Rory O’Donnell and the Kennedy’s, the sequel to The Life and Times of Liam O’Donnell, depicts events that occurred between 1946-1968. The origin of everything that impacts today’s world peace can be traced to these forgotten years.
Immediately following the war, the technological changes to America’s culture were so vast and occurred in such a short time that we’re still holding our breath:
Typewriters to computers
Metal to Plastics
Fountain pens to ballpoint pens
Propeller planes to jets
Space Exploration
An interstate highway system
Atomic energy
Domestic upheaval soon followed:
Whites fled from inner city neighborhoods to suburbia
Divorce became commonplace
Inner city crime ran rampant
Massive union strikes
Civil Rights Movement
Pedophilia
Assassinations:
President John Fitzgerald Kennedy
Senator Robert Francis Kennedy
Martin Luther King
The list is endless—as were the global changes:
Being the only major country to emerge from the war relatively intact, The United States became the free world’s choice to prevent the spread of communism.
The Marshal Plan
England and France reluctantly shed their empires
Germany was divided, partially ruled by the Allies, partially by the Communists
China was lost to communism
Middle East Oil replaced coal as king
Israel, India, Pakistan, … gained their independence None of the above came free of conflict, hence:
The Berlin Airlift
Korean War
Vietnam
The book Rory O’Donnell and the Kennedys begins with the departure of Aaron Rosenberg, Rory’s friend, to serve in the Israeli Army, we’ll learn about his activities later in the story. Soon after Rory receives his first assignment as a reporter, he interviews the Kennedys where he befriends Bobby. Alex Wellbourne becomes a British Lord. These friendships lead to decades of background information from Washington and London.
As readers anticipated, Rory married Jeannie much to the regret of his mother and his sister Katie, the nun. The young O’Donnells followed Rory as he changed jobs, moving to the New Jersey suburbs then to Illinois. Jeannie’s brother Crazy Tom turns to a life of crime. Family life is not idyllic for a pedophile priest befriends Jeannie’s son, BJ.
Rory meets his bi-racial cousin Sean, who reports on the Civil-Rights movement.
The fictional committee of 13 may not have not existed in reality, but its dogma resided in the minds of men.
Smith uses this scheme to highlight the many questionable political decisions that led to the Korean War, our Middle East policies, and Vietnam.
James Francis Smith
