A Disturbance of Fate

by Freedman, Mitchell J.

• ISBN13: 9781931643221
• ISBN10: 1931643229
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-05-01
• Publisher: Seven Locks Pr

Summary

A Disturbance of Fate is a vibrant work of alternative history that answers these questions and more. In the novel, as in life, the time in which RFK survives beyond 1968 is not a perfect journey leading to utopia. While various events occur that are both expected and welcome in trying to create a just and caring world, there are also surprises, ironies and dangerous developments along the way. Plus, the novel's ending is guaranteed to leave you thinking about the fluidity of history and the dictum ..".for the want of a nail a kingdom was lost..."--though whose kingdom is lost and whose is gained is perhaps the most intriguing question. As Bobby Kennedy himself liked to say, "Some men see things as they are and ask 'Why?' I dream things that never were, and say, 'Why not?'" A Disturbance of Fate dares to dream about an alternative past...and provide inspiration for a more enlightened present and future.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	ix
Introduction	xi
Part I: A Disturbance of Fate
A Homicide at the Ambassador Hotel	3	(10)
Resurrection	13	(13)
Trying Not to Lose	26	(15)
Daley Meets the Radicals	41	(13)
Looking Presidential	54	(23)
Another Convention	77	(25)
Nixon vs. Kennedy, The Sequel	102	(13)
Checkmate	115	(16)
Part II: President Bob
Restoration	131	(26)
The Politics of Peace	157	(20)
Plan B in Saigon	177	(14)
The Threads of History	191	(11)
Labor Pains	202	(14)
Sailing into the Storm	216	(9)
Saigon Bye-Gone, Hello Viet Cong	225	(7)
Southern Discomfort	232	(9)
A Small Step, a Hop, and a Leap	241	(8)
Backing into Vietnam	249	(10)
Minding the World's Business	259	(14)
Rising with the Fall	273	(24)
A Strike in Gdansk	297	(28)
The Hits Keep Coming	325	(16)
The Cold War Twists in the Wind	341	(6)
More Twisting and Turning Around the Globe	347	(39)
Russian Summer and Chinese Fall	386	(17)
Reelection, Part I	403	(23)
The Mother of All Scandals	426	(14)
Double-Edged Swords, Part I	440	(8)
Double-Edged Swords, Part II	448	(15)
Reelection, Part II	463	(11)
The Home Stretch	474	(10)
Election Dissections	484	(6)
Second Helpings	490	(20)
Culture, Courts, and Computers	510	(17)
Foreign and Other Affairs	527	(15)
Closing in on the Rainbow	542	(12)
The Spirit of '76	554	(10)
Yarborough Steps Forward	564	(11)
Part III: Post-Bob
Yarborough Hits to Deep Left Field	575	(19)
Homers Abroad, But Out at Home	594	(11)
The Boomerang of Success	605	(16)
Appendix: ``The Great Struggle and Beyond,'' a speech by Professor Julian Lewis, delivered on September 6, 2011, at Columbia University, New York	621	(26)
Endnotes	647