"who would you be to change history?" Topic

Okay, you are magically able to go back in time KNOWING WHAT YOU DO NOW and "take over" a historical personage. On a "ride-along" basis: you don't have to manage every detail of his life, but when you wish it, you can whisper to him (or her) and he will do as you suggest. So you can change decisions to what you will.

I would be George B. McClellan in 1862 and win the war that year by capturing Richmond. Then I would promise Lincoln not to run against him in 1864 if he appoints me military governor of the reconstructing states. My goal would be to be like MacArthur in Japan.

Then president in 1868.

Hmm. Depending on how we define ACW, possibly Andrew Johnson and try for a better outcome for Reconstruction. Failing that, maybe Jeff Davis and sell emancipation as the price of southern independence? We paid a high price for continued union and emancipation. We should have gotten more out of it.

What happens if capturing Richmond doesn't end the war, doc? Or if you can't get as much power as you need or want? (Worse still, what if you DO get all the power you want? That seldom ends well.) And better men than George Brinton McClellan have lost Presidential elections. Many better men, actually.

In general history, I'd become First Consul Bonaparte c. 1801, and try to broker a deal where the Bourbons get their throne back but have to accept an English-style limited monarchy with a Bill of Rights, an independent judiciary and an elected Commons with the power of the purse. If the Law of Unintended Consequences doesn't get me, I might have short-circuited the Napoleonic Wars and moved European politics forward about half a century.

Mind you, the Law of Unintended Consequences gets most of us, sooner or later.

Unintended Consequences. As bad as good intentions,

Adam. After eating from tree of the knowledge of good and evil I don't forgot to eat also from the tree of eternal life.

I am reminded that, in a similar exercise, Ann Coulter said she would be FDR so she could cancel the New Deal. To which Al Franken replied that he would be Hitler so he could cancel the Holocaust and WW2.

For the Civil War, I would be Lee and surrender after Gettysburg.

Tort, would you try for a negotiated settlement of some sort?

Maybe be LBJ and avoid all the stupid mistakes and win the war.

Herbert Hoover.

George III?

But I agree that in such cases you' be risking making things WORSE than what really happened.

As Robert E Lee, a soldier, I would look for the best terms for my soldiers, avoid the politics. I would think back on the oath I took originally, and all the loss of life at Gettysburg, and say never again to third day assaults. I would tell myself it was a great try, but it will not work and thousands will die needlessly. And the court says I don't even own my slaves anyway. I would tell my people to let it go, try to find some peace, support your state, but support all the states together. The war has made us see a new future for everyone.

And then I would be an American hero in the best sense, one who saw the light in the end.

Doc, what if Lincoln decided on a third term ?

Maybe be Eli Whitney and concentrate on the idea of interchangeable parts and forget about the cotton "gin."

Okay, you are magically able to go back in time

Of course, all you need is:

1. a DeLorean
2. a Flux Capacitor
3. 1.21 gigawatts

Kim

Why change anything that happened in the ACW? In global historical terms, the ACW was pretty small beer and the right side of the argument won.

As I replied in your last thread, get over it.

I think -- maybe the Director of the Acadamy of Fine Arts Vienna, and I'd give the budding young art student Adolf Hitler a full scholarship with living expenses, and arrange for a secret patron to buy all his awful watercolor paintings…

I'd go back and be "myself" again, doing some things better, and not repeating mistakes. Can't imagine being in someone else's shoes… ;-)

Good idea, SBminisguy. Did you ever follow the comic strip "Dork Tower?" It once "revealed" that the owner of the strip's game shop was a time traveler, sent back to to keep one of the characters engaged in wargaming and not take up real warfare, as he had done in that future.

(Leading me to wonder how MY local game shop has stayed around so long. What exactly did I do in the alternate universe?)

Oli, a war ended in a year or two, instead of four, would have major effect. Especially in loss of life.

Given the risk of unintended consequences inherent in altering history by time travel, I think I'd play it safe and be HG Wells and devote more time to playing with toy soldiers and developing wargame rules for use by future generations and less on writing his later novels that few read today.

I did think about going back and becoming the doctor who diagnosed my father with a stomach ulcer so I could diagnose cancer instead (the cancer killed him in 1962 before his fortieth birthday), but I'm not sure that the medical treatment available then would have saved him anyway.

I would be JFK, and nip in the bud American involvement in Vietnam.

Wasn't the Kennedy administration involved in the decision to overthrow Diem? Not that Diem was all that great, but we were getting our hands dirty in Vietnam before Johnson came into office. Before Kennedy even.

Diem was assassinated along with his brother on 2 November 1963, 20 days before President Kennedy was assassinated.

Yes, JFK was evidently responsible for Diem's overthrow. Don't think he meant the assassination.

"Who would you be to change history?"

"Au pas de Change" would be my choice.

B

Oli, a war ended in a year or two, instead of four, would have major effect. Especially in loss of life.

And what great good things might those people have done if they hadn't died young? And what great evils? Aye, there's the rub!

I'd advise Lincoln to never go to Ford's Theatre.

Alexander The Great. Stay away from Afghanistan and India. Build empire also around Mediterranean Sea. Pax Alexandriana half a millenium before Rome. I bet Jesus Christ would also show centuries before. Humanity would have already fusion and FTL.

George Lucas.Just to tell Disney to shove it when they try to buy the rights to Star Wars

or maybe tell Henry Ford II to ditch that stupid idea of putting a back seat in the Thunderbird!

I'd be the guy to assassinate Karl Marx before he published anything and no one would have ever heard of him.

Wolfhag

Wolfgang – You'd probably need to nobble Engels as well.

I believe Marx would say if not him it would have been someone else who came up with the Communist Manifesto.

I would be the guy at NBC that canceled Star Trek after three seasons since I would now know of the success of the series and let in run a few more seasons. Also find a way to get few more seasons for Firefly.

Oh I would be Kaiser Bill in 1914 (after German language lessons of course). I would call an international conference to settle the Balkans and not mobilise. Shame about Archduke Ferdinand of course, but these things happen. Never rated him anyway.

No WWI slaughter. No Bolshevik uprising. No "Stab in the Back" reaction in Germany that led to the Nazis. No WWII and the Cold War.

Russia would now still be ruled by an autocrat (OK, no different), but then we would have no jet engines, rockets and satellites and the countless bits of technology that war inspired.

Unintended consequences. Leave the world as it turned out

There's a case for saying the whole World is the result of unintended consequences!

I'd go back and give myself some advice.
I'd be rich now.

dapeters, yes. But does that mean the triumph of the proletariat is also inevitable?

Because the proletariat in the US is increasingly Republicans.

Yes, but not enough for a triumph. Neither party is dominant with less than 30% of voters for each. More people are independents. The proletariat is shifting under the impact of automation, which has shrunk the manufacturing work force. And the impact of data and AI will be profound and change many things. The pace of tech is scary fast….

Marxism has never worked, it's just been a cover for dictators. There are new forces taking shape that Marx could not have foreseen. He never made any clear sense to me..what a grind reading that stuff!