The film Thirteen Days

The dramatic movie Thirteen Days

The dramatic movie Thirteen Days depicts President Kennedy’s decision-making process in the event of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Kevin Costner and director Roger Donaldson are both in the movie. The core cast of the film has been reduced to President Kennedy, his brother Robert, and O’Donnel Kenneth, the chief of staff at the State House. The EXCOMM’s choice made during the crisis served as the inspiration for the movie. This examination will look at the majority of the important choices that leaders had to make in emergency situations, such as how to influence policy using both rational and bureaucratic means. The setup and operation of the Cuban Missile will then be examined. After the information from the CIA agents that Cuba is planning a missile attack, the advisors take it upon themselves to meet with various parties in order to come with palatable decision to present to the President. The action took place between 1st to 20th October. The inclusion of diplomatic personnel in the meeting helped to come up with various options rather than launching counter-attack bombs. Among the suggestions were, hitting Cuba, doing nothing and keeping silence about the issues or gathering more information. This seemed to be the rational stance.

Bureaucratic Politics

Both the military and political quarters put pressure on President Kennedy to bring down Russians over Cuba. Despite the President’s decision to assume the “Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba” received misinterpretation and thus failure because of lack of will. To show political prominence the President had to indicate willingness in the discussions of then crisis. The outstanding policy during Kennedy’s reign was military, and they were confident about the superiority. It had such an imbalance that they believed that even after attacks from Cuba and USSR one Ballistic Missile would frustrate the opponents in a massive retaliation. The move showed excessive use of bureaucracy in the administration and handling of national issues.

Cuba, U.S and U.S.S.R Confrontations

The film Thirteen Days reminds the watchers of the American generations faced with the reality of the much hazardous moment in human history. The recaps of the nuclear attacks elicit the truth of persevering the nuclear age wars. In fact, it invites the viewers to the shoes of President coupled with his advisors with a difficult situation offering no alternative. It gives chances to the audience to get a taste of uncertainties, filled with frustrations and bringing down the fear of failure to decide about actions while taking caution to avoid a reaction that would kill over 100 million more citizens.

The first event took place on 10th October

The first event took place on 10th October when the CIA agents gave the reports of a possible medium range of missiles located in Cuba. The missiles have 1000 miles ranges where the troops were instructed to draw lines and name the cities which were under threat. They decide to send spy planes to verify the information, but the weather disrupted clear photo taking. From the analysis, the decision by Khrushchev of Cuba to place missile against U.S was reckless and provocative. It depicts leadership which is adventurous and opportunists according to the Monroe Doctrines. There was a miscalculation when it came to evaluating the effects of the American response. Khrushchev seemed to be under pressure to become the Sino-Soviet, therefore, he needed a weak point to appear superior after Warsaw Pact.

Conclusion

In summary, it is fortunate that the world has been able to contain the disaster of thermonuclear because of self-drive to achieve capitalist interests, suppress the communism, and promote radicalization and avoiding another revolution. U.S military policy has changed after the Cold War, but it is still driven by the political and economic desires. To ensure safety and security of the world in future, the actions of American military must be restructured to avoid what was foreseen in the Thirteen Days in 1962.