[Cmariehart]

Forgive me for this but I am tired and have spent way too much time watching court tv, discovery channel and the history channel.

I've come across 3 things that keep "leaping" out at me.

1. the Holocaust

2. assassination of John F. Kennedy

3. Vietnam

I guess what I'm trying to say/ask is if there was a way to change a part of history... what part would you choose?????

[pagandeva2000]

Originally Posted by Cmariehart

Forgive me for this but I am tired and have spent way too much time watching court tv, discovery channel and the history channel.

I've come across 3 things that keep "leaping" out at me.

1. the Holocaust

2. assassination of John F. Kennedy

3. Vietnam

I guess what I'm trying to say/ask is if there was a way to change a part of history... what part would you choose?????

Holocaust

[Roy Fokker]

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- Roy
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[bethin]

Can I say all 3?

Holocaust killed millions and ruined more millions of lives. Displaced families, family members 'lost' for years, nightmares, etc.

JFK was and I still think, an iconic president. He truly believed that all men were created equal. No telling what he could have given us if given a longer presidency. If memory serves me, he started the Civil Rights Act. That act made a difference in our country, even though racism still persists.

Vietnam. Those who did come home come home with memories, PTSD, depression, addiction, etc. I read "A World of Hurt" about nursing in the Vietnam war and the men who were addicted to heroin is astounding. Those under 21 couldn't buy alcohol so they bought heroin which could be bought for as little as a dollar and when smoked was odorless so superior officers could not smell it. It's a war that the Iraq War is being compared to. And after spending ~15 years in Vietnam we still lost.

But there is more than one Holocaust. There has been Rwanda, Sierra Leone and now Darfur. In Rwanda schoolchildren were beheaded at their desks. Told to lay their heads down while a soldier walked around and beheaded them. I think they label these now more as genocide than holocaust but still millions of lives have been stolen.

I guess what I'm saying is that I could never pick one. Everyone is important and deserves a life.

[zoeboboey]

Originally Posted by Cmariehart

Forgive me for this but I am tired and have spent way too much time watching court tv, discovery channel and the history channel.

I've come across 3 things that keep "leaping" out at me.

1. the Holocaust

2. assassination of John F. Kennedy

3. Vietnam

I guess what I'm trying to say/ask is if there was a way to change a part of history... what part would you choose?????

Now let me tell you first that I am NO historian or political science student. But my answer would be the holocaust.

I wish I could explain my answer well but I am having a hard time. I think that the effect of the holocaust is STILL reverberating throughout the world - there is no event that has done so much damage to a people; in fact it caused damage worldwide, not just to the Jews. If such a thing could happen, ANYthing could happen. Scary how one man could brainwash so many people.

I really can't explain it well. I guess I would say this was the most insane series of actions - EVER - and people STILL downplay its impact and devastation. Some even claim that it never happened, and what a slap in the face THAT is.

[bethin]

Originally Posted by zoeboboey

Now let me tell you first that I am NO historian or political science student. But my answer would be the holocaust.

I wish I could explain my answer well but I am having a hard time. I think that the effect of the holocaust is STILL reverberating throughout the world - there is no event that has done so much damage to a people; in fact it caused damage worldwide, not just to the Jews. If such a thing could happen, ANYthing could happen. Scary how one man could brainwash so many people.

I really can't explain it well. I guess I would say this was the most insane series of actions - EVER - and people STILL downplay its impact and devastation. Some even claim that it never happened, and what a slap in the face THAT is.

I understand what you're saying. And claiming it never happened is illegal in Germany (or it was).

[TazziRN]

All three, but if I absolutely had to choose one, I choose the Holocaust. The people who died in Vietnam (soldiers, I mean) had the means to fight. The millions who died in the Holocaust did not. Yes, innocent civilians died in Vietnam, but in the Holocaust all the people who were killed in the camps -- or even on the streets just based on their religious beliefs -- were innocent victims.

[Roy Fokker]

"To alter history is to deny the present" - Roy Fokker

My answer: None of 'em.

We are a product of our pasts.

As horrid as those events were, each of 'em contributed to creating our present world. Altering any past event is a rejection of our present and the potential loss of our future.

cheers,
Roy

PS: I'm not a "cold hearted unfeeling so and so". The last century witnessed perhaps the greatest extent of man's capability of "industrialized" inhumanity to his fellow man .... but it was also the age of flight, space exploration and massive advanced in medical science. All of human experience - and indeed, life itself - is a collection of tragedies and triumphs. One cannot reject one without denying the other.

PPS: As an amateur historian, my most favorite way to pass time is to think up military "What ifs". For the past 7+ years I've been researching and reading up on the Eastern Front of WWII, the Pacific War of WWII, American "Civil" War, The Korean and Vietnam Wars and the Holocaust. Been a long time, contributing member of various military history websites (specializing mostly on WWII) and occasionally attend re-enactment events.

[zoeboboey]

Originally Posted by Roy Fokker

"To alter history is to deny the present" - Roy Fokker...


... PS: I'm not a "cold hearted unfeeling so and so". The last century witnessed perhaps the greatest extent of man's capability of "industrialized" inhumanity to his fellow man .... but it was also the age of flight, space exploration and massive advanced in medical science. All of human experience - and indeed, life itself - is a collection of tragedies and triumphs. One cannot reject one without denying the other.

No, you're not cold hearted etc etc, I had thought of that response but in the spirit of the thread I tried to answer -- so yeah - you are now validated