1960 versus 2000
Presidential Elections
(personal reflections)
In 1960, Kennedy beat Nixon by a very narrow margin. In fact the Republicans claimed that Mayor Delaney stole the election for Kennedy in Illinois. Records show that there were many votes from people who did not exist.
How ironic is now that Bush beats Gore now in 2000 by narrowest of margins. And now the Democrats claim that Governor Jeb Bush stole the election in Florida for his bother.
Can you imagine what would have happened if Nixon had won in 1960 ? He would have never allowed the Russian to invade Cuba and place missiles there. (As a side effect, we would have never gotten involved in Vietnam either. That war was a reaction from Kennedies for losing Cuba.)
With Nixon in power back in 1960, Castro would have been defeated in the Bay of Pigs (a disaster for Kennedy and Cuban) and I would still be living in Cuba.
What a different life I would have had.
I believe I would have still gone to college probably in the United States along with my other brothers and sisters and like my parents before me. I probably would have still studied accounting, engineering, or mathematics. The big difference is that I would probably be not be in teaching, at least not at the high school level. I would probably be running a sugar mill or power plant or computer company.
I would not have played college ball. That chance was a direct result of growing up in the DC area and working hard to scrape a living in the 60’s.
It would have been interesting to have grown up the son of a wealthy Havana family. Would I have been happier ? Probably not !
