What if?

The great what ifs of history always make for an interesting discussion. What if President John F Kennedy had not been assassinated? Would America have not got so deeply embroiled in the Vietnam War, would there have been a peace dividend? Or would things have got worse quicker? Another intriguing one, concerns Private Henry Tandey, who lowered his rifle and allowed a wounded Corporal Adolf Hitler to leave the battlefield at the end of the First World War. Tandey later explained he didn't shoot wounded men but if he'd known what Hitler would turn out to be!! On the subject of Hitler, author Robert Harris takes another strand, with his excellent book Fatherland. The Germans won the war. The year is 1964, Hitler's 75th birthday. There is to be a rapproachment, between Germany and the US, where Joseph Kennedy (JFKs father) is then President. A crystal ball gazing glimpse of the appalling authoritarian society that would have emerged to dominate, if Hitler had won the war. Coming closer to home, what if things had been different with Wanstead House? What if the great Blenheim Palace type building and all its grounds remained? This whole area would be very different now. One of my favourite what ifs concerned the 1979 general election. It was widely expected that Labour Prime Minister Jim Callaghan would call the election for 5 October 1978. In the event, Callaghan surprised everyone and delayed till May 1979 - during the interim period, there was the 'Winter of Discontent', with strikes etc. The position of strength for Labour crumbled and Margaret Thatcher became PM. If, Labour had won in 1978, the Conservatives would probably have dropped Thatcher, with Thatcherism never developing to the extent that it did over the next decades. The list of what ifs is endless, ofcourse we will never know the answers but that is what makes the debates all the more fascinating.