Thirteen days

Thirteen Days is another “movie-icon” and a real “cult-movie” for negotiation and alternative dispute resolution enthusiasts.

“During the October of 1962, the world was for thirteen days on the edge of a Third World War: the USSR nuclear missile installation in Cuba led to a sudden and dangerous arm wrestling between the USA President J. F. Kennedy and the CPSU Secretary Kruscev. Everywhere people anxiously waited the result of this serious political, diplomatic and military dispute”, reads the presentation of the DVD of the film, indicating the path through whichone of the best Cold War negotiating practices was developed (in the space of less than two weeks), when the situation was almost disastrous.

In this film, which covers all of the few but long days of what is known to history as “the crisis of the missiles of Cuba”, we find different scenes of negotiation, represented in all possible ways: first of all, the “external” dimension of the negotiation, realized through official and informal contacts between Americans and Soviets; then, the “internal” dimension, which concerns the confrontation between the American President and his staff on the one hand and the “hawks” of the General Staff of Defense on the other (with these lasts asking the president for a “strong response”, taking military action, to the installation of Russian missiles in Cuba) and also within the same Kennedy’s staff, trying to find the best strategy to follow. Scenes are useful for deepening Kennedy’s choice to give flexible answers during the crisis, which led to the final agreement.

Answers that, in reality, are not so much the result of a clear initial decision, but rather a result of a progression of cautious choices (and always agreed among a small group of his “loyal people”, among whom we find his brother, Robert Kennedy, and Kenny O’Donnell, interpreted by Kevin Costner, Assistant of the President), which are part of a very delicate balance, oscillating between the attempt of taking assertive responses and the need of not making definitive choices. To open the dialogue with the Soviets, making quite clear what the ground rules are and, above all, what the United States consider unacceptable.

In this sense some scenes “shine” (among others), meaningful to understand Kennedy’s approach: the scene of the naval blockade, in which American Secretary of Defense Robert Mc Namara explains that the meeting between the American and Soviet ships off the coasts of Cuba cannot follow the normal recruitment procedures adopted by the Navy (which would have led, if not to an attack, to dangerous global repercussions), but should rather be “interpreted” as a direct dialogue between the American President and the CPSU Secretary; moreover, the discussion within the United Nations between the Soviet Ambassador Valerian Zorin and the American one, Adlai Stevenson, in which the latter responds point by point to the allegations of his colleague, bringing evidence about the installation of Soviet missiles in Cuba (someone has brought up the episode about the famous speech of US Secretary of State Colin Powell in February 2003 at the UN Security Council). Finally, the decisive meeting between the Soviet ambassador in the US, Anatoly Dobrinin, and Robert Kennedy, a scene with a very tense and at the same time desperate atmosphere, in which the risk of a break, at this point highly likely definitive, gets mixed with the hopefor an agreement. It is in this very scene that the idea that will lead to the solution of the crisis emerges.

The film ends with the scene that we present, where you can hear President Kennedy’ original words, which, from my point of view, represent a worthy conclusion to one of the most dramatic stories in the history of mankind:

What kind of peace do we seek? I am talking about genuine peace, the kind of peace that makes life on earth worth living, not merely peace in our time but peace for all time.

Our problems are manmade–therefore, they can be solved by man.

For, in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children’s future.