Almost History : Close Calls, Plan B's, and Twists of Fate in America's Past

by Bruns, Roger

• ISBN13: 9780786866632
• ISBN10: 0786866632
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-10-04
• Publisher: Hyperion

Summary

Collects speeches, memos, and other documents written for the possibility of failure in wars and foreign relations throughout American history, left unsaid and unpublished due to turn of events and sudden changes.

Author Biography

Roger Bruns is the Deputy Executive Director for the National Publications and Records Commission at the National Archives. He is the author of fourteen adult and children's titles. He and his family live in Reston, Virginia

Table of Contents

Introduction	xvi
PLANNING FOR THE WORST
If D-Day Had Stood for Disaster-1944	2	(2)
Personal note of Dwight D. Eisenhower in case of D-Day disaster
Operation Unthinkable and World War III-1945	4	(2)
Report of British plan to invade Soviet Union with British, American, and German troops
When Bomb Shelters Were In: The ABCs of Surviving an A-Bomb Attack-1954, 1962	6	(4)
A 1954 article on survival and a 1962 Civil Service Commission memorandum on federal employees' response to a nuclear attack
Pricing Quemoy and Matsu--1958	10	(4)
Top-secret memorandum of Gerard C. Smith to Undersecretary of State Christian C. Herter, on defense of Quemoy and Matsu
Predelegating Nuclear Terror--1959	14	(3)
Instructions for expenditure of nuclear weapons in emergency conditions
Not an Extraterrestrial--1962	17	(2)
Message carried by John Glenn on Friendship 7
Losing the Astronauts--1969	19	(3)
Draft of speech of President Richard Nixon on loss of Apollo 11 astronauts
FORKS IN THE ROAD
A Road Not Taken to Harper's Ferry--1859	22	(4)
A newspaper and Frederick Douglass himself tell why he visited West Virginia
Powell's Choice--1869	26	(5)
Diary entries of John Wesley Powell during Colorado River journey
The Ascension of ``His Fraudulency'': John Reid and the Victory of Rutherford B. Hayes--1876	31	(3)
Telegram of John Reid to Republican leaders that turned the presidential election
A Bombing Order Away from Doomsday: Cuba--1962	34	(4)
Notes of Robert McNamara on meeting with President Kennedy and advisors on plans to bomb Cuba
A Federal-State Showdown in Mississippi--1962	38	(3)
Conversation of President Kennedy with Solicitor General Archibald Cox on the possibility of arresting Governor Ross Barnett of Mississippi and army general Edwin Walker for encouraging insurrection against James Meredith entering the University of Mississippi
To Indict a President?--1974	41	(5)
Memorandum of Watergate prosecution team on whether to indict President Richard Nixon
FORTUITOUS OCCURRENCES
Manifest Destiny or Lucky Circumstance: Jefferson and Louisiana--1802	46	(3)
Letter of Thomas Jefferson to American minister to Paris, on circumstances leading to the Louisiana Purchase
The Five-Spot Would Have Looked Different: The Story of Lincoln's Beard--1860	49	(3)
Correspondence of Grace Bedell and Abraham Lincoln
How a Cigar Wrapper Smoked the Confederates--1862	52	(4)
Robert E. Lee's Special Orders 191
Saved by a Speech--1912	56	(6)
Speech of Theodore Roosevelt delivered after the assassination attempt
``Don't Forget to Be a Good Boy'': A Tennessee Legislator Listens to His Mother and Saves the Vote for Women--1920	62	(2)
Letter to a Tennessee legislator from his mother persuading him to vote for the 19th Amendment
Einstein's Modest Suggestion--1939	64	(4)
Letter of Albert Einstein to President Franklin Roosevelt, recommending U.S. funding of nuclear research
Code Maker's Dream, Enemy's Nightmare--1942	68	(3)
Letter of Philip Johnston to Commander, U.S. Marine Corps, on using Navajo language as code
Informing on the Veep: The Kickback Revelations that Brought Down Agnew--1973	71	(5)
Deposition of informer to FBI on kickback payments to Vice President Spiro Agnew
CLOSE CALLS
General Washington Under Fire--1783	76	(5)
Response of George Washington to the so-called Newburgh Conspiracy
The ``Firebell in the Night'' Nearly Rang Early: The Tallmadge Amendment and the Missouri Compromise--1819	81	(4)
Congressional deliberations over the admission of Missouri to the Union
Declining an Invitation to Ford's Theatre--1865	85	(2)
Memoirs of U. S. Grant on the invitation from the Lincolns to attend Ford's Theatre on the night of April 14, 1865
How a Taxicab Accident Nearly Changed World History--1931	87	(3)
Winston Churchill's miraculous escape from death
Others Didn't Make It--JFK Did--1943	90	(3)
Action report on the loss of the USS PT-109
Wernher von Braun: The Soviet Union's Loss--1945	93	(2)
Interview with a member of the team that escorted Wernher von Braun out of Germany
A Heartbeat Away--1955	95	(3)
Memorandum on President Eisenhower's heart attack
If the Heat Shield Had Blown--1962	98	(5)
Communication from John Glenn's Friendship 7
What the Public Didn't Know About Three Mile Island--1979	103	(5)
Evidence that the accident at Three Mile Island was far more dangerous than ever admitted to the public
TWISTS OF IRONY
Revolt Not Revolution: Washington Denies Seeking Independence--1774	108	(3)
Letter of George Washington to Capt. Robert Mackenzie
James Whistler, Failed Soldier and Bureaucrat--1855	111	(2)
Etching by James Whistler, made while employed as a draftsman in the cartographic section of the U.S. Coast Survey
More than Mischief: The Cartoon That Did in Boss Tweed--1875	113	(2)
Cartoon by Thomas Nast that led to capture of Boss Tweed in Spain
But for Metal Mattress Coils--1881	115	(2)
Invention of Alexander Graham Bell that nearly saved the life of President James Garfield
Letter from a Dayton Bicycle Shop--1899	117	(3)
Letter of Wilbur Wright to the Smithsonian Institution, headed by Samuel Langley, the foremost researcher on air flight, asking about available works on the subject
Richard Nixon, FBI Agent--1937	120	(8)
Job application of Richard M. Nixon for employment at the FBI
The DAR Loses a Member-1939	128	(2)
Letter of Eleanor Roosevelt to the president of the Daughters of the American Revolution, resigning from the organization because of its refusal to allow singer Marian Anderson to perform at Constitution Hall
LBJ: Vietnam Dove--1954	130	(4)
Report of meeting of U.S. Secretary of State and congressional leaders on possible involvement in French Indochina
To Assure Nonviolence: King on Trial--1968	134	(4)
Answer to plaintiff from City of Memphis v. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Deporting John Lennon-1972	138	(2)
FBI memorandum on efforts to deport John Lennon
If I Were in Your Shoes...--1987	140	(4)
Letter of Richard Nixon to Ronald Reagan recommending he stonewall on Iran-Contra
PLANS THWARTED
Dousing Confederate Fire: A Conspiracy Foiled--1864	144	(2)
Telegram of William Henry Seward to mayor of New York on plans of Confederates to set fire to principal cities of the North
Jefferson Davis, Guerrilla Fighter--1865	146	(2)
Plans of Jefferson Davis to continue military campaign after Appomattox
A Different Path to Reconciliation--1865	148	(3)
The last public speech of Abraham Lincoln, devoted mainly to his vision of Reconstruction
Trashing Diplomacy: Japan Rebuffs a Peace Plan--1941	151	(3)
Introduction to the proposed agreement between the United States and Japan prior to Pearl Harbor attack
Avoiding the Quagmire--1963	154	(2)
National Security Action Memorandum No. 263, on plans for withdrawal from Vietnam
Planning for Cuban Rapprochement--1963	156	(5)
CIA memorandum on Cuba
A Speech Undelivered--1963	161	(2)
Prepared remarks of President John F. Kennedy for delivery at the Trade Mart in Dallas, Texas
Trying to Take Down the Cuban Roadrunner--1967	163	(5)
Recently released report of inspector general, on CIA plots to assassinate Fidel Castro
OPPORTUNITIES MISSED; WARNINGS UNHEEDED
A Young Illinois Congressman Challenges U.S. Imperialism--1847	168	(3)
Abraham Lincoln introduces the Spot Resolutions
A Georgian Olive Branch Rejected--1863	171	(2)
Remembrances of Alexander Stephens of aborted Confederate plan to seek terms for an end to Civil War hostilities
``Ma Bell'' Beats ``Ma Gray'' by a Nose--1876	173	(2)
Patent for the telephone filed by inventor Elisha Gray only hours after Alexander Graham Bell's
No Hurricane Can Make a Left Turn: How a Killer Storm Defied the Rules and Detroyed a City--1900	175	(2)
Warnings of Cuban weather forecasters of hurricane heading toward Galveston ignored by U.S. Weather Bureau
Ice Warnings and the Unsinkable Titanic--1912	177	(2)
Wireless message of the Mesaba to the Titanic
Advertised in Advance: The Lusitania Disaster--1915	179	(3)
Warnings published in New York newspapers from the German government that American citizens should not board European cruise ships on the day the Lusitania was sunk
Eleven Months' Warning--1941	182	(2)
U.S. Ambassador to Japan Joseph Clark Grew to U.S. State Department, on rumors in Tokyo of plan to attack Pearl Harbor
Thomas Jefferson, Woodrow Wilson, and Ho Chi Minh--1945	184	(4)
Ho Chi Minh's Declaration of Independence for Vietnam
A Ripsnorting Chance to ``Give 'Em Hell'' Missed--1950	188	(4)
Telegram of Senator Joseph McCarthy to President Truman, demanding he provide Congress with a full accounting of Communist infiltrations, and draft of Truman's response
Left at the Space Race Starting Gate--1957	192	(4)
Memorandum of conference with President Eisenhower following Soviet launch of Sputnik
Genocide Alert Ignored--1994	196	(5)
Coded cable to United Nations from Maj. Gen. Romeo Dallaire, U.N. Force Commander in Rwanda, warning of imminent genocide, and the United Nations' response
For Lack of a Ferret: Aldrich Ames and the CIA Fiasco--1985-94	201	(5)
1997 report of inspector general of the Department of Justice on the FBI's performance in uncovering espionage activities of Aldrich Ames
VAGARIES OF WAR
British Frustration and the Saratoga Debacle--1777	206	(3)
Letter from Sir William Clinton to Gen. John Burgoyne, complaining of Gen. William Howe's failure to reinforce Burgoyne
Establishing a Second Europe: The American Revolution Truce Plan--1781	209	(3)
French plan for truce and settlement of the American Revolution
SOS from the Alamo--1836	212	(3)
Letter of Col. William Travis appealing for help at the Alamo
Some Thought It Lunacy: Pickett's Charge Questioned--1863	215	(4)
Exchange of battlefield notes between James Longstreet and E. P. Alexander at Gettysburg, prior to Pickett's charge
A Question of Guilt: Custer and His Orders--1876	219	(3)
Orders of Brig. Gen. Albert Terry to Gen. George Custer before the Battle of Little Big Horn
Japanese Americans: Evidence to the Contrary--1941	222	(6)
Evidence from suppressed Munson Report, debunking fears of treachery and treason by Japanese living in the United States
CODE-BREAKING CONSEQUENCES
A Decoded Note and the End of Neutrality--1917	228	(2)
The Zimmerman Note, proposing a Mexican-German alliance and adding to American sentiment to join the Allies
Herbert Yardley's American Black Chamber and the Arms Conference--1921	230	(2)
Decryptions by the American Black Chamber allowing Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes to know Japan's negotiating position during the Washington Naval Conference
Breaking the Code and Winning Midway--1942	232	(4)
Report of navy code breakers on Japanese plans to attack the Midway Islands
SLIPPERY TRUTH
Plots, Forgeries, and the Assassination of Jefferson Davis--1864	236	(4)
The Dahlgren Papers and the attempt to murder Jefferson Davis
Horror Concealed: Vignettes of an American Army Nurse--1916	240	(3)
Suppressed account of World War I atrocities and suffering
Harry Truman's Puzzling Diary Entry--1945	243	(3)
Diary entry of Harry S. Truman, indicating that new atomic bomb will not be used on civilian populations
Human Guinea Pig Research and the Tragic Death of Dr. Frank Olson--1963	246	(4)
Memorandum of CIA official Richard Helms
URBAN LEGENDS
Milking Chicago's Urban Cow Legend: Mrs. O'Leary's Cow or a Terrorist?--1871	250	(3)
Official report on Great Chicago Fire
Giving the Country a Bath--1917	253	(6)
H. L. Mencken's account of the history of the bathtub in America
The Advent of the Bambino's Curse--1920	259	(3)
Babe Ruth's claim that he would play only with the Boston Red Sox
LOUSY PREDICTIONS
What About Radial Tires?--1909	262	(2)
Report by Scientific American that the automobile has been nearly fully developed
Who Is This Guy, Jules Verne?--1920	264	(3)
New York Times editorial ridiculing Robert Goddard's rocket research
Some Got It Right--1948	267	(2)
Poll results clearly showing the 1948 election was turning in Truman's favor
A Laptop for a Large Lap--1949	269	(3)
Popular Mechanics predicts that someday a computer might weigh as little as a ton and a half
Document Sources	272	(7)
Index	279