, aggressive adversary, Keating could easily lose.
 
Robert Kennedy lacks the "mojo" to win the presidency without the aura of being the brother of a well loved dead president.
Like Oscar Wilde would say, loosing one presidencial candidate is unfortunate, loosing two is careless. Even Joe would have to fold...
 
One thing we can be, I think, reasonably certain about is that RFK's political path will not be identical to his older brother's. He can't run for Congress in 1946, since if I remember correctly he was born in 1925, making him ineligible. Similarly, if I have the birth date correct, Robert Kennedy isn't eligible to run for the Senate against Lodge in 1952. I can't be certain what the path would look like. Perhaps in this timeline, increased pressure from the Kennedy circle leads to Robert Kennedy becoming McCarthy's chief counsel instead of Roy Cohn, though McCarthy's fear of being perceived as antisemitic would still probably be a factor there. Perhaps I'm underestimating the influence of his brother, but I'd imagine that Kennedy would still have a vaguely similar career in the 1950's to the one he actually had. That is he is a Chief Counsel on some Senate committee, whether that be McCarthy's or another. The question would be how would Kennedy use that to place himself on a national stage. If Kennedy is prominent enough as a Chief Counsel, and McCarthyism ends with a whimper as opposed to the bang of the censure to the extent that Kennedy's associations with McCarthy doesn't automatically ruin any future prospect what so ever, the earliest point I could see Kennedy running for office is the 1958 NY Senate election. I'm speaking from a position of relative ignorance, so if I'm off base there I apologize. Anyway, let's say Kennedy wins that election. He's in the Senate in 1959. The question is, does he have a real road to the White House from there.

Also, presuming the massive increase in pressure from Joseph Senior is enough to make Kennedy take Cohn's place, what happens to McCarthy and McCarthyism in this alternate fifties?

My guess is that he stays in Massachusetts and runs for governor, probably in 1960 when the seat came open. I just think the family would want their heir apparent to base himself 'at home.'
 
One thing's for sure.

JFK's career is
Dead in the water.
:cool:

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEOOOOOOOOOOOOW



Sorry. I'd think without his brother having the path he had, and the difference in age, butterflies might make this incredibly hard to judge. Any scenario would need a healthy dose of speculation but nothing would be guaranteed.
 
We're not accounting for butterflies here. In the early-to-mid '50s, RFK had an offer to run for an open Connecticut House seat in a 1951 special election, plus considered moving to either New Mexico or Nevada and building a career there. Plenty of opportunities.
 
We're not accounting for butterflies here. In the early-to-mid '50s, RFK had an offer to run for an open Connecticut House seat in a 1951 special election, plus considered moving to either New Mexico or Nevada and building a career there. Plenty of opportunities.

The latter would make a spectacularly interesting TL.
 
The latter would make a spectacularly interesting TL.

NM or NV? Heh, you could work Harry Reid into a Nevada TL considering that in the early '60s, Reid was bravely facing down gambling-racketeering mobsters as a member of the Gaming Commission. Some of whom were reputed to be involved with Barry Goldwater.
 
NM or NV? Heh, you could work Harry Reid into a Nevada TL considering that in the early '60s, Reid was bravely facing down gambling-racketeering mobsters as a member of the Gaming Commission. Some of whom were reputed to be involved with Barry Goldwater.

Either. A postwar Kennedy dynasty born in the Southwest rather than the Northeast sounds like a truly original Kennedy TL - a rare thing in these parts these days! The Reid idea sounds immense, too.
 
Either. A postwar Kennedy dynasty born in the Southwest rather than the Northeast sounds like a truly original Kennedy TL - a rare thing in these parts these days! The Reid idea sounds immense, too.

RFK would be anti-gun control, unlike OTL (despite being an avid hunter/outdoorsman), and probably be more open with his strong inclination towards cultural conservatism. With large Hispanic/rural populations he might be more populistic, or more economically conservative, depending on butterflies.

NM: In the 1950s, there was only one at-large seat. There are vacancies in 1957 and 1959, so he could run then. The Class III Senate seat (currently held by Bingaman) opens up with Dennis Chavez' death in 1962.

NV: At-large seat opens in 1957, no Senate vacancies until the early 1970s because two veteran Democrats fill those seats. State is too small to use the governorship as a springboard, ditto for NM.

Therefore, NM seems the better option.
 
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I recall the Beav mentioning RFK as Special Ops at some point. Maybe that could happen as well? It definitely would change the RFK we know...
 
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