40 years ago

[khaosworks]

October 15, 1962. A U2 reconnaissance aircraft flown by Major Richard Heyser takes photographs that reveal the existence of Soviet SS-4 nuclear missiles in Cuba.

At breakfast on October 16, United States President John F. Kennedy is shown the photographs and given a briefing. He immediately calls for a meeting of 12 of his most important advisors, collectively known as the Ex-Comm, or executive committee. Two solutions are discussed - an invasion to take out the missiles, or a blockade of Cuba. Kennedy wants to avoid a military confrontation, contrary to the desires of his military advisors.

What will be known as the Cuban Missile Crisis begins. The next two weeks will be the most critical in the planet's history since the end of the Second World War, two weeks where the fate of the world will literally hang in the balance.

Comments

[dietbubba.livejournal.com]

The Costner movie "13 Days" is actually pretty good at showing the supposed power struggle amongst the American military leadership and the President. Its not my area of expertise at all so I don't know how much dramatic license they take with the facts, but it is an enjoyable 2 hours.

[khaosworks.livejournal.com]

From what I've read, aside from Kevin Costner's character's "expanded role", which you can mentally edit out, most of the movie is pretty accurate as far as the confrontations between Hawks and Doves were concerned - although I suspect emotionally exaggerated for effect. The events in the movie are also pretty accurate, which makes "13 Days" one of the scariest movies I've ever watched because it's frightening how close we came to destroying the planet.