“In my seven years as Secretary , we came within a hair’s breadth of...” – Cuban Missile Crisis, The Fog of War ... Movie Quotes Database

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A scene from The Fog of War 2003

Cuban Missile Crisis

In my seven years as Secretary [of Defense], we came within a hair’s breadth of war with the Soviet Union on three different occasions.

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Cuban Missile Crisis More Cuban Missile Crisis quotes →

More from The Fog of War

Robert McNamara At my age, 85, I'm at age where I can look back and derive some conclusions about my actions. My rule has been try to learn, try to understand what happened. Develop the lessons and pass them on. Robert McNamara Kennedy was trying to keep us out of war. I was trying to help him keep us out of war. And General Curtis LeMay, whom I served under as a matter of fact in World War II, was saying "Let's go in, let's totally destroy Cuba." Robert McNamara I want to say, and this is very important: at the end we lucked out. It was luck that prevented nuclear war. We came that close to nuclear war at the end. Rational individuals: Kennedy was rational; Khrushchev was rational; Castro was rational. Rational individuals came that close to total destruction of their societies. And that danger exists today.