Thirteen Days

President Kennedy: Okay - let's have it. NPIC Photo Interpreter: Gentlemen, as most of you now know, a U-2 over Cuba Sunday morning took a series of disturbing photographs. Our analysis at NPIC indicates that the Soviet Union has followed up its conventional weapons build-up in Cuba with the introduction of surface-to-surface, medium-range ballistic missiles, or MRBMs. Our official estimate at this time is that the missile system is the SS-4 'Sandal'. We do not believe that the missiles are as yet operational. Iron Bark reports that the SS-4 can deliver a three-megaton nuclear weapon 1,000 miles. So far we've identified 32 missiles serviced by about 3,400 men, undoubtedly all Soviet personnel. Our cities and military installations in the southeast as far north as Washington, D.C., are in range of these weapons, and in the event of a launch would have only five minutes warning. General Marshall Carter: Five minutes, gentlemen. Gen. Maxwell Taylor: In those five minutes, they could kill

Thirteen Days (film), CC BY-SA 4.0

President Kennedy: Dean, how does this all play out? Dean Acheson: Your first step sir, will be to demand that the Soviet withdraw the missiles within 12 to 24 hours. They will refuse. When they do you will order the strikes, followed by the invasion. They will resist and be overrun. They will retaliate against another target somewhere else in the world, most likely Berlin. We will honor our treaty commitments and resist them there, defeating them per our plans. Kennedy: Those plans call for the use of nuclear weapons. So what is the next step? Acheson: Hopefully cooler heads will prevail before we reach the next step.

Thirteen Days (film), CC BY-SA 4.0

Dean Acheson: What happened in there? Gen. Maxwell Taylor: I thought he was going to give us his decision. McGeorge Bundy: Look, I know them. They just need to make sure there's no other way. They'll get there. Acheson: Remember, the Kennedys' father was one of the architects of Munich. There's only one responsible choice here. So, let's hope appeasement doesn't run in families. I fear weakness does.

Thirteen Days (film), CC BY-SA 4.0

Kenny O'Donnell: You know, call me Irish, but I don't believe in "cooler heads prevailing." President Kennedy: You know, they think I froze in there. O'Donnell: You didn't freeze. You did what you were supposed to do, you stayed out of the corner. You didn't decide. Kennedy: Acheson's scenario is unacceptable, and he's got more experience than anybody. O'Donnell: There is no expert on the subject, there is no wise old man. There's... shit, there's just us. Kennedy: The thing is that Acheson's right. Talk alone's not gonna accomplish anything. O'Donnell: Well, let's bomb the shit out of 'em! Everybody wants to. Even you, I mean, even me, right? It sure would feel good.

Thirteen Days (film), CC BY-SA 4.0

Robert Kennedy: No, no, NO! Now there is more than one option here, and if one isn't occurring to us, it's because we haven't thought hard enough. John McCone: Bobby, sometimes there is only one right choice, and you thank God when it's so clear! Kennedy: You're talking a sneak attack. How will that make us look? A big country blasting a little country to the Stone Age. Yeah, we'll be everyone's favorites. Dean Acheson: Come on Bobby, that's naïve. This is the real world. You know that better than anybody. John McCone: And you weren't so ethically particular when we were talking about options for removing Castro over at CIA.

Thirteen Days (film), CC BY-SA 4.0

Gen. Curtis LeMay: You're in a pretty bad fix, Mr. President. President Kennedy: [wonders at remark and looks back at LeMay] What did you say? LeMay: You're in a pretty bad fix. Kennedy: Well, maybe you haven't noticed you're in it with me.

Thirteen Days (film), CC BY-SA 4.0