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Cause Greater by Steve Payne

Author says: six years after John McCain was released from a North Vietnamese Prisoner of War Camp he discovered a radically changed America which he summarised by saying that "Now that I'm back, I find a lot of hand-wringing about this country. I don't buy that". But what if he encountered a resolute, victorious nation, a "sea of crew cuts"? Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s).


March 14th 1973: on a stopover at Clark Air Base in the Philippines, US President William Westmoreland presented lieutenant commander John McCain with a signed copy of his favourite novel, Ernest Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls.
"The world is a fine place and worth the fighting for and I hate very much to leave it"

In the inside cover, Westmoreland entered a handwritten quotation from the protagonist, Robert Jordan - "The World is a fine place, and worth the fighting for".

Sensing the historic paralell with the fascist assault on the Spanish Republic, both Westmoreland and McCain were strongly in agreement with Jordan's philosophy that "if we win here, we win everywhere".

Yet neither man had the insight to ask whether Hemingway, a peacenik that moved to Cuba and later committed suicide in despair, might not be suggesting the whole military adventure was a tragic waste of life.

Author says we think perhaps John McCain just likes fighting, and Ernest Hemingway was on a self-destructive trip but not everyone agrees! To view guest historian's comments on this post please visit the Today in Alternate History web site.

Other Contemporary Stories

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Steve Payne

Editor of Today in Alternate History, a Daily Updating Blog of Important Events In History That Never Occurred Today. Follow us on Facebook, Myspace and Twitter.

Imagine what would be, if history had occurred a bit differently. Who says it didn't, somewhere? These fictional news items explore that possibility. Possibilities such as America becoming a Marxist superpower, aliens influencing human history in the 18th century and Teddy Roosevelt winning his 3rd term as president abound in this interesting fictional blog.


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