sir
will be to demand that the Soviet
withdraw the missiles
within 12 to 24 hours
The will refuse
When they do
you will order the strikes
followed by the invasion
They will resist and be overrun
They will retaliate against another
target somewhere else in the world
most likely Berlin
We will honor our treaty commitments
and resist them there
defeating them per our plans
Those plans call for
the use of nuclear weapons
So...
what is the next step?
Hopeful cooler heads will prevail
before we reach the next step
Thank you, gentlemen
What happened in there?
I thought he was going to
give us his decision
Look, I know them. They just need to...
make sure there's no other way
They'll get there
The Kennedys' father
was one of the architects of Munich
There's only one
responsible choice here
So let's hope appeasement
doesn't run in families
I fear weakness does
Jesus Christ
Call me Irish, but I don't
believe in cooler heads prevailing
You know, they think I froze in there
You didn't freeze
You did exactly
what you should have done
you stayed out of the corner
You didn't decide
Acheson's scenario is just...
unacceptable
And he's got more experience
than anyone
There's no expert on the subject
There's no wise old man
Shit, there's just us
Acheson's right
Talk alone is not gonna
accomplish anything
Well, let's bomb the shit out of them
Everybody wants to
Even you
Even me
Right? It sure would feel good
Jack
I'm as conniving as they come
but a sneak attack is just wrong
Things are happening too fast
This is starting to smell like
the Bay of Pigs all over again
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 that the invasion would succeed
and Castro...
and Castro would be gone
Easy, just like that
There's something...
immoral about
abandoning your own judgment
We just can't let this get out of hand
And we'll do whatever we have to do
to make this come out right
I'm gonna stay here tomorrow
You can't
We talked about this. Your schedule?
Best thing you can do tomorrow
is go to Connecticut
He's right
Yeah
Jesus
Doesn't anybody in Connecticut
have to work today?
We love you, JFK
The shole spectrum of air strikes
is the minumum response
the Joint Chiefs will accept
No, no, no
There is more than one option here
And if one isn't occurring to us
it's because
we haven't thought hard enough
Bobby, sometimes
there is only one right choice
and you thank God when it's so clear
You're talking about a sneak attack
How would that make us look?
A big country blasting a little one
into the stone age
We'll be everyone's favorites
Come on, Bobby. That's naive
You know that better than anybody
And you weren't
so ethically particular
when we were talking about
options for moving Castro at CIA
Bob
If we go ahead with these air strikes
you know what it'll come to in the end
There has got to be something else
Give it to me
I don't care how crazy, inadequate
or stupid it sounds
Give it to me
Six months ago
we gamed out a scenario
It's slow
It doesn't get rid of the missiles
It's got a lot of drawbacks
The scenario
calls for a blockade of Cuba
The situation is worse than we thought
We now count 40 missiles
40 missiles
Longer range IRBM's
They can hit every place
in the country, except Seattle
Mr. President
you give me the order right now
my planes will be ready
to strike in 3 days time
Just say "go"
and my boys
will get those red bastards
General, how long
until the Army's ready?
We've just begun the mobilization
under cover of
a pre-arranged exercise, sir
We're looking at
another week and a half
But you can order the strikes now
The plans call for
an eight day air campaign
It'll light a fire
under the army's ass to get in place
General Lemay, do you truly believe
that's our best course of action?
Mr. President
I believe
it is the