Thirteen Days Quotes

President John F. Kennedy You know, last summer, I read a book, ]. I wish every man on that blockade line had read that book. It's World War I, there's thirteen million killed; it was all because the militaries of both alliances believed they were so highly attuned to one another's movements and dispositions, they could predict one another's intentions, but all their theories were based on the last war. And the world and technology had changed, and those lessons were no longer valid, but it was all they knew, so the orders went out, and couldn't be rescinded. And your man in the field, his family at home; they couldn't even tell you the reasons why their lives were being destroyed. But why couldn't they stop it? What could they have done? Here we are, fifty years later. Think if one of their ships resists the inspection, and we shoot out its rudder, and board, they shoot down one of our planes in response, so we bomb their anti-aircraft sites, and in response to that, they attack Berlin...so we invade Cuba...and they fire their missiles...and we fire ours.

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.

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.

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 ] was one of the architects of ]. There's only one responsible choice here. So, let's hope appeasement doesn't run in families. I fear weakness does.

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.

President John F. Kennedy I am the commander in chief of the United States, and I say when we go to war!

Robert McNamara This is not a blockade. This is language. A new vocabulary, the likes of which the world has never seen! This is President Kennedy communicating with Secretary Khrushchev!

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.

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 80 million Americans - and destroy a significant percentage of our bomber bases, degrading our retaliatory options. The Joint Chiefs consensus, Mr. President, is that this signals a major doctrinal shift in Soviet thinking - to a first-strike policy. It is a massively destabilizing move.

Robert Kennedy How long until they're operational?

NPIC Photo Interpreter General Taylor can answer that question better than I can.

Taylor GMAC - Guided Missiles Intelligence Committee - estimates 10-14 days. A crash program could limit that time. However, I must stress that there may be more missiles...that we don't know about. We'll need more U-2 coverage.

President Kennedy Gentlemen, I want first reactions here. Assuming for the moment that Khruschev has NOT gone off the deep end - and intends to start World War Three - what are we looking at?

Dean Rusk Mr. President, I believe my team is in agreement. If we permit the introduction of nuclear missiles to a Soviet satellite nation in our hemisphere, the diplomatic consequences will be too terrible to contemplate. The Russians are trying to show the world they can do whatever they want, wherever they want, and we're powerless to stop them. If they succeed...

Robert Kennedy It'll be ] all over again.

Rusk Yes. Appeasement only makes the aggressor more aggressive. And the Soviets will be emboldened to push us even harder. Now we must remove the missiles one way or another. Now it seems to me the options are either some combination of international pressure & action on our part, until they give in, or...we hit them. An air strike.

Gen. Curtis LeMay You're in a pretty bad fix, Mr. President.

President Kennedy 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.

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 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 deal, and produce the most stringent denials from our government.

Dobrynin This private assurance, represents the word of the highest authority?

RFK Yes.

Dobrynin And it can be relayed beyond Comrade Khrushchev's ears, to the top circles of my government?

RFK Our pledge can be relayed to any government official Secretary Khrushchev sees fit to satisfy. With the caveat that it is not to be made public in any way, shape, or form. And we must have an answer tomorrow, at the latest. I cannot stress this point enough.

Dobrynin Tomorrow?

RFK Tomorrow.

Dobrynin Then, you must excuse me, and permit me to relay the substance of our discussion to my superiors.

RFK Of course.

Dobrynin We have heard stories that some of your military men wish for war.

Dobrynin You are a good man. Your brother is a good man. I assure you there are other good men. Let us hope the will of good men is enough to counter the terrible strength of this thing that was put in motion.

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.