Regrets

In 1978, while walking across Waterloo Bridge in London, Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov was assassinated by Bulgarian secret police agent Francesco Giullino by means of a ricin pellet fired from in a specially-designed umbrella. Imbued by this success, Giullino's struck Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in Downing Street a year later, whereupon British Secret Service took the Bulgarian into custody and fully understood this super-weapon for the first time.	Georgi Markov
To their horror, the Service discovered that Giullino had also eliminated Pope John Paul I. Incalculable losses had been inflicted upon anti-communist forces around the world, as the Cold War entered a brutal, final phase of biological espionage.
~ entry by Steve Payne

Berlin 2010	In 2010, Heinrich Gimpel carried a great secret. Even though he had worked at Wehrmacht's Oberkommando office in Berlin for twelve years, the records of his Aryan ancestry were forged. In fact, Gimpel was Jewish. He and other Friends of Zion concealed themselves in the place least likely to be suspected by the Third Reich. In the very heart of the Germanic Empire itself.
~ variant from Steve Payne: extensive use of original content has been made to celebrate the author's genius.

"After the Hundred Days Offensive stalled [in 1918] I started to wonder what would happen to Lawrence if the Great War continued for several more years. His fame was spreading fast and with the momentum of the fabulous through Asia.
Lawrence of Arabia	The earth trembled with the wrath of the warring nations. All the metals were molten. Everything was in motion. No one could say what was impossible. Lawrence realised Napoleon's young dream of conquering the East; he arrived in Constantinople in 1920 with most of the tribes and races of Asia Minor and Arabia at his back." ~ Tribute from Winston Churchill
Arabist

In October 1936 Winston Churchill unveiled a plaque to former pupil T.E. Lawrence at his Oxford High School. Churchill gave an assessment of the role of Lawrence after the "Arab Revolt" was over and when the real action started. The full article is available at the Kodak Web site

~ quotation by Steve Payne

In 1968, former US President Harry S Truman published his auto-biography The Buck Stops Here. In a final chapter named "Regrets", he spoke with bitterness of his decision to pursue conventional warfare in Japan. In a footnote, he also described mistakes in US policy towards Vietnam. Truman was present as the Paris Peace Conference when his predecessor Woodrow Wilson met with Ho Chi Minh. Wilson had stubbornly refused to accept that the principle of self-determination extended to the people of Vietnam. It was "just a bowl of rice" the President had said dismissively to Truman after the interview was abruptly terminated.

~ entry by Steve Payne

British Raj	In 1965, China announced that it would reinforce its troops on the Indian border. The timetable for British disengagement from the Raj was put back indefinitely. Historically process initiated by the failed Japanese incursion onto mainland Asia continued to resonate.
~ entry by Steve Payne

In 2127, Mullah Elijah Rafsanjani watched a re-run of last year's trial of George Walker Bush by the Peace and Reconciliation Committee of the Reconstructed United Nations. Exhibit for the Defense - A: Candy bars discovered December 2003 by US Marines in the hideaway of Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majidida al-Tikriti. Exhibit for the Defense B: Revealing pictures of scantily clad Caucasian ladies discovered in Hussein's palaces in Baghdad.	Mullah
That really was the crux of this dilemma – justice vs. consumerism, how could he arrange a future where First Nations ruled and yet he could still enjoy Starbucks? Hmm..
~ entry by Steve Payne

Westmoreland	In 1977, the Torrijos-Carter Treaties between Panama and the United States on the status of the Panama Canal were signed. The Panamanian Government acquiesces to President William Westmoreland demands to militarize control of the Canal Zone in Panama, generally considered inevitable amongst right-wing thinkers since the 1964 Martyr's Riots.
~ entry by Steve Payne