Thirteen Days quotes

View Quote Robert Kennedy: At this moment in time the United States is accepting the terms of Secretary Khrushchev's letter of Friday night. If the Soviet Union halts construction immediately, removes the missiles, and submits to UN inspection, the United States will pledge to never invade Cuba, or to aid others in that enterprise.
Anotoly Dobrynin: If your Jupiter missiles in Turkey were removed also, such an accommodation could be reached.
Robert Kennedy: That's not possible. The United States cannot agree to such terms under threat. Any belief to the contrary was in error.
Anotoly Dobrynin: You want war?

View Quote President Kennedy: What do you want, Kenny?
Kenny O'Donnell: I want you to sit down.
President Kennedy: Well I'm not gonna sit down!
Kenny O'Donnell: I want you to sit down, loosen your tie, take a minute...
President Kennedy: I don't have a minute!
Kenny O'Donnell: You're the President of the United States. They can wait for you.

View Quote Communicate with the Soviets? We can't even communicate with the Pentagon. And they're just across the goddamn river.

View Quote Robert Kennedy: You know, I hate being called the brilliant one, the ruthless one, the guy everybody's afraid of. I hate it. I'm not so smart, you know? I'm not so ruthless.
Kenny O'Donnell: Well you're right... about the smart part.

View Quote I'm an old political cat, Kenny, but I've got one life left.

View Quote Mr. President, you give me the order right now, my planes will be ready to carry out the air strikes in three days time. All you gotta do is say "go," and my boys will get those Red bas****.

View Quote [asking the Russian ambassador if there are any Soviet missile bases in Cuba] Sir, I am prepared to wait for your answer till Hell freezes over, if that's your decision.

View Quote President Kennedy: Well this can't get much worse.
Kenny O'Donnell: Oh, I don't know, we could have to go down to Lyndon's ranch again, dressed up like cowboys. Shoot deer out of the back of his convertible.
President Kennedy: That was a bad day.

View Quote We've got a bunch of smart guys. We lock 'em in a room and kick 'em in the ass until they come up with some solutions!

View Quote 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!

View Quote 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.

View Quote [about journalist who says Ortsac - Castro spelt backwards - is a military action] Kinda simple for the Pentagon.

View Quote I don't care how crazy, inadequate or stupid it sounds. Give it to me.

View Quote Robert Kennedy: What the hell is Khrushchev thinking?
President Kennedy: Did you have any indication of this from your KGB pal Bolshakov? I mean any possible warning, sence of motivation?
Robert Kennedy: Complete snow job. And then, we went out and told the country that they weren't puting missles into Cuba.
Kenny O'Donnell: Jesus I... I feel like we discovered the Jap carrier steaming for Pearl Harbor.

View Quote Robert Kennedy: You're talking a sneak attack. How will that make us look? A big country blasting a little country to the stone age. Yeah, we'll be everyone's favourites.
Dean Acheson: Come on Bobby, that's naive. This is the real world. You know that better than anybody.
John McCone, CIA Director: And you weren't so ethically particular when we were talking about options for removing Castro over at CIA.