Thirteen Days Film Analysis: Kennedy, Khrushchev & Détente

Introduction to the Film and Crisis

The film Thirteen Days examines the Kennedy Administration's response to the threat of a Soviet missile attack launched from Cuba. The year is 1962. The main players are President Kennedy and his team of advisors, including his brother Robert Kennedy, his close confidant Kenneth O'Donnell, and Defense Secretary Robert McNamara. Kennedy's team faces pressure not only from the Soviets — including Khrushchev, the Politburo, Soviet emissary Fomin, and Soviet Ambassador Dobrynin — but also from the Joint Chiefs, who represent the war hawks eager to strike first and ask questions later. Kennedy's central problem is determining what to do: he states clearly that the US cannot allow Soviet missiles so close to its borders, but how to address the problem without making it worse remains the critical question. Kennedy is reluctant to take any action that would lead to war, yet to take no action risks annihilation if the Soviets do indeed intend to launch an attack.

The action takes place primarily in Washington, with pivots to military scenes in Cuba, but the bulk of the film focuses on the work of O'Donnell, the Kennedy brothers, and various advisors. The situation is tense from the outset as unwanted information about the missile build-up in Cuba is delivered to the President and his team at a round table, where everyone — including the war hawks — is assembled to weigh in and present the President with options and possible outcomes. The threat of the missiles is immediate: General Taylor, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, informs the President that within five minutes the Soviets could kill 80,000,000 Americans and destroy several bomber bases, making an effective counterstrike extremely difficult. Everyone in the room looks unnerved by the information.

Taylor, speaking for the Joint Chiefs, argues that the presence of missiles in Cuba indicates a major doctrinal shift in Soviet thinking. Anyone familiar with Kennan's Long Telegram of 1946 knows that Soviet policy thinking held that the capitalist nations of the West would fall by attacking one another, and that propaganda — not military strikes — was the key Soviet tool. That is precisely why Taylor argues in the film that the Soviets are evidently changing their approach to the West by placing missiles in Cuba.

The Competing Pressures Kennedy Faced

Before Kennedy can decide what to do, he must assess whether the threat is real. The fact that the Joint Chiefs believe it is does not make it so. The Bay of Pigs fiasco was still fresh in Kennedy's mind, and he was acutely aware of the hawkishness of the Joint Chiefs and their desire to implement a policy of containment. They viewed Kennedy as soft on Communism — meaning he wanted to avoid using military intervention to confront the Soviet Union directly and risk World War III. The fact that the film ends with Kennedy's American University speech underscores that his primary goal was to promote peace rather than war.

However, in the film's opening scenes, war suddenly becomes a very real possibility because it could be forced upon the US if the Joint Chiefs are correct about Soviet intentions. Where Kennedy and the Joint Chiefs agree is on the risk that the missiles in Cuba pose. Where they disagree is on the imminence of an attack. The Joint Chiefs appear indifferent to whether an attack is imminent — the mere possibility of a threat makes it actionable in their view. Kennedy, by contrast, believes the Soviets may be playing a political game and that the apparent threat could be a bluff. He wants more information before making a decision.

References

Donaldson, R. (Director). (2000). Thirteen Days. New Line Cinema.