Quotes

Dialogue

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

Dialogue

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.

Dialogue

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.

Dialogue

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.

Dialogue

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.

Dialogue

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.

Dialogue

Kenny O'Donnell: I got a bad feeling about what's going on in there! President Kennedy: In the morning I'm taking charge of the blockade from the situation room and MacNamara is gonna set up shop at the flagpot at the Pentagon and keep an eye on things there. O'Donnell: Good. Because you've got armed boarders climbing onto Soviet ships, and shots being fired across bows! Kennedy: I know. I know. O'Donnell: Well, what about these low level flights? Kennedy: We need the flights. O'Donnell: They're starting them when? Kennedy: An hour. O'Donnell: An hour. You realize what you're getting yourself in for? Kennedy: Kenny, no, we need the flights, because the minute that first missile becomes operational we gotta go in there and destroy it. O'Donnell: Fair enough, but Castro's on alert and we're flying attack planes over their sites, on the deck! There's no way for them to know we're carrying cameras not bombs. Kennedy: God damn it! O'Donnell: They're gonna be shot at, plain and simple.

Dialogue

Kenny O'Donnell: The president has instructed me to pass along an order to you. You are not to get shot down. Commander William B. Ecker: Uh, we'll do our best, sir. O'Donnell: I don't think you understand me, Commander. You are not to get shot down under any circumstances. Whatever happens up there, you were not shot at. Mechanical failures are fine, crashing into mountains fine. But you and your men are not to be shot at, fired at, or launched upon. Ecker: Excuse me sir, what the hell is going on here? O'Donnell: Commander, if you are fired upon, the President will be forced to attack the sites that fire on you. He doesn't want to have to do that. It's very important that he doesn't, or things could get very badly out of control.

Dialogue

Robert Kennedy: At this moment the President is accepting the terms of Secretary Khrushchev's letter of Friday night. If the Soviet Union halts construction immediately, removes the missiles, and submits to UN inspections, the United States will pledge to never invade Cuba, or to aid others in that enterprise. Anatoly Dobrynin: If your Jupiter missiles in Turkey were removed also, such an accommodation could be reached. RFK: That's not possible. The United States cannot agree to such terms under threat. Any belief to the contrary was in error. Dobrynin: You want war? RFK: [RFK makes a frustrated gesture; Dobrynin reaches for his briefcase as if to leave] However...while there can be no quid pro quo on this issue, the United States can offer a private assurance. Now our Jupiter missiles in Turkey are obsolete, and have been scheduled for withdrawal for some time. This withdrawal should take place within, say, six months. Of course any public disclosure of this assurance would negate the