President John F. Kennedy I am the commander in chief of the United States, and I say when we go to war!
3rd most-quoted character in Thirteen Days (2000): in 7 of its 57 quotes
A line from President John F. KennedyYou know, there's something immoral about abandoning your own judgement.
More lines from President John F. Kennedy
6 quotes President John F. Kennedy President John F. Kennedy Bobby, you go and make them understand. Tell them that we have to have an answer tomorrow... because on Monday, we go to war.
President John F. Kennedy I'll tell you one thing, Kenny. Those brass hats have one big advantage. That is, if we do what they want us to do, there's none of us gonna be alive to tell them they were wrong.
President John F. Kennedy If one of those ships resists inspection, and we shoot out its rudder, and board it... they shoot down one of our planes, in response. So we bomb their anti-aircraft sites, in response to that... they attack Berlin. So we invade Cuba. And they fire their rockets. And we fire ours.
President John F. Kennedy God damn it! How the god damn hell could this happen? I'm gonna have Powell's head on a platter. Next to LeMay's. Kenny, you hear me give the order to go to defcon 2? 'cos I remember giving the order to go to defcon 3 but er, y'know I must be suffering from amnesia!
President John F. Kennedy [The night prior to the beginning of the U.S. Navy's military "quarantine" of Cuba]
You know, last summer, I read a book, The Guns of August. I wish every man on that blockade line had read that book. It's World War I, there's thirteen million killed; it was all because the militaries of both alliances believed they were so highly attuned to one another's movements and dispositions, they could predict one another's intentions, but all their theories were based on the last war. And the world and technology had changed, and those lessons were no longer valid, but it was all they knew, so the orders went out, and couldn't be rescinded. And your man in the field, his family at home; they couldn't even tell you the reasons why their lives were being destroyed. But why couldn't they stop it? What could they have done? Here we are, fifty years later. Think if one of their ships resists the inspection, and we shoot out its rudder, and board, they shoot down one of our planes in response, so we bomb their anti-aircraft sites, and in response to that, they attack Berlin...so we invade Cuba...and they fire their missiles...and we fire ours.
