Thirteen Days: President John F. Kennedy

The movie Thirteen Days is 2000 docudrama and is directed by Roger Donaldson who is Australian and tries to portray the film in a serious manor. The movie is based on the 13 days of the Cuban Missile Crisis, and shows the perspective of the US political leadership, specifically Special Assistant to the president Kenny O’Donnell, President John F. Kennedy and the Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy. This film is not based on the book of the same name written by Robert F. Kennedy like the first docudrama film about the Cuban Missile Crisis, The Missiles of October; this film was meticulously researched and was based on The Kennedy Tapes: inside the white house during the Cuban Missile Crisis which was written by Ernest May and Phillip

The movie Thirteen Days is based off of the real life situation of the Cuban Missile Crisis that occurred back in 1962. The United States learned that the Soviet Union was placing missiles with nuclear weapons in Cuba. The movie follows President John F. Kennedy and his advisors as they are trying to come up with a plan of action for how to handle the situation.

The film started with McNamara’s first lesson which was to empathize with your enemy. He recounted the events leading up the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, also known as the Bay of Pigs. This was a 13-day standoff between the United States and the Soviet Union due the installation of nuclear weapons in Cuba. The Soviet Union had installed the weapons of mass destruction in Cuba as a response to the United States’ decision to install nuclear weapons in Turkey. This was an example of the Security Dilemma discussed in lecture, “The Source of one’s comfort is the source of another’s worry” (Unit 4). When President Kennedy found out that there could possibly be nuclear weapons in Cuba, he did not want to take a chance and wanted the missiles to be removed from the island.

The assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy is one of the most tragic events that shaped America. JFK was born on May 19, 1917, in Brookline, Massachusetts, but little did he know that his life would be abbreviated in his future. Kennedy became the thirty-fifth President of the United States; he was assassinated on November 22, 1963. He was allegedly shot and killed by Lee Harvey Oswald. Although, many pieces of evidence conclude that Oswald could not have done the deed by himself. There is a broad conspiracy behind this major assassination. The conspiracy consists of the “single bullet theory” introduced by former United States Senator Arlen Specter; it also implicates future presidents of the United States, including George H. W. Bush,

1. The JFK Assassination – Inconsistencies Inconsistencies with the Lone Gunman Theory, photograph, accessed February 5, 2017, https://riversong.wordpress.com/the-jfk-assassination-inconsistencies/.

Another less criticized aspect of the movie veering from 100% historical accuracy is that nothing is said about President Kennedy’s interests in ridding Fidel Castro of Cuba but in reality he had been made aware of secret missions into Cuba prior to the Bay of Pigs. As well as approving the Bay of Pigs invasion. During the Bay of Pigs the US tried to pass the invasion off as Cuban defectors and US armed forces had no role in the invasion. President Kennedy even said “The armed forces of this country would not intervene in any way." Even though that is of course a blatant lie and the Kennedy Administration helped set up and fund the CRC (Cuban Revolutionary Council) to take over after Fidel’s government had been removed. None of President Kennedy’s knowledge of this is shown in the film because it would not fit with how Kenneth O’Donnell advises him on the subject matter.

Thirteen Days, by Robert Kennedy, is a portrayal of the drama surrounding the Cuban missile crisis, and an analysis of the ordeal. There are two sides to this conflict which was played out in the post-World War II era. On one hand you have the Communists of the Soviet Union, whose desire to bring all of Europe under their heel would nearly spark a war that would annihilate the human race. On the other stands the Americans who wished the "vindication of right" and to prevent the further spread of Communism.

Thirteen days was all it took to bring down a world power to its most vulnerable stages. Fear consumed John F. Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States, as he was notified on October 16, 1962, that the Intelligence Community had become convinced that Russia was placing missiles and atomic weapons in Cuba. According to a U-2 that had finished a photographic mission, these missiles were pointed to the United States and capable of striking most of the major cities in the Western Hemisphere. Not only was the peace and freedom of the American people compromised, but so was the rest of the world’s fate. And the decisions of one man could essentially save the people or result in a never ending ballistic war. President John F. Kennedy was not

The Cuban Missile Crisis has long been a subject of controversy. While at the same time just the mention of the name John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States, has sparked much debate, especially regarding the Cuban Missile Crisis. In the first year of Kennedy’s presidency, November 1961, a covert program, code named Operation Mongoose, was initiated by the United States to overthrow the Castro government in Cuba. A retaliatory response by Soviet leader Nikita S. Khrushchev was the installation of nuclear armed missiles in Cuba, just ninety miles from the U.S. shore.!

According to November22nd1963.org Jfk was riding in his SS-100-X on his way to the Dallas trade mart when Lee Harvey Oswald shot him in the head with a Carcano Model 91/38 carbine. Jfk was the According to merryferrel.org thirty fifth president of America, Jfk was the fourth president to be assassinated and one still has not happened. Jfk was rushed to the hospital, but died because of the fatal blow to the head. According to Sparknotes.com Kennedy died when he was only forty six years old, married and father of four children. Just a few hours later a man named Jack Ruby killed Lee Harvey for what he did to the president.According to November22nd1963.com Lee Harvey assassinated jfk to show the world what he could do, but that failed since he

In 1961 John Fitzgerald Kennedy would be sworn in as the 35th President of the United States. He was a young, Catholic, democrat. Needless to say, many people were wary of whether or not his religion would influence his decision or if he would become an advocate for Catholic beliefs. Unlike many of the past Presidents, the first lady will play a major role for the duration Kennedy was President. Being the leader of the United States was very important and many precautions were required to keep the first family safe. The secret service is in charge of making sure the President and his family are safe. Clint Hill, a Secret Service agent on President Eisenhower’s detail, continues his service, this time assigned to the first lady, Jacqueline

A conspiracy theory is an explanatory proposition that accuses a person, group, or organization of having caused or covered up an event or phenomenon of great social, political, or economic impact (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/conspiracy+theory). One conspiracy that has been a topic of debate since 1963, is the assassination of John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States. The conspiracy has left one of the most devastating deaths in question and still haunts America to this day. The assassination of John F. Kennedy is one of the most controversial and debated topics in American History. JFK was one of the most beloved presidents of our time. Unlike previous presidential assassinations, the JFK assassination has resulted in

The assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, also known as JFK, is one of the most infamous and tragic events in American history. JFK was one of the United States’ most influential politicians, and in the year 1961 he was appointed to be president. Less than a thousand days later, JFK was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, by gunman Lee Harvey Oswald. JFK was beloved both by many Americans and those abroad, and thus his death came as a terrible shock to many across the globe. JFK was a great and stalwart individual - a man who stood apart from the general stock - and it is blatantly obvious to anyone with a brain that he did not deserve to be assassinated.

The 35th President of the United States of America, John F. Kennedy, was an amazing man. John was a President that served in our countries military, funded the program of N.A.S.A, and put bills into congress to desegregate schools and public places. From the second oldest child born in Boston, Massachusetts, to the president that succeeded in giving all Americans the rights they deserved, he truly was amazing. His legacy still impacts people today.

Regarding informational processing roles, monitoring role was hold by JFK as he indirectly scanned for information (i.e. in the reality, the U-2 spy plane pilots were the ones who do the dangerous photo-taking mission) about the existence of Cuban Missiles and about how to remove those Missiles out of Cuba, including the investigation on Alexander Fomin’s background that he delegated to Kenny and FBI’s Walter Sheridan. To disseminate the information, JFK trusted Kenny to pass his message to the subordinates (e.g. JFK told Kenny to tell the Press Secretary, Pierre Salinger, the truth about the crisis issue). In addition to monitor and disseminator roles, the movie also showed how Robert McNamara, The USA Secretary of Defence, act as JFK’s spokesperson in Pentagon, making sure that no action was taken without JFK’s approval. Adlai Stevenson also got his share as a spokesperson as he represented and spoke for USA in the United Nation (UN). Personally, I think Adlai is the coolest character in this movie since he was the one who propose the idea of political negotiation (i.e. trading American’s missiles in Turkey with Soviet’s missiles in Cuba) which what in the end became the final solution of the Cuban Missile Crisis. I also love the part of the movie where he gave his counter-argument to Soviet’s Zorin at the UN Security Council meeting.