November 22, 1963, The Day The Glow From Camelot Faded

I was part of the academic honor guard in 1963, when we, at Pinecrest, heard the voice over the loudspeaker proclaim the death of President Kennedy.. Little did any of us know that the shot which caused the demise of Camelot would have had such a profuse effect on World History.  The dawning of the Kennedy Administration marked a change in generations, a move to innovation, leaving the likes of Eisenhower and Truman in the dust bins of history.  JFK represented a new generation and a new era in the U.S.  We asked what we could do for our country and looked towards winning the space race culminating with the moon landing in 1969, which, in my view, has been mankind's most enduring accomplishment in world history.  But what if JFK lived?  How would his second term have dealt with Viet Nam?  JFK was a Cold Warrior to be sure and he did seem to buy into the 'Domino Theory.'  I think Kennedy's second term would have centered on civil rights and other reforms in American society with Bobby Kennedy at his side.  Bobby would have then stepped into higher office in 1968 and the Viet Nam war certainly would have been over.  
The "Glowing City on the Hill," really was Camelot, aglow with new ideas and ideals where America would lead the way into the new frontiers of space and technology.  Would a second Kennedy administration have avoided the pitfalls that befell LBJ and NIxon?  Re-writing history is always a hazardous task, but what if Camelot became the beacon of hope and light that we all hoped for?  Alas, we will never know as an assassin's bullet muted that gleaming icon of the 1960's known as Camelot.  We now look back 50 years  at an event that made Lee Harvey Oswald and Jack Ruby household names.  Was Kennedy's death a conspiracy or the act of a single person akin to John Wilkes Booth or Squeaky From?  Was there a second gun man on the grassy knoll? Was Oswald that good of a marksman?  The shot heard round the world may have caused a calamity in Brooklyn one night in 1951, but what about the historical echoes of those shots at Dealy Plaza, some 50 years ago?