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  1. Magniac

    JFK's Vietnam: intentions, options, & results per the historical record

    This is a pivotal subject for After 1900. A lot of assumptions people here have about the trajectory of postwar American history, indeed world history, rest on a certain reflexive attitude towards John Kennedy’s death and its aftermath. But unlike most of the turning points from the world wars...
  2. Magniac

    RFK if Jack dies in the senate?

    So, what happens if JFK dies while serving as a senator, let's say during that long period of wicked medical trouble he had from his near-fatal back surgery during '55? MA has a Republican governor at this time, so Bobby has a good chance to run for the Democratic nomination for the special...
  3. Magniac

    WWII weapons question: Why not anti-tank rifle grenades?

    A very simple thought I had when watching Mythbusters. Tory is able to fire a harpoon/rope-attachment one hundred feet from a modified Martini rifle, hit a target one foot in diameter, all on the energy produced by a .38 Special blank cartridge. Which begs several questions. If you're the...
  4. Magniac

    Who should've directed 'Watchmen' circa 1990?

    I've just seen the movie, after having first read the collected comic. While I'm still mulling over Snyder's adaption, I was interested to read about the first attempt to film Watchmen: Hmmm, I don't know if a Gilliam Watchmen would have been such a good thing. If, as the wiki article...
  5. Magniac

    WI 'Watchmen' filmed circa 1990?

    Delete DeleteDelete Ian, Mods, please delete this thread.
  6. Magniac

    WI Walter Cronkite, POTUS?

    In memorium of the broadcast great who just passed away. How can he get to the White House? Off the top of my head the best POD I can think of is if JFK offers him the directorship of the US Information Agency in '61, instead of Ed Murrow (he'd accept: Cronkite was of the generation that...
  7. Magniac

    What if Ernie Kovacs had lived?

    Ernie Kovacs was a TV comedian who was seriously ahead of his time. He went from being a humorous morning show host in a local market (Philly), circa 1950, to being taken up by a network, to producing his own primetime sketch shows. Some of his work still exists--and this body of work is...
  8. Magniac

    WI New Age Limits For POTUS

    Inspired by the thread about the 22nd Amendment. What if the mimimum age was raised and/or a maximum age imposed on the qualifications for the presidency? A forty or forty-five year old limit might be introduced after a controversial POTUS--Vice President John Breckinridge succeeding to...
  9. Magniac

    What if Mel Gibson destroys the Death Star?

    Or, what if Mel Gibson was cast as Luke Skywalker instead of Mark Hamill? Let's say the POD is Gibson decides to take a year-off between graduating high school and going to Australia's National Institute for the Dramatic Arts. So, circa 1974 he travels to his family's homeland* for a working...
  10. Magniac

    The Re-election of the Chifley Labor Government in 1949

    The Re-election of the Chifley Labor Government in 1949: Perspectives in History PART 1: ‘Lenin was right’, An excerpt from an online memoir It was only in the latter years of the twentieth century that I started to try and make sense of the events I’d found myself in as a postgraduate...
  11. Magniac

    WI 'Star Trek' made by British commercial TV?

    Specifically, Lew Grade's British commercial TV production house, ITC. Let's say the POD is Gene Roddenberry moving his family to Europe in the late fifties to work as a script doctor on international co-productions. There were a lot of Hollywood studio movies and independent pictures being...
  12. Magniac

    What if WWII autogiro troopers?

    I've just been reading about the two leading developers of autogiro technology in the '20s and '30s, Juan de la Cierva of Spain and Harold Pitcairn of the US. I'd already known about the impressive short take-off and vertical landing abilities of the aircraft they had built separately of each...
  13. Magniac

    LBJ, Taft-Hartley, and the dramatic revision of Rule XXII

    In early April, nineteen forty-seven, a group of twenty one gentlemen took their seats around a conference table in the US Senate office building. These men had gathered to hear from Richard Brevard Russell, their fellow Southron, their unelected leader. He had called the Southern Caucus to...
  14. Magniac

    WI Ford gets creative with the commutation power?

    Inspired by the two most high-profile commutations the newly ex-president handed down (to the crooked border patrol men). At least one Bush loyalist I've read has declared that commuting the sentences of Ramos and Compean is better than pardoning them*, as a pardon implies admitting guilt...
  15. Magniac

    Churchill at the admiralty pushes WWII 'anti-tank guns'

    Quick thought vis-a-vis the best-British-tank-by-D-Day-thread; Churchill pushed tank developement at admiralty during WWI, didn't he? I know he actually deployed Rolls Royce armored cars to Belgium in 1914, said cars being manned by RN personnel. I don't think he can get involved in any...
  16. Magniac

    What does a '60s ALP government look like?

    About ten days ago I bumped this thread by cutting-and-pasting an article from the Australian by Mike Steketee about the late Kim Beazley, Snr's, recently published memoir, 'Father of the House'. Excerpts from that article: This is as good a prompt as you'll find to ask, "So, what would a...
  17. Magniac

    WI Stalin invaded... SWITZERLAND

    I know the possibility of Hitler invading Switzerland has been discussed around here at some length. Someone recently said that the Swiss deciding to enter WWII is truely ASBish--I'm sure others have talked about the Allies going over the alps. But what about a Red Army conquest of those...
  18. Magniac

    WI Much earlier .32 H&R Magnum?

    So, what if the British military decided against adopting a .38/200 revolver round during the interwar period, and instead uploaded the .32 S&W Long cartridge to mimic the performance of their French allies' 7.65mm Longue automatic round? This would create the equivalent of the .32 Harrington &...
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