The Three Assassination Attempts of 1981

Although nobody has ever fully explained why, The Sixties began on Nov. 22, 1963 with the assassination of the President. That ill-starred decade's worst year was 1968, marked by the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy. For some reason, during my lifetime, assassinations strengthened the forces of despair and disorder.

The long decay of the West continued during the 1970s, but by 1981 there was finally reason for optimism, due to the recent elections of strong leaders such as Reagan, Thatcher, and John Paul II. Then the President was shot in March, the Pope in May, and Anwar Sadat in October.

It's not reassuring to contemplate how much worse the last quarter of a century would have gone if all three had died, instead of just Sadat. (Mrs. Thatcher's hotel room was blown up in October of 1984, but she survived too, due to needing less sleep than mortals. Although by then, the victory of the West over Communism had become much more likely.)

My published articles are archived at iSteve.com -- Steve Sailer