alternatehistory.com

Just finished Jeff Greenfield's Then Everything Changed, his possibility of three alternate histories, and it got me thinking about the relationship between the Kennedy brothers.

Robert Kennedy was his brother's second-in-command, lieutenant, alter ego, and Jack's death affected Bobby enormously, perhaps moreso than it did Jackie or Jack's kids. It's been widely written upon that this is the period where Bobby is transformed from hardass Communist-hating Cold Warrior (Bobby had a lot of respect for McCarthy and worked for the guy, went to his funeral), to the liberal, societally-concerned man who could calm a city from rioting (his speech in Indianapolis upon the death of MLK).

Now, what if John Kennedy doesn't die? Say that the roof is up, and Oswald doesn't take the shot; or Jack is severely wounded instead of dead? Does Bobby go through the same metamorphosis? Is it more a matter of degrees of transformation, or does his persona stay more or less the same? Harden even?
For the record, I don't doubt that RFK was the type of man we saw post-JFK as he was pre-, he just had to conceal it more as Jack's enforcer and the so-called 'runt' of the Kennedy brothers.
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