Thirteen Days vs. the real Cuban Missile Crisis

The year is 1962 and American surveillance planes discover that the USSR is in the rocess of placing nuc leyr ballistic missiles in Cuba. The missiles have a said they ar capable of reaching the majority of the United States Air Force bomber bases effectively crippling their ability to retaliate. It Is a race to find a way of removing the missiles before they become operational. Thus the problem for the President is to decide whether to use force or diplomatic means to keep the missiles un-operational.Initial diplomatic attempts to come to a peaceful conclusion fail and the Secretary of vindication proposes a naval blockade which they call a quarantine nd if the Soviets ignore the blockade, the Navy allow for forcibly remove the ships from going to Cuba. This would quickly escalate the situation which Is clearly what the Secretary of Defence wanted but the President with help of his Special abetter _or_ abettor Kenneth ODonnell, realized that an invasion of Cuba by Americans wou ld lead to the Soviets invading Berlin effectively causing a World War Ill.In the end through unique communication methods amid the US and the Soviets the Soviets agree to remove the mlsslles from Cuba providing the us promises never to Invade Cuba as well as remove missiles from Turkey. One of the most criticized aspects of the movie Is that Kenneth ODonnell who was Special athletic supporter to the President had a very influential and substantial role in the movie. Quite often he is found dissuading President Kennedy from the so called solutions from the Secretary of Defence and his entourage.He is always reminding Kennedy of the repercussions of the actions that Secretary of Defence Robert McNamara proposes. At one point Kenneth said in reference to surveillance flights and the rules of engagement that if a plan were shot at, the web site would be bombed, This is a setup. The chiefs want to go in. They need to redeem themselves for the Bay of Pigs. This seemed quite reasonabl e as the Bay of Pigs was an unsuccessful attempt at armed services invasion of Cuba and those in charge needed redemption.Unfortunately although Kenneth ODonnell appeared a great protagonist, he did not have that kind of role In the crlsls In reality. Following the let out of the movie the actual former Secretary of Defence Robert McNamara, said For Gods sakes, Kenny ODonnell didnt have any role whatsoever In the missile crisis he was a semipolitical appointment secretary to the President thats absurd. It may seem as though McNamara could have Just been bitter about the way he was portrayed in the movie but the conclusion he came to was generally what all those involved in the crisis thought about ODonnells role. Although McNamara pointed out that the role 1 OF2 ODonnell played was slmllar to lea Sorenson saying It was not Kenny ODonnell who pulled us all togetherit was Ted Sorensen. Ted Sorensen was President Kennedys Special Counsel Adviser and it makes much more sense for him to have taken on the role ODonnell portrayed as President Kennedy once called him his intellectual blood bank. leading one to believe that the President must have had reat faith in Sorenson. President Kennedy asked Sorenson to take part in foreign policy as well as being a member of Excomm (The Executive Committee of the internal Security Council) during the Crisis.All of this would lead one to believe Sorenson must have played the role of ODonnell in reality. So why didnt the producer Just stick with that in the film? It was because the appearance of Kenneth ODonnell is much more appealing to the average American. He is the perfect protagonist, Just an average middle class American trying to do the right thing. That is why he was given this role and it is understandable why this trade off would be ade for entertainment purposes as Thirteen old age is a movie and not a documentary.