Thirteen Days

MCNAMARA: I believe the President made it clear that there would be no firing on ships without his express permission.

ADMIRAL ANDERSON: With all due respect, Mr. Secretary, we were not firing on the ship. Firing on a ship means attacking the ship. We were not attacking the ship. We were firing over it.

MCNAMARA: This was not the President's intention when he gave that order. What if the Soviets don't see the distention? What if they make the same mistake I just did? There will be no firing anything near ANY Soviet ships without my express permission, is that understood, Admiral?

ADMIRAL ANDERSON: Yes, sir.

MCNAMARA: And I will only issue such instructions when ordered to by the President. John Paul Jones... you don't understand a thing, do you, Admiral?

MCNAMARA: Starshells.

ADMIRAL ANDERSON: Get out of our way, Mr. Secretary. The navy has been running blockades since the days of John Paul Jones.

ADMIRAL ANDERSON: Yes, Captain, you may proceed. Clear your guns.

MCNAMARA: What --

ADMIRAL ANDERSON: We've been hailing the Groznyy for the last hour, Mr. Secretary. The Groznyy refuses to stop.

MCNAMARA: What are you doing?

ADMIRAL ANDERSON: Carrying out our mission, Mr. Secretary. If you don't mind, we're very busy right now. We need to be able to do our jobs.

MCNAMARA: Admiral, I asked you a question.

ADMIRAL ANDERSON: Which is exactly what they appear to be preparing to do, Mr. President. We're tracking 26 ships inbound to Cuba. There's no sign they're changing course. The closest ships, the Gagarin and the Kimovsk, will make the quarantine line by this time tomorrow.

MCNAMARA: We're concerned about the possibility of an incident with an innocent cargo carrier. If it turns ugly, the Russians could use an ugly incident and bad world opinion as leverage to force us to remove the quarantine.

BOBBY: With the caveat that it is not 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...

BOBBY: Tomorrow...

DOBRYNIN: This private assurance represents the word of the Highest Authority?

BOBBY: Yes.

DOBRYNIN: And it can be relayed beyond Comrade Khruschev's ears to the top circles of my government

BOBBY: Of course. Our pledge can be relayed to any government official Secretary Khruschev sees fit to satisfy.

BOBBY: How does a guy get a rep like that?

THE PRESIDENT: Doesn't matter to me. If I went down in history like Adams, I'd die happy. All they say about him today is --

THE PRESIDENT: We were just debating who had it worse, us or George Washington and his guys.

BOBBY: He didn't have to worry about nuclear weapons.

THE PRESIDENT: Yeah, but the country didn't even exist as a country yet. It was a mess, and he didn't have a leg to stand on.

BOBBY: He gets it, but he's pissed.

THE PRESIDENT: That's all well and good, but what do we say to 'em?

BOBBY: We're going to have to stop a ship eventually, show the quarantine's got teeth, or we'll prove McCone right.

THE PRESIDENT: McNamara's on his way back here now. We need to pick the right ship. No subs. No armed boarding parties either. We need a little more time to figure this one out.

BOBBY: Goddamn Stevenson. Jesus. Peace at any price. You'd think nobody learned anything from World War Two.

THE PRESIDENT: Somebody had to say it. I respect Adlai for having the guts to risk looking like an appeaser.

BOBBY: We have to pull him. He's not going to be able to handle the Soviets in front of the U.N. Zorin will eat him alive.

THE PRESIDENT: We've got bigger problems right now.

THE PRESIDENT: Well, I'm not.

BOBBY: Then you'll call, right?

THE PRESIDENT: Lying bastard. Lied to my face.

BOBBY: We're split down the middle. If I held a vote I think airstrike would beat blockade by a vote or two.

THE PRESIDENT: I want a consensus, Bobby. Consensus. Either air strike or blockade. Something everyone'll stand by even if they don't like it. I need it by Saturday. Make it happen.

BOBBY: What if I can't?

BOBBY: There's still no sign they know that we know about the missiles. Been a lot of cloud cover; probably think we aren't getting any good product.

THE PRESIDENT: We keep 'em in the dark as long as we can. But I sure as hell am going to test him.

BOBBY: As if dealing with the Russians wasn't hard enough, we gotta worry about our own house.

THE PRESIDENT: Tonight, listening to Taylor and Acheson, I kept seeing Burke and Dulles telling me all I had to do was sign on the dotted line. The invasion would succeed. Castro would be gone. Just like that. Easy.

BOBBY: He's right, Jack. Taylor is saying we may have some time. We've got to use it.

THE PRESIDENT: So if there are alternatives that make sense -- and I'm not saying there are -- we need 'em. Need 'em fast.

BOBBY: What about the allies? Congress? I think we may need to start letting key people know. And they're all scattered across the country for the campaign. We're going to need to get the U.N. staff in and warmed up. Jesus... I don't even know if we've got secure communications with half our embassies since that the Soviets got that cryptographer of ours.

THE PRESIDENT: We can't worry about everything right now. We've got to figure out what we're going to do before we worry about how we do it.

BOBBY: Jesus Christ, guys. What the hell's Khruschev thinking?

THE PRESIDENT: Did you have any indication of this from Georgi? Any possible warning or sense of motivation?

BOBBY: Complete snowjob. And then we went out and told the country they weren't putting missiles into Cuba. By the way, you realize we just lost the midterms.

THE PRESIDENT: Good.

BOBBY: Where the hell are you?

KENNY: Yeah?

BOBBY: Kenny. It's over.

BOBBY: Slow down. Smell that?

KENNY: Smoke.

BOBBY: Just wanted to see for myself. They're burning their documents.

BOBBY: We gave so much to get here. I don't know. Sometimes I think what the hell did we do it for?

KENNY: Because we knew we could do a better job than everyone else.

BOBBY: All right, so maybe we overestimated how reasonable this trade would look. Okay? You happy? So now what?

KENNY: So now you've got to talk him out of it. And then we've got to figure out an acceptable political solution.

BOBBY: And if there has been a coup and there is no acceptable political solution?

BOBBY: And?

KENNY: And Jack wants to trade the missiles in Turkey.

BOBBY: The Jupiters are obsolete. They were supposed to have been dismantled last summer anyway --

KENNY: -- Jesus, Mary and Joseph. I told you how stupid it was to float the Lippman article! But you wouldn't listen to me. What if there hasn't been a coup at all? What if it's you two who invited that second letter by raising the possibility of a trade?

BOBBY: We're getting everyone together as fast as we can.

KENNY: What does the letter say?

BOBBY: They want us to take our missiles out of Turkey along with the no invasion pledge. It looks like Fomin was a ploy after all, and they were just stalling for time.

BOBBY: Where've you been? We've been trying to find you all morning.

KENNY: Helen and I went out for breakfast. EXCOM's not supposed to convene til eight.

BOBBY: We just got a second letter from Khruschev. The deal's off.

KENNY: Adlai can handle Zorin. He knows the inning and the score.

BOBBY: He better. Because nobody thinks he's up to this. Nobody.

BOBBY: My father --

KENNY: -- I'm just trying to make a point. This idea is that fucking bad.

BOBBY: Oh, still sore about this.

KENNY: Something your father would've come up with.

BOBBY: Adlai's too weak! We have to convince Jack to pull him, get McCloy in there.

KENNY: You can't take him out this late in the game.

BOBBY: Zorin will eat him alive!

KENNY: Then talk to your brother, goddamn it. The two of you don't need any advice to get into trouble.

BOBBY: What's gotten into you?

KENNY: Jesus...

BOBBY: Rescind the order. Can all the Chiefs. Put Nitze, Gilpatric and the Undersecretaries in charge.

KENNY: We can't do that, Bobby.

BOBBY: What happened to speak when spoken to?

KENNY: Give it a rest. You were thinking the same thing, just didn't have the guts to take the heat.

BOBBY: Jack, I'm as conniving as they come, but a sneak attack is just wrong.

KENNY: He's right. And things are happening too fast. It smells like the Bay of Pigs all over again.

BOBBY: I'll do it.

KENNY: It's too politicized with you in there, anyway. They need to be able to stick their necks out.

BOBBY: It'll be the principals, a couple of the key guys from each department: the Executive Committee of the National Security Council. We'll call it EXCOM.

KENNY: The other thing is...

BOBBY: ...I know. CIA and the military fucked us on the Bay of Pigs.

KENNY: They're going to be pressing for a military solution soon. We can't afford to let them ram their agenda down our throats. We need to come with options other than air strikes so we have some sort of choice here.

BOBBY: We got a bunch of smart guys. We lock 'em up together in there, kick 'em in the ass til they come up with options.

KENNY: Who gives a shit about the midterms now? The Soviets are putting nuclear weapons ninety miles away from us.

BOBBY: You mean there's something more important than votes? Didn't think I'd live to see the day, Ken.

KENNY: Every day the sun comes up... says something about us.

BUNDY: Says what, Kenny?

KENNY: The sun came up today.

BUNDY: Yeah.

KENNY: It shouldn't have. But it did.

BUNDY: Jack and Bobby are good men. But it takes a certain character, moral toughness to stand up to --

KENNY: -- You listen to me. Nobody, nobody, talks about my friends that way. You're fucking here right now because of the Kennedys. They may be wrong. They make mistakes. But they're not weak. The weak ones are these 'people' who can't speak their own minds.

BUNDY: You know I don't mean they're weak.

BUNDY: You gotta stop 'em. We know it's Jack and Bobby's idea -- they leaked it to Lippman. The military guys are going ape, and they're not alone.

KENNY: Then they should speak up.

BUNDY: Christ, Ken, you know it's not that easy.

KENNY: Yes it is.

BUNDY: No it isn't. They don't trust the people that feel this way. But these people are right. And the Kennedys are wrong. We need you to tell 'em, Kenny. They'll listen to you.

BUNDY: What did you think of Lippman's column this morning?

KENNY: I think it's a bad idea.

KENNY: Helen just asked me what sort of arrangements we have for the families.

BUNDY: I just checked myself. They're being issued identity cards. Call comes, and evacuation officers meet them at pre-arranged departure areas. They go by helicopter to Mount Weather. We meet them there.

KENNY: What's it about?

BUNDY: Cuba.

KENNY: Hey, Mac. You're up bright and early.

BUNDY: No, Ken. I need to see him now...

FOMIN: John. How much time?

SCALI: 48 hours. In 48 hours there can be no deals.

FOMIN: And the second condition?

SCALI: Time is of the essence.

SCALI: I am instructed to tell you that the American Government would respond favorably to an offer along the lines you have discussed. If this solution were raised at the U.N. by Ambassador Zorin, he would find a favorable reply from Ambassador Stevenson.

FOMIN: So I understand you correctly. If the missiles in Cuba were dismantled, returned to the Soviet Union, and a guarantee was made not to reintroduce them, the United States would be prepared to guarantee that it would never invade Cuba?

SCALI: That is correct.

FOMIN: This is from the Highest Authority?

SCALI: Yes. From the Highest Authority. There are two conditions. The U.N. must be allowed to inspect the removal of the missiles.

FOMIN: And, of course, the U.N. must be allowed to observe the redeployment of forces from the American Southeast.

THE PRESIDENT: Does this attack on our plane represent a definitive, intentional escalation on the part of the Soviets?

GENERAL TAYLOR: The Soviets are in control of the SAMs. It's hard to believe with their centralized command structure that it could be an accidental launch.

THE PRESIDENT: Then we have no choice. General, issue the warning orders to our forces. They will be prepared to execute the air strikes Monday morning and the follow-on invasion according to the schedule thereafter. I'll need the official release orders on my desk Sunday night.

GENERAL TAYLOR: Understood, sir. We need to step up the overflights, finalize our pilots' target folders in order to be able to carry out the strikes.

THE PRESIDENT: So which one of you geniuses can tell me how to explain ourselves to the world? How do we work with them if there's been a hard-line coup?

GENERAL TAYLOR: Mr. President, there is another possibility we haven't considered. This may not be a coup at all.

THE PRESIDENT: -- I have the authority. I am the commander-in-chief of the United States, and I say when we go to war!

GENERAL TAYLOR: We are not at war, sir, not until we're at DEFCON 1.

THE PRESIDENT: General, the Joint Chiefs have just signaled our intent to escalate to the Soviets. You have signaled an escalation which I had no wish to signal, and which I did not approve.

THE PRESIDENT: Guess we can't blame Khruschev for a few patriotic farmers. And the ships?

GENERAL TAYLOR: Still heading for Cuba.

THE PRESIDENT: All right. Then I guess it's time.

THE PRESIDENT: How long until the army is ready?

GENERAL TAYLOR: We've just begun the mobilization under cover of a pre-arranged exercise, sir. We're looking at another week and a half, Mr. President.

THE PRESIDENT: Is this the Chiefs' recommendation?

GENERAL TAYLOR: Yes, sir. Our best option is to commence the strikes before the missiles are operational. The invasion happens eight days later.

GENERAL TAYLOR: We have high confidence in the expanded air strike option. The problem, Mr. President, is that it's a short-term solution. Khruschev can send more missiles next month. The Chiefs and I believe we should follow up the air strikes with the full version of OPLAN 316.

THE PRESIDENT: An invasion...

GENERAL TAYLOR: Yes, sir. We can be sure we get all the missiles, and we remove Castro so this can never happen again.

THE PRESIDENT: Max.

GENERAL TAYLOR: McCone's been notified and is coming back from the West coast. Carter's here, though.

HELEN: I saw you out there. You want him to call you back, need you.

KENNY: No. I'm glad I'm home.

HELEN: If you're home it means either Jack and Bobby have finally figured out what a con man you are and fired you, or --

KENNY: -- we got a back channel communication from Khruschev this evening feeling us out about a deal. He confirmed it just a little while ago in a letter to the President. I think we've won.

HELEN: A thing like this... who could even think of winning?

HELEN: When are you going to be home?

KENNY: I don't know, Helen. I want you to keep the kids close tomorrow. Leave the T.V. on, sleep with it on in the bedroom until I tell you you can turn it off.

HELEN: What's happened?

KENNY: Nothing. Nothing you don't know about. Tomorrow's the big day. Just have the car ready to go if I call or if the Civil Defense Warning comes on.

HELEN: What happens to you? I'm not leaving without you.

KENNY: I'll be evacuated with the President.

HELEN: Don't forget, Mrs. Higgins wants to talk to you this afternoon about Kevin. You need to do something about this.

KENNY: Kids are supposed to get detention.

RESTON: There are major rail disruptions in the South, two airborne divisions are on alert. That exercise is an invasion.

KENNY: Well, you know how Bobby has it in for the State of Mississippi.

RESTON: This is about Cuba.

RESTON: Kenny! What happened? They didn't let me up front, said the President was on the phone the whole time.

KENNY: He was.

RESTON: Yeah? Who was he talking to? Acheson? Come on, O'Donnell, everyone's wondering what's going on. What's Acheson doing in town? And don't give me some bullshit about DNC think tanks. Acheson's Mr. Cold War.

KENNY: Why don't you ask him yourself? You can have him on the way home.

RESTON: I'm giving you a chance here: talk to me. You can influence how this thing unfolds.

RESTON: It's Tuesday. You said to call. When do I get my 45 minutes?

KENNY: Tell you what. We're in Connecticut tomorrow for Ribicoff. I'll get you up front with him during the flight.

RESTON: Deal.

RESTON: Pretending there isn't a problem won't fix it. He can clear the air on Anglo American relations.

KENNY: Forget it, Scotty.

RESTON: Let him talk to me, he makes Macmillan look good, I print it, the British public likes it, Macmillan owes you.

RESTON: How's my favorite President?

KENNY: Busy. But you've got his heart.

RESTON: I want an hour with him.

KENNY: I said his heart, not his attention.

RESTON: Three weeks before midterm elections? You need me.

KENNY: Well. There is a new civil rights initiative he wants to talk about.

RESTON: I'm doing a piece on Skybolt. I hear Macmillan's meeting with him in Nassau.

KENNY: Get back out there, kid. Remember to hit 'em hard.

KEVIN: What about you? Where are you going?

KENNY: Back to work.

KEVIN: I guess you won't be coming home tonight.

KENNY: I, uh...

KENNY: Hey, sport. You winning?

KEVIN: Yeah.

KENNY: Secretary of Defense...

KEVIN: Dean Rusk!

KENNY: Wrong, and you get to wax my car.

THE PRESIDENT: We give them something. We tell them we'll remove the missiles from Turkey say, six months from now so that there appears to be no linkage. We also tell them if they go public about it, we deny it and the deal is off.

KENNY: And we do it under the table so we can disavow any knowledge of it.

KENNY: Hello?

THE PRESIDENT: I've got to move. What do you have, Kenny?

KENNY: They know each other! Khruschev and Feklisov aka Fomin were war buddies!

THE PRESIDENT: You're sure...

KENNY: Don't take it to court, but we've got good circumstantial evidence... Walter agrees. My gut's telling me Khruschev's turning to a trusted old friend to carry his message.

THE PRESIDENT: Okay, Ken. We're going.

THE PRESIDENT: Didn't know Adlai had it in him. Too bad he didn't have this stuff in '52.

KENNY: Zorin must not have gotten instructions. Somebody in their Foreign Ministry's blown it big-time.

THE PRESIDENT: Jesus Christ, O'Donnell, you're the one saying we need to move forward on a political solution.

KENNY: Yeah, a good political solution.

THE PRESIDENT: I don't want to listen to this again.

KENNY: If we made a trade, we'd be giving in to extortion, and NATO would never trust us again. We'll get clobbered in world opinion.

THE PRESIDENT: It's a goddman trial balloon. Trial is the operative word, here.

KENNY: Then somebody'd better deny it publicly.

THE PRESIDENT: What's that?

KENNY: Oh, just a bunch of crap about withdrawing our Jupiter missiles in Turkey if the Soviets'll do the same in Cuba.

THE PRESIDENT: He's right, we can't rescind DEFCON 2. The Soviets will think we've gotten sweet on them.

KENNY: And we can't purge the Chiefs. Our invasion talk will look like a bluff. Or even that there's been an attempted coup.

THE PRESIDENT: We can horsetrade with Khruschev on ships. But it doesn't get us any closer to removing those missiles.

KENNY: Have to hope it's a signal that he'll back down on the real issue too.

KENNY: That's going to be tough. You know how these guys are about their chains of command...

THE PRESIDENT: Any problems, you remind them those chains of commands end at one place. Me.

THE PRESIDENT: How does a man get to a place where he can say, 'throw those lives away,' so easily?

KENNY: Maybe it's harder for them to say it than they let on. At the very least, they believe it's in our best interest. And at the end of the day, they may end up being right.

KENNY: I'm your political advisor, and I'm giving you political analysis here. This is a setup. The Chiefs want to go in. It's the only way they can redeem themselves for the Bay of Pigs. They have to go in, and they have to do it right. It's that simple.

THE PRESIDENT: I'm gonna protect those pilots.

KENNY: I don't like what's happening.

THE PRESIDENT: In the morning I'm taking charge of the blockade from the situation room. McNamara'll set up shop in the flag plot at the Pentagon, keep an eye on things there.

KENNY: All right. 'Cause you get armed boarders climbing into Soviet ships, shots being fired across bows...

THE PRESIDENT: I know, I know...

KENNY: What about these low-level flights? They're starting in what? An hour? Do you realize what you're letting yourself in for?

THE PRESIDENT: We need those flights. We have to know when those missiles become operational, because when they do, we need to destroy them.

KENNY: 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 they're carrying cameras, not bombs. They're going to be shot at, plain and simple.

KENNY: You'd worry that something was wrong if Congress offered you unconditional support.

THE PRESIDENT: They want this fucking job, they can have it. It's no great joy to me.

KENNY: We have to try the blockades. It probably won't work. It may just be delaying the inevitable. But we can't just go to war without trying not to.

THE PRESIDENT: I don't know. I don't know.

KENNY: I'm not calling and canceling on Daly. You call and cancel on Daly.

THE PRESIDENT: You're scared to cancel on Daly.

KENNY: Damn right I'm scared.

THE PRESIDENT: Have you canceled Chicago and the rest of the weekend yet?

KENNY: You don't show for Chicago, everyone'll know there's something going on.

THE PRESIDENT: I don't care. Cancel it.

KENNY: No way.

THE PRESIDENT: Let's get out of here.

KENNY: Cheer up, you've neutralized the entire White House Press Corps for a day.

KENNY: Call me Irish, but I don't believe in cooler heads prevailing.

THE PRESIDENT: Acheson's scenario is unacceptable. And he has more experience than anyone.

KENNY: There is no expert on this subject, no wise old man.

THE PRESIDENT: Okay. Kenny and I only show for the meetings you call us into. Impress us. And do it fast. You're in charge of keeping this quiet. If word gets out before we know what we're going to do, there'll be panic. And it'll ruin any chance of surprise if we decide to hit them.

KENNY: Then we need to do a few things right away. No Pierre. He knows, the press knows. You're going to have to keep up your schedule -- your movements are followed too closely. And we need to get these guys out of the White House. George Ball's got a conference room at State. Reconvene over there this afternoon, come back here tonight.

THE PRESIDENT: No choice. This is going to cost lives any way we go. Do nothing, and it could be 80 million of ours. We have to get rid of those missiles.

KENNY: There've got to be alternatives to just going out and bombing them.

KENNY: Should be here any minute.

THE PRESIDENT: Good.

THE PRESIDENT: Still think Cuba isn't important?

KENNY: Not as far as the election goes.

THE PRESIDENT: So what've we got today?

KENNY: Today, for your information, is Pulaski Day. We're going to Buffalo...

THE PRESIDENT: I was eating that.

KENNY: No you weren't.

THE PRESIDENT: I was, you bastard.

MCNAMARA: At least it will expose whether Khruschev has been overthrown. We'll know what we're dealing with.

KENNY: And if this is a move to appease the hard line, then it may just be the bone he needs to regain control of his own house.

MCNAMARA: You must think I'm blind and stupid. I've already gotten the birds and bees from Bobby. The President doesn't have to double-barrel me.

KENNY: Listen to me, goddamn it. We're talking about a possible nuclear war. You dropped the ball on Bay of Pigs --

MCNAMARA: -- you sonofabitch, goddamn it, I didn't drop --

KENNY: You were in the room. It was your purview. It was your job to make sure Bissel wasn't fucking us over and you didn't do it. You've got the most important job in the world right now. You're the smartest guy the President has. Besides me.

KENNY: Moving the line. Stroke of genius.

MCNAMARA: Of course it is. But the President needs to realize we're going to have to stop a ship eventually.

MCCONE: It's transparent. The press'll be all over it.

KENNY: Six months from now, I'm not going to care. Are you? We'll deal with it.

MCCONE: My specialists are in agreement: this morning's letter is not Khruschev. Last night's letter was. The evidence supports only one conclusion: there has been a coup, and Khruschev was replaced overnight.

KENNY: Jesus Christ...

KENNY: Dangle a settlement, tie us down in negotiations, we come up short...

MCCONE: Why else would they approach us in this way? It's deniable. The Soviets have done nothing but lie to us. This could be more of the same.

KENNY: That may be why Khruschev's introducing this guy. We've been burned by his usual players in the formal channels, so he brings in an honest broker.

MCCONE: That may be what they want us to think.

THE PRESIDENT: Captain, force the sub to the surface for inspection.

MCNAMARA: Mr. President! We're receiving reports that the ships are stopping!

THE PRESIDENT: Captain, belay that order! Bob, where's that coming from!

MCNAMARA: Just a second, Mr. President.

THE PRESIDENT: Will somebody find out what's going on?!

THE PRESIDENT: Bob, is there any way we can avoid stopping a submarine first?

MCNAMARA: I'm afraid not, Mr. President. The sub has positioned itself between the Pierce and the Soviet ships. Admiral Anderson insists it's too much of a risk to proceed with stopping the freighters. The Pierce would be a sitting duck for the sub.

THE PRESIDENT: Bob?

MCNAMARA: We've worked up several military scenarios. Before I ask General Taylor to lead us through the various options, I'd like for us to adopt a rule. If we are going to strike, we must agree now that we will do it before the missiles become operational. Because once they are, I don't think we can guarantee getting them all before at least some are launched.

THE PRESIDENT: Bob. Bet you had a late night.

MCNAMARA: Sleep is for the weak, Mr. President.