Waldrop, Howard. "Ike at the Mike"
Divergence: c 1908 CE
What if: Dwight Eisenhower cashed in his train ticket to West Point so that he could learn to play jazz clarinet.
Summary: In 1968, Senator Aron Presley attends Ike's final performance when President Joe Kennedy awards medals to him and Louis Armstrong.
Series note: Possibly set in the same timeline as Waldrop's "Hoover's Men".
Published: In Omni, June 1982; The First Omni Book of Science Fiction (ed. Ellen Datlow), Zebra 1983 (0821713191); Howard Who? Twelve Outstanding Stories of Speculative Fiction, Doubleday 1986 (038519708X), Small Beer 2006 (1931520186BUY); Strange Things in Close-Up, Legend 1990 (0099644401); The Way It Wasn't: Great Science Fiction Stories of Alternate History (ed. Martin H. Greenberg), q.v.; and We Could Do Worse (audiobook, ed. Martin H. Greenberg), q.v.
Awards: Nominee: 1983 Hugo for best short story.