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from Dallas Texas the flash apparently\h
official President Kennedy died at 1:00\h\h

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p.m. Central Standard Time two\h
o'clock Eastern Standard Time

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it's now been half a century since the shots rang\h
out in Dealey Plaza to admit you live through\h\h

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their shock in fury is to be of a certain\h
age those of us who were children then at\h\h

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the end of America's great baby boom have forged\h
countless different paths but we share in common\h\h

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a question that over the years has haunted almost\h
all of us what if Kennedy lived almost since the\h\h

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assassination writers have speculated about the\h
great things President Kennedy would have done for\h\h

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the country and the world if his life had been\h
spared in Dallas it's commonly assumed that he\h\h

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would have rolled back our Vietnam involvement\h
enacted landmark civil rights policy made peace\h\h

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with the Soviets and possibly even finished the\h
attack on organized crime that upbeat scenario\h\h

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is probably wishful thinking Kennedy had a\h
definite to-do list for a second term but the\h\h

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forces in opposition to his presidency in 1963\h
were organized and powerful so let's shade the\h\h

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question just a bit differently what if Kennedy\h
survived Dallas this new question puts front\h\h

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and center the plain fact that Kennedy's survival\h
could not exist in a story vacuum as if November\h\h

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22nd 1963 were just another day after all whether\h
or not Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone the President\h\h

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of the United States still had been targeted for\h
execution in broad daylight on a public street\h\h

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before a global television audience life would\h
not have pinged back to normal if the assassins\h\h

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bullets had missed their target investigations\h
would have been launched to determine if what\h\h

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just happened was an attempted professional hit\h
a failed political assassination or the work of\h\h

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a crazed lone gunman in any case the world\h
would have been turned upside down during\h\h

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this period raising an avalanche of questions\h
and blowback on multiple fronts particularly\h\h

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since the president would have been alive and\h
asking those questions himself along with some\h\h

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of the world's most powerful allies including a\h
brother in charge of the US Justice Department\h\h

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if there were conspirators they and their target\h
would have regarded each other like scorpions in\h\h

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a bottle in a cascade of post ambush cause\h
and effect these traders who had plotted to\h\h

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achieve a coup d'etat by public murder would have\h
found President Kennedy now physically impossible\h\h

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to get at protected by enhanced security in\h
this telling the system comes unhinged and\h\h

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the conspirators go after Kennedy by other means\h
after their bullets fail there is no doubt that\h\h

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John Kennedy's presidency was a high point in\h
our nation's history what we did not know when\h\h

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we were living through it however was that\h
President Kennedy's reckless behavior behind\h\h

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the scenes kept him always just one headline\h
away from disaster surviving a well-planned\h\h

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assassination attempt could not have made JFK's\h
personal weaknesses any easier to disguise he\h\h

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also had enemies with the means to lay bare the\h
most intimate secrets of his private life had they\h\h

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done so the president's dark side clearly had the\h
potential to destroy any second term the voters\h\h

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might have granted him this alternative history\h
then is not a time travel story with a protagonist\h\h

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sent back to save JFK a continuing fascination\h
right up through last year's Stephen King book\h\h

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11/22/63 that kind of political science fiction\h
usually sees an idealized and heroic JFK through\h\h

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rose-colored glasses rather this narrative sheds\h
light on the shadowy events of late 1963 in the\h\h

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context of the constitutional crisis they easily\h
could have triggered to the best of my knowledge\h\h

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this is a new way to examine the what-if of JFK\h
and ends up illuminating what the stakes were\h\h

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in our own timeline because Kennedy was the\h
most mediagenic political figure of his time\h\h

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and possibly of all time I've created a media\h
vehicle uniquely suited to tell his story top\h\h

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story magazine was in this alternative historical\h
reality a struggling news weekly routinely getting\h\h

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its lunch eaten by the publishing powers that\h
used to be until it hitched its wagon to the\h\h

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charismatic young president star-crossed descent\h
into scandal a story as big as this demands all\h\h

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the resources a full-fledged news outlet like\h
top story would have had at its command teams\h\h

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of reporters exhaustive research capabilities a\h
defense Rolodex as it happens all these elements\h\h

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already existed in my own imagination so JFK's\h
epic tragedy is also the chronicle of how one\h\h

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media outlet at the break of obscurity clawed\h
its way to prominence on the Kennedy coattails\h\h

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it only makes sense then that I've chosen to\h
write surrounded by enemies as a book published\h\h

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by top story magazine on the anniversary of JFK's\h
survival of the shootout at Dealey Plaza here's a\h\h

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world where 50 years earlier history's tree\h
grew another branch where journalism in the\h\h

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counterculture ignited a political explosion\h
over Watergate in the 1970s and led to Nixon's\h\h

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impeachment in our world Kennedy's battle with\h
the treasonous forces of conspiracy in the\h\h

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1960s in the alternative scenario probably would\h
have triggered an implosion in JFK's reputation\h\h

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rather than the steady drip of scandal that we've\h
experienced over the past five decades the events\h\h

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surrounding a failed JFK assassination might have\h
gotten seriously out of hand and fast many people\h\h

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now see the Warren Commission report as the\h
greatest work of American fiction published\h\h

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in the 20th century still it's been impossible to\h
ignore the importance and validity of the oswald\h\h

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acted alone pushback we've seen recently from\h
Stephen King's book to Bill O'Reilly killing\h\h

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Kennedy to legendary prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi\h
'he's reclaiming history and it's nothing new even\h\h

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back in the immediate aftermath The Byrds rewrote\h
the popular folk song he was a friend of mine to\h\h

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say his killing had no purpose no reason no rhyme\h
in my opinion that is the wrong sentiment wrapped\h\h

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up in a classic melody after a lifetime of casual\h
reading on the topic compounded by this recent\h\h

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intensity of research I'm simply swayed that\h
whatever role Lee Harvey Oswald actually played\h\h

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on history's grand stage his was not a one-man\h
show but one populated by and synchronized with\h\h

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multiple unseen actors that is the point of\h
view from which I've written this fictional\h\h

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account since we live in a time of often bitter\h
polarization it is also worth noting that I'm a\h\h

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lifelong Democrat who remembers when America's\h
two great political parties at least tried to\h\h

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work together for the good of the country\h
I write this book to me it's scenario is a\h\h

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fascinating what if not because of any agenda\h
involving President Kennedy this alternative\h\h

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history depicts Kennedy accurately I believe as\h
an enormous Lee charismatic man whose intelligence\h\h

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political mastery and legendary charm could\h
not ultimately disguise his deeply human flaws

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surrounded by enemies is not a research book\h
I have changed names compressed events and in\h\h

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the interest of presenting an alternative history\h
made up some things completely I have tried to do\h\h

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all of this with a healthy respect for the actual\h
facts of the matter but there is no question that\h\h

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I have taken many liberties on the other hand\h
I also ask that everyone who sees a real name\h\h

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in this piece of fiction understand that the\h
person in question is a character in a story\h\h

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that takes place in a parallel universe in a\h
world that accepts stories about Abe Lincoln\h\h

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as a vampire hunter this story should not offend\h
but intrigue in several instances I have taken\h\h

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existing documents and quotes from the Nixon and\h
Clinton impeachments lines from past State of the\h\h

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Union speeches etc and modified them to fit this\h
story in this context I hardly think this sampling\h\h

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is a literary sin but a device to show just how\h
possible it is to see JFK in a similar context\h\h

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in any case very little of this book contains\h
this type of historical transposition I have\h\h

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not footnoted my work with tedious accounts of\h
its accuracy or fabrication because it is meant\h\h

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to be read as an immersive piece of fiction to\h
undertake such an academic challenge would only\h\h

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distract the reader those engaged by the events\h
of this story are encouraged to begin their own\h\h

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research and draw their own conclusions the plain\h
reality is that Jack Kennedy had a lot of things\h\h

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he was hiding and there were numerous powerful\h
men who wanted him dead if those conspirators had\h\h

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taken their shots and missed President Kennedy\h
would have come back at them not only with the\h\h

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vengeance but also with a carefully constructed\h
strategy the very existence of Attorney General\h\h

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Robert Kennedy and his family loyalty guarantees\h
that I've come to see this entire story despite\h\h

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its many working parts and vastly different\h
points of view as a story of two brothers had\h\h

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the shots fired in Dallas Texas missed their\h
target on November 22nd 1963 they would still\h\h

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have set the 1960s ablaze turning John and\h
Robert Kennedy into the original conspiracy\h\h