# If you could go back in time and save one person, who would it be? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [October 9, 2001, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-go-back-in-time-and-save-one-person-who-would-it-be/86212 "2001-10-09T00:02:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![justinh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9fc29f/32.png) [@justinh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/justinh)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2001, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-go-back-in-time-and-save-one-person-who-would-it-be/86212/21 "2001-10-09T14:54:56Z")
Can I argue that JFK shouldn’t be on this list? I can’t think of anything he did in his life that would suggest that he would have done anything good. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2001, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-go-back-in-time-and-save-one-person-who-would-it-be/86212/22 "2001-10-09T15:20:19Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Dangerosa \* > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > \*Originally posted by ryoushi \* > > \*\*I would prevent the death of **Archduke Ferdinand**. I’m not too sure of the consequences of this - how long would it be before the Great War finds another excuse to start? \*\* > > Not long. I think WWI was inevitable and there wasn’t any one thing that could have stopped it. \*\* Austria was hellbent on declaring war on Serbia, and the Archduke was just an excuse. It was a pretty flimsy excuse, when you consider that it occurred in Bosnia, which had been annexed by Austria. The terrorist WAS Serbian, but he wasn’t endorsed by the Serbian government. At one point, the Black Hand, of which Princip was a member, was patronized by the Crown Prince Alexander, who wanted to control it himself (ie, keep it for good, and use it to help Serbia, not blow people up), but he later decided it was a waste. I’m simplifying, of course. And Germany-the Kaiser especially-was dying for a chance to show off. ---
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2001, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-go-back-in-time-and-save-one-person-who-would-it-be/86212/23 "2001-10-09T15:42:55Z")
Christopher Marlowe, for pretty much the same selfish reasons as Manda JO. ---
**Author:** ![Scylla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@Scylla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scylla)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2001, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-go-back-in-time-and-save-one-person-who-would-it-be/86212/24 "2001-10-09T15:51:09Z")
Albert Einstein. I’d go back and save him before the Nazis got there hands on him. If we could get him to America then the Germans would never have gotten the bomb and won World War II, and the last 55 years of cruelty and totatlitarianistic rule would never have happened. The good guys would have won and it would be a better world. I wish I could do that. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Billy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4af34b/32.png) [@Mr.Billy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Billy)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2001, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-go-back-in-time-and-save-one-person-who-would-it-be/86212/25 "2001-10-09T15:54:40Z")
Lou Gehrig. The fact of the matter is this: If you put everyone’s problems in the whole wide world into a hat, and then you passed the hat around, you’d be lucky to get your own problems back. Lou Gehrig understood that. For my money, we ought to keep people like that around for as long as possible. And – if possible – longer. –B ---
**Author:** ![Tiburon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e36b37/32.png) [@Tiburon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tiburon)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2001, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-go-back-in-time-and-save-one-person-who-would-it-be/86212/26 "2001-10-09T16:08:54Z")
Anne Frank. Tibs. ---
**Author:** ![audient](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@audient](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/audient)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2001, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-go-back-in-time-and-save-one-person-who-would-it-be/86212/27 "2001-10-09T16:20:55Z")
Jaco Pastorius so so sad when he was killed. I miss all the music he didn’t make. ---
**Author:** ![Blackclaw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e68b1a/32.png) [@Blackclaw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blackclaw)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2001, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-go-back-in-time-and-save-one-person-who-would-it-be/86212/28 "2001-10-09T16:22:36Z")
I’d save that one kid who would have went on to have cures for AIDS and Cancer. This kid would have been brillant as an adult. Unfortunately he died while test riding his homemade rocket ship that was constructed out of filled gas cans, petrolium jelly, and a pilot light. He would have been brillant as an adult. Sure was a stupid kid though. (Just saying in my fevered brain (I feel terribly ill today) kinda way that it’s hard to know who we’ve lost that would have made a difference.) ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2001, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-go-back-in-time-and-save-one-person-who-would-it-be/86212/29 "2001-10-09T16:55:27Z")
[…admiring Scylla’s brilliant post…] ---
**Author:** ![DPWhite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d26b3c/32.png) [@DPWhite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPWhite)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2001, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-go-back-in-time-and-save-one-person-who-would-it-be/86212/30 "2001-10-09T17:16:01Z")
Pericles. Get him some antibiotics. Other choices are good too. ---
**Author:** ![Rysdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7cd45c/32.png) [@Rysdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysdad)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2001, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-go-back-in-time-and-save-one-person-who-would-it-be/86212/31 "2001-10-09T17:26:19Z")
Hitler, so he could be captured and tried at Nuremberg. ---
**Author:** ![Violet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/ebca7d/32.png) [@Violet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Violet)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2001, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-go-back-in-time-and-save-one-person-who-would-it-be/86212/32 "2001-10-09T19:26:39Z")
for JUSTINH who said supra (above), “Can I argue that JFK shouldn’t be on this list? I can’t think of anything he did in his life that would suggest that he would have done anything good.” See: [http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/jk35.html](http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/jk35.html) Partial quote: "His [JFK’s] Inaugural Address offered the memorable injunction: “Ask not what your country can do for you–ask what you can do for your country.” As President, he set out to redeem his campaign pledge to get America moving again. His economic programs launched the country on its longest sustained expansion since World War II; before his death, he laid plans for a massive assault on persisting pockets of privation and poverty. Responding to ever more urgent demands, he took vigorous action in the cause of equal rights, calling for new civil rights legislation. His vision of America extended to the quality of the national culture and the central role of the arts in a vital society. He wished America to resume its old mission as the first nation dedicated to the revolution of human rights. With the Alliance for Progress and the Peace Corps, he brought American idealism to the aid of developing nations…" An now I would like to add Martin Luther King. Have a nice day. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Lodrain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c4cdca/32.png) [@Lodrain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lodrain)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2001, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-go-back-in-time-and-save-one-person-who-would-it-be/86212/33 "2001-10-09T21:44:52Z")
Ooh, toughie. Hands down, Gandhi. The world could have used Gandhi for a little while longer than it did… While I’m at it, maybe I should figure out a way to get Hitler to not fight in World War I (or at least give him a cushy desk job, so that his little nerve-gas incident never occured), and get him into the Vienna art school, so that World War II and the ensuing staring contest between the Soviets and the West never would have happened. ---
**Author:** ![lenin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3bc359/32.png) [@lenin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lenin)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2001, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-go-back-in-time-and-save-one-person-who-would-it-be/86212/34 "2001-10-09T22:42:49Z")
So many choices. My opinion? Save Lenin. No, not me, Lenin the leader of Russia. The longer Lenin stayed alive, the less time Stalin would be in power. Also, Lenin undoubtedly had plans to actually move towards communism following NEP, unlike all of his successors. But that’s just what I think. ---
**Author:** ![Grok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/96bed5/32.png) [@Grok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grok)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2001, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-go-back-in-time-and-save-one-person-who-would-it-be/86212/35 "2001-10-09T23:18:39Z")
We want to save someone who passed on well before they had finished giving great things to the world? No contest: **Jim Henson** ---
**Author:** ![Critical1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@Critical1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Critical1)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2001, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-go-back-in-time-and-save-one-person-who-would-it-be/86212/36 "2001-10-10T01:06:31Z")
for curiosities sake either ghengis or kublia khan, I mean the mongols were close to england when kublia got sick and died, how would the world be with him around for another 20 years? for selfish reasons Bob Marley. (ok not entirely selfish, he was a serious proponent of world peace and tolerance) ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2001, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-go-back-in-time-and-save-one-person-who-would-it-be/86212/37 "2001-10-10T01:11:17Z")
schplebordnik wrote: > [@](#): > > Edith Keeler. > Her humanitarian efforts would have kept the U.S. out of WWII. > > Sure, that means the Nazis develop the bomb, and ultimately are able to achieve world domination, but the larger aims of peace would have been achieved. > > And Kirk would have settled down, and she wouldn’t have later wound up marrying Blake Carrington and becoming a major bitch… Oh, come come now. You know as well as I do that if you saved Edith Keeler, Spock would just go back through the Guardian of Forever and let her get killed again. ---
**Author:** ![TV\_time](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f17d59/32.png) [@TV\_time](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TV_time)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2001, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-go-back-in-time-and-save-one-person-who-would-it-be/86212/38 "2001-10-10T01:46:26Z")
**Will Rogers** –The world always needs more laughter and a good grasp of reality. **WallyM** –same reason. - ---
**Author:** ![capacitor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e47774/32.png) [@capacitor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capacitor)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2001, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-go-back-in-time-and-save-one-person-who-would-it-be/86212/39 "2001-10-10T02:34:28Z")
I’d save **Archimedes**. At the rate he was going, before he was foolishly killed by a Roman centurion, he might have discovered the principles of analytic geometry and many more principles of optics back in Ancient Greece, and greatly increased human progress. ---
**Author:** ![dunne\_u.wurrie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9fc29f/32.png) [@dunne\_u.wurrie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dunne_u.wurrie)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2001, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-go-back-in-time-and-save-one-person-who-would-it-be/86212/40 "2001-10-10T03:00:44Z")
Tracer is inarguably right. You have to kill Spock while saving Edith. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-go-back-in-time-and-save-one-person-who-would-it-be/86212.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-go-back-in-time-and-save-one-person-who-would-it-be/86212.md?page=3)