honoring this second deal?
The tomorrow
they make another condition
Meanwhile
the quarantine isn't working
and they're completing work
on the missiles sites
Sir, I think we have to issue
pre- invasion orders for our forces
Mr. President
This morning's photography is in
It appears the Soviet have commenced a
crash program to ready their missiles
The first missiles
become operational last night
We expect they'll all be operational
in 36 hours
Then we're out of time
We have to go in
That may not be
as easy as we thought, either
We have confirmation
the Soviets have also deployed
battlefield nuclear weapons to Cuba
FROGS, we call them
Short- range tactical nukes
We don't know whether
they've delegated release authority
to their local commanders
for use on our invasion troops
But the good news is
as of this moment
we know where the FROGS are
and we can target them, too
But the longer we wait
the harder it's going to get
We have no choice
General, issue orders to our forces
to be prepared to execute
the air strikes Monday morning
and the follow-on invasion
according to the schedule thereafter
I'll need the official release orders
on my desk Sunday night
Understood, sir
We need to step up our over flights
finalize our pilots' target folders
in order to carry out the strikes
Permission granted
Yes, sir
Gentlemen
if anybody's got any great ideas
now's the time
Major Anderson
there's a phone call for you
Thank you
Gimme just a second here, guys
This is Major Anderson
Hello? Anyone there?
Major?
Yes, sir
My name's Kenneth O'Donnell
Special Assistant to the President
Major, a few days ago
the President ordered me to...
help him keep control of
what's going on out there
I've been brow-beating pilots
navy guys left and right
to make sure you don't get us here
in Washington into trouble
But you know what?
We're pretty damn good ourselves
at getting into trouble
So instead of riding your ass
I'm just gonna tell you
what's going on here
and let you figure out
how best to help us out up here
Go ahead, sir
Last night, it looked like
we were gonna cut a deal
to get us all out of this mess
Today the Soviets are reneging
We're gonna try
and salvage the situation
but a lot of things
are going wrong today
It's making everyone nervous
If more things go wrong
people will become more nervous
and it will be very hard
to aviod going to war
I'm not sure
what you're trying to tell me, sir
Just my standard line
I've been repeating
to guys like you all week
Don't get shot down
Beyond that
whatever else you can do to help us
I'd appreciate it
Sir
When you're at 72, 000 feet
a million things can go wrong
Is your Oxygen mix right?
Are your cameras gonna freeze up?
Are you leaving a contrail?
Those million things
they're beyond your control, mostly
But...
when you realize that
there's a kind of peace
If you're a good man
and if your ground crew are good men
that is all you can ask for
And with the grace of God
that'll get you through
Are you a religious man?
I am
Good
The plane is missing, Kenny
We are presuming the pilot is dead
It's hard to believe with the Soviet
centralized command structure
that this could have been
an accidental launch
The question is, does this
attack on our plane represent
a definitive intentional escalation
on the part of the Soviets?
Mr. President
taken with the events
of the past few hours
I believe
this confirms our worst fears
We're now dealing with
a hard-line Soviet government
perhaps with Kruschev
as a puppet head, perhaps not
You okay?
Yeah
I'm fine
Mr. President
What now?
A U-2 on a routine
air- sampling mission got lost
and penetrated
Soviet airspace over Siberia
Oh, goddammit
The Soviets scrambled MIG's in pursuit
thinking it was a bomber
It got out okay
Somebody forgot to cancel the mission
There's always some sonofabitch
who doesn't get the word!
This is just what we need
the