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In 1963, the Soviet Union decides to remove their missles from Cuba in exchange for NATO missiles being withdrawn from Turkey. But after they dismantle the missiles, one of the warheads goes missing-----.
When this is discovered, President Kennedy is furious with Defense Secretary Robert McNamara and fires him. Needing someone who could shake things up at the Pentagon, Kennedy's appoints Air Force Chief of Staff Curtis Emerson LeMay to be the new Secretary of Defense. LeMay at once begins to beef up the nations missile defenses with the support of Kennedy (who has grown more hawkish than in OTL).
Meanwhile, terrorists in the PLO buy the missing missile and sell it to Muslim Fanatics in the Nation of Islam. As a result, during JFK's 63' State of the Union, a terrorist attack wipes out Washington, DC killing President Kennedy, Vice President Johnson, and most of the Congress.
Newly installed Secretary of Defense Curtis LeMay should have been in the Capitol but was sent at the last on a top secret mission to Wyoming to inspect the nation's new and improved missile defense system. LeMay is at once sworn in by an Air Force Chaplin as the 36th President of the United States.