If you could go back in time and stop ONE assasination,....

[maveric]

whether it be in the US or any other nation, in any century, be it political or not, which would it be?
:popcorn:
I have mine and will disclose it later.

[GOPisEvil]

1. Lincoln's.

If he hadn't been assassinated, southern reintegration into the union after the civil war would have been less contentious, and quite possibly the south would be a different place today.

[Burma Jones]

64. Agreed.....

[JVS]

2. Caesar!

[WCGreen]

59. Yep, that's the one I would have stopped.....

[Road Scholar]

3. Kennedy

[maveric]

7. Which one?

There are two and possibly three. :tinfoilhat:

[Road Scholar]

20. John

[Book Lover]

4. To be contrary, I say the Archduke Franz Ferdinand

Perhaps there would never have been a WWI.

[maveric]

8. Which turned out to be the pre cursor to WWII.

Good one.

[woo me with science]

38. self delete

Wasn't reading carefully, sorry.

[JVS]

9. If only William McKinley had not been killed, I'm sure he would...

have taken measures to prevent the war over a decade later

[Book Lover]

13. Possibly. No matter what, though

I am sure it would have been harder for Teddy Roosevelt to have gained the White House on his own, rather than stepping up from Veep when McKinley was killed.

[TheCentepedeShoes]

12. I vote with your choice, too n/t

[ghostsofgiants]

45. That's what I was thinking as well.

And I wonder what the band would be called now if Ferdinand hadn't been assassinated.

[HawkerHurricane]

48. World War 1 would have happened.

Archduke Ferdinand's assassination was the excuse, not the cause.

Austria wanted to conquer Serbia, and get territory back from Russia.
Russia wanted more territory from Austria and Turkey.
Germany wanted territory in Russia.
France wanted revenge on Germany for the Franco-Prussian war (and Alsace/Loraine back).
England wanted to take Germany down a notch for building a fleet (and territory from Turkey)
Turkey wanted more territory in Russia, and to take Egypt back from England.
Italy wanted territory from both France and Austria.

Did I leave anyone out?

1. Serbian Nationalist assassinates Archduke Ferdinand.
2. Austria declares war on Serbia.
3. Russia declares war on Austria (to defend fellow Slavs in Serbia).
4. Germany declares war on Russia as per mutual defence treaty with Austria.
5. France declares war on Germany due to treaty with Russia.
6. Germany attacks France by marching through Belgium.
7. England declares war on Germany over attack on Belguim.
(Now we have Serbia, Russia, France and England vs. Austria, Germany... somewhere in there Turkey got involved)
8. Italy decides France isn't going to lose, declares war on Austria instead.
9. U.S. declares war on Germany over submarine warfare, 'Zimmerman Telegram'.

World War 1 was going to happen... it was just a matter of what the spark was, and which side Italy joined, and when the U.S. was going to join, and how long Russia would last...

[Book Lover]

51. Hard to argue with you, HH

All the players were poised to take advantage of the incident. If it wasn't this, it probably would have been something like an innocent incursion into someone else's nation or the like...

[rockymountaindem]

66. While your heart is in the right place

I'm not so sure stopping the assassination of Franz Ferdinand would have prevented WWI. Europe was spoiling for a fight regardless. In my opinion, if it weren't that it would have been something else.

But, based on the premise that his assassination alone sparked WWI (and thus WWII), I'd have to agree with you. If I had the magical power to prevent one assassination, I would probably pick this one, too, on the off chance my prediction would be wrong and it would actually work. I figure it's worth a shot (rimshot).

Sorry for that awful assassination pun.

[SeattleGirl]

5. JFK

I think this country would be on a different track now, had he not been murdered.

[SiobhanClancy]

10. I agree,,,

If I had to pick only to stop,it would be his. We'd be at a very different place now,and I think a better one.

[Beaverhausen]

6. John Lennon... we need him now

[henslee]

22. My first thought.

[Ariana Celeste]

33. Agreed

:(.

[Xipe Totec]

11. Albert Einstein

It was a tough assignment, but well worth the effort.

[Jara sang]

43. Not to mention that he enabled his own assassination.

Damn you Theory of Relativity!!!

[Xipe Totec]

55. Shh! They're on to us!

I'm still under cover....

Besides, not everything can be solved by PREVENTING.

[maveric]

14. Bobby. Kennedy that is.

He had the brains and the fighting spirit to change this country into something really great and progressive.
And with Bobby there would be none of the Nixon nonsense.

[Book Lover]

15. While reading a Galbraith obit a day or so ago

I read that he preferred Bobby as a student over his brother John. According to him, John was not as serious as Bobby...

[maveric]

16. Bobby had "The Fire", in his eyes and spirit.

I believe that RFK would have decimated the RW/military industrial complex, ended the cold war, ended Viet Nam war and re-opened the investigation into his brother's death, possibly exposing key industrialists and repugs.

When he was gumnned down, that was "the day the music died".

[Reverend_Smitty]

27. I agree...

We are left to imagine what could have been if Bobby lived

[maveric]

28. Question is. Would he have gotten the Dem nomination in 68?

Some here on DU have stated that HHH was pretty much rubber stamped for the nom.

[Reverend_Smitty]

29. That's an interesting question

Certainly the party bosses would have tried to push Humphrey through but RFK had the momentum after that California primary, it would have been a wild couple of days in Chicago to say the least. I just wish he had the chance to see what would have happened

[kay1864]

65. A PBS special on RFK said just the opposite

That Bobby was a shoo-in, and that the Dem leaders had to scramble to find a nominee after he was shot, and settled on HHH. Heck, incumbent LBJ dropped out of the running when he found that Bobby was going after the nomination (well that, plus his low poll numbers).

[Monkey see Monkey Do]

36. There's a film about the assassination coming out later this year

written and directed by (of all people) Emilio Estevez. It's an ensemble piece about 20 strangers at the Ambassador Hotel in the hours leading up to the assassination. An unknown actor is playing Bobby but here's some of the actors involved:

Anthony Hopkins, Demi Moore, Sharon Stone, Elijah Wood, Helen Hunt, Lindsay Lohan, William H. Macy, Martin Sheen, Christian Slater & Harry Belafonte.

edit - it's called "Bobby".

[KamaAina]

17. Abel

would've nipped all that hellfire and damnation stuff right in the bud O8)

[Initech]

18. Hard to say between MLK and JFK

[az chela]

61. they were both heros

[YankeyMCC]

19. Really hard for me to choose either

RFK or John Lennon

But if I'm forced I think I'll choose RFK

[Arkham House]

21. Have to go with Lincoln...

...had he lived, then just maybe we would have been spared the worst ravages of Jim Crow for a century...with his sagacity, political skill, and prestige, blacks in America might have gotten a better deal after 1876 than they got, and one major stain on our country could have been less severe...

[GoddessOfGuinness]

58. That's my pick, too.

[leftofthedial]

23. MLK

[liberaltrucker]

41. Agreed 100%

[MiniMandaRuth]

24. Lennon....

We need him today. We need him bad.

[jane_pippin]

25. Jesus

Just to see how these modern times we live in would have been different absent that incident. (Please note: No malice or ill will toward Christianity or Christians is intended in that choice. Just curiosity about cause and effect.)

Though, I suppose that wasn't exactly an assasination so I guess I'll go with RFK for the same reason.

[maveric]

26. If Jesus hadn't been crucified, would there be Christianity?

Would there be any relevance?

[elshiva]

31. Good Question! I think there would be a resurrection if he died

naturally, though... But then not as much drama and publicity...

[jane_pippin]

47. It's fun to think about "what might have happened if," isn't it?

That goes for all these people mentioned. If you remove A, what happens to B C D E F...?--that sort of thing.

I don't have any answer to that question, but it is interesting to wonder about.

[njdemocrat106]

57. I'd say Jesus was a victim of capital punishment

He went through a trial and was found guilty, and received the death sentence.

It's definitely an interesting question that you pose, however.

[bertha katzenengel]

30. Mohandas K. Gandhi

[Catchawave]

32. RFK

definitely :cry:

[maveric]

37. He had vision, youth, guts, integrity...

And I believe that if Bobby got the nomination, he would have defeated Nixon in a landslide.

[Left Is Write]

40. I think so too.

And Nixon's legacy would only have been to be beaten by the Kennedys not once but twice.

[johnnie]

34. Lennon

That would be my choice.

[RetroLounge]

35. RFK

Everytime I see a bio about him on TV I am moved to tears thinking how the country of my youth would have been changed had he lived.

Saddens me to no end...

RL

[Left Is Write]

39. Only one? I was going to say RFK...

because I think the world would be a different place today if he'd been elected in 1968.

However, maybe I should say JFK, because maybe, if JFK had lived, his presidential legacy could have been carried on by RFK anyway, and they both could have lived.

Pipe dreams, eh?

[Oeditpus Rex]

42. I was gonna say RFK

because the Time Warpinator™ tells us:

RFK wins nomination > RFK elected over Nixon > Vietnam War ends sooner > Democrats remain in power > no Reagan > no BFEE.

But then I thought, if JFK hadn't been assassinated by the CIA, the Mafia and the Cubans, we're out of Vietnam even earlier, since he'd already begun to bring troops home when he was killed. He certainly would've won a second term, during which we'd likely have been out of Vietnam altogether, and the rest of the scenario above holds.

Of course, the question remains whether he could've continued to stand up to the military-industrial complex.

[Gormy Cuss]

44. Thomas a Becket.

:popcorn:

[ghostsofgiants]

46. It would have been interesting to see how thing would have played out...

Had Trotsky not been assassinated.

[HawkerHurricane]

50. Too late.

Trotsky had no power by the time Stalin assassinated him.
Now, if someone had assassinated Stalin before Trotsky had fled...
We'd be sitting here wondering how history would have changed if the mass murdering Trotsky had been forced to flee and Peaceful Stalin had been in power.

[ghostsofgiants]

54. So you're saying had Trotsky taken power instead of Stalin...

It would have been pretty much the same?

And even though Trotsky wasn't in power in Russia at the time of his assassination, it'd have been interesting what type of role he would have taken outside the Soviet Union.

[HawkerHurricane]

63. In many ways, yes.

Let's say Trotsky was 1/100th of the murderer Stalin was...
That's still 200,000 people.
And 'in the West' we would still decry Communists as mass murderers, and rightly so.
Of the trio (Trotsky, Stalin, Lenin) Stalin was the biggest, most successful murderer... but he had more time to work with.

During the 12(?) years he was in exile before his assassination, he didn't accomplish much... just decried Stalin's excesses. He never did decry Lenin's, and I wonder how many 'excesses' he would have committed himself to hold onto power?

And, remember this: The "NeoCon" movement got it's start as Trotskyites... they went from Totalitarian Leftist Communists to Totalitarian Rightist Fascists without blinking... The only part of thier 'philosophy' that changed was that as Fascists, they leave the CEO's in power instead of replacing them with commisars.

[rockymountaindem]

67. You're right about Stalin vs. Trotsky

I took two courses involving Soviet history and politics this year, and from what I learned, Stalin and Trotsky were actually very much alike. Evidently, they both exploited practically irrelevant policy differences as a means to further their personal conflict. Trotsky had been the advocate for some of the harshest measures during the War Communism period and afterwards. I don't think he would have been any better than Stalin.

[jpgray]

52. Absolutely

Maybe he would have started to wear dreadlocks in homage to his mysterious savior.

:P

[KitchenWitch]

49. Dr. King

[NewJeffCT]

53. There are so many deserving to be saved

Olaf Palme
RFK
MLK
JFK
Lincoln
Gandhi
Julius Caesar
Thomas a Beckett
Philip of Macedon

[njdemocrat106]

56. JFK

Who knows how different this country would have been if the incidents of November 22, 1963 didn't happen. As I say, JFK didn't make me a Democrat (I was born well after 1963), but he makes me proud to be one. If I could stop 3 assassinations, I'd save the big 3: Abraham, Martin, and John (and that's one of the few songs that puts a tear in my eye).

[az chela]

60. John F.Kennedy

[Spider Jerusalem]

62. That fat, worthless sack of dung...

known to history as the Archduke Franz Ferdinand (thus removing the casus belli for the First World War, and thanks to a series of historical events that never would have unfolded, or would have happened quite differently, there'd have been no Hitler, no Nazi Germany, no WWII, etc.)

[XNASA]

68. Lennon. nt

[beyurslf]

69. MLK

[One_Life_To_Give]

70. Save the forbidden fruit n/t