Robert F Kennedy Thirteen Days Essay

Thirteen Days: A Memoir of the Cuban Missile Crisis is a book that goes in depth about the details of what really happened during the Cuban Missile Crisis. The author of this book is Robert F. Kennedy, he was the attorney general, while his brother John F. Kennedy was president. This book goes further on the Cuban Missile Crisis then what your average high school history class will study on that event. Little do people know that there is much more to the Cuban Missile Crisis than just a standoff between the Soviet Union and the United States. During the Cuban Missile Crisis, the US had a problem with the Soviet Union’s decision to implement nuclear weapons in Cuba with plans to bomb the US. Kennedy goes in depth by writing about the meetings in the White House during the crisis and by including how US leaders were planning to solve the problem.

A theme evident in this book is confusion going around the White House as a result

When the US got the news of the Soviet Missiles, they immediately needed to take some course of action. Then President, John F. Kennedy knew he couldn’t make this decision all by himself. As a result, President Kennedy set up The Executive Committee of the National Security Council. This group was made of many government officials who Kennedy felt would help make this decision. This group met during the first day of the crisis, and met almost everyday during the whole Cuban Missile Crisis. Kennedy writes, “This was the group that met, talked, argued, and fought together during that crucial period of time. From this group came the recommendations from which President Kennedy was ultimately to select his course of action.” Without this group, it would’ve been much harder for President Kennedy to decide on what to do. When these groups had meetings, all opinions were respected and listened to equally. This shows that no one person can do a big task by himself without help from people he