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Of Thirteen Days: A Memoir Of The Cuban Missile Crisis By Robert F. Kennedy

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Thirteen Days: A Memoir of the Cuban Missile Crisis is a political novel that was published in 1969 and was written by Robert F. Kennedy. It is a personal account of the events of the Cuban Missile Crisis from Robert Kennedy’s perspective. Throughout the story JFK approached the handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis by, “placing ourselves in the other country’s shoes” to understand why the Soviets had done what they had done and what they would do in response to U.S. actions. This mindset dictated his decisions on invading Cuba or the Soviet Union, initiating the blockade, responding to Major Anderson’s death, and other courses of action throughout the Crisis. Throughout all of his decisions, Kennedy successfully demonstrated the mindset of …show more content…

An invasion of Cuba would place the U.S in the position of the aggressor, and a bigger, more developed country, attacking a much smaller country would not look good on the world stage. As Robert Kennedy stated, “The strongest argument against the all-out military attack, and one no one could answer to his satisfaction, was that a surprise attack would erode if not destroy the moral position of the United States throughout the world (pg. 49).” This course of action was brought up multiple times as well. First in the initial findings of the weapons, and again after the U-2 was shot down. Both times though, President Kennedy took time to understand all the risks and prepare as necessary. As Robert Kennedy put it, “The President turned to us all: "We are going to have to face the fact that, if we do invade, by the time we get to these sites, after a very bloody fight, they will be pointed at us. And we must further accept the possibility that when military hostilities first begin, those missiles will be fired (pg. 85).”” Kennedy knew that the ensuing battle of an invasion would be a bloody effort and that it was a worse case course of action. It would also drag NATO into war, which President Kennedy even noted in his decision-making. “They[NATO] did not realize the full implications for them. If we carried out an air strike against Cuba and the Soviet Union answered by attacking …show more content…

He had been a U-2 pilot shot down and killed by a SAM site in Cuba. This action would almost mean war for the United States and Soviet Union. As put by Robert Kennedy, “There was the knowledge that we had to take military action to protect our pilots. There was the realization that the Soviet Union and Cuba apparently were preparing to do battle (pg.97).” The President was pressured to begin retaliation and take out SAM sites in Cuba. Doing this would begin the hostility that Kennedy and Khrushchev wanted to avoid. But during this time, President Kennedy still asked those questions: What response could we anticipate? What were the implications for us (pg. 99)? His ultimate decision was to not attack, and instead respond to the letter from

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