Questions and Considerations for Thirteen Days

Pres. Kennedy and Sec. McNamara

Think of these questions and issues while watching the movie and afterwards.

If you have any questions about the movie, or would like to put forward some answers to these questions (only one or two at a time, please) feel free to do so in the comments.

1. Keep track of the people who are involved in each decision and what their official jobs are. 
2. What methods did the Kennedys use to go about making a decision?
3. What are the different solutions that are put forward in Thirteen Days?
4. What are the pros and cons of the different solutions?
5. Who supports which options?
6. How unified is the administration in developing and choosing solutions?
7. Why are some are some members of the administration so worried about world opinion?
8. Why is it so important that the surveillance pilots lie about being shot at?
9. Why is MacNamara so concerned about the Navy firing “star shells?”
10. Which conceptual models (from Allison: Rational Policy; Organizational Process; Bureaucratic Politics) do you think best explains the events of the Cuban Missile Crisis? Why?
11. Are there certain episodes in the Cuban Missile Crisis that are better explained by one conceptual model or another? When and why?