mr. president, you have rightly dismissed the diplomatic option. the soviet will only tie you down in negotiation, and leave us short of our goal, the removal of the missiles. negotiating will do nothing more than give them time to make the missiles operational, complicating the necessary military task we have at hand.
for the last fifteen years, i have fought here at this table along side your predecessors in the struggle against the soviet. gentlemen, i do not wish to seem melodramatic, but i do wish to impress upon you one observation with all conceivable sincerity. a lesson i have learned with bitter tears and great sacrifice. the soviet understands only one language: action. it respects only one word: force.
i concur with general taylor. i recommend, sir, air strikes followed by invasion, perhaps preceded by an ultimatum to dismantle the missiles if military necessity permits.
your first step, sir, will be to demand that the soviet withdraw the missiles within 12 to 24 hours. they will refuse. when they do, you will order the strikes, followed by the invasion. they will resist, but will be overrun. they will retaliate against a target somewhere else in the world, most likely berlin. we will honor our treaty commitments and resist them there, defeating them per our plans.
hopefully cooler heads will prevail before we reach the next step.
remember that the kennedys' father was one of the architects of munich. the general is right. there is only one responsible choice here.
let's pray appeasement doesn't run in families. i fear weakness does.
bobby, that's naive. this is the real world, you know that better than anybody. your argument is ridiculous.