13 Days - Book Review

The novel Thirteen Days depicts the actions taken by a group of experienced people to prevent a nuclear disaster. This book portrays Robert F. Kennedy's occurrences and individual opinions during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

First off, on October 16, 1962 a meeting is called to order in regards of photographs taken by the Central Intelligence Agency, which displayed missile bases being constructed in Cuba by the Russians. The meeting was brought together in the Cabinet Room of the White House. During this meeting Robert F. Kennedy spoke to Ambassador Dobrynin and was guaranteed that there were no weapons being installed to Cuba from Russia and was also told that Khrushchev wanted to hold a strong bond with the United States.

During this, messages from officials in the Soviet Union were being received in the United States. These messages stated that no weapons were being sent to Cuba because there was no purpose. The United States felt deceived by the Soviet Union because they were realizing this reasoning by the United States was untrue, however, the reports they received did seemed unsubstantial.

In addition, the same group from the first meeting, continued to meet together for a period of over 7 weeks, they established the name the "Ex Comm", also known as "The Executive Committee of the National Security Council". The president was under extreme pressure with the need to maintain the safety of the United States. He knew his decision would effect

the whole future of the United States so he debated on whether to form a military for protection or establish a blockade. Both options were heavily argued and discussed in great detail during the Ex Comm gatherings.

On October 22 President Kennedy made the decision to announce the of removing the missiles from Cuba. He released the information to the public of the initial missile discovery and how Cuba would now be secluded from America. The Soviet Union was instructed to remove the missiles as well.

A letter received on October 26 from Khrushchev suggested a compromise. Russia would remove their missiles if the United States agreed to not overrun Russia.

Subsequently, a U-2 American plane was shot down while flying over Cuba on October 27. Khrushchev then issued yet another letter which stated that American missiles must be removed from Turkey in turn for the Russian missiles to be taken out of Cuba. After disregarding the message offered by Robert F. Kennedy, the President spoke to the Soviet Union, informing them of the United States' agreement to the first message.

After copious amounts of stress and worry Khrushchev finally released a statement saying the sites were taken down in Cuba. The missiles were being taken back to the Soviet Union and the United States agreed to not invade Cuba.