Thirteen Days Decision Process
Thirteen Days” by Antony Gumi
The “Thirteen Days” movie describes how the 35th president of United States of America (USA), John Fitzgerald Kennedy (JFK) dealt with the Cuban Missile Crisis during the period of October 14-28, 1963. It shows how JFK’s leadership saved the world from having World War III (WWIII), or worse, Nuclear War. JFK’s crisis management and decision-making skills was tested during this period. He was under an extreme pressure, having the Cuban missiles were about to be ready to become operational and most of his Generals suggested him to launch a military strike, while he didn’t want to start a war and prefer to avoid one. To make things worse, the Joint Chiefs, who most of them were older than JFK, pressurized JFK to follow their solution to attack Cuba and they seem to barely be able to hold back their condescending attitudes towards the young president (JFK was about 45 years old at that time). Fortunately, JFK was not carried away by this situation; instead, he stressed his position to remind the chiefs of his authority as the president of USA who has the mandate from the American people to take the decision for the country. Finally, he successfully managed to end the crisis with a “peaceful” political negotiation with the Soviet Premier, Nikita Khrushchev.
The definition of leadership was illustrated in how JFK influenced his followers to understand the consequences of launching an attack on Cuba (i.e. WWIII it is) and to agree upon having a more peaceful way to remove the missiles out of Cuba, which is to have a political negotiation. He influenced his followers’ interpretation of the event by always reminding them of the risk of starting a new war if they decide to follow their emotion to launch an attack. Thus, he asked for other choice of strategies and solutions from his followers. However, even after other solutions had been proposed, he still tried to influence the final decision by delaying it and hoping that the chance of
The “Thirteen Days” movie describes how the 35th president of United States of America (USA), John Fitzgerald Kennedy (JFK) dealt with the Cuban Missile Crisis during the period of October 14-28, 1963. It shows how JFK’s leadership saved the world from having World War III (WWIII), or worse, Nuclear War. JFK’s crisis management and decision-making skills was tested during this period. He was under an extreme pressure, having the Cuban missiles were about to be ready to become operational and most of his Generals suggested him to launch a military strike, while he didn’t want to start a war and prefer to avoid one. To make things worse, the Joint Chiefs, who most of them were older than JFK, pressurized JFK to follow their solution to attack Cuba and they seem to barely be able to hold back their condescending attitudes towards the young president (JFK was about 45 years old at that time). Fortunately, JFK was not carried away by this situation; instead, he stressed his position to remind the chiefs of his authority as the president of USA who has the mandate from the American people to take the decision for the country. Finally, he successfully managed to end the crisis with a “peaceful” political negotiation with the Soviet Premier, Nikita Khrushchev.
The definition of leadership was illustrated in how JFK influenced his followers to understand the consequences of launching an attack on Cuba (i.e. WWIII it is) and to agree upon having a more peaceful way to remove the missiles out of Cuba, which is to have a political negotiation. He influenced his followers’ interpretation of the event by always reminding them of the risk of starting a new war if they decide to follow their emotion to launch an attack. Thus, he asked for other choice of strategies and solutions from his followers. However, even after other solutions had been proposed, he still tried to influence the final decision by delaying it and hoping that the chance of