Thirteen Days (2000)

Steven Culp: Robert F. Kennedy

Photos 

Quotes 

• President Kennedy : Well, who the hell authorized this missile test?

  Robert Kennedy : Who do you think? God knows what this is gonna communicate to the Soviets!

  Kenny O'Donnell : Communicate with the Soviets? We can't communicate with the Pentagon - and it's just across the goddamn river!

• Robert Kennedy : We gave up so much to get here... I don't know; sometimes I think, "What the hell did we do it for?"

  Kenny O'Donnell : Well, I don't know about you, but... I'm in it for the money.

• Robert Kennedy : By the way, China invaded India today.

  Kenny O'Donnell : You're kidding, aren't you?

  Robert Kennedy : Yeah, I wish I were. Galbraith is handling it in New Delhi. Makes you wonder what's coming next.

  Kenny O'Donnell : Geez. What is it about the free world that pisses the rest of the world off?

  Robert Kennedy : I don't know. We have Tupperware parties.

• Journalist : So... tell me about this military exercise that's going on down in Puerto Rico.

  Kenny O'Donnell : [sharply]  What?

  Journalist : It's called "ORTSAC", I believe. "Castro" spelled backwards.

  Kenny O'Donnell : "ORTSAC"? I... I don't know what you're talking about.

  Robert F. Kennedy : Me either. Why?

  Journalist : Because maybe the President and Gromyko are gonna talk about it.

  Kenny O'Donnell : If you're trying to drum something up, Johnny, forget it. This meeting's been on the books for months. Far as I know, it's just a friendly talk on U.S.-Soviet relations.

  [Johnny the Journalist nods and walks away. On a pad, Bobby writes the word "ORTSAC"] 

  Kenny O'Donnell : ... Does it?

  Robert F. Kennedy : [writes "CASTRO" underneath it]  Mm-hm.

  Kenny O'Donnell : I'll be damned.

  [scoffs] 

  Kenny O'Donnell : Kind of simple for the Pentagon.

• Kenny O'Donnell : Adlai can handle Zorin. He knows the inning; he knows the score.

  Robert Kennedy : He better, because nobody believes he's up to this - nobody.

• Robert F. Kennedy : We've got a bunch of smart guys. We lock 'em in a room and kick 'em in the ass until they come up with some solutions... I'll do it.

• Robert F. Kennedy : You know, I - I hate being called the brilliant one, the ruthless one, the guy everybody's afraid of. I hate it. I'm not so smart, you know? I'm not so ruthless.

  Kenny O'Donnell : Well you're right... about the smart part.

• Robert Kennedy : No, no, no! Now, there is more than one option here - and if one isn't occurring to us, it's because we haven't thought hard enough!

  John McCone, CIA Director : Bobby, sometimes there is only one right choice, and you thank God when it's so clear.

  Robert Kennedy : You're talking about a sneak attack. How will that make us look? A big country blasting a little one into the stone age. Yeah, we'll be everyone's favorites.

  Dean Acheson : Come on Bobby, that's naive. This is the real world. You know that better than anybody.

  John McCone, CIA Director : And you weren't so ethically particular when we were talking about options for removing Castro over at CIA.

• Robert Kennedy : I don't care how crazy, inadequate or stupid it sounds. Give it to me.

• President Kennedy : [addressing the NPIC photograph analyst]  Okay - let's have it.

  NPIC Photo Interpreter : Gentlemen, as most of you now know, a U-2 over Cuba Sunday morning took a series of disturbing photographs. Our analysis at NPIC indicates that the Soviet Union has followed up its conventional weapons build-up in Cuba with the introduction of surface-to-surface, medium-range ballistic missiles, or MRBMs. Our official estimate at this time is that the missile system is the SS-4 'Sandal'. We do not believe that the missiles are as yet operational. Iron Bark reports that the SS-4 can deliver a 3-megaton nuclear weapon 1,000 miles. So far we've identified 32 missiles serviced by about 3400 men, undoubtedly all Soviet personnel. Our cities and military installations in the southeast as far north as Washington, D.C., are in range of these weapons, and in the evnt of a launch would have only five minutes of warning.

  General Marshall Carter : Five minutes, gentlemen.

  Gen. Max Taylor : In those five minutes, they could kill 80 million Americans - and destroy a significant percentage of our bomber bases, degrading our retaliatory options. The Joint Chiefs' consensus, Mr. President, is that this signals a major doctrinal shift in Soviet thinking - to a first-strike policy. It is a massively destabilizing move.

  Robert Kennedy : How long until they're operational?

  NPIC Photo Interpreter : General Taylor can answer that question better than I can.

  Gen. Max Taylor : GMAC - Guided Missiles Intelligence Committee - estimates 10-14 days. A crash program could limit that time. However, I must stress that there may be more missiles - that we don't know about. We need more U-2 coverage.

  President Kennedy : Gentlemen, I want first reactions here. Assuming for the moment that Khruschev has not gone off the deep end - and intends to start World War III - what are we looking at?

  Dean Rusk : Mr. President, I believe my team is in agreement. If we permit the introduction of nuclear missiles to a Soviet satellite nation in our hemisphere, the diplomatic consequnces will be too terrible to contemplate. The Russians are trying to show the world they can do whatever they want, wherever they want, and we're powerless to stop them. If they succeed...

  Robert Kennedy : It'll be Munich all over again.

  Dean Rusk : Yes. Appeasement only makes the aggressor more aggressive. And the Soviets will be emboldened to push us even harder. Now we must remove the missiles one way or another. Now it seems to me the options are either some combination of international pressure & action on our part, til they give in - or - we hit them. An air strike.

• Robert Kennedy : At this moment the president is accepting the terms of Secretary Khrushchev's letter of Friday night: If the Soviet Union halts construction immediately, removes the missiles, and submits to UN inspection, the United States will pledge to never invade Cuba, or aid others in that enterprise.

  Dobrynin : If your Jupiter missiles in Turkey were removed also, such an accommodation could be reached.

  Robert Kennedy : That's not possible. The United States cannot agree to such terms under threat. Any belief to the contrary was in error.

  Dobrynin : You want war?

• Robert Kennedy : [about evacuation plans for their family in the event of a missile attack]  They're being issued identity cards. When the call comes, the evacuation officers meet them at pre-arranged departure areas. They go by helicopter to Mount Weather; we meet them there... Of course, that's for morale. Missiles only take five minutes to get here.

• President Kennedy : You know they think I froze in there.

  Robert Kennedy : You didn't freeze.

  Kenny O'Donnell : You did exactly what you should've done - you stayed out of the corner. You didn't decide.

• Robert McNamara : A quarantine prevents any more missiles from reaching Cuba, but it doesn't remove the missiles already there; it gives the Soviets a chance to pull back without a war. If they refuse to remove the missiles, we retain the option to strike and invade.

  Robert Kennedy : A sneak attack would be counter to what the United States stands for. It leaves us no room to maneuver, and the inevitable Soviet response would force us into a war.

• Robert Kennedy : [the military has gone to DEFCON 2 without the president's approval]  Rescind the order! Can all the chiefs! Put Nitze, Gilpatric, and the undersecretaries in charge.

  Kenny O'Donnell : We can't do that, Bobby.

  Robert Kennedy : Yes, we can!

  Kenny O'Donnell : We can't fire the chiefs, Bobby! Our invasion talk would look like a bluff - or even worse, that there's been an attempted coup.

• President Kennedy : [Responding to a possible back-channel Soviet proffer]  So they'll remove the missiles, and we'll pledge not to invade Cuba or destabilize Castro, or assist anyone who plans on doing so.

  Robert Kennedy : I think this may be our first real message from Khruschev.

• Robert Kennedy : [Scali has relayed a possible Soviet proffer]  Oh, by the way, Scali, your activities now fall under the secrecy codicils of the National Security Act.

  Kenny O'Donnell : Sorry, John - no Pulitzer.

• Robert Kennedy : [Kenny and Bobby arrive at the USSR embassy]  You smell that?

  Kenny O'Donnell : They're burning their documents.

  Robert Kennedy : They think we're going to war... God help us, Ken.

• Kenny O'Donnell : The point is, you trade our missiles in Turkey for theirs in Cuba, they're gonna force us into trade after trade, until finally, a couple of months from now they demand something we won't trade, like Berlin, and we do end up in a war. Not to mention that long before that happens this administration will be politically dead.

  Robert Kennedy : I don't care if this administration ends up in the freaking toilet! We don't do a deal tonight there won't be any administration.

• Robert F. Kennedy : Jack, I'm as conniving as they come, but a sneak attack is just wrong.

  Kenny O'Donnell : Listen, things are happening too fast - I mean, this is starting to smell like the Bay of Pigs all over again.

  President Kennedy : Well, tonight, listening to Taylor and Acheson, I kept seeing Lemnitzer and Dulles, telling me all I had to do was sign on the dotted line, and the invasion would succeed, and Castro -

  [pauses in a wave of pain and sits down] 

  President Kennedy : - and Castro would be gone, just, easy, just like that.