Jack Smith movie reviews:            Date 01-22-2001

Thirteen Days

As usual, in this season, there has been some excellent movies coming out. Anybody in here seen [uh] “Thirteen Days” yet? It [uh] really is probably one of the most incredible movies over the holiday season. [um] I was around as a college student about the time that the events happened, that are described in that movie, the missile removal by Kennedy and the confrontation with the Soviet Union, this is back in the early 1960’s. I started watching the movie wondering what the background was on that film other than just a Hollywood film and a reenactment of the events. And it suddenly struck me that that movie is basically a parable. The Thirteen Days is the equivalent of the Democracy. And what they’re doing in that movie is they’re showing you how the missile crisis was resolved in that international context, is the remedy for how you resolve a problem with the Democracy when they have some kind of controversy going on with you. And everything that went on in that movie is in essence the story of the remedy again.

The movie is a creature of Kevin Costner who once again, like in “Postman” and “Waterworld” and many of the other good movies that he’s put out showing you what the political, legal situation is. He’s done the same thing here. You see three main characters on the film, you see the Canadian actor who plays the part of JFK, the president. You see the actor who plays the part of Robert Kennedy, the brother of JFK who was the attorney General, and then you see Kevin Costner in his role as the political advisor to the president of the United States. I forget what his last name was his first name was Kenny. Anybody recall what his character’s last name was, it was a true character in the original White House. The story is mostly seen through the eyes of this advisor. In reality when you start picking out what’s going on in that film, you see that we have the government presidency represented in three capacities, legislative, executive and judicial through the three main characters. Since Kennedy has the job of making the decision, ‘cause he’s The President. He does the [exac.], he does the work of the executive, or makes the decision. We’re told in the film, by Kenny the advisor, that JFK and his brother Robert were two of the most brilliant guys he’s ever known. Particularly Bobby, who is described as just being bright beyond all words. Bobby is the one who thinks out the program that’s gonna be carried out, so he’s legislative. And it turns out that Kenny, being the advisor on the political scene, he’s the one that listens to what Kenny proposes doing. And when Jack Kennedy thinks he’s gonna make a decision, based on that or other input, Kenny the advisor tells them whether it’s a good idea or a bad idea politically and what the ramifications are gonna be. So, Kenny is acting as the judicial component behind the presidency. So you actually have the three fold patterns right there at the top level of the executive department of government, making the decisions.

The neatest thing about this film is that the military, having gotten it’s first high altitude U-2 shot of Cuba, was able to analyze that there were inter-continental mid range ballistic missiles on the soil of Cuba. And according to the original pictures it looked like the numbers of missiles they saw were not yet erected and operational. This was immediately drawn to the attention of The President, who held the highest level cabinet meetings, and asked for input as to what they felt should be done with regard to this situation. It was unanimous that the missiles had to go in some way shape and form because with the interdiction of those missiles into Cuba, at that time, just about every major metropolitan area in the United States was targetable by nuclear Weapons with the exception of the far Northwest. And those missiles after launch could reach any city, in the United States, within five minutes giving insufficient warning to the populations to evacuate and almost no capability [of] of response or [retalia] retaliation immediately. So the concept was they had to go.

The problem was, what would be the best and most expedites way to do it. There were suggestions that they ought to give ultimatums and let the normal channels of ambassadorial negotiation try to handle it. But it was soon squelched by JFK himself and the military that suggested that the missiles had at most, maybe, about five to seven days before they could be operational. And there is no way that any public ambassadorial negotiations would ever be able to resolve the issue, within the time limit imposed. By the fact, that if the missiles became operational, any kind of military strike against them would be very very questionable as to it’s outcome, because if they could get the missiles off before they were bombed there was no defense to them. So, they were on a dead time limit everybody knew that public negotiations through the ambassadors and public channels were not gonna to be the method.

The military, from the get go, suggested that the only major good option was a military bombing of the missiles. Possibly followed by an invasion of Cuba to make sure that the missiles were destroyed, and that there were not any other missiles that had been hidden or were secretly on the island. Kennedy admitted that there may be the necessity for a military strike and he prepared, or he ordered, the joint chiefs to take all available steps to prepare for that, get ready for it in secrecy, to do more reconnaissance work to find out what the latest information was. But, at no time [were] was the military to fire upon the Cubans or the Russians at any time without the direct say so and order from The President of the United States. It looked as though the military was hot to trot to get into this fight and wipe out those missiles, as you might understand it to be. But early on Kennedy, Kenny, and Bobby realized that the military was really, possibly the worst opponent of The President in attempting to maintain control to the situation and to provide a military option only as an option of last resort. Everything the military suggested had double intender to put US personnel in harms way so that the Cubans or the Russians would fire first, giving the American military the justification to go to a response that included an escalation of warfare. Kennedy in numerous conversations with the military asked what the protocols would be for various options and confrontations and the protocols always ended up escalating on both sides to more of a war situation.

Kennedy was determined to exhaust every remedy that could be exhausted whatever came forth, short of war, to be able to achieve the results, if at all possible. The movie has relevance to what we’re learning and what we’re doing, If you’re out there traveling as a right and you’re stopped by law enforcement, in essence the law enforcement is the equivalent of the Democracy or the military. Their public protocols will not see any private documents, papers or any private rights. Their sole public interest is that, if you don’t present the right public military identification and documents, that in essence you are the enemy and it will escalate to a form of warfare against you. Because of the protocols and of the public side on which they are only allowed to see. It’s interesting in this film that the end resolution was brought about peacefully by way of private negotiations by private parties behind the public façade of the military, the public government, the public President the public Première or Chairman or whatever of the Soviet Union. It was all negotiated privately in the background. It’s interesting though, that in order to prevail under a private agreement, you will see that it was absolutely necessary that there be a public façade or a public front, that was negotiated between the private parties in order to appease the public side of the puzzle. And without that public front the private negotiations would never have succeeded. In terms of “patriot” lingo I suppose the equivalent would be, that if you bring forth your private acceptances for value and agreements and let your titles become known to the appropriate private parties in the background. If you do not in any way shape and form complete out the public perception of the paperwork, in a fashion in which the public seems to think it makes sense. Your private agreement is going nowhere. Another way of saying it is, your private resolution may prevail if you let the public have an out, don’t force the public into a corner. Let them have their out that they can attach to, so that the public appearances are maintained. The private agreements are set in the background, and the issue is resolved on the private side instead of in the public. Because that’s exactly what you are seeing in the movie “Thirteen Days”. You’re seeing how to get this done, and you’re seeing that Kennedy did it.

As a side, if anybody in here has any apprehension about why Kennedy was killed. And who may certainly have had any kind of a reason I think by [the] time you’re done seeing the movie “Thirteen Days” you’ll probably see that he generated more than enough enemies in his capacity of what he was doing. That numerous domestic enemies could have had major reasons for “taking him out”. It became obvious in this story, which by the way a Kennedy advisor has seen the movie or reviewed the story and basically he has stated that for all practical purposes the majority of the story, in this film, is the way it went down. There is some licensing for dramatic effect. But there is no major [uh] changes or major alterations in what’s happening in what really went down. [um] You’re really seeing that after Kennedy was assassinated, the powers that be brought this nation into a war. And when you see this film you can not help but believe that the United States and the Soviet Union were being steered into a war that appeared to be totally inevitable. And it was only through the major efforts and staying power of what Kennedy and his close advisors did that extracted the United States out of a direct war with the Soviet Union here. Which leads you to believe that he was just too smart for the powers pulling the strings and they had to get rid of him.

[There is] There was a time Kennedy was very suspicious of the military, as well he probably had a right to be, based on the Bay of Pigs and lots of other things that had gone on. And the military, when they didn’t get their way, did exactly what the commercial process teaches us, you accept the other person for value, you don’t ever argue with them. The military generals came in and made their points. And when The President didn’t give them the orders they wanted, they just smiled and agreed with The President and suggested some things. And on one particular meeting when they suggested some things, The President smiled and he said, “Wait here a minute.” and he and his brother Bobby and Kenny went into an adjoining room. And The President looked at him and said, “What the hell just happened in there?” And Kenny looked at him and said, “Mr. President, you’re being set up. They’re guiding you right along the path they want you to go, and if you do, or allow them to do, what they want you to do, we will be in war within forty-eight hours guaranteed.” And The President said, “However, the orders I’ve given have to be given. Because it may be necessary to go to war, and unless we allow the military to do certain things we will not be prepared.” Kenny, the advisor, told Kennedy, “You better order the military not to issue any orders of hostility without your direct order. And you better place your private advisors in the War Room, supervising these people, so that you’ve got direct feedback as to what’s going on.” That’s exactly what Kennedy did. Now understand this, when it comes to running the military, the officers wear a public hat and public responsibility. There is no provisions in the military code, or in their protocols, to have a private person in the War Room listening in and supervising everything that’s going on. But that person was there on the direct order of The President, JFK. And JFK had the power to do that because in addition to being the head of the civilian government he was the Commander and Chief of the military and he pulled rank over all of the military people.

It’s interesting to note in this film that all the military actions you see are based by the Navy. Which is based on the fact that we’re in a democracy, that we’re in a constant state of war. It’s admiralty maritime, even the U-2 flights were basically by, I believe, Navy pilots. There was a time in which quarantine was called around the island of Cuba, as whatever the least common denominator of an attempt to diffuse the situation without going directly into a bombing war. Kennedy had no misapprehensions of what he was doing. He flat out told his cabinet and he flat out told [the] the secretary that was appointed to the United Nations, by the United States, that before the quarantine of the island was to go into effect, like in twenty-four hours. That the United States needed to have a unanimous vote by the council of American States in support of this action. And the reason President Kennedy said he needed that vote, by the organization of American States, is because by calling a quarantine on the high seas around Cuba it was an act of war. And if you’re going to create a war, you better have a third party, judge in your favor that you have probable cause to do that. Just like, if you’re going to charge someone or make a claim against someone else in the commercial side. You can not have an ex-parte claim that has not been witnessed by a third party and go to execution on that claim. Because you have nobody else that has sided with you and your ex-parte actions are an aggressive act in war. Unless you have some neutral party that has come by and agreed with what your position is. Kennedy was under no misapprehension; he needed the decision of the organization of American States to back the unilateral action of the United States, before it engaged any potential enemy in the quarantine. So that under international law the United States had standing in enforcement of their charges or claims. Otherwise it’s a plain out act of war and hostility, not an act of trying to keep the peace. So immediately they sent Adele Stevenson to the organization of American States. And by going to that organization he did get a unanimous vote from the leaders of the American States. In order to support the quarantine for a period of time. So that the yeas or nays, the evidence could be gathered as to whether or not the Soviet Union was introducing offensive weapons into this hemisphere in violation of previous international treaty law and other self interests of the nations of this hemisphere. Yes.

[other] You might reflect upon Kennedy having been [the] the shortest term imperial president of the United States during the twentieth century. But the longest term president of the imperial pattern in the United States during the twentieth century was Franklin Delano Roosevelt. And if you would check your history carefully I think you would find that he imposed quarantine or interfered with the trade routes and activities of the Japanese to the point of having committed an act of war, ever before there was a bombing of Pearl Harbor

[Jack] Absolutely, and they were doing things against the Germans too. But ya gotta understand that what was going on between Kennedy and FDR were two entirely different things, hundred and eighty degrees outa phase. FDR was part of the One-World government boys it was trying to bring the United States into war by acts of deception. And so he was secretly conducting war against the Japanese and against the Germans before there was ever an open declaration of war, because he could not get a consensus of the American public to agree to allow him to get into there politically. What we’re discussing here, right now, is that JFK and Robert Kennedy were using their brilliance. In order to prevent the United States, the people of the United States, and the cities of the United States from probably being damaged, destroyed, killed, whatever in the age of the nuclear arms race. And it appears as though they were doing it in a private capacity undoubtedly. Because it appeared as though all the acts and actions in the public arena had come under known protocols to create the war. So you got a hundred and eighty degree reversal here. So JFK was absolutely interested in not creating, technically, any acts of war which would precipitate the very thing he was trying to prevent. And he was an attorney; he knew what was going on. That whole movie is showing you how to negotiate internationally with your opponents. Which is exactly what we’re doing when we’re going from the RE-public and unalienable rights into the domestic, [uh] statutory public government. So his goal was to prevent any hostility, any act of war, any pretended act of war, he was gonna dot his i’s and cross his t’s.

Those of you, in this room, that are old enough to know who Adele Stevenson was. Adele Stevenson was absolutely one of the most liberal of liberal people you could have ever gotten. In fact, his advice to The President, in the cabinet room, which would be no surprise to anyone that knows who he is, suggested that they just oughta appease the communists and maybe trade a deal off with em. “You get rid of the missiles in Cuba and we’ll give you something else in return” and maybe they’ll go away. Robert Kennedy was very, very concerned that Adele Stevenson was not the right negotiator and did not have the capacity to negotiate a strong line position of the United States, with respect to this confrontation with the communists and Soviet Union. Robert Kennedy suggested strongly to his brother that he pull Adele Stevenson out of the negotiations both with the organization of American States and directly out of the discussions that were going to be gone on in the United Nations.

It turns out that Adele Stevenson actually presented a fantastic front for a strong line position and an administrative and factual position of administrative claim in the United Nations on behalf of the United States. And anybody that’s been coming to these meetings to see what contract negotiations are all about. Will sit through that movie and see what Adele Stevenson did, in his confrontation in the United Nations with the Soviet ambassador Gromeko, and see that it was absolutely a fabulous contractual back and forth. The first thing that Adele Stevenson did, when he came into the UN, after the UN had been “blasting” the United States for it’s act of [the] the quarantine. They had been “blasting” ‘em by speakers of various communist nations for hours and hours. Stevenson comes in and he sits down, he puts his briefcase there. And the first thing he did was he looked at Gromeko, who was the speaker, and said, “Will you tell this whole group, out of your own mouth, that there are no aggressive missiles or offensive missiles in Cuba?” and then he shut up. Question, .. didn’t make a statement. See the United States was supposed to come there to present evidence. ‘Scuse me, if you go there and present evidence what have you just done? You’ve testified, which what?

[someone else] (unintelligible) Makes an accusation.

[Jack] Which what?

[someone else] It increases rather than diminishes hostilities.

[Jack] No that’s not the point, what happens when you testify and make a statement?

[someone else] (unintelligible) You’ve already agreed to the facts.

[Jack] No, you lost title; you’re the debtor. (repeated) You lost title; you’re the debtor. Now, the United States is the sole Navy out there on the ocean and if it hasn’t got title what’s it doing out there? So the first thing he did is he came in and he asked a question. What did Gromeko do? He smiled, and then just like any attorney he says, “We’re not here to answer any of your questions. We’re here to hear your evidence.” And so they looked back at Adele Stevenson again and what did Adele Stevenson do? He said, “Sir, I think everyone in this room and the world wants to hear the answer to that question and I’m prepared to stay here until hell freezes over waiting for your answer, what is your answer?” Question, right back again. Gromeko tries to sidestep around. Pretty soon, [there are] Gromeko says, “Well if you don’t want to give us your evidence, then you’ve relinquished the floor.” Just like with, [(Jack names a group member)], you’ve abandoned your child, there’s no sense giving you the floor. So Gremko says, “We will give the floor to the ambassador for so-and-so.” So the ambassador for so-and-so takes the mic. And he says, “You know,” he says, “I think we would like to hear the answer to that question too.”

Now you’ve got a double witness. Gromeko was getting, obviously politically embarrassed but it’s like, “We’re not here to do this, we’re not here to do that.” Finally, just about like a bunch of people said, “We’d all like to hear the answer to that question.” Gromeko would not answer the question. Now what’s happened? By his silence what has happened when multiple witnesses want to know? He has now waived his right,.. His response to Adele Stevenson is silence. So then Adele Stevenson can come back and take the floor as the creditor, and as the creditor he introduced the pictures of the missiles in … END SIDE 1 TAPE 1 absolutely brilliant. And you could see that the Kennedy’s were watching on television, like everybody else, what Stevenson was doing and wasn’t doing when he came in and Bobby was on the phone and he’s like to his people in the background, “Be ready to send your guy in. I think we’re gonna pull Adele out he ain’t up to it.” And when Adele got goin’ and asked the question Bobbys like, “Huh, wow”, put the phone down. You’re gonna see high level of understanding negotiations, contracts, public, private, in this movie like you have never ever seen before. Anybody that thinks that they’re interested in any kind of commercial law and commercial procedure, if you don’t see this movie at least once, you’re missing one of the best training films you’ve ever seen in your life, it is that incredible

There was a time in which the quarantine was around Cuba and one of the vessels had escaped notice of the United States and sailed through the lines and not been caught. And when they finally discovered it and tried to intercept that vessel the pentagon War Room was in direct contact with the American destroyer, that was confronting that that Soviet freighter. Understand that when you’re involved in a “police action”, which is what the quarantine was, the international rules of the sea come into play. And at one time Kennedy had asked the military what is involved in the protocols of a quarantine.

And they said to him, “Well, first you gotta give notice and basically put it in place, and then the destroyers go out there and stand watch. And if any of the freighters or vessels attempt to come through the line, the destroyer will attempt to communicate with them by radio and get them to stop for the purpose of an American boarding party going over to that vessel and going on board the ship. When they go on board the ship, they’re going to inspect the manifest for any kind of war cargo. And they may do an inspection of the vessel for war cargo, and if there’s any devices of war on board. The vessel will be instructed to turn around and sail away.”

Kennedy said, “What happens if they don’t stop.”

“Well if they won’t stop, by way of radio communications, then the next protocol calls for [the shot] a shot across their bow to bring their attention to the urgency of the situation.”

Kennedy says, “What if that doesn’t stop them?”

“Then we use either a gun or something to take out the rudder of the vessel so that it can not maneuver on the high seas and that will stop it.” Notice at no time are they purposefully trying to put either the vessel or the crew in any more danger than is absolutely necessary to result in the control in the actions that they want to achieve under this quarantine. And Kennedy was informed that if the American vessel has to take out the rudder and decommission the ship, on the open seas. That it will tow that vessel back to port. After all, if the Navy destroyed the vessels capacity to maneuver on the high seas, the vessel is now become a ward of the Navy that took it out and it has a duty to pull it back to shore for the safety of the vessel and the crew. At no time do you go from step “A” to step “Z”. “Hello we’d like you to stop, oops you didn’t, we’ll bomb you out of the water. Too bad.” There’s always a level of protocols; you never go beyond the next level of protocol until it becomes absolutely necessary.

In this one scenario, they tried to stop this vessel and the freighter would not stop on a radio call. The President’s private cabinet member was in the War Room, supervising. And the Navy admiral ordered the captain of the American destroyer to fire. The president’s advisor lost it, he just absolutely went berserk, started yellin and screaming, “Rescind that order, you don’t have that authority.”

The admiral turned at this guy and said, “You better shut the hell up and get outa here, you’re gonna get somebody killed. You’re not supposed to be here. You have no idea of what you’re doing.”

The advisor was not influenced, he said, “No, the President issued strict orders that nobody was to create a hostile act on the enemy, unless he got direct approval of the President of the United States and you didn’t get it.”

And so the admiral screamed back at him like, “You lunatic, all we did was fire a rocket shell across the bow. All it is is flares. We weren’t destroying the vessel, we’re within the orders that the President gave.”

The advisor angrily looks at this admiral and says, “The President is trying to carry on a conversation with the Kremlin. If I didn’t understand your order and what you did, maybe the leaders of the Soviet Union don’t understand your orders and what you did either. Don’t you understand the President is trying to carry on a communication with these people?” Now those of you that grew up after this event will remember that the White House supposedly has the Red phone hot line. And the red phone hot line was to be a direct telephone link between the United States and the Soviet Union and it was put in after these events not before or during. And in some respects it was a direct result of the fact that there were not fast direct communications between the United States and the leaders of the Soviet Union at this time. If you decode what they’re telling you in the movie, there were no private to private discussions going on. All discussions were perviewed through the public sector of the American government and the Soviet government and they were perviewed not so much as words as they were a communication of ideas that were conveyed by the acts and the actions of the public actors on both sides.

And you’ll see that Kennedy was extremely upset, in this movie, this story, with what the US military was doing behind the scenes, at every turn. You had the World close to nuclear war and you had the military shooting off missiles at Vandenberg Air Force base on tests that could have been conceived to have been an IBM launch on the Soviet Union. You had other acts and actions, by the military, going on that could have been perceived by the Soviet Union as a “behind the scenes” aggressor activity aimed at the Soviet Union. Whereas the majority of the public statements coming out of the President appeared to be calling for sane people to be trying to negotiate a back-off of this public confrontation. In essence what their telling you is, when the police officer stops you, what you say and what you do and what he says and what he does is the acts which are perceived in the public. And there is a communication going on there by the perception of the acts, whether you understand it or not. And because there is a communication going down, the key is, what does the other party really saying, is what is he really intending to do? Get that screwed up, and you’re playing with dynamite. In this story, they’re showing you, that the art of negotiating agreements and decisions in the public is very technical and very involved. But there is a protocol and there is a method for doing it to get results. You’ll see that, from this film, there is no way in the world that you would want to have a president in the White House who is not some kind of a brilliant person understanding a little bit more than just, “Hi, I’m here and I’m happy to be here.” It’s an incredible film you may want to go see it. Any questions or comments? Yea, please go to the mic.

[someone else] What’s interesting is, how can we know that the Russians go by the protocols of admiralty and this Navy process?

[Jack] Did you see the movie?

[someone else] No, but I understand very much what you’re talking about, cause I lived in that time.

[Jack] John, did the leaders of the Soviet Union have a clue of what was going on?

[John, presumably] They were trying to guide and direct it.

[Jack] They were trying to guide and direct it, yes.

In fact Kennedy, Bobby and Kenny, the advisor, picked up early on that there were some back, private links being formed that could only have probably either been “A” a total hoax or “B” come from the highest levels of the Soviet government. Now the key is, when you’re in private negotiations, to know who you’re dealing with and what their capacity is. And the research that was done quickly, suggested that the overtures on the private side, that came through certain non-public channels of protocol were exactly what they were, private overtures from the highest level to try to resolve the issue in whatever manner could be done. When you see the movie, you will understand that whether the United States went to war or not in that time, hinged on one negotiation at approximately two AM in the morning, or two-thirty AM. I believe it was, between Bobby Kennedy and ambassador Gromeko in Bobby Kennedy’s private office, totally outside the public channels. And that negotiation was done in the highest tradition of private negotiations of quid-pro-quo and it was done in such a manner to resolve the issue after adequate consideration was given on both sides’ part, for the public “out” of both sides.

[someone else, unintelligible]

[Jack] You got it, and they did, but the United States had to also. So both sides had to save public face. They both had to get their own quid-pro-quo, their own consideration. Which they desired to have as an equal and it had to be done with enough respect and private assurances that it would be carried out so that it would not result in another round a month, three months, six months down the road. Which could have even been a lot worse if the first considerations and achievements were not followed through. So, you’ll see it at the highest level of negotiation

[someone else] Perhaps you would mention, at that time, the consideration that would be made public, the yielding of the United States forces, would be to take the intermediate range missiles away from [Turkey bases] the bases in Turkey and other places around the perimeter of the Soviet Union. And I wanted to reflect [uh] from the life and personality of [um] the ambassador to the United Nations. Reflecting upon a secret part of his past, as it were, that was hardly ever spoken about. But, Adele Stevenson, as a youngster, apparently it’d be as a minor maybe nine or ten or eleven or twelve had [a] killed one of his classmates or playmates with a rifle shot, probably. I think that affected quite a lot of his personality the rest of his life. Many people aren’t quite aware of that. The same pattern of gun violence was around this woman who’s [a] been caught up in the news. Recently was on television and now lost some of her popularity. But [uh], each individual is influenced by a lot of their background, unless you understand the personalities and the emotions played out, much of this doesn’t have the high drama to it that you would otherwise understand.

That’s true, thanks for sharing that with us. [you] You have to understand that the military’s attitude about the Kennedys, after the first cabinet level meeting, is the military brass left there and they had nothing good to say about the Kennedys. They said, “Those damn Kennedys are gonna get us all killed.” And then there was a comment that came down later on that says that they don’t have the fortitude and the gumption to hold that office. They’re just like their father, who basically appeased the aggressors during the Second World War, creating what was presumed to be the slide down into the international war. Now, you gotta understand, in the background, that none of these wars happened, they’re planned. And when those wars are planned, they’re planned at the highest levels, they’re not planned at the level of President Kennedy or anyone else. President Kennedy inherited the situation that developed out of things or events that were outside of his control behind the scenes. And it appears as though president Kennedy and Bobby were just too smart for who they were supposed to be and what they were supposed to be. And it would appear, to me, as though what they did, is they directly screwed up the internationalist’s plan for a war. Which was supposed to happen. And so if you understand who’s in charge and what’s going on behind the scenes you’ll know [that] that Kennedy was merely supposed to be puppet.

However, when Kennedy takes an oath to the presidency of the United States, he has a dual office to fulfill. He’s got the office of the public side, which includes the commerce and the military, and he’s got and oath to the private side, which is the protection of the nation, the people and the assets of this nation. And if you’ll understand what they’re showing you, in this movie “Thirteen days.” Thirteen is the number of rebellion. The President is put in that position to protect the nation, the people of the nation, the soil of the nation and all the assets of the nation. Kennedy was accused of being a reckless appeaser of foreign interests which [was not] was going to get us killed and in trouble because he would back down from a war. You gotta understand that a war does not usually solve problems, a war is the last result when a problem can not be solved in any other manner. What you’re seeing, in this film, is Kennedy has a different duty than the military. He has two hats to wear and if he can resolve the problem and save the people and the nation, by peace. He has a higher duty to do that than he does as the Commander and Chief just to make the easy decision of going to war and bombing Cuba.

It would have been nothing to bomb Cuba we had more than enough capacity. There was, even with the Soviet presence on their island, there was no way they could have defended. With the evidence it was obvious that the United States could have proved it’s justification. The easy route was to let the military have their say so and go to war. But Kennedy realized that that would not be the end of the international problems. It would only be the beginning because, under public protocol, you would just have a problem in Berlin or a problem in Southeast Asia or a problem somewhere else in retaliation, by public protocol. So if you saw what Kennedy did, it was absolutely brilliant, it was the highest level of fiduciary-ship, undertaking his capacity as Commander and Chief of the military and protector of the civilian side of government. It’s an absolutely incredible story. Any other comments Okay.

As transcribed by: Majic